There are a lot of reasons we love Mario Lopez.
1. He was in Saved By the Bell.
2. Have you seen his abs?
3. He was awesome on Dancing With the Stars.
4. Those dimples are so cute.
5. See point number 2.

But we recently discovered another reason to crush on the Extra host when BettyConfidential caught up with him. It seems Mario is a really good listener. And what woman doesn’t prize that quality very highly in a man?

The hunk, who turned 36 earlier this month, revealed his special talent when he talked about exchanging birthday presents with his best friend, Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria Parker.

“Eva’s hard to shop for because she has everything!” he told us. “Last year I got her a particular book and she got me a great margarita maker. Eva is a great gift-giver, but she’s difficult to shop for because she’s got it all! I have to get very creative when I give her things. I pay attention to what she wants and listen carefully.”

Mario also spoke to BettyConfidential about some of his other friends — the cast of the ’90s TV classic Saved By the Bell.

“I still talk to the cast all the time and I just saw them a couple weeks ago. We have a lot of fun together,” Mario said. “I probably stay in touch with Elizabeth Berkley most, but I reach out to all of them. We kinda feel like friends from high school and we see each other when we can.”

But there’s one cast member he doesn’t have much time for — Dustin Diamond, who played Screech. The actor released a tell-all memoir at the end of September called Behind the Bell, in which he claims that NBC bosses paid a girl $50,000 to keep quiet after Mario allegedly date-raped her back in 1993. Mario has not addressed the accusation, but said, “Honestly, I haven’t talked to Dustin in years and I haven’t seen the book. I know he’s had a tough patch, so God bless him and whatever he’s doing.”

We didn’t get a chance to ask Mario what he thought about his ex-fiancee Karina Smirnoff breaking up with her newest fiancé, fellow Dancing With the Stars cast member Maksim Chmerkovskiy, but he did reveal that he hasn’t seen many episodes of the hit reality show lately.

“I haven’t had a chance to watch a lot of Dancing With the Stars this season because I’m working on Extra so much but I kind of get snippets of everybody,” he said. “Mya looks pretty strong. This year, it’s all about the girls.”

Magazine and newspaper reporter Kelly Will has written celebrity columns for the New York Times, the New York Daily News and the New York Post. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/misswill.

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