Tea Leoni: The Truth About Tea

Q: How did you deal with being called a "home wrecker" when you got involved with "The Naked Truth"'s creator, Chris Thompson, who left his marriage for you?

A: Maybe the ugliest thing I could do is to go back and say, "That's not really what was going on," and correct it. It's better that I take my licks and accept whatever darning I'll get for whatever it's perceived that I did. I don't have any regrets.

Q: Thompson once described you as a "dirty Disney character." Was that a compliment? A: I think it is.

Q: David says that when you first met, at an audition for "The Tonight Show," you turned it up a notch when the producer arrived, but that you hate him telling that story because it makes you look like some showbiz All About Eve. Is it a true story?

A: I don't think I turned it up a notch. I don't remember even meeting him at the restaurant beforehand. I was nervous. It was completely barbaric to have to be interesting enough to get on the show. Then they added another person at the meeting. What were they doing, getting a deal on a lunch? The show couldn't afford to sit us at two different tables? I was also married at that time, so I was not looking at him.

Q: When you first started dating, did you have many romantic interludes?

A: David and I had one of our more memorable weekends on Vancouver Island. We took a plane, then rented a car and drove 40 minutes. It was early on in our relationship so we were in that mad-for-each-other stage, where the clothes didn't stay on for more than a part of a meal. We went on beautiful hikes, too.

Q: Has David turned out to be the sex addict he was hyped to be?

A: I had not read that until after we were married. By then I had such an intimate carnal knowledge of David that I thought it was bizarre that someone would ask me if I'd heard this. What am I to do with that information? Refute it? Embrace it? I'm the one with David. I got him. We're sleeping together. 'Nuf said.

Q: You kept your marriage a secret from everyone but your shrink, your lawyer and your gynecologist. Besides David and your family, are these the three most important people in your life?

A: No, but there were specific reasons why each needed to know. My gynecologist because honeymoon cystitis was suspected even before the marriage.

Q: What is honeymoon cystitis?

A: When you've been going at it a bit too much you can get a cyst on your cervix. I told my psychiatrist because I knew she couldn't tell anybody else. The lawyer needed to know because I wanted David to sign a prenuptial [laughs].

Q: How would you describe David?

A: Brilliant, coy, better with long hair, live, hysterical. I would put him at the top of my list as my best friend.

Q: He says you're the one who handles the money and knows what to do with it. True?

A: Yeah. He's totally uninterested in it.

Q: Had you seen "The X-Files" before you went out with David?

A: Not to my recollection. I do remember thinking once, when they were nominated for a Golden Globe, What's this show? Chasing aliens? Oh, please.

Q: Have you seen most of the episodes by now?

A: Pretty much. And I love them, and I love to watch David work.

Q: Did you like the X-Files movie?

A: David makes a great superhero and I liked him even better on the big screen. I wanted him to save me.

Q: Has he?

A: No. I mean, the romantic answer would be to say yes, but neither of us needed saving, so it's even nicer.

Q: Are you impressed with David's skills at writing and directing?

A: Yes. I get such a kick out of his writing. My faith in award shows cascaded after David wasn't nominated for the two shows he wrote. I'm the wife, I know, but how could David's first episode, the baseball one, not be nominated for writing? It was appalling.

Q: Who's smarter, you or David?

A: David. But psychologically I'm smarter, so I can play with his head. I just love getting inside that brain of his. It's a fun place to knock around.

Q: What's your take on his relationship with Gillian Anderson?

A: It's complicated. It rivals some sibling relationships I've seen. And some married couples I've seen.

Q: Did David rent a sound studio with musicians for your birthday?

A: I'd been having a bad thought for a long time--the thought that I had no voice. Some music teacher told me in the third grade that I had no voice, because my voice was too low. I didn't sing any more--and truthfully, it would have been my dream. I told David about that.

Q: David also gave you a painting, didn't he?

A: Yes. He got a friend of ours to do it. There's a quote from a poem he wrote me at the base of the painting. He's very good at gifts, this boy.

Q: What did you get him for his 40th birthday?

A: A 1957 220S convertible Mercedes, a designer watch and a surprise party. I wanted to get him a 1971 Cabriolet, but they're so expensive and the people who have them don't like to let them go. David is a good driver but I don't think it's wise to put him in a $130,000 car. He's a true New Yorker--he only started driving when he was 27.

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