LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY (TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW)
ABC Television
September 22, 2005
Regis: She plays crime scene analyst Catherine Willows on CBS’s hit crime drama ‘CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.’ Which starts season six tonight. Please welcome MARG HELGENBERGER!!
Regis: Hey Marg, how ya doing? You look great.
Kelly: Hi Marg.
Regis: Marg put it all together today, I’ll tell you that.
Kelly: She always does, by the way. The last time Marg was here, you weren’t here. (Kelly’s husband guest-hosted the show then)
Marg: That’s right
Regis: I’m sorry I missed that.
Marg: I just saw him (referring to Kelly’s husband) backstage, in fact.
Kelly: Yeah, that’s right. He came to see you.
Regis: So how are you doing? Married sixteen years to Alan Rosenberg, right?
Marg: Alan Rosenberg, Yes.
Regis: You know. I, Didn’t I see his picture on the ballot?
Marg: You did. Did you vote for him?
Regis: Well, what union was it?
Marg: SAG
Regis: SAG union.
Marg: Screen Actors Guild. Yes he’s…the ballots have to be in by the 23rd. I’m still doing last minute campaigning, which is tomorrow.
Regis: Here’s another elopement story with Alan.
Kelly: I know.
Regis: You eloped and lived happily ever after.
Marg: We eloped in San Francisco.
Kelly: It can be done.
Marg: Yes. When did you…where did you elope?
Kelly: Well, we eloped to Las Vegas.
Regis: The Little White Chapel, you know next to the Texaco station.
Marg: Yeah. There’s many chapels.
Regis: Very romantic, it really is.
Kelly: The whole wedding cost $200, including air fare.
Regis: Marg, was there a special place in San Francisco that you were wed?
Marg: The Huntington Hotel, inside the Alistair Cooke Suite with a portrait with Alistair Cooke, you know, presiding.
Regis: He presided over the whole thing
Marg: Yes he did. We actually returned to the scene of whatever you want to call it. Not the crime, but (laughs) with our son when he was twelve. We got him an adjourning room and Alistair was still there.
Regis: Still there looking.
Marg: Yes, yes. The room was a little tired though, I must say.
Kelly: Now, did you have like a big wedding? Lots of people?
Marg: No it was very…
Kelly: While you eloped, or was it just the two of you, or was there a witness?
Marg: My sister and my husband’s cousin and there were a couple of friends that had driven up who lived in San Francisco area. And then we had parties after the fact.
Regis: But you invited everybody to the parties, I guess?
Marg: Yes
Regis: Was the family put out about it or upset about it? The other members of the family.
Marg: The mothers were. Our mothers were a little bit upset, but they kind of got over it quickly. Especially my mom. Because she, you know, wanted to have the wedding of course.
Regis: Yeah, Sure. What an ordeal that is.
Marg: Yes it is an ordeal. But I would never change. I promote elopement, Because it’s ah…
Kelly: It’s very easy. It’s very no muss, no fuss and the end result is the same.
Regis: Exactly. Well not always. You guys made it. You know some people don’t make it regardless of how big the wedding is.
Kelly: That’s right.
Marg: Think about the weddings that cost $70,000 and they don’t make it.
Regis: Seventy thousand? A mere pittance!
Marg: I know.
Regis: We’ll be back in a minute. I want to talk to her.
Regis: Marg Helgenberger, our guest. Incidentally, ‘ CSI’ continues tonight with their premiere show. And the last one we saw was directed by Quentin Tarantino, you know the great movie director. Season finale in which George Eads was kidnapped and buried alive, right?
Marg: Yes.
Regis: it was a race against time to find him.
Marg: Exactly. Involving fire ants that had gotten to him. In fact it was one of those episodes that a lot of people just had to watch it like this ( Marg puts her hands in front of her face) because of the squeamishness of being buried alive, which is a pretty traumatic thing to imagine you know.
Kelly: Well ‘CSI’ has really sort of sparked not just all of the different spin offs of ‘CSI,’ but a lot of like the news programs do like ‘CSI’-like specials where they go into hotel rooms and they just flash that blue light and you see urine everywhere.
Marg: Among other things, yes.
Regis: Wait a minute. I’m not familiar with that. Is that what you call a blue light special?
(Marg, Regis and Kelly all laughing)
Regis: Holy Cow!
Kelly: You don’t want to know Regis. You just don’t want to know.
Regis: You see everything with that blue light.
Kelly: Bring your own sheets. That’s all I’m saying.
Marg: It always comes back to that, doesn’t it?
Regis: So, what’s gonna happen in this season?
Marg: Well, actually tonight’s episode we, one of our characters ends up getting married and I find out by seeing a wedding band on their hand, at a crime scene of course. And there’s always more and more stuff. Our writers are really brilliant and how they come up with these…
Regis: They really are.
Marg: They truly are.
Regis: Because there’s got to be a limit, but there is no limit. They just keep coming up with more stuff.
Marg: No. I mean I would love to see my husband return. My real life husband, Alan Rosenberg.
Regis: He worked in the show.
Marg: Last season he did. He played a public defender that we sort of connected in a bar and it turns out he was kind of bad news but wasn’t the bad guy and it was just complex.
Regis: Sounds like he’d be an interesting guy to have around, huh?
Marg: Oh well, Yeah. I’d love it.
Regis: Bad news public defender.
Kelly: Kind of makes you wonder what do the writers do on the weekends.
Marg: I don’t, you know. I’d hate to be living with those ideas in my brain.
Regis: Well let’s take a look at a clip from tonight’s show. In this scene your character Catherine is investigating the death of a young woman. Here we go…
(Clip of CSI is Shown)
Regis: WOW! You are tough, Marg.
Marg: Yes. I can be.
Regis: WOW! ‘CSI’ premieres tonight, 9:00 on CBS. Thank you, Marg! Thanks very much!
*Special thanks to fox1 for transcribing this interview. A clip of the interview can be found here.