The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn is filmed before a live studio audience.

Craig: Right now, our next guest, beautiful actress whose films include "Love and Human Remains," "Exotica" and "Not Another Teen Movie," she stars in the new Showtime series "The L Word" which premieres Sunday night, please welcome Mia Kirschner. Here she is.

[music. Craig gets up to welcome Mia]

[applause, cheering]

[Mia walks out. Craig greets her with a kiss on the cheek and points out her chair. They sit.]

[music ends]

Craig: (talking over audience) Hi!

Mia: Oh, hi!

[applause ends, a few guys in the audience cheer loudly]

Craig: Now you're not nervous, you've...

Mia: I am so nervous!

[persons in the audience howl]

Craig: You've done talk shows, you've done talk shows before.

Mia: I've done talk shows, and it's always been a complete disaster.

Craig: A debacle?

Mia: A debacle!

Craig: Yeah.

Mia: A clothing debacle.

Craig: A clothing debacle!

Mia: (nodding) Yeah.

Craig: You say wonderful things, but you don't wear...?

Mia: Um, generally speaking, I don't say wonderful things...

Craig: Well -

Mia: ... and the clothes are always terrible.

Craig: Okay, the clothes are good tonight, I think, ladies and gentlemen.

[Craig looks toward the audience, the audience cheers. Mia smiles.]

Craig: (talking over audience) What do you, what do you wear sometimes?

Mia: Well, I was in first year university...

[persons in the audience howl]

Mia: ... at McGill in Montreal, Canada...

Craig: Yeah.

[persons in the audience yell]

Mia: ... and I decided that I should go get a thrift-store dress, and we went really late at night -

Craig: This is before you did a talk show.

Mia: This is the very - can I say the name of the talk show?

Craig: Yeah, absolutely.

Mia: I'm sorry. (smiles) It was the John Stewart Show.

Craig: The Daily Show!

[some cheering]

Mia: Nonono! (puts hands up) The old John Stewart show.

Craig: Oh, the show on MTV..

Mia: Back in the day...

Craig: years ago. This is, uh,

Mia: Yes, yes, yes. (nodding)

Craig: ... Yeah, okay.

Mia: So, I went to a thrift-store, and I decided (claps hands) I'm gonna wear a pink prom dress. Because...

Craig: And -

Mia: I - with crinoline and tule, because that's what we wore -

Craig: Now, you weren't drinking, necessarily? You just wanted -

Mia: I was drinking, a little.

Craig: Oh, you were?

Mia: (smiles) Yeah, I was.

[laughter]

Mia: Because as you do in university, you do homework...

Craig: Yeah.

Mia: ... and then you drinkand... drink.

[audience chuckles]

Craig: Yeah.

Mia: So we were, y'know, listening to The Cure, I put the prom dress on, I looked fabulous, smoking my cigarettes...

Craig: Robert Smith would've been proud.

[audience chuckles]

Mia: Yes. Thank you very much. And then, I get to the show and my mom is with me and she says 'You look great' and I'm feeling really confident...

Craig: Yeah.

Mia: ... and then I go out there, and I'm sitting talking to him and I see myself in the monitor...

Craig: And you freak out.

Mia: I'm like, "I look like a [censored]"

[Mia quickly covers her mouth and her eyes go wide. She stares at Craig and squeals, laughing. Craig smiles.]

Audience: Ohhhh!

[the audience cheers, whistles and howls, and Mia blushes, laughing]

Mia: (smiling) I'm so sorry!

[Craig sputters and chuckles, moving his hand in a 'cut it out' motion]

Mia: I'm so sorry!

[the audience hoots and howls and whistles]

Craig: (talking over audience) Finally the - the audience just arrived! The audience just woke up.

[Mia looks nervous]

Mia: I have a naughty mouth.

Craig: ...[indecipherable] Should we finish that or not? What were you going to say?

Mia: I will say it politely. I looked like a big idiot. Looked like I should be sitting atop of a cake.

[Mia and Craig laugh]

Craig: Okay, yeah. And it was downhill from there, that's too bad.

Mia: It was downhill from there.

Craig: Well you look great tonight...

Mia: Thank you.

Craig: ... Now I understand you also have a thing for coffee. You're a little obsessed. I love the coffee but you can't drink -

Mia: I like your coffee.

Craig: (laughs) I like, uh, listen to this. I like lattes with skim - with skim milk. Very healthy, isn't it?

Mia: Sort of, but a little dull.

Craig: Yeah, I know.

[Mia and the audience laugh]

Craig: Well, I am in a rut, by the way.

Mia: You are?

Craig: Yeah.

Mia: I like my coffee strong and black.

Craig: Oh yeah. (smiling) Yeah.

[some audience members clap and yell out]

Craig: But -

[Mia giggles]

Craig: That's great, congratulations.

Mia: Thank you!

Craig: But, I understand you drink it all day long, which is unhealthy.

Mia: Yes. It, actually on set, um, y'know, we would - they would schedule, y'know, fifteen minutes before my actual pick-up time to drive me to the coffee store so that I could order my elaborate coffees.

Craig: Yeah. All day long, though? I try to stop at 12 noon or -

Mia: No no no no. I have - I'm literally running on 6 or 7 shots of espresso a day.

Craig: Yeah.

Mia: Sit down and have a cup of coffee with your friend and a cigarette and lovely gossip, while reading the New York Times or whatever and -

Craig: Wearing a silly little dress, that's what it's all about?

Mia: (nodding) Preferrably not pink tule, but y'know, coffee is one of the divine moments of the day.

Craig: I do love it. But I find that if I drink too much, I, I have trouble sleeping that night.

Mia: But, isn't it nice to stay up at night sometimes?...

Craig: Okay, so you, you've lost me now...

Mia: ... really late at night?...

Craig: ... I need 8 hours. (smiles)

Mia: You do? How many hours of sleep do you really need?

Craig: (smiles) I need 8 and a half.

[laughter]

Mia: Three. Really?

Craig: Three? What'd you say?

Mia: Three.

Craig: Three for you?

Mia: Three!

Craig: You're like uh (looks to audience) who - who used to sleep three hours a day? Was it Freud or was it, uh, somebody -

[someone offstage says "Yeah"]

[laughter]

Craig: (looks at Mia) Yeah.

Mia: Really?

Craig: Yeah. Or maybe it was Flip Saunders, I don't remember who it was.

[laughter]

Craig: What do you think of, by the way, this, this new show "The L Word," it's going pretty well, right?

Mia: Um, you know, I can't, the reaction has been amazing. We - and it's the first - I have to say this is the best job I've ever had in my whole life.

Craig: Really! That's pretty powerful.

Mia: It's the best show I've ever done.

Craig: It is the - the "L" word is "lesbian," correct?

Mia: Lesbian, love, lust, loss.

[someone in the audience yells really loudly, several guys cheer]

Mia: Yes.

[Craig holds his finger up to the audience]

Craig: We should point out, though, if people are tuning in, so maybe these guys that are hooting...

[laughter]

Craig: ... tuning in - tuning in to see the "girl-on-girl" I think is the expression (looks to audience)

[Mia nods, several audience members yell loudly and clap]

Craig: (looks at Mia) That's - (makes 'cut it out' motion with hand) that's not there. That's not there!

Mia: Well, yes -

Craig: That's -

Mia: No, no no no, there is a lot of girl-on-girl action...

[audience claps and yells loudly]

Craig: No there isn't!

Mia: Yes, there is.

Craig: (smiling, leaning forward) No there isn't!

Mia: (points to self, smiling) With me.

Craig: Don't lie, be honest.

Mia: (smiling) Yeah. No, it's true. If that's what you, if that's why you're tuning in to "The L Word" you'll definitely see lots of girls kissing.

Craig: Okay. What else will we see?

Mia: You will see very smart women sort of floundering in their life, looking for identity and intimacy and sort of trying to find themselves.

Craig: And so you - you like doing the show because of the writing, or because of everything?

Mia: Because of the writing, and because it's a really smart show about flawed people trying to sort of work their lives out. And sort of making their way through life. It's about sex, and about loss, and about relationships and y'know, it's about flawed people.

Craig: Can I ask you, uh, we have actors on all the time, we always talk about love scenes, so I assume in "The L Word" when you're having a love scene with a guy, and then you're also sometimes having a love scene with a girl?

Mia: A lady, yes.

Craig: A lady. Is that - is that ... the same? Or is it - uh...

[laughter]

Mia: Um, you know, I have to say, the lips are very different, kissing a woman is very soft and lovely...

Craig: Okay. I'm uncomfortable right now.

[Mia and the audience laugh]

Craig: (to audience) Very uncomfortable.

[audience claps and yells loudly]

Craig: (to Mia) I mean, I'm not - I am and I'm not. If they (indicates audience) weren't here, I'd be very comfortable hearing about this, but they're here, and you know.

Mia: No, it's, kissing a lady is, it's soft, and it's warm and it's really lovely...

Craig: That's right. That's how I remember it, I remember it

Mia: ... whereas kissing a man is...

[laughter]

Mia: Kissing a man is entirely different.

Craig: (to audience) It's been three days, man.

[laughter]

[Mia laughs]

Craig: That's great. We'll have coffee sometime. "The L Word" is on Showtime and it premieres this Sunday, right?

Mia: Yes.

Craig: We'll all be watching.

Mia: Yes, thank you.

Craig: Nice meeting you. (extends hand)

Mia: Nice meeting you.

[they shake hands]

[applause]

Craig: Mia Kirschner! We'll be right back, stay with us!

[music]

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