Eddie Cibrian has some promotional duties to fulfill for his new role in CSI: Miami, so he stopped by The Rachel Ray Show today for a quick interview (that will air next week, these are advanced details). Of course the conversation came around to the B-List drama surrounding Eddie, his estranged wife Brandi Glanville and his current girlfriend/mistress/whatever LeAnn Rimes. Let me say this – Eddie has not given many interviews about this whole scandal, so I give him some meager credit for trying to keep his end pretty private.

Here’s the thing, though: Eddie is f-cking idiot. He does not come across well in interviews – I suspect his publicist really discourages him from talking on the record to anyone. One of the few times he’s made any kind of statement was the absolutely disastrous interview he gave to Entertainment Tonight. This was the now infamous “unfair fishbowl” interview. Eddie said: “What I do know is when you reach a certain point in your career you’re placed in this unfair fishbowl. Things unfortunately get magnified.” Epic.

Anyway, with Rachel Ray as the interrogator, Eddie came off a bit better. He sort of gives Brandi a pass for all of the smack she’s been talking (like this or this or this). But he sort of thinks it’s wrong too. Poor guy. He’s very pretty but he’s not that bright.

Eddie Cibrian says he gets why ex Brandi Glanville slams him publicly for leaving her for his Lifetime movie costar LeAnn Rimes.

“The unfortunate part about it is you get only one side of a very complicated story. But you know I’m fine with that … Sometimes you want to fight back,” Cibrian, 36, says in an episode of the Rachael Ray show to air Oct. 19.

“I don’t think it’s very conducive to play anything like privately out publicly at all,” Cibrian goes on. “I mean I think it’s like very hurtful.”

Cibrian says he tries to “shield” his kids, Mason, 6, and Jake, 2 from public reports.

“I mean, my philosophy is to try to insulate them so they’re not subject to anything, you know, regarding the business and anything of tabloid nature,” he says.

Cibrian also explains the type of father he is: “I go with the flow, but I’m very protective. I wouldn’t say I’m overly protective, but I’m very protective.”

Glanville, 36, has slammed Cibrian’s parenting skills, and even says he skipped his son’s first week of school to hang with Rimes.

“His displays of poor taste have hurt our two children,” she told Us in August. “Eddie is a compulsive liar, cheater and a home wrecker, and he has been an absentee father.”

[From Us Weekly]

There are a couple of other pieces of news related to this drama. TMZ got a hold of Eddie and Brandi’s divorce filings, and it seems that Brandi goes on the record as “first learning of his infidelity in March 2009.” Brandi doesn‘t name the woman, but that was the same month Us Weekly released the video of LeAnn and Eddie sucking face in a restaurant. Brandi also claims that Eddie “promised” to stop being unfaithful and to attend counseling, but she learned in July that the affair was still on-going. Brandi also claims in the filings that Eddie was unfaithful to her with at least one other woman. Once again, we already knew that. Her name is Scheana Marie Jancon, and she was 23 years old when Eddie dumped her early this year after having a year-long affair. He dumped her for LeAnn (and his wife, I guess).

Oh, and LeAnn gave another “pity me” interview too. She talks about how her new album is full of songs about “the middle between heartbreak and love”. But LeAnn adds: “With work and my personal life, everything’s good. It really is.” I’ll bet it is. She’s nailing Eddie all the time. He’s just dumb enough to be a hell of a lot of fun in bed.

Here’s Eddie on the set of Ugly Betty on 7/18/08. Images thanks to WENN.com .