MONDO EXTRAS

At this point, a loud ringing begins in the background. Krause asks me to hang on, and then he hollers, "Come back later, please!" When he gets back to the phone, I apologize for taking up his time, and interfering with his life. He tells me it's not a problem, but he's at the end of a long morning that included President Bush bumping Krause's segment on Good Morning America, so he only ended up getting one minute instead of five, and with a different interviewer than he'd expected. But he was gracious about it, and said he knows that sort of stuff happens.

TWoP: You mentioned a death. What other changes can we expect to see this season, cast-wise? Any other major deaths, additions to, or removals from the cast?

PK: Lucy Liu joined us this season.

TWoP: What about Samaire Armstrong? Will she be back?

PK: I can't say. I'm sorry. There's so much I can't talk about concerning the show, which is a drag.

TWoP: No, that's okay. I expected that. Now for more of a personal question: What's it like for you to watch yourself on TV and in movies? Are you removed, or is it sort of uncomfortable?

PK: It's not uncomfortable for me. I've spent time editing myself for movies. I'm pretty removed. I look at it as objectively as possible.

TWoP: Do you read what fans and critics are saying about you and about the show?

PK: I don't pursue it, but it makes its way in front of my face from time to time. Ultimately I don't care. Everyone's got an opinion.

TWoP: That's a good attitude to have, because it has to be difficult sometimes. Even working at TWoP, it can be hard to ignore some of the negative things people say about the site or me personally.

PK: Yeah, look. For me, I've been very fortunate. I've gotten to do some of the best TV of the past 10 years: Sports Night, Six Feet Under, and Dirty Sexy Money.

TWoP: Sports Night was so good. It should have lasted longer.

PK:It's fascinating to me to see what people think about network shows. Aaron Sorkin famously writes his scripts so that the network can't see them. Craig Wright's a different kind of guy. Craig tries to work with the network and studio, and it is very difficult to make a show that is artistically sound (what the writers and actors want to make) and at the same time appeal to the studio, who is trying to sell the show. It can't be that offensive, but it has to be somewhat offensive, because this is a soap. ABC has been very supportive of this. I have a history with them, and they have been very supportive of what we want to do. In the past, ABC would just dump a show, like Sports Night. At the time, there were less caring executives. Michael Eisner put Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? on five nights a week. He was a bottom-line guy. Fortunately, now, it's a different group over there and they've really gotten behind Dirty Sexy Money. And I really think them for that. They've been very supportive. And, to their credit, they've dared this season to let the show be more of what we wanted it to be from the beginning.