TV Guide Online: What's with all the odd names on this show? You don't meet too many Xiomaras, Jenascias and Shandis.
Xiomara: It's true! We hadn't thought about it. Of course, everyone slaughtered my name for the first half of the show, but they got it, after awhile. Either the X is silent or they pronounce it "X-o-mara."

TVGO: You were up against Camille in the end. I thought that drama queen would get axed, but it was you!
Xiomara: I know, it sucks. My take on Camille is she's used to being queen bee in her little circle of friends. When she came to the Top Model house, she met women who are beautiful in their own right, and she couldn't handle it. So she talked about "me, me, me" and tried to hype herself up. I look at it as insecurity.

TVGO: Did you two clash?
Xiomara: She was never outwardly mean to me. She just broke my earring, which was a complete lack of courtesy. I don't have a personal vendetta against Camille or have a contract out on her ass. A few of the other girls might, but not me! [Laughs]

TVGO: Who will you stay pals with?
Xiomara: The people I'm staying friends with are Yoanna, Shandi and Catie. Catie and I talk on the phone almost every day. After our whole fiasco, people are probably like, "What?!"

TVGO: Yeah! I recall you saying Catie needs to "pick a personality," since you felt she acted two-faced.
Xiomara: This whole ghettoness came out of her and it made no sense. But she's young. After the show, we spent time together, and she proved to me that she realized what she did was wrong. When she mouthed off to the judges, that was a desperate attempt to save her ass. I understand that, and she's totally redeemed herself.

TVGO: Besides Camille, which contestants will you not stay pals with?
Xiomara: Any of the other girls I didn't name, I wouldn't hang out with. They're just not up to par. Those other girls don't party like rock stars. I do. They're not fun.

TVGO: How did you take the judges' criticisms at the end?
Xiomara: They didn't show where Tyra said I'd be great, but I needed development, and that the show moves too fast to allow time for that. I loved Eric's comment that I'm one of the few girls he could see doing haute couture. The judges I respected most are Eric, Janice and Tyra because they're the ones who really eat, sleep and breathe this business.

TVGO: Was Janice scary?
Xiomara: No, she was really cool and nice — especially off camera.

TVGO: Did you mind her grilling you ladies about your sexual histories?
Xiomara: I had a whole interview with Janice, but they only showed the sex question. I said the craziest place I've ever had sex was in the broom closet in high school. It wasn't true — and my mom knows that. They just wanted us to say things for shock value. The answers from Shandi and some of the others were true, though!

Considering that Miracle depicts one of the most memorable sporting events in history — the U.S. hockey team's historic 1980 gold-medal victory over the Soviet Union — it's no surprise that nearly 4,000 young men turned out at auditions. But producers were no doubt taken aback when they learned the identity of one of the actors at the cattle call: Billy Schneider, the son of original team member Buzz Schneider who ended up getting cast as his dad.

"It was something special," Billy tells TV Guide Online of his Miracle experience. "I always looked up to [my father] when I was younger. I wanted to be in the gold medal games just like him. And I wanted to play pro hockey. But things didn't work out [due to an injury]. But, because of this movie, I got to experience one of his dreams. [So, in a way] it did work out. God acts in mysterious ways."

The elder Schneider admits he had "mixed emotions" when he first learned that his son would literally be following in his footsteps. But he came around after seeing a final cut of the film. "After living it and being a part of such a great thing for 24 years," Buzz says, "and then to have your son playing you in the movie, I think it is great."

Actually, even though Buzz knew Miracle was in the making, it was his wife that pointed Billy in the direction of his acting debut. "[My mom] called me up and let me know what was going on," he says. "I had no idea. She saw it in the paper and saw that they were doing an open call, and one thing led to another."

TV Guide Online: So... the hot exchange student, huh? Is Elke the role you were born to play, or what?
Maggie Grace: Actually, she's the first girl I've ever played that everyone has a crush on. Also, she's my first hot exchange student. Finally!

TVGO: Your Swedish accent sounds pretty good to me. Or maybe, like the Beenes, I was just distracted by your sweaters.
Grace: I worked pretty hard on it. Needless to say, I don't have too much experience! Usually, when I've had to do accents, it's been one of the more typical European ones.

TVGO: Obviously, Oliver doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell with Elke — she probably has teddy bears bigger than he. But what about older brother Ted?
Grace: He stands a chance. I think he's got a lot to offer her, but he accidentally sabotages things a lot. Things tend to blow up in his face, which, judging from my own adolescent experience — and my little brother is 17 right now — that's not too far from the truth!

TVGO: Do you worry at all that, as the show's token exchange student, if you don't catch on, they'll simply exchange you?
Grace: I could always be deported, I suppose! Or what if Elke is a Communist or something? All Europeans were Communists back then, right? [Laughs]

TVGO: On the flip side, if Elke becomes as popular with the audience as she is with the Beenes, do you hope to parlay that success into more hot-exchange-student parts on the big screen?
Grace: [Laughs] Well, you know, there are so many hot-exchange-student roles out there, right?

TVGO: Right! And Shannon Elizabeth can't play all of 'em!
Grace [Playing Elke] has been really fun. It's a lot different from everything else I've done. I usually get cast as sweet, all-American girls. I've also played a lot of, um, somewhat crazy characters. Kind of dark, edgy.... "Suicidal" tends to pop up a lot [in my character descriptions]. I don't know what it is about me!

TVGO: Before I let you out of the hot seat, what can you tell me about all these meetings you're taking?
Grace: Well, I'm pretty close on a lot of features right now. Nothing totally signed and for sure, but we'll see. On my weeks off from Oliver, though, I shot... let's see... an episode of Like Family on the WB, an episode of Lyon's Den on NBC... I just did a Cold Case for CBS. I was so excited when I finally had done all the networks! It was a little minigoal of mine.