Check out my new exclusive interview with Dawn at www.Retroality.TV -- she talks about the whole Ginger v. Mary Ann thing, being caught with Mary Jane, Michael Phelps' bong photo scandal, etc.
www.Retroality.TV
Excerpts:
ON HER ARREST
"I had that horrible experience with that fake arrest. It wasn’t fake—I was arrested but it wasn’t legitimate. He’s in jail now, as a matter of fact, the guy who arrested me. And the sheriff has also been under investigation for false arrest. It was a very unfortunate situation. And I was very, very aware of what the press can do. ... It was very, very difficult. And I finally said to somebody, “I’m not sure if Britney Spears has two boys.” I don’t believe anything I read anymore.
ON THE "VERY CRUEL" MEDIA STORM:
"It’s a big deal to catch Mary Ann, too. It’s a very big difference than it would be if it were a rock-and-roll singer or something. Because it was Mary Ann there was a big to-do and everybody had to jump on it. And they were very cruel. Some of them were very funny, too—Jay Leno was very funny. Bill O’Reilly was awful and TMZ was awful. I did three shows: The View, Entertainment Tonight and CBS Early Morning news. However, not everybody sees that. For a long time, I’d walk into a cleaners and think, “I know they think I went to jail.” (Laughs.) ... And I don’t walk around with a sign on my back saying, “It wasn’t true! It wasn’t true!”
However, as odd as it was, I do have people who say, “Cast her in Weeds. Or put her in Lost.” It kind of revived my career a little bit, as strange as that sounds. All of a sudden they realized that I was alive. (Laughs.)
But it was awful. It was terrible. And that’s kind of the price you have to pay. And all you can do is try to be as honest as you can be. You’re not gonna fool anybody anymore.
ON MICHAEL PHELPS'S BONG PHOTO FALLOUT:
"You’ve got the athletes—look at poor Michael Phelps, for God’s sake. I mean, is that important to his gold medals? Not at all. It’s not steroids. He wasn’t cheating through his competition at all. ... Nowadays, you can make pictures say anything ... I don’t know the circumstance, whether (Phelps is) denying it. He could’ve been making fun of it! He could’ve been leaning over and saying, 'How do you use this damn thing?' How do you know what he was doing?"
ON CO-STAR TINA "THE MOVIE STAR" LOUISE:
"(The 2004 TV Land Awards) was very awkward, though. I’d heard there was a rumor that she wouldn’t sit with us, or she wanted to get paid to sit with us ... So she didn’t sit with us. But afterward, we all took a picture with Sherwood Schwartz. And then after that somebody wanted to interview us, and Tina and I sat down together for the first time ever. And she was very complimentary about the show. I almost fell off the chair. (She said,) 'The little kids really like it, and I’m reading to kids and kids appreciate it.' And I thought, 'Well, maybe it’s taken this much time to realize how grateful we all should be for that show.' I haven’t run into her (since), but we’re always very civil."
