Eric Bergoust and Emily Cook wait outside on 49th & 3rd in front of Smith & Wollensky after a daylong NYC media tour, free seats at Letterman and a disappointing steakhouse dinner.

"All hype," agree the soon-to-be 2002 Olympic freestyle aerialists (you know, twists and flips on skis).

Turns out, they wouldn't have even scored a table without their secret weapon: Bergoust's '98 gold medal.

"The maitre d' was like, 'Oh? In that case, we'll seat you right away,' " marvels Nicole Rasmussen, their publicist.

"Yeah, that works every time," Eric jokes, rolling his eyes.

A $10 cab ride and fifty-some-odd blocks later, we step into Milk & Honey, a not-so-secret secret bar on the Lower East Side.

Tommy Hilfiger takes me to places like this when I'm in New York," says Eric, squinting at all the dimly-lit tin and dark wood. "You should order for us."

No problem: Maker's Mark and homemade ginger ale for Eric, an ivy gimlet for Emily.

"You have to come to one of our camps," Emily says, sipping her minty, lemony drink. "We have great theme parties. The last one was the white trash party. I had my hair like this," she says, as she forces her bangs into a four-inch clump off her forehead.

"The Utah claw!" exclaims Nicole in recognition. You could practically smell the hairspray.

"Yeah, I had a comb-over and a sleeveless T-shirt with my chest hair coming out the top," Bergoust says. "And I crammed myself into a pair of my girlfriend Sally's jeans. Everyone kept saying I wouldn't be able to sit down."

"You have to show her what you did," urges his publicist.

With a smirk, Eric hovers over his barstool, ever so stiffily and painfully jerking into a front split. What would usually be a no-brainer (freestyle = flexible) takes him 30 seconds. His butt is barely grazing the seat and he looks completely jacked.

"What? I can sit," Eric barks, all shotgun-and-soupcans macho.

We cannot stop laughing.

Anne Marie Cruz is a senior reporter for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail her at anne.marie.cruz@espnmag.com

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