CBS may not be aware of it, but the network’s onscreen nerds tend to flock together at parties. Witness Matthew Gray Gubler and Kristen Vangsness of CRIMINAL MINDS hanging out with Pauley Perrette of NCIS. Gubler plays his show’s resident genius, Dr. Spencer Reid, Vangsness is MINDS’ computer sorceress Penelope Garcia and Perrette is Goth techno-whiz Abby on NCIS.

“Did you hear about the crossover with Pauley?” Gubler asks excitedly.

“Our characters are best friends from school,” Vangsness adds.

“Reid and Abby went to MIT together,” Gubler elaborates.

Are NCIS and CRIMINAL MINDS combining forces? Is this a huge crossover scoop?

“No,” Gubler explains, “it’s a theoretical episode.”

“It was created by the three of us,” Perrette relates.

“It’s as good as sold,” Gubler deadpans.

Perrette heads off to talk NCIS, but Vangsness stays for moral support and teasing while Gubler submits to journalistic interrogation about his work on CRIMINAL MINDS, now in its sixth season on CBS, Wednesdays at 9 PM.

For starters, Gubler reveals the real reason Reid got shot in the leg early last season. In the story, it’s because Reid throws himself in front of a potential crime victim to protect the man. However, the onscreen wounding was scripted to cover a real-life injury sustained by Gubler.

ASSIGNMENT X: What happened to your leg?

MATTHEW GRAY GUBLER: I was dancing, dislocated my kneecap and chipped some bone and cartilage.

AX: Wow, that’s intense dancing.

GUBLER: It was pretty intense. I don’t joke around on the dance floor. It’s hard to explain. It was kind of like a Michael Jackson-esque move, God rest his soul. He would’ve pulled it off much better.

AX: Do you think it’s harder to write around this sort of injury or around a real-life pregnancy?

GUBLER: Probably a pregnancy. I don’t know – it’s tough. They’re both a problem to write around. The writers have to get creative.

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Actor Matthew Gray Gubler arrives at the 2011 InStyle And Warner Bros. 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards post-party held at The Beverly Hilton hotel on January 16, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California.

[Source: January 15, 2011 - Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images North America]