CRAIG SJODIN/ABCGilles Marini and Cheryl Burke are ready for the romance rumors to begin as soon as the new season of Dancing With the Stars kicks off next week.
"I keep saying, after we dance, a lot of new babies are going to happen," Gilles, 33, tells me in his thick French accent during one of his now daily rehearsals with Burke in a Hollywood dance studio.
Burke adds, "He's married and I have a boyfriend, so bring it on! We want people to think something is going on on the dance floor. You want people to be so uncomfortable watching it because we are going to be so sexy."
That shouldn't be too hard to achieve.
Not only is Marini charming (and it's not just because of his accent!), but he's model-hot with a killer body.
And then, of course, there's his now legendary manhood that was displayed on the big screen during a shower scene he had as Samantha's always naked neighbor Dante in the Sex and the City movie.
Burke knows sex sells—or at least would help Marini get some extra votes.
Just hours before our chat, Marini had a fitting for his first outfits on DWTS. "I told the guy to make everything as tight as possible," Burke says with a laugh.
Sounds like he followed her directions. "It's tight," Marini says. "I'm going to have to tape my thing close to my thigh so it won't show."
What he really wants to be showing off when DWTS's eighth season premieres on Monday night are the cha-cha and quick step that he and Burke have been working on for about three weeks now.
"I have two or three left feet," Marini says. "But it's such a thrill. It's a great experience. I do not want it to stop. I don't want that experience to stop now. I say, 'How do I make that happen?' "
Hopefully, by not getting injured again. As I exclusively reported on Friday, Marini is suffering from painful tendinitis in his shoulder and groin that was caused by his dance training. He's expected to make a full recovery.
Burke says she wants Marini to lose one piece of clothing for every week he remains in the 10-week competition. "That is enough weeks to get me freaking naked," Marini says. "I would have to block the fact that 50 million billion people would be watching the show."
Or he could just pretend to be filming another scene for Sex and the City.