Jamie: She just holds the vitamins and herbs against your body?
Vanessa: Aha.
Jamie: Now this is something to go into.
Vanessa: Uh huh. But I certainly see and feel the results, and once you're off dairy products for three or four months and you're having a cup of coffee with cream in it, you know it's really foreign.
Jamie: Let me tell you something. There was a woman over in Sweden who had crippling arthritis. They took her off of dairy products and meats, and it cleared up everything. She was able to function as a waitress after that. And I mean she was just in pain before that.
Vanessa: Uh huh. Right, right.
Jamie: So, how about protein?
Vanessa: Yes, I'm into chicken. Proteins are fine with me. Eggs are fine. Yeah.
Jamie: Does your husband [Ramon Hervey] have a different diet?
Vanessa: Her regimen is pretty across-the-board for everybody, but the vitamins are different. I need more calcium and his thing was his blood circulation. She's working on that with him. So it's all individually what your body needs. But in terms of the overall diet it's pretty much there for everybody.
Jamie: Okay. Now everybody is going to want to know about how you felt about that Superbowl. [Vanessa sang the "Star Spangled Banner" at the Superbowi this year.]
Vanessa: It was great. It was like an out-of-body experience.
Jamie: Really?
Vanessa: Yeah. You get on the field, the colors are brighter than normal. You've got these massive football players all over the place, and you've got a sea of people in different colors. I had two monitors in my ear, so I really felt like it was a dream.
Jamie: How did you get to do that?
Vanessa: They called and said, "You want to do it?" And I said, "Yeah." That was it. That was easy. And I had the trumpet player who was in the band of Kiss of the Spider Woman [the long-running Broadway play that starred Vanessa]. I called him up because he had played in the band with Kathie Lee last year and he was familiar with what they like and all that stuff. So he contracted the orchestra and I had Danny Troop, who I've worked with before, who does a lot of arrangements for Disney. He did the arrangements.
Jamie: Oh, that's right! Kathie Lee did sing [the national anthem] last year.
Vanessa: She did it last year. Right.
Jamie: Okay, so he was in the band that what?
Vanessa: That played it last year.
Jamie: Oh. And you know him from the Kiss of the Spider Woman?
Vanessa: Yes. He was the trumpet player. I remember when he took off a couple of days to go down to Miami to do it with Katie, he said, "I'll put your name in the till for next year." Then next year came along and they asked me. Jamie: You don't get paid for that, right?
Vanessa: No. No. That's just tremendous publicity and an honor as an American, you know.
Jamie: Now, let me ask you this. If you don't mind. When men are like falling all over you, how do you react to that?
Vanessa: I take it as a compliment, but I don't thrive on it.
Jamie: Doesn't mean anything to you?
Vanessa: Well, it's not expected. So I think if I expected it and didn't have it happen, I would be disappointed. When it happens and it's unexpected, it's kind of like a nice compliment. It makes me feel uncomfortable, actually. Because I was never fawned over as a kid. You know, I didn't grow up with, "Oh, she's our little darling princess. Anything you want." You know, I was a regular kid doing regular chores and earning my money just like any other teenager. Whatever. My parents raised me in a very self-sufficient way, so I'm not accustomed to being fawned all over. So I get uncomfortable.