As the first-ever Dancing with the Stars champion, Kelly Monaco has advice for this season's crop of contestants: ignore celebrity gossip and all outside distractions.

The General Hospital actress - and April 1997 Playboy centerfold - told The Associated Press that she thinks the sixth-season participants should "put `Extra' and `TMZ' … aside. They're there to have fun and learn how to dance. It should be something really personal."

It's okay to read The Hollywood Gossip, though, Jason Taylor, Penn Jillette and everyone else. Monaco didn't advise against this celebrity gossip source. Thank goodness.

Kelly Monaco knows how to pose naked! And how to dance with stars.