TV Guide Online: Are you happy with the way you played the game?
Lex van de Berghe: I'm absolutely, 100-percent thrilled with the way that I played the game. It is the one thing that I can walk away [from] feeling totally good and at peace with. What you see is what you get with me. I only know how to play the game the way I am, which is straight and hard.

TVGO: Out of all the All-Stars, you were one of few truly focused on winning.
Lex: I went in there with the eye on the prize from day one. I knew that going out there was going to end up being a huge sacrifice that my family had to make for me. I wanted to make sure, in doing this, that it was worth all the sacrifice. And that meant trying to come back with a victory. It is surprising to me how few people there were out there playing a hard game. So many people seem to be content either cruising along on other peoples' coattails or hiding and playing this under-the-radar subtle game. I don't really have a lot of respect for that method of playing. It may get you to the winner's circle, but I wanted to play it by being in the driver's seat and making the hard decisions.

TVGO: Do you regret keeping Amber instead of Jerri?
Lex: It would have been great to be psychic and to see the fact that I couldn't trust Rob at all to be loyal to our friendship. Frankly, I really wanted to keep Jerri in the first place. The executive decision to get rid of Jerri was one that Kathy made. [Kathy and I] had an alliance, and I respected her decision and I decided to support her on that. But if it had been left completely up to me, Jerri would have stayed and Amber would have gone.

TVGO: Why did you think you could trust Boston Rob?
Lex: When we were out there playing the game, he was on the other tribe and we didn't see all this double-dealing, despicable-scoundrel behavior. Also, you need to understand that, just from an emotional standpoint, Rob and I were close friends outside of the game. We had been tight for quite a while. We saw each other. We called each other. That tends to cloud your ability to make certain kinds of decisions in a game like this. For me, it was simply a friend came to me with tears in his eyes, asking me for help. When my friends need me, I jump. That's the kind of person I am. I would throw myself into the fire for a friend, if I thought that it would help them out. When he came to me, I had to decide, "What is more important to me, friendship or money?" Friendship is always going to be more important to me than money.

TVGO: But you're friends with Ethan outside of the game too, and you voted him off.
Lex: I am friends with Ethan. I didn't do anything to betray Ethan in this game. We didn't make any sort of agreements.

TVGO: So you didn't have an alliance that you broke?
Lex: Absolutely none. The only agreement that we made in this game was that he asked me to promise him that if we were voting him out, I would tell him ahead of time. He didn't want to be blindsided. I did that; I honored my promise to him. We had no alliance. He was a threat; he was an ex-winner and he had to go.

TVGO: OK, how aware were you of Rob and Amber's romance?
Lex: I knew that there was something there. I certainly didn't know to what extent until he came to me with tears in his eyes. Then, I thought, "Oh, this is a little more significant and a little closer than I thought it was." But that wasn't really relevant to my decision, except from a strategic standpoint. [I thought] if we had Amber on our tribe and if I saved her and Rob was good on his promise to do everything he could to take care of me, then I had basically created some good, strong alliances on my side.

TVGO: But wouldn't it have been smarter to ditch Amber and break up their alliance?
Lex: It would have, but I would have felt like I wasn't helping a friend in need. Cost me a million bucks.

TVGO: You had an alliance with Kathy, but in your closing remarks, you were rooting for Big Tom. Why?
Lex: I love Kathy. She was true to me and loyal to me until the very end, no doubt about that in my mind. However, with Big Tom, outside of the game, he is my closest friend. He is like a brother to me. Kathy knows that I had her back the whole time and that I was wishing her nothing but the best as well.

TVGO: So your words were spurred on by her decision to keep the immunity necklace, instead of giving it to you like she'd promised?
Lex: Absolutely not. The editing kind of skewed and confused what was going on there. Because they made it look like when she wasn't going to give me immunity, I was reacting and was angry. That reaction was actually edited out of sequence. That reaction was to Rob saying, "I hope we can be friends after this game is over." In reality, Kathy really, really wanted to give me her immunity. I didn't think it was fair for her to win the immunity fair and square and give it to me and then for her to get voted out. If she had offered it to me at tribal council, I would have turned it down.

TVGO: If you and Tom were friends, why didn't you try to sway his vote?
Lex: Oh, I did. I tried everything. I scrambled. I talked to Tom. I talked to Rupert and Jenna. I did everything I could to try and sway them over to my side so that I could survive a few more days. And nobody would have anything to do with it. I'm still scratching my head and wondering how Rob has these people so snowed and under his spell. They all seem to be totally content to just follow and be his sheep. If somebody there doesn't get off their ass and get out from under the radar, they are going to be like lambs to the slaughter.

TVGO: Do you think you'll be friendly with Rob after this game is over?
Lex: I will always be civil with him. But we'll never be friends again.

TVGO: What about Ethan?
Lex: Oh yeah, Ethan and I are still pals. Jerri and I are still close. Rob screwed me in a way that a friend should never screw another friend. I've got such good friends around me that I know better than to keep someone like that close. Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me.

TVGO: Would you ever consider doing another Survivor?
Lex: As idiotic as this sounds, yeah, I would. I don't think I could resist the allure of doing it again. How dumb is that?

TV Guide Online: I spoke to Katrina last week and she said your romance with Amy was just a strategy to win the game. True?
Nick: That's partially true. I aligned with a very strong player who I thought would help me in the long run, and it did. If you look at the Taj Mahal episode, I believe I could have slept on that task and she would have sent me back up to the [suite].

TVGO: Amy confirmed that you two dated briefly after the show. Why didn't it work out?
Nick: She lives in Austin and I live in Los Angeles. God knows, I'm not moving away from L.A. and she's not moving from Austin. Plus, she's a little bit older than I am.

TVGO: You looked stunned when she dubbed you the weakest remaining link in the boardroom on Thursday's show.
Nick: Yeah, I was. She's cold — especially [Thursday] night. I thought it didn't look good in front of Mr. Trump [because] loyalty is important [to him]. We went through the game together and it was unfortunate that she did that.

TVGO: What's your relationship like today?
Nick: Good. We're having a good time doing press.

TVGO: Are you interested in pursuing a relationship with anyone else from the show?
Nick: I'd pursue all of them. They're all beautiful women.

TVGO: Omarosa included?
Nick: Including Oma.

TVGO: Katrina's been dragging Amy through the mud in the press. Do you have any insight into what's going on between these two?
Nick: One thing about Katrina: She's a first-class individual. And she has the biggest heart, and she is the sweetest girl on the show. It's unfortunate the way she was edited, because it's the exact opposite of the way she is.

TVGO: Is attacking Amy in the press and spreading rumors about her sex life a classy thing to do?
Nick: Uh, well, um... She's upset and Amy was mean to her in certain parts of the show and said things that weren't very nice. (Pause) I don't know, to be honest with you. I like Katrina. She's a wonderful and very, very close friend and that's all I have to say on the matter.

Tonight's Gilmore Girls — the first fresh episode since early March — finds Rory and Paris on spring break in Florida. While the WB's promoting this as "Gilmore Girls Gone Wild," it's not nearly as wild as some think. Last week's New York Post promised "the butch Paris" will plant a "Sapphic smooch" on Rory that "ranks with the most shocking" same-sex kisses ever on television. Huh?

Did they screen the same preview tape we did? 'Cause it sure looked to us like Paris kisses Rory for half a sec, just to attract notice from the throng of party boys around them. Willow and Tara, they're not. This sitch is more like the silly JC Chasez song that goes: "Some girls dance with women, knowin' that it brings them attention." But hey, you don't have to take it from us...

"I think the Post story is very silly. They're out of their minds," GG creator Amy Sherman-Palladino tells TV Guide Online. "When I read that, I went, 'Seriously?!' For us, it was a playful little joke. There's no tongue, there's no groping. When I [wrote for] Roseanne, they did the big kiss between Roseanne and Mariel Hemingway, and it was about that. This is a joke.

"Rory is this chaste little girl," she adds with a laugh. "She's practically got wings attached to the back of her. To look for the salacious at all on our show, you really gotta look, because we don't do salacious here. It's weird that they would pick up on an innocent kiss between two girls like there's something dirty about it." Diplomatically, she adds: "It wouldn't be dirty if it was two girls who were romantically involved!"

That rightly said, Rory's got boys on the brain as the show heads toward May sweeps. Amid the spring-break festivities, Miss Gilmore gets in touch with ex-boyfriend Dean — which is always awkward, especially since he's married now. "She and Dean are starting to get a little closer," Sherman-Palladino teases. "There's the assumption that his marriage is wrong. Rory thinks they're too young. Everybody thinks they're too young. There's not a lot of hope for intense happiness for a marriage that came out of a rebound, with much too much youth and lack of life experience."

Thus, GG fans can expect Jared Padalecki to return in upcoming episodes as Dean. But don't forget Rory's other ex. Milo Ventimiglia's days as bad boy Jess aren't done just yet. "We're bringing Jess back to finally confront Rory. He's basically been avoiding her; they haven't conversed since he said 'I love you' and got the hell out of Dodge," Sherman-Palladino laughs. "We have to wrap that up, which we will be doing."