TV Guide Online: In our interview with Mirna, she characterized your relationship as contentious, and some of that certainly came across on screen. Were things that strained off screen?
Colin: Besides her interruption between myself and the bus-station employee in Patagonia, and when she and Charla unsuccessfully tried to steal our taxi in Cairo, Mirna and I didn't have much of a relationship at all. It was quite clear from the beginning that Mirna did not want to be friends with Christie and me. Although she eventually alienated herself from most of the teams with her "I'm such a victim" attitude, all efforts on mine and Christie's part in the first three legs of the race to be friendly — or possibly form an alliance — proved to be futile. We still didn't have a problem with them until she interrupted us in the bus station and then got mad that we didn't apologize for not allowing her to do so. We decided at that point that Mirna was not a rational person and certainly not someone we wanted to share our time with.

TVGO: How would you characterize the relationship?
Colin: I think Christie put it best when she described Mirna and Charla as two yapping Chihuahuas continually trying to bite at our ankles and saying: "Look at me! Look at me! I will not be ignored! I will not be ignored!" My personal theory is that Mirna loved the fact that she and Charla were such a strong team, but hated the fact that Christie and I were better. After the second leg, no matter how hard they raced, Christie and I still beat them every time, and this irked the hell out of her. More than anything, though, I think she hated the fact that so many other teams liked working with us. Not only did they like working with us, but they also let us lead. Mirna took it very personally when this same thing was not happening for her. Unfortunately, it's her own fault that most teams steered clear [of them]. I do not like Mirna and I wanted her out, mainly because she is such a difficult person to be around. As far as my thoughts on her as a racer, I didn't [think] any more about her than any other team. There is too much random luck involved to count anyone out. As far as I'm concerned, every team is always a contender.

TVGO: Mirna claimed that you had made threats to her throughout the race. Could this have been a misunderstanding or do you specifically recall any threats being exchanged?
Colin: No, absolutely not. Beyond the second leg, I barely said three words to her outside of the race. You've already seen every exchange we had during the race.

TVGO: Specifically, she claimed that you threatened to break her legs. Do you remember saying anything along these lines, even as a joke?
Colin: When I read that, I just had to laugh. That might be the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Both at the pit stops and on the race, Christie and I tried to avoid her at all costs. Mirna would continually try to get under our skin by interrupting us or being argumentative while we were in conversations with other teams. Our tactic was to ignore her as best we could. She simply wanted the attention.

TVGO: Is there anything else you'd like to say about how you've run the race so far?
Colin: Besides the eating challenges, I feel Christie and I are running the race very successfully. Truly, the only thing that could hold us back now is my ability to run my mouth without concern for other people. Fortunately, Christie is a much bigger person than I am and is able to take the high road and be mature enough not to let our problems escalate. She is by far one of the strongest people on the race and I am damned lucky to have her as my partner.

TV Guide Online: So your idea for the series came at a Siegfried and Roy show?
Katzenberg: I thought, "I wonder what it's like for those lions. What must life be like from their point of view? [They're] living in Las Vegas, trying to raise a family and earn a living. In animation, we look for those things — a way to look at our lives through a fantasy world. It allows us to take on subjects that are too difficult to do with real people. It allows us to be more controversial. Edgier. There can be parody and innuendo and satire. Things can be sophisticated in a way that even our feature films can't be.

TVGO: When did you approach Siegfried and Roy?
Katzenberg: We went to them when we had all four actors [John Goodman, Cheryl Hines, Carl Reiner and Orlando Jones]. We really tried to give them and the network a real sense of what the show was going to be — a strong presentation of all the creative elements and all the business elements because it's such a huge leap of faith.

TVGO: How did you handle things when the tiger attack happened?
Katzenberg: There was a short period of time where we all just rocked out on our heels and couldn't be particularly creative and certainly not very funny. But Siegfried kept saying, every step of the way, that this show meant so much to them. So much to Roy. Then, even more than it ever did.

TVGO: What was their reaction when they saw it?
Katzenberg: They laughed. A lot. From the beginning, the one thing they said to us was, "You must have fun with us. We are like the Odd Couple. We are always teasing each other about absolutely everything. Please do that." They kept asking us to create more contradiction. Literally, one's blond and one's dark, and every aspect of their life is as black and white as that. They are always playful with one another, always playing tricks on one another. They encouraged us to have fun with that.

TVGO: Were you worried about the bad buzz after the Upfront presentation to advertisers in May?
Katzenberg: In terms of pride, yes, it was very disappointing. I think NBC has one of the most incredible and most successful promo departments of anybody in television today, but, unfortunately, they had never worked on a show like this before, so they struggled to find a good promo. Whatever ended up being shown at the Upfronts, by their own standards and goals and ambitions, fell short. So we paid the price for that.

The tabloids won't have to dig too deep to come up with dirt on velvet-voiced Alex Boyd, whose debut single, "In Your Eyes," drops today: The Fame grad is the first to admit that he has a split personality, at least where his music is concerned. That's why his album, The Hip Side and the Flip Side (due out this fall), comprises two discs, the first a collection of au courant R&B tracks; the second, classic cuts given a modern edge.

"I've pretty much grown up on old music," the heartthrob-in-the-making explains to TV Guide Online. "I've been influenced by Sinatra, Harry Connick Jr., the Beatles.... Hell, even Handel and Bach! On the other hand, I've also had a lot of pop influence. For instance, I think Justin Timberlake's solo record was phenomenal."

So, naturally, in shaping his premier CD, the 19-year-old set two goals for himself. First, he wanted to blaze his own trail up the charts by recording material that he himself wrote (including "In Your Eyes"). Second, he wanted to honor his forebears. "The standards that we're doing are old enough that most kids today will probably have never heard them before," he says. "But the arrangements will be very [modern]. Basically, we're reinventing standards so that everyone, from any generation, can groove with them."

In his spare time — and yes, apparently, he has some — the Gen-Y Elvis Presley has been making inroads in Hollywood as a matinee idol. Besides contributing to the soundtrack to the upcoming thriller Vlad, starring Titanic bad guy Billy Zane, Boyd recently wrapped work on the serial-killer drama Deadly, with Laura Prepon from That '70s Show. Next up is In the Camera's Eye, with Jeffrey Dahmer. Yes, that Jeffrey Dahmer! "The producers have hundreds of hours of real footage from Dahmer's interviews with his psychiatrist, and none of it has ever been released. So the movie will be based on the life of the cameraman who actually shot the footage.

"They have Edward Norton in mind to play the cameraman," he adds. "Ed would be CGI'd into the footage with Dahmer, and the movie would follow the downward spiral of Ed as he envisions the murders that Dahmer talks about. I've been told that my character will be Ed's younger brother, but that's pretty much all I know as of now." Could be that Boyd's split personality is about to come in handy yet again.