It could be another gruesome CSI crime scene. Except this one doesn’t involve dead bodies. Just axed actors.

George Eads and Jorja Fox, who played two of the younger, hotter forensics experts you’ll find poking around a corpse, have been whacked from TV’s top-rated drama series, Daily Variety first reported on its Website Thursday.

The firings came after both Eads and Fox reportedly made it known to their bosses that, in the tradition of employees everywhere, they’d like to make more money.

Eads expressed his desire for a bigger paycheck by skipping the first day of shooting Thursday for CSI’s fifth season, Variety said. (The Hollywood Reporter said he showed, but showed up late for the 6:15 a.m. call time.)

Fox, reportedly canned on Wednesday, drew the wrath of CBS execs for failing to, as Variety put it, “reply to a letter asking her if she had any plans to not show up for work.”

The trade paper said the network demanded in-writing assurances from all of its CSI actors-all of whom reportedly have been grumbling for more money-that they were going to be back at work as production began on the new season.

For all its efforts, the Hollywood Reporter said the network saw only Gary Dourdan, Warrick Brown on the series, report to work on Thursday, the same day the show earned four Emmy nominations, including one for Outstanding Drama Series.

Variety said CSI leads William Petersen and Marg Helgenberger were no-shows, albeit due to “legit” health-related reasons-and presumably not the same bug that bit the Everybody Raymond Loves cast last summer.

Fox was said to be “mystified” by her firing, sources told Variety. The actress apparently thought she’d met CBS’ 5 p.m., Wednesday letter-sending deadline.

In the cases of Eads and Fox, CBS invoked breach of contract to justify the swinging of the ax.

The actors each had two years left on their TV standard seven-year contracts. Variety estimated they respectively were making about $100,000 an episode, and said that all the CSI supporting players recently had been offered small raises.

Not pausing for a moment at their chalk outlines, Variety said the network has already begun searching for Eads’ and Fox’s replacements.

In a statement, Helgenberger called Eads and Fox friends and “wonderful actors.”

“I don’t know the details of what is going on, but I hope that it all works itself out very quickly,” Helgenberger said.

Eads, 36, played hair and fiber guy Nick Stokes on CSI. Like Fox, he had been with the show since its October 2000 debut.

Fox, 35, played material and elements point person Sara Sidle on the series.

If it sounds as CBS is trying to put the fear of God into its star employees, it may just be.

Last summer, the network steamed as Everybody Loves Raymond costars Patricia Heaton, Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle called in sick for a variety of ailments over the first 10 days of production. Brad Garrett just stayed away-period.

The cast’s health, not to mention Garrett’s attendance record, improved considerably once they were awarded raises.

The Eyeball, though, has not always been as amenable-particularly if the players aren’t brand-name stars. It once threatened to gut the cast of Becker (Ted Danson, not included) if its actors didn’t end a work stoppage.

Sometimes not even stars have been immune. In 1982, Dukes of Hazzard pin-ups John Schneider and Tom Wopat went to war over merchandising revenue. The Duke boys, Bo and Luke, subsequently were shown the highway, and replaced by two “fake” Dukes, Coy and Vance. (Schneider and Wopat returned the following season.)

None of Thursday’s wrangling is likely to bolster the mood of CSI main man Petersen. The actor/producer has been griping for months about CBS’ franchising of CSI, as evidenced in CSI: Miami and the upcoming CSI: New York.

Last spring, Petersen warned that this coming TV year would be his last on the show, which averaged more than 25 million viewers each week.