MONDO EXTRAS

Melissa: This is what I believe happened. Justin is another one of these really, really honest people. He may be abrasive with his honesty. But he was telling each and every one of them what their problem was, what their little schtick was, and they couldn't deal.

Kim: Yeah, he saw through them.

Melissa: Nobody likes to be told they suck, especially on a national television show. Nobody wants to admit they are a flawed person. Justin admitted he was a flawed person. He said, "I am a work in progress, but I'm telling you, these people have A, B, and C problems."

Kim: Right. And he dyed his hair -- bleached his hair.

Melissa: There's a clause in our contract where we can't change our personal appearance. But I had an attorney go through my contract with a fine-tooth comb and he's like, "You can't win." But I was like, "Well, I wanna be on TV." [laughs] I had a rookie crew that day, and they came with me. I mean, they were looking at each other like, "She's gonna cut her hair?" But they didn't do anything. So they're watching me cut my hair, and they filmed the whole thing. I'm thinking they filmed the whole thing for editing's sake.

Kim: Right, so they can explain why suddenly you have short hair.

Melissa: Right. I get home, and Drew, our supervising director, calls up and he's like [seriously], "Melissa, can we take a walk around the block?" So, I'm like, "Okay!" So we go around and he's like, "Ummmmm, you cut your hair." And I was like, "Yeah, I did! Do you like it?" He was just like, "Ugh." And that was it. That was the whole conversation.

Kim: Basically he just made you know that you weren't supposed to do that.

Melissa: And what's awesome is that I was under this perception like, "Ooh, I cut my hair, so now they have to be accurate with my story." Wrong! They threw that to the wind. They did not care.

Kim: I guess they think people won't notice, and I guess the casual viewer, who's just watching at ten o'clock on Tuesday probably won't, because the cuts are so fast. By the time you think, "Wait, Melissa's...oh forget it. They're on to another scene."

So, I was going to ask about your website. It seems like this year's cast has much more of a web presence. Do you think that is just a sign of the times? Or did Jamie tell you, "Oh, you should have a website"?

Melissa: Well, Matt's whole college career was web design. Julie had a site. She bought Planet Julie, and she built it herself and everything. Julie's not web savvy, but she's learning it. Also, I bought a site and Matt told me how to do it.