"American television, especially in the last few years, it's on a par, if not better than, a lot of movies that are out there at the moment," Myles said. "And you have to, as an actor, you have to travel where the work is."

"American television at the moment is so interesting, and particularly the characters for women are so fantastic, that that's drawing a lot of us over into it," said "Cash-mere Mafia" star Miranda Otto. "I've been looking at film roles, and I couldn't find the things I wanted to do. And then I started looking at pilots, and there's just fantastic material."

CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler said she hears that kind of comment with some frequency.

"As we've spent this past year meeting different actors from Australia, from England, from Ireland, what I began to hear over and over again is — as American shows are playing overseas, you've got actors who are watching our shows and are really, really impressed with the quality of the writing, the production values, and were really intrigued about throwing their hats in the ring," Tassler said.

Same old, same old

For Lewis, the issue of foreig n-born actors starring in American TV series is a "non-story."

"You've had foreigners infiltrating, I'm afraid, ever since (the movie business) started a hundred years ago," he said. "It's where you can come and do very good work. It's where the most talented people come, and it's where they're rewarded well for what they do.

"Whether you're Brit, French, Swedish ... it doesn't matter. And that's why it's exciting to be here and to work here."

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com