In its first season, "CSI: Miami" pretty deliberately stayed away from bringing in high-profile guest stars. That's no longer strictly the case.

The first three episodes of the "CSI" spinoff's sophomore year will feature several well-known faces, some of whom will play themselves. The season premiere, set during Miami's fashion week, will feature supermodel Heidi Klum and MTV's Quddus playing themselves and Chad Lowe ("Unfaithful") as a smarmy modeling agent.

Bridgette Wilson-Sampras ("The Wedding Planner") guest-stars in episode two as a trophy wife whose drug-middleman husband is murdered, while Animal Planet star Jeff Corwin will play himself the following week. That episode involves a search for a crocodile who's bitten off a girl's arm.

The signing of the guest stars indicates a subtle shift in "CSI: Miami" that will differentiate it somewhat from its predecessor, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." While the cases are front and center in both series, the executive producers are hinting that "Miami" will dole out a little more character information this season.

Calleigh Duquesne (Emily Procter) will be involved in an office romance in the season, and viewers will also learn more about Tim Speedle's (Rory Cochrane) and Eric Delko's (Adam Rodriguez) backgrounds as well. "What we're doing this year is have the other characters who aren't as well-known inter-react, and you get to see them ... like a family," executive producer Ann Donahue says.

That doesn't mean, however, that melodrama and guest stars will overwhelm the show's forensic bread and butter.

"Any decisions that take you out of the drama or out of the reality ... we're setting up is distracting and doesn't work for the show sometimes," executive producer Danny Cannon says. "Stunt casting is tough business."