The Net's most downloaded femme fatale takes a few minutes to chat with IGN

If you've never heard of Cindy Margolis then it's a fair bet that you're either completely ignorant of current pop cultural trends or you're a hermit living on a desert island with no connections to the outside world. Cindy Margolis, as most folks know, is the undisputed 'Queen of the Internet' and the #1 pin-up girl in the world today. Seriously. If you don't believe me, just confer with the Guinness Book of World Records, which lists Cindy as the most downloaded person on the Internet.

Margolis, a SoCal native, burst onto the World Wide Web several years ago with a self-marketing blitz that put most top-notch advertising firms to shame. With nothing more than a website and some sultry pictures of herself in swimsuits, Cindy set out to dominate the Internet. And that she has done. In fact, so well has she dominated the Net that now she is poised to dominate late night TV.

IGN For Men's Spence D. recently chatted with Ms. Margolis about her upcoming television show, her marriage and what it means to her career as a model, her Jerry's Famous Deli fetish, and her obsession with felines.

IGN For Men: You've conquered the Internet and the world of pin-up posters, now I understand that you are setting your sites on late night TV and that you have a show in the works, set to debut later this year.

Cindy Margolis: Ugh! I've just been going crazy. I can't even tell you! [laughs]. I just got back from NATPE (National Association of Television Production Executives, the put on a trade show each year to hi-lite upcoming shows) which was such a blast for me to actually be there with my own TV show in the CBS booth with everyone else who has [a show]. You know, I was sitting next to the Everybody Loves Raymond cast and they have the #1 show out there. So I'm sitting next to them plugging my own show. You can't beat that. I actually have that coming out this summer, plus I still have my E! show, so I feel like I'm doing double duty with the two shoes. But I can't complain, so don't have anyone for a second feel sorry for me. I'm having the time of my life, so no complaints here.

IGN For Men: Do you already have episodes of The Cindy Margolis Show in the can?

Cindy Margolis: I do not and that's the beauty of it. It is completely wide open and I am going to get producer credit on it. I felt if my name is gonna be on it I want to actually have a say in what I'm going to be doing on my own show. They [CBS] have been so wonderful to me. I really have full reign on anything I want to do. My co-producer is Burt Dubrow, who does The Sally-Jesse Raphael Show and Jerry Springer. Those two shows have actually been the longest running talk shows on television since Donohue left, so that's a pretty good track record. They're both still on the air and getting great numbers, so to have a producer who has such a great record in the entertainment business to be putting all his eggs in my basket, so to speak, is such an honor for me. Actually when we had this brainchild he wanted to call it "Jerry Springer In Heels." I changed that real quick [laughs]. There's gonna be no fighting on my show. None of that. It was funny, though, at NATPE Jerry Springer came over and asked if he could be a guest on my show. I said 'Oh, definitely and only if we can do a parody on your show and I get to hit you over the head.' He said 'By all means, Cindy. You can hit me with whatever you want.' As for my show, it's gonna be more of a variety show. There will be some relationship/sex talk in the show, but mostly it's gonna be fun and games and celebrities and bands. And the most exciting thing about the whole show is that it's the first late night show to be done at night on the beach. We're actually filming at night on the beach in South Beach [Florida], which has so much energy and is such a hotbed for what's going on right now. So South Beach, Ocean Drive is our backdrop.

It'll be partying and having a good time and I think that's the unique thing about the show, plus there hasn't really been a host like me or a woman dominating late night. So it's just gonna be a fun place for you to go after you've had a good time [out and about], you can come back [home] and spend the rest of the night partying with me. It's the a show I want you to be able to watch in bars and I'm huge with colleges and fraternities, they have been so good to me. Those are my #1 cyber-buddies, so it's really a program for them, to thank them for making my website [such a success], and for helping me get my own show. I kind of want to give back with a fun show for them. It's going to be completely interactive with my site, whatever they want to see I'll give them. Finally Hollywood and the entertainment industry is getting it, that I really have the luxury where I can ask 50 million people what they want to see. That's been so wonderful, because every time I ask my cyber-buddies 'Please help me out' or 'What do you think about this?' they just tenfold answer me. I think that rather than having the bigwigs sitting up in their offices and not knowing what my audience wants, I can just ask them [the audience]. And luckily CBS gets me and they're letting me just run with it and do whatever I want to do. And that's rare, trust me. It is so rare that they're giving me this and saying 'Go do your own show.' As long as it's successful, they'll be happy with it. But I have a pretty good track record with CBS. When I did the Howard Stern Show [I blew his ratings through the roof]. And Howard's just been great to know. In most of the markets I'll be following Stern as a companion show and then the markets that he's not in I'll be replacing him and in other markets I'll be on after Smackdown. And the WWF has been so good to me. So between Howard and the WWF I'm set. You can't beat that.

IGN For Men: I trust that your show will be slightly more wholesome than either of those, right?

Cindy Margolis:[laughs] Yes, because it's me. Yes, it will definitely be light, sexy, but with my 'girl-next-door' tone to it. But I can sometimes get away with a little bit more because I do have the 'girl-next-door' image.

IGN For Men: I know you grew up in the Valley...

Cindy Margolis: I did. I'm a Valley Girl. You can't get me out of the Valley, I'm still here.

IGN For Men: I gotta know then, was the Nicholas Cage/Deborah Forman Valley Girl flick dead on?

Cindy Margolis:[laughs] Well, of course, I think they had to go a little overboard. But pretty much [it was right on] and when that came out everything was Valley Girl. The sad thing is that the Galleria is being torn down right now. And that represented the whole Valley Girl era, which I think is now gone [for good].

IGN For Men: What a bummer, I wasn't aware of that.

Cindy Margolis: Yeah, the Galleria where [Valley Girl] was filmed and where the Moon Unit Zappa song talked about has been torn down. My junior high was just crazy when all of that was going on. And of course Fast Times at Ridgemont High and...

IGN For Men: Bill & Ted's...

Cindy Margolis: Yeah! [laughs]. So no more Galleria, it's very sad. All the Valley Girls are mourning the day it was knocked down.

IGN For Men: Did you have the big hair and the cheesy clothes back then?

Cindy Margolis: Of course. I was really stuck in the whole Farah Fawcett hairdo long after it was past being in fashion [laughs]. I had the feathered hair, which is funny because it's coming back. But I was wearing the big hair when it probably wasn't as popular. So I'd have to say more than Valley Girl, it would be Farrah Fawcett who's footsteps I always tried to follow.

IGN For Men: That's rather ironic since I believe you've surpassed her in terms of poster sales.

Cindy Margolis: It is true that I have outsold Farrah Fawcett and Marilyn Monroe in posters, but I always like to preface [that] by saying 'Sure, I'm America's Number One Pin-up, but I've had a 100 posters and they each had their one great all-time poster.' So if you do the math, yes I did outsell them, but they definitely go down in history with their one poster. I don't want to [downplay their achievements] for minute. They're my idols. I just did a documentary for the BBC and they documented all the great pin-ups of the millennium and just to be in same company as Betty Page, Grable, Marilyn Monroe, Farah Fawcett, and all those, was an honor of course.

IGN For Men: Speaking of pin-ups, do you ever get fan mail from prison?

Cindy Margolis: [laughs] I only got one email from a prisoner, which kind of surprised me that they have computers in prison. Whenever I watch OZ, which is one of my favorite shows, I always go 'Why do they have computers?' and I laugh, because it's a TV show. And then I actually got an email from a prisoner. He asked me for five signed pictures. One he would keep for himself and the other four he wanted to sell. [laughs] I thought that was very honest and up-front of him. I don't know if they were for cigarettes or what.

IGN For Men: So know you've become a bartering tool behind bars, so to speak.

Cindy Margolis: [laughs] Yes! And to be so honest and up-front. 'I will keep one and sell the other four.' [laughs]. Of course I can't be a part of that, so I never did end up sending him the pictures. But I thought it was very funny.

IGN For Men: I read an interview with you back when you got married and you mentioned that you used to get online proposals all the time and that you even would ask your cyber-buddies to email you proposals...

Cindy Margolis: I still ask for them![laughs].

IGN For Men: What's the craziest proposal you've ever gotten?

Cindy Margolis: The craziest is probably when they add in the money. I always laugh 'What price am I going for now?' It's pretty funny when they actually offer money. [I'll get proposals saying] 'We'll fly you here and put you up here.' It's always funny when I say 'Hmmm, my rate isn't very high today.' Sometimes the figures are low and sometimes they're over-the-top. I always assume that 99.9 of them are jokes, so I've never really followed through and had anyone's credit checked or anything. But sometimes they'll add in the extra incentive, they send the proposal along with all of their assets [laughs]. I think that's so funny, because that's so far from me. If they were really my fans they would know that I don't care about that stuff. I'm just a computer geek and a homebody and they don't have to...

IGN For Men: Pull a Donald Trump...

Cindy Margolis: Yeah [laughs]. But I love it, I think it's so cute when you get those marriage proposals. I always talk about this all the time because there's so many celebrities now on the Internet and I feel that I was such a pioneer. Now everybody, your dog can have a website. So a lot of times I get to see what other fans email their favorite celebrities. And it's so rare that I even get an off-color or risqué email, especially when you know that it's anonymous and it's worldwide. But they're so nice and just complimentary and sweet that it just surprises me when I see other people's email [and they're getting off-color, risqué letters]. I never get that. I'll even joke 'Send me that X-rated email every once in awhile, just for the kicks of it' because I never get those.

IGN For Men: Other than not getting the occasional risqué email, what bothers you?

Cindy Margolis: When I read articles and half the time people have written things about me and they've never interviewed me. So my thing is 'Please, just talk to me for 5-minutes. If you still feel that way then go ahead and write all you want. But if you would just talk to me.' My whole thing is don't judge a book by it's cover. Especially after being at NATPE, I just don't want to be put in this category of 'Today Cindy was wearing....and Pam Anderson was wearing...and Sable was wearing...' They all have action/adventure series and mine is a late night variety show, it's so different. But I'm still lumped into their category. And it was only the reporters who took the time to talk to me who realized that we're not all the same. So don't judge a book by it's cover! We're not all the same. Just talk to us all individually as people. I know that when you look at pictures and we're dressed a certain way that people just form their opinions and stereotype us. My favorite thing is like when 'strange' people come up to me, like Alex Trebek and say 'I just wanted to meet you and tell you that you're completely different than I thought. Or Marie Osmond or Martha Stewart, who would expect that?

IGN For Men: Hey, when you met Martha, did she give you any helpful house keeping tips?

Cindy Margolis:No, but the funny thing is that I'll always make jokes about the fact that I look at her as a role model. I know that nobody can see the comparison, but I kind of look at her as a role model in the way that I want to set my company up as she has set hers up. I want to be my own brand, I want to have Cindy Margolis.com be it's own entity and go public. I want to have my own Cindy e-commerce, not sell house wares, of course, but I want to set myself up for an IPO and go public and do what she did.. The funny thing is that the first time CBS met with me, the head said 'I know you're not going to see this, but I see a similarity between you and Martha Stewart.' And I was like 'Yes!' So it was always a big joke about getting me and Martha together. Well she's with Imark, which is a division of CBS and she was at NATPE and when I found out I was like 'Martha's here! I have to meet her!' They brought me over and we shook hands. And Ed Wilson, the head of CBS, was saying 'And Cindy is just like you...' At first she was giving me a hard look, like 'What are you talking about?' Of course I was in the sexiest dress I could possibly not want to be in when I met Martha Stewart, I was dressed to the nines, cleavage galore and Martha is dressed from head to toe covered and she's just staring at me like 'What are you all thinking? How could you possibly think that Cindy and I would have anything in common?' And by the end of the show she came up to me and apologized to me, 'I'm sorry, I had this one impression of you and [it turned out to be wrong].' So by the end of the three days I'd so won her over, not that we're buddies or anything but just to have her admit to me and apologize for putting me in a certain category and stereotyping me, I just thought that was so great to have Martha Stewart take the time, billionaire that she is, and say that to me.

IGN For Men: Given your career, I find it really refreshing that you are so open about your marriage. Most women in your position would keep that aspect of their lives quiet, you know, to feed the mystery of who they are and all of that and more importantly, to keep the male fans thinking that there might be a chance of snagging you for themselves, feeding the dream, so to speak.

Cindy Margolis: Well in the beginning he [Guy, my husband] was like 'Don't tell anyone that you're getting married!' I said 'Are you kidding?' That's what I really feel has been the foundation of the success of my website is that I let them [cyber-buddies] know everything. So many celebrity websites you go to are so sterile that you know they just pay somebody to do it and there's not even an ounce of them [that celebrity] in it. When you go to my website, I hope, because it is a 100% true, that you feel that really is me, that's the way I talk and that I really put everything into my website. That's my first priority of course. As far as my career, I really feel like I owe it all to the Internet, so I will always go back and have that be my baby and my first priority. And I wouldn't have everything else if it wasn't for the website and the support of my cyber-buddies, so I would never keep anything like that from them. I really did put up all my wedding pictures on my website. And I swear to you, my wedding pictures got downloaded just as much as my bikini pictures. I got thousands of congratulatory emails. And then women in droves who were getting married had so many questions about where I got my bouqet and asking tips. Which is another misconception about my site is that 40% of the people who come to my site are women. So they loved it. And the guys don't care [laughs]. They really don't. The funnest thing is when they email and say 'You're husband is the luckiest guy in the world.' And I'll call Guy up and say 'He thinks [you're the luckiest guy in the world.'] And Guy'll just laugh because he knows the truth. 'They don't see you with no make-up on and sitting in your pajamas...' He just laughs, 'If they only knew...'

IGN For Men: Now I know that for a long time your previous manager was trying to hook you and Guy up and you kept blowing him off. What I really want to know is that on that fateful day when you finally met Guy, you know, when your previous manager drug you to Jerry's Famous Deli and set the two of you up, did you end up eating lunch there?

Cindy Margolis: I did eat lunch there. I had my favorite meal, which is turkey and mashed potatoes. I love Thanksgiving, it's just my favorite. I can have Thanksgiving all year round because Jerry's has the best turkey and mash potatoes [laughs]. He actually had a Cobb salad.

IGN For Men: So your first date took place at a Jerry's Famous Deli?

Cindy Margolis: Uh, yes, well really that was the first time that we met. It really wasn't the first date. That was our first meeting. He was very cool. He didn't ask for the digits or anything that day. And I kept saying to my manager 'I can't believe that you wanted to set me up with him for so long, I turned him down 9 times, I would not meet him, and then we finally meet and he does not ask for my number or anything! I can't believe it!' I couldn't believe it, he finally meets me and I thought it must have been a let down or something after the anticipation of meeting me and then we finally met and I just thought he was so over me, like 'Forget her, who does she think she is turning me down? I don't even want her number.' So I was very upset about it. I kept asking my manager 'Did he really not call and ask for my number?' And he said 'No.' So he played it really cool and about a week later my manager came to me and said 'He called and I gave him your number.' Then he finally called and we went on our first date. But it definitely was a smooth move.

IGN For Men: I can't believe he waited a week. You usually get burned if you wait that long to call a woman.

Cindy Margolis: Yeah! [laughs] He waited a week, I know, it was torture [laughs]. He really played it cool, I must admit. He didn't call immediately and then we ended up going out and of course after the first date it was...

IGN For Men: Shaboom, shabaam, love at first site, right?

Cindy Margolis: Yeah, everyday since then, which is how it usually happens.

IGN For Men: I know you like Jerry's turkey and mashed potatoes, but does Guy make a mean hot pastrami?

Cindy Margolis: People joke about this, but I really did marry him for the food [laughs]. It is just so great to have Jerry's 700 items [at my fingertips]. That is comfort food, that is the food I like. I'm so picky with food and I don't cook, unfortunately. And my favorite thing in the whole entire world, before I met Guy, is room service. I love room service! And Jerry's are open 24-hours and I have room service any time I want. I am just in heaven.

IGN For Men: So you essentially have a Jerry's Famous Deli Gold Card?

Cindy Margolis: [laughs]. Yeah I do. Any time I want I can call and they have all the ingredients for anything I could possibly want to eat. I don't really like spicy food, I don't like sushi, Mexican food I can eat a couple of things, Chinese food I can eat a couple of things, but that All-American food is what I was raised on, it's what I eat, comfort food. And Jerry's has anything I can ever possibly imagine.

IGN For Men: You are spoiled.

Cindy Margolis: I am spoiled, it's true. We don't cook. I don't even know how to use that thing in the kitchen with the burners.

IGN For Men: Which is nice, then you never have to clean the damn thing.

Cindy Margolis: [laughs] We never have to clean it, right. He owns a restaurant, so the cooking thing, we never have to think about it. Although he gets sick of it. 'Let's have something else tonight.' So of course we'll have Chinese take-out or Italian or something every other night. But I never get sick of it. When he's not here it's Jerry's for me all the way.

IGN For Men: When you received the Guinness Book of World Records award for 'Most Downloaded Woman on the Net,' did you get a trophy or a plaque or did they make a wax figure of you to put up at the Guinness museum? What do they do for you when you win something like that?

Cindy Margolis: [laughs] There is a museum, I think it's in Florida, that I am in. So I do get my photograph and a plaque in the museum. The greatest thing about it, to me what I feel is such an honor is because it's technology. They just started adding technology to the book and to go down in history for the Internet, which we all know isn't going away and is the biggest thing to hit since forever. So I kind of feel like Jackie Gleason, who was known for the first person to be successful on TV and known for that. I get to be the first person on the Internet who gets to be in the Guinness Book of World Records. I think it's cool even though people make fun of me for that because of all the wacky things in the book. But I'm in there for technology and what could be better than that? And it's something forever. I mean I appreciate all the awards I've gotten and all the lists I get names on, that's just wonderful. But this is something that's not going away, that will be around for my grandkids, I hope. And I can say 'In the year 2000 I was...' Plus the year 2000, that's a cool year of the book to be in.

IGN For Men: Now you're gonna have all these younger Internet savvy women gunning for your title now.

Cindy Margolis: [laughs]. That's always gonna happen, there's always someone following your next step. I just feel that it was perfect timing. In '96 nobody knew what a website or the Internet was, including myself. I didn't have a computer. I got in at the perfect, perfect time. And of course now, everybody in the world is on the Internet and that's great. I think there's so much room in cyberspace for all the cyber babes that I have no problem sharing it with them. I like having the titles and I hope that people do want to inspire to be the most downloaded and that everyone is getting into the Internet. I just think that's cool.

IGN For Men: Howard Stern, Bill Maher, Mike Myers, Carrot Top, David Hasselhoff, or Bob Barker, who's the biggest hunk?

Cindy Margolis: [laughs] The biggest hunk? Oooooh. You know, I would have to say Bob Barker [laughs]. Only because I came in after all the controversy and he was so gun-shy. When I came in I'm such an affectionate person that birthdays, Christmas, Hanukah, or anything, I'd be like 'Happy Birthday!' and I'd want to give him a hug or something and he'd be like 'Don't touch me!' It was like stay away from me. He was always 10-feet away from everybody and really distant. And I was the new girl on the block and everything. One time he even knocked on my dressing room and I was in my robe and he freaked out, like 'I'm sorry!' I was like, 'I'm in my robe. Heck, you see me in a bikini on the set. I'm still covered from head-to-toe.' I'd have to say that I came to the Price Is Right at an inopportune time for him. I never even said more than a couple words to him a day because he was always so scared to be around any of the Barker Beauties.

IGN For Men: What was the audition process for that like? I'm sure Vanna White had to turn letters, so what did you all have to do?

Cindy Margolis: Well they had a big nation wide search which Gena Lee Nolin had won. She replaced Diane. When she went on to the Price Is Right I was part of the nationwide search and I came along just to help Gena out and fill in and I ended up staying a year. SO that was kind of good timing for me. It wasn't really a mass, mass audition, but when they had the auditions you had to...it was a little harder than turning letters. Showing prizes, as funny as it sounds, they do teach you. There's a certain flip and a certain hand movement and the palm has to go up quickly and it's two hands for a big large prize like a boat or a car and little hand movement when you're holding a toaster or something. It's not as easy as it looks. There's also certain ways to sit. I learned a lot. It's kind of old school, like going to etiquette school. I learned a lot while I was there. How to sit and make it look pretty and sexy. And I use that. Anytime I got on a talk show I'm thinking back to the Price Is Right and how to look good in a chair when you sit to make your legs look sexy. It definitely gave me some tips.

IGN For Men: You're a graduate of the Price Is Right School of Etiquette.

Cindy Margolis: Oh definitely. They teach you walking and the hand movements and how to be graceful.

IGN For Men: So is it like some old lady, the matron saint of etiquette for The Price Is Right?

Cindy Margolis: Oh yeah. The people who have worked on The Price Is Right have been there going on almost 30 years. So yes it definitely was an older woman teaching me.

IGN For Men: If you could be on your E! show, In Your Dreams as a regular person that wrote into the show, what would your dream be?

Cindy Margolis: Well that's it, my dream, before I started E! was that I didn't have my own TV show. So I feel with that and the Cindy Margolis Show on CBS, my dream came true. I couldn't ask for anything more than that. That's what I've been working for as long as I've been in this business. And there's no such thing as an overnight success. It took me a long to get there. Hosting has been my passion. I love acting , modeling of course is my first love, but hosting and having my own show actually names after me, it's not 'Late Night with...' or anything like. It's 'The Cindy Margolis Show.' It's all on the line and they can't replace me, which is a nice thing. So that would be my dream.

IGN For Men: Well they could always replace you with a fembot.

Cindy Margolis: Yes [laughs]. I shouldn't say that because there are other Cindy Margolis' out there I have found out. And I've gotten calls for them. One of the other Cindys does baby CPR and it always scares me when I get messages for her and I have to call the mom right back and say 'I'm not her, call the doctor!'

IGN For Men: Tell me about your cats, you have five, right?

Cindy Margolis: I have four now. I had to put one to sleep.

IGN For Men: I'm sorry.

Cindy Margolis: That's okay. She was old, 18.

IGN For Men: That is pretty old. My first cats lived to be 21. I got them when I was born so our birthdays were always in sync.

Cindy Margolis: Oh I love that!

IGN For Men: So who are the four remaining?

Cindy Margolis: I have Tiffany, I have Bella, because she's beautiful and Bella is beautiful in Italian. I have Zorro, he's my newest kitten and he has a mask on, and the last one is The Monkey. I call him Monkey 'cause he's a crazy cat. So there's an even synergy in my house now with Guy and I it comes out to be three males and three females in the house.