Did Keith and Tara actually get along well, or was that part of his strategy, too?

They did get along ... That was later on that their relationship started to bloom. Of course Tara, you know ... Tara got along well with a lot of people.

Did you have a hard time with the producers' decision to bring the evicted guests back the first time, given the fact that they were enraged and acting out, and put the current guests into such an absurdly uncomfortable position?

I think the producers acted responsibly once they saw what was happening.

It's tough, because the out-of-control aggression is also what makes the show exciting.

That's true.

Was everyone afraid of Toni?

Well, she was the one person ... I tried hard throughout the whole summer to see the good in everyone, to the point where Keith and Tara and Charla were annoyed with me.

Weren't you partially just playing the game?

Well, call me a hopeless optimist about human nature, call me naive, call me a sucker, call me all those things, but I really feel that if you look hard enough, people are just human beings with various issues, and they have to work through those issues to become better people.

To that end, I tried to see the good in them. Not just for the game's sake, but for my own sense of the world. But Toni was the person for whom that was the most difficult. She just really continued to be hostile. You know, it was difficult to deal with her.

You know, I was in a hair salon last weekend, and I was flipping through Marie Claire and there was an article with a photo of a bunch of random women's bare asses, just to compare them in size and shape, and I turn the page to where they show the women behind the asses, and it turns out that one of the asses belonged to Toni!

Yet another demonstration of the good work that publicists and agents can do for you!

It's amazing! She's also been on ...

This is her third reality show.

Right! "Love Cruise" -- or "Fuck Boat," as my friend Carina called it -- and "Blind Date."

It's sad, because she said early on that she thought this was an opportunity to change her image as the tough girl and the bitch, and show her bigger heart. I tried to remind her that she told me that and it made her ... Well, we didn't hit it off.

Did you notice that when she got kicked off, she had, um ...

The pit stains?

Ha!

That was great TV.

I'll say.

Oh, don't make me ... I'm so terrified of looking like an asshole!

I don't blame you, but compared to the stuff that these people said on TV? I mean, they knew the cameras were rolling. Amy telling Keith she was setting out to torture him? The others giving you shit about having an unrequited crush on Charla? You're just admitting that you noticed something everyone saw and noticed.

Well, my friends told me that when Toni said "David?" I should have responded by saying, "Anthony?"

Ouch!

Their suggestion, not mine. They also said, both to represent my Judaism as well as my humor, in response to her "Yahtzee!" I should've said, "Nazi!"

I was actually going to ask you if you were Jewish, because it seems to be a reality trend to stick a wisecracking Jew in the middle of a gaggle of troubled WASPs.

I am Jewish. My proudest moment at "Paradise Hotel" was not seen on air, and it was at "Pandora's Box," when I wrote a question for myself that was, "How does it feel to be the only Jewish person in such a non-diverse group, with so much anti-Semitism, sexism, and homophobia?"

Whoa. You wrote it for yourself.

Because you didn't get to see that side of people. You can imagine, with the closed mindedness in other areas, there was a lot of bigotry and it was very unfortunate. The producers all loved the question. I was so proud of myself, because I answered in a way so as to not be condescending or mean about it. I tried to say that it hurts, but I'm sure these people aren't hateful, they're just naive, which is really how I feel often about prejudice. They didn't show anything like that, but they did show when I went up to Desiree and she called me retarded and I told her that I didn't like that word. It was just such an interesting decision from the producers and from Fox to bring that issue to light, but not the other stuff.

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