"I had people calling me up going, 'Are you serious, you really use handcuffs?' and I’m like 'Come on, even if I did I’m not going to tell them.' And secondly, no, I was completely joking. But the guy I was dating at the time was pretty happy about it. It made him look good (laughs).

And is she seeing anyone special now...

"I’m single now and dating and having a good time. I tend to date a lot of actors. Those are the people I see, those are the people I work with, those are the people I end up meeting. And everyone keeps saying, Don’t date an actor, date someone else, and I’m like Why, what’s so bad about actors? I haven’t had a bad experience, so I don’t have a rule. I suppose if I did I might say, Okay, I’m calling off actors, but I think actors are great. I love 'em."

She talks about actors she respects, mentioning Cate Blanchett, Naomi Watts and the mean girl from Mean Girls, Rachel McAdams. And what about actresses she doesn’t respect? "I’ll try to say this as politically correct as possible," Katherine says, "but you can be famous for doing nothing nowadays."

The reporter coughs the name Paris Hilton and you laugh. Katherine does too.

"Behind the facade of Paris Hilton, I believe there is some intelligence going on. But I would like to believe that I have some creative instincts, and it’s something that I continue to work on because I don’t want to take it for granted and I don’t want to get lazy and I don’t want to just be famous."

You silently applaud. So does it piss her off when someone like Paris Hilton gets a part over her?

"It does piss me off, it’s really frustrating," says Katherine. "You sit there and think, My God, I’m working so hard to get somewhere and to be taken seriously and apparently all I needed was to be born into a famous, rich family. It can get frustrating, but at the same time I would probably take full advantage of it as well if I was in the same position. So I can’t really blame her for taking those offers or using what she’s got to get somewhere; I can blame our society for making that so important."

And like Paris and her rich kid clique, is she part of the LA scene?

"No," she says laughing. "When I first moved out here, I didn’t know anybody, so there was no opportunity to be a part of it. This last year, working on the show, there have been more opportunities to go out and hang with people, but we keep it mellow - which I love. We literally just go to a local bad right around the corner from work, have a couple drinks together, chill out then go home."

You want to give her a high five. Take her out for beer and wings. But there’s still one thing bugging you - her risqué pictorial in FHM. The interviewer must be reading your mind, because she asks about that.

"It just feels like an act. It feels like I’m playing dress up and being someone else for a day. I know everybody says that- Oh well, I don’t wake up this way or You should see what I look like in the morning and I know it’s such a clichéd thing to say, but because I live in this body everyday I can’t reconcile the two images. And I’m a girl in sweat pants more often than I’m a girl in a hot bathing suit. So for me it’s just play, it’s an act.

Aside from that, I’m grateful people think I’m beautiful or think I’m sexy, and I suppose it’s better than the alternative, but I do try to fight it a bit so it’s not all people see me as. And I’d love to one day be in a position where I could choose a role to showcase my creativity versus just my bra size."