Miss Piggy's Latest Conquest

It wasn't long before an interview by CBS This Morning Co-Anchor Mark McEwen and Muppet siren Miss Piggy became a shameless flirtation, conducted on national television.

Throughout the interview, to promote the new movie Muppets From Space, McEwen and Piggy praised each other's attractions and exchanged cuddles and kisses galore. At one point, McEwen planted a smooch on the tip of Miss Piggy's snout.

The atmosphere became so charged that the porcine puppet was moved to exclaim, staring into McEwen's eyes, "God, you're attractive!"

The morning anchorman seemed no less taken with Miss Piggy's charms, praising her fragrance and asking for not one, but two kisses.

The Muppet star was not as taken with the behind-the-scenes staff of This Morning, grumbling to McEwen, "I wish your crew looked better. Those T-shirts don't cut it. We're not talking about an attractive crew, you know."

Eventually, though, the cozy duo got down to the business of promoting the movie.

Muppets From Space centers around Gonzo and his search for his identity and family. (Gonzo is the blue hooked-nose bird-like Muppet with the squeaky voice.)

In a supporting role, Miss Piggy plays an aspiring television journalist who is actually the station coffee girl. Says Piggy, "It's important sometimes to let the little people have a chance. And there is nobody littler in every way than Gonzo."

In the movie, she lives at a rooming house with such other Muppets as Kermit, Animal, and Gonzo, whom she has convinced that she is a big star at work with her own TV show.

She gets her big chance when Shelly Snipes (Andie MacDowell), the host of a program called UFO Mania, is late for a live broadcast. Miss Piggy steps in to interview Gonzo, who is trying to make a connection with his alien family. Gonzo's story impresses the UFO Mania producer so much that Miss Piggy decides to make Gonzo's quest her own personal exclusive.

Piggy will do anything to get her story. When Gonzo is kidnapped by some Men in Black type villains, she uses her karate skills to save him and to get more information from one of the bad guys.

She had bigger roles in The Muppet Movie (1979), The Great Muppet Caper (1981), and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984). In The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), she played the role of Emily Cratchit, a part that was smaller than her usual star turn, but she did it because it fulfilled her wish of appearing on screen with her beloved Kermit as frog and wife. She starred again in Muppet Treasure Island (1996).

As for the future of Piggy and McEwen, the matter was settled by the end of the interview. Miss Piggy claimed to be legally married to Kermit the Frog, confessing to the anchorman, who is also married, "Frogs drive me bananas. They drive me fruitcake. Those flippers. Those flippers drive me crazy."

[And what happene when Elmo met CBS This Morning's Julie Chen? See Elmo Makes A Movie.]