A SURVIVOR'S STORY BOUNCED OFF THE HOTTEST SHOW IN AMERICA, DEVIL-MAY-CARE JERRI MANTHEY KEEPS THE HOLLYWOOD FIRES BURNING.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

If Jerri Manthey, the Los Angeles-based actress, minds that she has become the woman all America loves to loathe, she hides it well. Watching as the reality phenomenon ``Survivor: The Australian Outback'' unspooled for TV audiences, she admits, ``There were moments where I thought, 'Wow, I really am a bitch.' ''

How bad was she? Consider this: Once the Ogakor and Kucha tribes united, Ogakor - of which Manthey was a member - immediately grabbed the upper hand. It was simply a matter of time until Ogakor picked off all the Kucha survivors, then divvied up the big money among themselves. But Manthey irked so many of her fellow contestants that most of Ogakor rose up against her, voting her out on the series two weeks ago, making it conceivable that Kucha's threadbare remnants could mount a possible, if unlikely, rally against their opponents.

``Big mistake,'' Manthey says with a hearty laugh. Has she inadvertently foreshadowed future events on the series, or is she simply contributing to the sort of misdirection series creator Mark Burnett is so artful at manufacturing? Manthey quickly adds: ``I can't discuss anything in the future.''

Nonetheless, Manthey notes that the remaining contestants were forced to endure starvation diets, which viewers have already seen and which, she hints, get much worse. ``I got out just in time! Heh-heh-heh!'' she laughs in a villainous manner, one suggesting the self-satisfied cackle of Drea de Matteo's Adriana on ``The Sopranos'' whenever her made boyfriend Christopher gives her some stolen designer footwear.

``They're feeling it now!'' Manthey exults. ``It's really fun to watch! Once I got voted off, I was eating everything in sight.'' She estimates she lost 15 to 20 pounds while competing in the outback - ``I was skin and bones by the time I got out of there.''

Clearly, though Manthey lost the battle, she won the war. She was the contestant most discussed on Fridays at water coolers across the country; USA Today even devoted an entire story to wondering if the show itself could survive without her making life miserable for her colleagues. She's already landed an acting job - she's starring in the black comedy ``Lady Macbeth Gets a Divorce'' at the Beverly Hills Playhouse (she appears on Fridays and at the Sunday matinee) - and is weighing offers even her publicist at CBS won't let her discuss.

Manthey was posited as ``Survivor's'' ``J.R. Ewing,'' as CBS network president Les Moonves put it, as early as the second episode - long before Richard Hatch was revealed to be the first series' conniver. At that point, she contributed apparent misinformation that led to the ouster of one of her teammates, Army intelligence officer Kel Gleason, by declaring she saw him holding out on the group by munching on beef jerky in private. She had already distinguished herself by dueling with and witheringly berating fellow tribe member Keith Famie, the chef who couldn't prepare a meal to her - or anyone's - specifications.

``While I was out there, I definitely didn't feel I was being any more cranky than anybody else,'' Manthey says now. ``Watching the specific moments that were put into the show reminded me of what I was thinking at the time.

``As far as if I think it's fair or not, absolutely. What you see on the show is me. It's me in the midst of starvation and lack of sleep, a very frustrated and agitated state.

``There were tender moments as well that didn't make the show that I know existed and people involved did, too. It kind of threw me at first, to be the villain, but I kind of learned to embrace that.''

Manthey insists she saw her ouster coming. ``When you've decided to vote someone off, your natural tendency is to back off that person and let them have their space - there's a little sense of guilt that you're getting ready to get rid of somebody,'' she explains.

``And I felt that - everyone was running around doing stuff, and I was sitting around by myself. And I would walk up to people talking and they would stop talking - that's a sign. I wasn't totally shocked.''

Manthey suggests she was needed at Ogakor, because ``we didn't have any alpha males in our group at all.'' She remembers a ``day I got Colby to get off his butt and look for food - we were all lying around starving - I knew they wouldn't put us in the middle of nowhere if there wasn't food. I almost stepped on a taipan snake, which is one of the most poisonous snakes. I was barefoot, I ran around barefoot all the time. We found figs and tomatoes, and (she and Colby and Mitchell, an early oustee) did high-fives and made a pact we'd be the last three at the end. So much for that.''

She insists that Jerkygate didn't lead to Gleason's ouster. ``He was a lot like Debb (Eaton, the first ``Survivor'' voted off the outback), actually. She was barking orders, and he was doing the same thing, which I thought was odd that they didn't show, because they really focused on Debb doing that. Kel was the Debb of Ogakor.''

Likewise, Manthey lambastes her most egregious opponent, Detroit chef Keith Famie, with whom she started bickering in the series' first episode. Famie earned fame for botching a plate of rice, then blaming it on Manthey's constant griping.

``We don't get along, and I'm not going to try to force the issue,'' she says, adding with a laugh that co-existing with Famie ``was brutal. He just breathed and he got on my nerves. It was just one of those things. He pushed my buttons.'' Manthey mocked his complaints: ``I put him under so much pressure - him cooking for presidents and things - whatever - I think when I see him again, I might buy him a rice cooker.''

Since appearing on the show, Manthey has become a favorite of the tabloids - apparently, she's busted every heart and destroyed every marriage along the Pacific Rim. ``Isn't that amazing?'' she says with a laugh.

She admits she didn't expect the amount of attention she has received. ``Maybe a little bit, but definitely not as much as I have been. For a while there, it was every week; every week, there was another story. I don't think there's anything that can prepare you for that. I've lived my life in a way where I don't have anything to hide, so I don't have any issue with things brought out about my past.

``What I find most amusing is that people will come out of the woodwork, and I don't know if it's them making up stories or the tabloids embellishing one tiny bit of information beyond belief. That's why I look at it as entertainment: 'I did what? That sounds like fun!' ''

Of the recent ``Survivor'' scandal involving the theft of Australian coral reef - which occurred while Manthey was with her apparent love interest, Texas auto detailer Colby Donaldson - Manthey, a veteran nature hiker, says, ``There was a reason I didn't take any coral! In state parks, you can't even take a rock! I made it a point to respect that. He was picking up coral right beside me. I'd pick up a shell and say, 'Oh, what a beautiful shell,' and throw it right back into the water. He was putting them in his pocket and I didn't think about it at the time. I didn't know he took that many pieces. I didn't think it was allowed, but nobody said anything.''

Manthey says she got used to being surrounded by cameras by appearing on an episode (recently repeated) of ``Blind Date,'' taped two years ago, in which she spent much time smooching with a guy in a do-rag, after spending a blinding amount of time in a bar. Which suggests a different approach to ``Survivor.''

She vows: ``If there was alcohol in the outback, it would've been a totally different show.''

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(1 -- 3) As a contestant on ``Survivor,'' top left, Jerri Manthey had to swallow her pride after the inevitable torch-dousing by host Jeff Probst, right. But her fame as the show's villain led to continued exposure, including an appearance on Craig Kilborn's ``Late Late Show,'' above.