Big Brother Champ Defends His Disses

There was a chill in the air last Tuesday when Mike "Boogie" Malin took home the grand prize on Big Brother 7: All-Stars. While he won in a landslide, his comments about his "showmance" with runner-up Erika left a bad taste in many viewers' mouths. Let's revisit a couple:

"I'm just glad that America knows that Erika is in fact a ho. I've used that girl up for all I need. I've gotten myself in a position to win this game, and that's all she was good for."

"Erika is going to be extremely hurt after the show. I'm a bad, bad person. I'm going to hell."

Yes, calling a girl you shared a bed with a "ho" on national TV will hurt your approval ratings with the American public. TVGuide.com caught up with Chill Town's champion, who got burned by love in Season 2 when he proposed to Krista on air, to find out if he regrets any of his harsh words.

TVGuide.com: Has winning sunk in yet?
Mike Malin: It hasn't. We went from being totally cut off from the outside world to the finale and then flying the redeye to The View.

TVGuide.com: Speaking of which, I hear Rosie gave you a hard time.
Mike: Yeah, Rosie kind of raked me over the coals, but I'm a good sport and she's a good sport. She's obviously a big fan of the show, and we had a great time. At the end of the day we're all just entertaining people.

TVGuide.com: How hard is it coming out of the house and not knowing what America saw?
Mike: It is hard because of the Erika thing. I think some people go in with better attitudes than others about what is going to happen and what to expect after. Unfortunately, I think she got kind of a bad rap, and I kind of look like I was a jerk to her. It is a tough situation. Everybody has to remember that this is a game, and in order to further yourself in the game you might come off not looking so good. I feel bad for Erika's feelings, but for all I knew, she was doing the same thing to me.

TVGuide.com: Which she said she might have been.
Mike: Yeah. She's no innocent gal in all of this. She was looking to further herself as well, and everyone has to remember that.

TVGuide.com: I think people were maybe a little surprised at how harsh a couple of your comments were.
Mike: The comments they showed [on air]... a lot of them were right after Erika and Janelle got together and evicted Will. I really wanted to go to the end with Will. I said some things in haste, and I don't mean to hurt her or her family, but those were my real feelings. That's how I became an all-star  I don't hold back, and sometimes people's feelings get hurt, and I'm sure people said nasty things about me that I'm going to go home and watch and I'll have to live with that myself.

TVGuide.com: I think maybe Marcellas was making some comments about you.
Mike: Marcellas is an angry little queen. It just shows, because he voted for someone that didn't play the game. He's the biggest hypocrite of them all.

TVGuide.com: Erika said that Will was the person you were most loyal to. You wore T-shirts saying you were in an alliance. Could anyone really be surprised by that?
Mike: I totally agree with you. We came in day one with T-shirts and hats with "Chill Town" written on them. We looked at everybody and said, "We're going to lie to you, we're coming after you and one of us is going to win this show." They took little cracks here or there, but no one really made a concerted effort to come after [us]. That's because we played so well.

TVGuide.com: Were you surprised by that?
Mike: I was pretty surprised. In the beginning Will was like, "They're going to come after us," and I just kept saying, "Let's use our social skills to make people like us and we'll be fine." That's what was great about this season as opposed to my original season  I really got along with everybody, aside from Marcellas, so it was easy to ingratiate ourselves with different alliances. We played a really great game.

TVGuide.com: A lot of people have said you just rode Will's coattails. Is there any truth to that?
Mike: I can see why they'd think that, but what people don't understand is that for the first five weeks, I carried Will because he didn't want to be there. He thought, "Oh, I'm just going to come and get a check and bounce." I was the one that thought we could make a run at it. The other thing is that if you look back at the competitions, I won them and Will didn't. At the end of the day, I had to win the last two competitions to win the show. He wasn't around for me to win the biggest competition at all. If people call that coattails, then I think they didn't watch closely enough.

TVGuide.com: There was some speculation that you and Will had come up with a secret code in case you made it to the final HOH challenge, where you had to match the sequestered guest's response, so that you would know his answer.
Mike: Will and I haven't talked about that yet. We're the yin and yang on that show, and we know each other too well and I knew he'd answer the opposite of the obvious answer. It wasn't a code or anything.

TVGuide.com: I like the term "bromance" to describe you two.
Mike: Yeah, it is two buddies who had a great time. I know people made it into a gay relationship or something, but it is all in good fun.

TVGuide.com: Neil Patrick Harris was picking on the fact that you constantly had on Dolce T-shirts.
Mike: He was? Well, I have a lot of celebrity investors and because I was gone all summer, I wanted to show them I was still working for the business and still supporting the cause even though I wasn't in the restaurants.

TVGuide.com: How many restaurants do you own?
Mike: I have five right now, and another five opening by the end of the year.

TVGuide.com: How did you even have time to go on Big Brother?
Mike: I have very good business partners, and there was a little window where I had two months where I could squeeze it in before it got really, really crazy.

TVGuide.com: So I'm guessing you weren't the person on this show who actually needed the money.
Mike: No. I was probably the wealthiest person on the show. I was afraid, getting down to the end and depending on who I was sitting next to, that it could be problematic. That's why I wanted George out so badly; he'd make for a very sympathetic character. What was nice was that Erika would brag a lot to people that she owned her own place and had three cars, so I knew [money] wouldn't factor in as much at the end if I sat next to her.

TVGuide.com: Not only did you win the final prize, but you also won a car, a trip....
Mike: I cleaned up on the prizes. With the exception of Will getting the five grand, I got all the prizes. It was good. I'm going to give my mom the car, my business partner the plasma TV, and probably someone else the trip. I really went on there to prove that I could be one of the best players in Big Brother history. I didn't think about the money and the prizes and all that. Last time around I got knocked as the court jester or class clown, so I wanted to show people that I could really play this game. I likened myself to Boston Rob from Survivor, because he went out early his first season and then on All-Stars he played the hell out of the game.

TVGuide.com: Weren't you worried, though, because Rob didn't end up winning [Survivor: All-Stars], but Amber did?
Mike: I was a little worried, but I positioned myself too well; I knew I had it once I took Erika. I was nervous about going with Janelle because she was very popular and she has this way about her that makes people want to do nice things for her. There is something about her that everybody loves.

TVGuide.com: How awkward were those last few days alone in the house with Erika?
Mike: They were awkward, but nothing could be as awkward as sitting in the house when they showed the clip [of my comments]. She just looked over at me and said, "I hope it was worth it." It was a little rough. I feel very badly. You are in there for so long that you forget that there are people with families and friends who are watching. It is tough, because you are trying to be funny, but it can hurt people's feelings.

Reality-TV fans, pick up the Sept. 25 issue of TV Guide for updates on Rock Star, Project Runway and more.

Send in your comments on this Q&A to: online_insider@tvguide.com.