CSI: Miami Star Clears the Air About New "Office Romance"

Is romance in the air for a pair of CSI: Miami crime-solvers? Who might be packing heat this season? And how can you — yes, you — score a "date" with the lovely Natalia Boa Vista? Just before returning to work this week on the hit CBS procedural, Eva La Rue discussed with TVGuide.com those hot topics and more!

TVGuide.com: Natalia had quite a year, with the ex-husband showing up and then getting murdered, her sister being abducted....
Eva La Rue: I know, it was a very crazy year!

TVGuide.com: It seems as if someone gets promoted there, it's not necessarily a good thing!
La Rue: No, it's not! If Natalia wanted to have a more fly-under-the-radar, lay-low year after being the mole, I don't think it really happened. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: Working the pharmacy at CVS is probably looking good to her now.
La Rue: Exactly.

TVGuide.com: Have you heard about any changes or tweaks for the upcoming season of CSI: Miami?
La Rue: No. As a matter of fact I'm waiting to get my script. So I have no idea what's happening. I ran into Emily [Procter] a few days ago and she had just gotten hers, but she hadn't read it yet. She's already in Florida, but I have another week of vacation. I'm in the same episode, but all of her scenes are exterior.

TVGuide.com: What do you make of this flirtation we're starting to see between Calleigh and Delko?
La Rue: Well, at the end [of the season], didn't it look like she went with Jake?

TVGuide.com: Yeah, but we know how soapy things can get.
La Rue: I know, I know.... I might be wrong, but as "Joe Viewer," it looked to me like Calleigh's intent was one of caring for him as her partner, and Delko took it to be a little more personal — probably egged on by Natalia.

TVGuide.com: Plus, that's just what guys do. We like to think the pretty blonde is more interested in us than she is.
La Rue: [Laughs] But I think Calleigh's interest was more motherly, because Delko had come back from being shot. In the end, she's not quite over Jake.

TVGuide.com: What does Natalia think of Maxine these days? They used to be on equal footing, but with Natalia's promotion, their relationship got a bit more antagonistic.
La Rue: It's funny, they were friends in the beginning, but I never got the feeling that Maxine really trusted Natalia, and obviously she shouldn't have. And then in the second season, Maxine started dating my ex-husband, even though she didn't know that, but when she did find out, she should have steered clear. I think Natalia still cares about what happens to Maxine, but I don't think it's a deep friendship there. You don't have to love everybody you work with.

TVGuide.com: What would you like to see Natalia do this season, even if it's a one-shot deal?
La Rue: She hasn't been able to qualify for her gun license yet, but I think they're going to get into that. I don't have any interest in seeing her stay on the straight and narrow, so as long as she's always in some sort of predicament, I like that.

TVGuide.com: Now, what's this thing going on where some lucky sap can win a date with you?
La Rue: Oh, that! [Laughs] But it could be a girl, too, in which case we'd go have a girls' shopping day. It's a promotion that Claritin is doing, a "Win a Perfectly Clear Day with..." sweepstakes where we will either go shopping, or....

TVGuide.com: Back up, because it says here "A day of horseback riding with Eva, a day of golf with Ronnie Lott or a makeover with Ken Paves."
La Rue: It's horseback riding, I guess, if you horseback ride. It depends on who wins.

TVGuide.com: If not, it's Rodeo Drive? On Eva's Amex?
La Rue: Not on my Amex!

TVGuide.com: Ken Paves is, like, a makeup artist to the stars, right?
La Rue: Yeah, he is. I'd like to win that one!

TVGuide.com: Why Claritin? Do you happen to be an allergy sufferer?
La Rue: Yeah, I totally am. Back in the day, there were only a few things you could take, but they just made me jittery yet foggy. So when Claritin came on the market, it was the only thing I could use that would let me go to work alert and focused at [All My Children].

TVGuide.com: I didn't have allergies for some 30 years, and then I move out of the city into the suburbs and wham.
La Rue: Exactly. See, for me, I moved form Los Angeles to New York City, but right across the street from the park, and I couldn't leave the building, it was so bad. On the soap we had to memorize a lot of pages a day, so I could not go in there foggy, but Claritin cleared that all right up.

TVGuide.com: What kind of TV do you like these days?
La Rue: Well, I watch CSI: Miami now, and....

TVGuide.com: Are you obligated to watch the other two flavors of CSI?
La Rue: No, I don't think we are. And I don't, just out of crosstown rivalry. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: Les Moonves doesn't come to your home and hard-code your DVR to record them all?
La Rue: No, surprise! But I love Grey's Anatomy, and I am the biggest, biggest sap for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I sit there with a box of tissues on the couch every Sunday night. I love it. Unfortunately, though, when the TV is on, it's usually some version of Hannah Montana or Even Steven.... [La Rue has a 5 -year-old daughter named Kaya.]

TVGuide.com: Or High School Musical for the 100th time.
La Rue: Aye-yi-yi! Will the second one just come out already?!

TVGuide.com: One of my editors wants to know if you ever laugh at "the line," that is, what Horatio says before the opening credits?
La Rue: He's sort of our Arnold Schwarzenegger, like "The Terminator — CSI: Miami." He's got these "I'll be back" lines, and he makes it work.

TVGuide.com: Have you seen the compilation on YouTube? It's seven minutes of his best lines, complete with the sunglasses snaps.
La Rue: No! Send me the link. He would think that's really funny.

TVGuide.com: Oh, at the May upfronts he intro'd each night's programming! "In Miami" — sunglasses snap — "we call Wednesday 'el dia de la hump.'"
La Rue: He's got the best sense of humor, and that's why those lines work.

Additional reporting by Leah Friedman. Click here for details on how to win "A Perfectly Clear Day with Eva La Rue."

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