"WITHOUT A TRACE" STAR ANTHONY LaPAGLIA IS CO-WRITER OF THE MARCH 11 EPISODE, MARKING HIS WRITING DEBUT

LOS ANGELES, March 5 -- In a very rare achievement for a star of a scripted drama, WITHOUT A TRACE's Anthony LaPaglia adds a writing credit to his resume with the episode he co-wrote that will be broadcast Sunday, March 11 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. LaPaglia also conceived the story. LaPaglia shares the writing credit for "Deep Water" with Byron Balasco.

In the episode, Jack (LaPaglia) and his team search for a missing U.S. Senator, during which they are forced to contend with her powerful and meddlesome father (guest star John Doman, "The Wire") and the media that is tracking the case.

In a departure from the series' usual approach, viewers will learn why the senator is missing at the beginning of the episode. LaPaglia says, "I am a true believer in occasionally breaking the conceit of the show. It shakes the audience out of expecting the usual fare and helps stretch everyone working here to think outside the box. I did not want to reinvent the wheel, just put new tires on it. I had nothing but total support from the writers, producers and the crew who worked their tails off to help me, especially Byron Balasco, who took this and ran with it."

This marks LaPaglia's writing debut. After five years of portraying Jack Malone on the series, for which he has won a Golden Globe Award and earned an Emmy Award nomination, LaPaglia was inspired to delve into an additional facet of television series production. "I had a fantastic time, especially sitting with four of the writers re-breaking the story. I've always respected the art of writing, but going through the process with them gave me a newfound respect for our writers who have to turn out 24 high-quality scripts a season," said LaPaglia.

WITHOUT A TRACE stars LaPaglia, Poppy Montgomery, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Enrique Murciano, Eric Close and Roselyn Sanchez. It is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Television, in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Productions. Jerry Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman, Hank Steinberg, Greg Walker and Jan Nash are the executive producers.