It's been a while since CBS' "Survivor: Pearl Islands," but Rupert Boneham for one, has not forgotten Jon "Jonny Fairplay" Dalton.

"Little Jonny Foreskin, that little piece of skin you throw away after the surgery?" he said, curling his lip as he recalled the contestant who at one point gathered enough sympathy points to win a rewards challenge by telling his fellow "Survivors" that his grandmother had died.

Not that Rupert ever completely believed Jon.

I've done mental work for 20 years. I can kind of read people," he said Sunday night as we sat cross-legged on the grass at Dodger Stadium during a CBS "stars" party where Rupert seemed to be every bit as much in demand as any sitcom or drama actor.

"In the field of mentoring, you see how these kids' minds work," and he's seen kids who want a day off but don't want to ask come up with "elaborate stories" for which they lay the groundwork well in advance, he said.

"Every day out there, Jonny Rotten would talk about, 'I didn't know who to write down'" for a relative who might visit him on the island. "My grandma is so sick, I didn't know if she could make it. If she doesn't show up, there's something wrong.' Sandra, Christa and I all believed that Grandma had died years ago and he was just resurrecting her to kill her off again. Never did we believe that she was fine and watching 'Jerry Springer' at home."

Even long after returning from the Pearl Islands, Jon's still a bit of a thorn in his side.

"He was the one that helped killed my game in Pearl Isles. He's also the one who will not leave me alone about this [Total Nonstop Action] wrestling (the very thing Jon claimed to be trying to promote in his attempt to become the worst "Survivor" villain ever).

"They've finally slowed down when I told them I wanted to see a script. Every week they were calling me saying, 'We just want you to wrestle Jonny Rotten, we want you to wrestle Jonny Rotten.' I'm not going to wrestle someone... I finally said, 'Send me a script. If it's something where I'm sitting in the audience and he comes up and harasses me and I give him one pound into the ground and he goes running away, I might consider something like that just to get you guys off my back. But I'm not going to go run out of the audience, hit him in the head with a chair and run away... I'm not going to do any of the silly things that TNA wrestling does."

Jon may be exactly what he seemed on the show, but "All-Stars" runner-up "Boston" Rob Mariano is a "sweetheart," swears Rupert.

"I believe that you didn't really see the true side of Rob. Rob is a sweet guy. He played the game very well. He wasn't as savvy in the ways that he did. If he would've been able to explain better, people would not have felt so bad about him. He did nothing different than anyone else did out there. Lex, who got so mad at him, did the same thing... Everyone did some conniving out there."

But what about Rob's gloating? Didn't that irk him?

"Part of my background is working mental health and working institution work and doing mentoring with kids who have that same kind of arrogance. I overlook that" in Rob, he said.

"When you lived with him every day, you got to see the other side of him."