I wore flip-flops to the Dancing with the Stars dinner in a hotel ballroom. (Earlier, San Francisco Chronicle TV Critic Tim Goodman asked me, "Why do you always look like you're going to the beach?" Hey. It's L.A.)

ABC promised plenty of alcohol to "help loosen our hips and inhibitions" -- as if!! -- but most of the dancing took place on the flatscreens in the form of the DWTS Nintendo Wii game. Yes! It's like Dance Dance Revolution, only you use your hands to shake the Wii consoles like maracas! On the back of the game, it says please be careful if you're prone to seizures.

When they weren't playing versions of themselves on the Wii, the dancers mingled with the non-dancers. You could tell "us" from "them" by our choice of footwear. Karina Smirnoff wore sky-high metallic stilettos (and a super-cute tomato-red Hugo Boss cocktail dress). She's very tiny, has lighter hair now and plays with her hair a lot while she talks.

We do share one thing in common, though -- a sweet tooth. "I love ice cream and dessert," she told me. "I love Haagen Dazs Pralines and Cream, Rum Raisin and Rocky Road."

Karina is newly single after a very public breakup from former dance partner Mario Lopez, but that hasn't soured her from finding romance on the show: "I think while you're on the show, it's better not to date, but if you want to date afterward..." Karina and the other dancers won't know until mid-August whether they've been picked to compete on Dancing's next season, which premieres Sept. 22.

So who would her dream date on the dance floor be? "I've always been in love with Keanu Reeves and Christian Bale!"

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