Denise Richards was on Larry King yesterday, and in case you’re wondering how a washup-up actress who’s launching a reality show is scoring an interview on Larry King, Larry mentioned his “friend” Ryan Seacrest, who is producing the show, at the beginning of the interview. (Seacrest is rumored to be replacing King when the talk show host inevitably retires.)

Richards went over the same old tired ground she always treads: her friendship with Heather Locklear was over before she was with Richie Sambora; Heather and Richie had split before she started dating him; her ex husband Charlie Sheen is spreading lies about her, etc.

People Magazine is reporting that Richards told Matt Lauer on The Today Show, that the e-mail she sent to Charlie Sheen’s girlfriend, Brooke Mueller, reportedly asking for Charlie’s sperm to have another child with him was doctored and that’s not what she wrote. Mueller and Sheen claim that Richards was trying to reconcile with Sheen and was rejected, but now she’s saying that e-mail was changed to make it out to be something it wasn’t. This is the same thing she said on Larry King Live, but she didn’t sound convincing at all to me. King had to press her to get her to answer the question, and she did it in a roundabout way:

KING: Our guest is Denise Richards. Her new reality show, “Denise Richards: It’s Complicated,” premiers on E on May 26th. I want to further clarify something. Someone said that there’s supposed to be an e-mail about sperm and you and what is it?

RICHARDS: You know what? Like I said, every chance that Charlie tries to discredit me or say negative things about me in the press, he does. And the fact of the matter is I have no desire to have another child with Charlie. Nothing against his sperm. I have two beautiful kids but I don’t want anymore of it.

KING: There’s no e-mail that exists —

RICHARDS: No truthful e-mail that exists.

KING: Is this supposed to be an e-mail from you to him?

RICHARDS: There’s supposed to be an e-mail from me to his girlfriend.

KING: Saying?

RICHARDS: Saying that I want his sperm and wanted to get back together, which — the date of that e-mail, I was with Richie. So if I wanted anyone’s sperm, it would have been Richie’s sperm, not Charlie’s.

KING: I — so this is a phony e-mail, you think?

RICHARDS: This is a doctored e-mail.

KING: Doctored e-mail?

RICHARDS: Yes.

[From Transcripts.CNN.com]

She doesn’t deny it right away, she says they’re trying to smear her, she was with Richie Sambora based on the “date of the e-mail.” If she didn’t send it, why didn’t she say straight away “they faked that e-mail and changed what I wrote.” She skirts around it instead and only says the e-mail is doctored once King prompts her.

And today she told Matt Lauer flat out that the e-mail was doctored. It sounds to me like she’s trying to get her story straight:

“That e-mail is not legitimate,” Richards, 37, told interviewer Matt Lauer. “It’s a doctored e-mail. I would never send an e-mail to his … girlfriend, and, at the time of that e-mail, I was with Richie [Sambora]. If I wanted anybody’s sperm, I’d have asked for Richie’s.”

[From People.com]

Again, she’s relying on the date of the e-mail and saying she was with Richie so why would she say that? It just sounds fishy.

As for Sambora, Richards told Larry King that “Richie and I are still friends. We will always be friends,” but she said she doesn’t communicate with Charlie and “I do not know this person. And I have children with him.”

On Sambora’s DUI, Richards said “He made a mistake. He feels terrible about it. And the irony is he’s — with the whole child endangerment, he’s an amazing father. And he’s stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility for his mistake.”

Ironic how she defends a guy she dated for less than a year for getting a DUI with his daughter in the car but attacks the husband and father of her two children every chance she gets. Sheen isn’t an innocent party in all this, but the more Richards talks the better he looks.

Header image is of Denise in Rockefeller center today, thanks to Splash News. Here’s the video of her on The Today Show and links to clips from her Larry King interview. Thanks to People Magazine and Rowdy on Redlasso for the videos:

Denise Richards on Larry King – Larry asks Denise about Heather Locklear

Denise Richards on Larry King – Why she’s doing the reality show

Denise Richards on Larry King – Putting her daughters in the show

Denise Richards on Larry King – Denise reacts to Charlie’s criticism

Denise Richards on Larry King – Denise talks about Richie Sambora’s DUI and drinking

Denise Richards on Larry King – Denise talks about why it didn’t work with Richie

Denise Richards on Larry King – Denise explains the Heather/Richie thing