Beauty and Geek Reunion Surprises

In Wednesday night's Beauty and the Geek: The Aftermath reunion special, Richard Rubin received kisses from three of his beautiful costars — and his fellow runner-up, Mindi Emanuel, even slipped him a little tongue! At the very least, Ashton Kutcher's WB social experiment changed this hyperactive 21-year-old college grad's "never kissed a girl" status. Meanwhile, judging by how sorority girl Mindi (also 21) carried the team in all their elimination rounds, she must have absorbed a lot from their many geeky tasks. TVGuide.com rang them up for a thorough grilling on what they learned.

TVGuide.com: You two seemed to get along the best. What was the key to working well as a team?
Richard Rubin: Mindi and I had a good, solid business relationship. It was like we were a married couple for 50 years.
Mindi Emanuel: I would say it was very much like that. There was a lot of patience on my part, and I'm sure there was a lot on Richard's part as well.
Richard: Mindi rescued me from the elimination chamber. I want to make that clear that I am grateful for having Mindi as a partner.
Mindi: Well, I am grateful for having Richard as a partner. I've told everyone Richard was my left side for three weeks. I don't think I could have been with a better person. If either of us were with anyone else, we wouldn't have been such an amazing team.
Richard: Everyone says Mindi has the patience of a saint; I'm the first to admit that.

TVGuide.com: You don't seem like such an airhead, Mindi. Why were you right for this show?
Mindi: I am a very, very ditzy person. The things that I know about, I really know about, but there's a lot of stuff in this world that I'm just clueless about. I'm a very naive person.

TVGuide.com: Were some of the lessons things you felt you needed to learn?
Mindi: I knew when I was in the house that I was there to learn. I was open to [that]. People [ask me], "Would you ever have been friends with a geek before?" I was friends with everybody [before the show]. If you were a huge geek, that didn't mean I wasn't friends with you. If we had something in common and got along, I was going to be friends with you... No one's status affected me. That wasn't something I felt like I needed to learn.
Richard: Fashion was never a big interest of mine. It was nice that I got to see where women are coming from [on that issue]. I hadn't the faintest clue before that.

TVGuide.com: But these weren't skills you thought you lacked before.
Richard: These were things I had no idea about. Everything on the show was a first for me. Every competition was a first for me. I had to walk away with something.

TVGuide.com: Will you apply those skills in real life?
Richard: The jeans, probably not. Certainly not. I'm a staunch enemy of jeans.

TVGuide.com: Denim in general, or just jeans?
Richard: Probably denim in general, but jeans are what first come to mind.

TVGuide.com: Why had you never kissed a girl before the show, Richard?
Richard: I really don't know. I'm shy around girls I do like.

TVGuide.com: So what made you kiss Krystal after her elimination?
Richard: Krystal, at the time, was my biggest fan base in the house. She was my chief supporter, and when she was gone, I figured I was on my own. It was tough to see her go. They didn't really show our interactions, but we had a good time together. That hurdle [of the first kiss] is the toughest hurdle to leap. Then you're off and running like Don Juan, Lothario and Casanova put together.

TVGuide.com: Why did Chuck have such a beef with you, Richard?
Richard: I don't know exactly why. For whatever reason, we didn't get along. We didn't see eye to eye, and that's more to do with the fact that he's taller than I am. It's funny that you say Chuck had a beef, 'cause of chuck steak.

TVGuide.com: What do you say to those who think you were acting up for the camera's sake?
Richard: I'm actually worse in real life.
Mindi: He comes across really calmly on TV.

TVGuide.com: Mindi, were you surprised by what Richard was like when he played the piano?
Mindi: I said this on the show: I really wish they'd had a piano in the house the entire time. That's his element. It was almost like he was a different person. Richard, you just seemed very genuinely happy that whole time. Being in the house was so stressful.
Richard: If they had a piano in the mansion, it certainly wouldn't have been any quieter but I would have been out of people's faces.

TVGuide.com: Since the show has aired, has your social life changed much?
Mindi: My life's changed a little bit. I know Richard's out in L.A. right now, and I'm planning on moving there in a few months. I'm just the same old person, you know. When I go out sometimes, it's weird because everybody thinks they're my new best friend now, and it's like, "I talked to you once — two years ago."
Richard: I don't know. I don't foresee any drastic alterations in my social life. You get recognized and things like that. Who knows what's going to happen? I'm definitely not going to ask a woman if she likes garlic.
Mindi: That's good, Richard. See? You did learn something!