TVGO: I probably don't have to tell you that Katrina's been talking smack about you to the press (including TV Guide Online) over the past two weeks. What's her beef with you? Did you guys have some kind of falling out after the show ended?
Amy: She is very disappointed that the producers cast her — she said casted — as the sex symbol and cast me as the good girl. And in her defense, it's very true. Katrina is one of the strongest, smartest women [on the show] and [viewers] didn't see that... She was angry at me because I got away with looking like the golden girl.

TVGO: She's saying you slept with both Nick and Bill...
Amy: The allegations are false and it's unfortunate. She could be using this time [in the spotlight] to publicize how smart she is instead of bashing me. It supports the stereotype that women can't put their emotions aside and focus on business.

TVGO: Did you call her and say, "Cut it out. Why are you being so petty?"
Amy: I haven't, not in the past week anyway. I did call her [after I watched some earlier] episodes where I could tell she was getting angry with me but she has never returned my phone calls. Actually, when the latest allegations of Bill and my romance [surfaced], which we both think is so humorous, Bill has made multiple phone calls into her as well, just to go, "What's the deal here?" and he never heard from her either.

TVGO: So, you're denying that anything went on between you and Bill?
Amy: Bill and I are great friends and there's nothing more than that.

TVGO: You and Nick did briefly date after the show, right?
Amy: We did... But we found out that we're better off remaining just friends. We're in different stages of our lives.

TVGO: Are you single?
Amy: I'm dating someone in Austin.

TVGO: Is he involved with the show?
Amy: Not at all. He's a builder.

TVGO: I heard that you are talking to Marquis Jet about a job. True?
Amy: They offered me a job in January... but things took off so quickly at that time [with the show] that I didn't feel like I could give 110 percent.

TVGO: What about now?
Amy: I'm entertaining various job opportunities. Last night after I was terminated, I went home and had about 100 e-mails, many of them job offers. I think there are many good things to come.

TVGO: What did you think about Omarosa blowing off her duties and then lying about it on Thursday's show?
Amy: I think that was more about Kwame. Because in the real world, would Kwame have an employee like that? No. He caught her in a lie and she should have been fired.

TVGO: Amen sister-friend.
Amy: He should have fired her, and I think that's a question that he'll have to answer in the boardroom. I'm planning on asking it.

Tomorrow, Nick weighs in on the Amy vs. Katrina debate — and reveals whom from the show he'd like to date next!

A funny thing happened while the world was busy cheering on American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson and jeering at her runner-up, Justin Guarini: Nikki McKibbin, the rockin' redhead who trounced Tamyra Gray to steal third, all but disappeared! And take our word for it, she was no happier about her vanishing act than were the millions of us who admired her powerful pipes and defiant demeanor. "I was angry at first," she tells TV Guide Online. "I was signed to a record deal the same day as Kelly, Justin and Tamyra — I was sitting at the same table as they were! — but I was getting no press for it at all."

For better or worse, the single mom, now 25, had a bigger issue to resolve: RCA wanted to turn her into a country crooner. "I'm from Texas, I love country. Who doesn't?" she exclaims. "I could cross over and do that. But I felt like the fans who kept me on the show would not have followed me [into that genre]; they kept me around because I was a rocker. So I figured it would be a huge disappointment to them if I sold out.

"RCA said, 'Well, you're going to do country,' and I said, 'No, I'm not,' and walked away from the deal. I think I was a little too strong-willed for their liking," she adds. "I wasn't going to let them mold me into something that I wasn't. I knew what I wanted to do."

At long last, McKibbin is doing exactly what she wants, laying down rock tracks that she likens to "Stevie Nicks and Pat Benatar meet techno." (Having heard three cuts, we can happily report that the future hits are so gutsy and galvanizing, not even sourpuss Simon Cowell would be able to deny their appeal.) "I don't want an album that's all ballads or all straight-ahead rock 'n' roll," the latter-day Debbie Harry explains with the enthusiasm of a born entertainer. "I want an album that everybody is going to be able to enjoy one or two songs off of. I want people to be able to laugh and cry and do it to my music!

"I have no label at the moment; I'm working on this album on my own, hoping to get picked up along the way. But," she concludes, the trailblazer in her peeking out again, "I'm still doing it."

These days, there's no denying the PR power of reality TV. Even stars who once turned up their noses at "unscripted drama" have begun using it to boost their careers. That includes Gina Gershon — the sexpot from Bound and Showgirls — who has her own six-part series, Rocked with Gina Gershon (Fridays at 10:30 pm on IFC). The documentary-style show offers a juicy peek inside Gershon's cross-country tour in support of her movie Prey for Rock & Roll. Of course, like many reality virgins, the actress-turned-rocker was initially skeptical about letting cameras follow her around.

"When people found out I was going on tour," Gershon recalls, "I had like three or four companies coming to me saying, 'Do you want to do a reality show?' To which I quickly said, 'No [expletive] way.' I'm really private. I may not seem that way, but anything that you read about my personal life in the press is probably a lie."

Still, the 42-year-old had her reasons for eventually caving in. "When IFC approached [me], I needed more money for the tour," she admits. "And I do a lot of [home] movies myself and I make videotapes. A lot of the camera work that you see, I did along with the other people. And if I'm going on tour, I've got to make a video of it. And I thought that could be interesting."

As the producer of Prey and Rocked, Gershon smartly ensured she'd get the last word on what viewers will see. "I have the final cut of what is being shown," she says proudly. "You are not going to see my personal life or fights backstage or anyone being humiliated." Darn!

"I'm not into that, and you don't see that anywhere," she adds. "Everyone got along pretty well. There were certain moments, but I didn't want people to feel bad. [So] I cut [them] out. I wanted it to be more like a home movie that I'm letting people watch."

Besides Rocked, she's also at work on a fall sitcom pilot with Nick Lachey (aka Mr. Jessica Simpson) called Hot Mamma. Plus, she's voicing a sexy cyborg on the Sci Fi cartoon Tripping the Rift and continuing with her music career. Despite the influx of new challenges, she takes it all in stride. "Why not? That's been my whole philosophy," she says. "At the end of the day, no one really cares anyway. You just have to do what makes you happy."