Chocolate Room Heralds Valentine's Day  

NEW YORK (AP) - Don't lick the walls. An all-chocolate room was unveiled in Manhattan on Tuesday - a pre-Valentine's Day creation complete with furniture and artwork made of the sweet stuff.

Actress Ali Larter, of the NBC "Heroes" television series, tastes a mantel made of chocolate during her appearance at the preview of the 2008 Godiva Decadence Suite, in New York, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008. The winner of the company's Valentine's Day promotion will get to stay in hotel room made of chocolate.

"It's the perfect bit of sin," said Ali Larter, star of TV's "Heroes," of the Godiva chocolate "pearls" that are her private daily indulgence.

Here, they were dripping off the chandeliers above the dining table, which was a sea of stars, truffles and crescents - all chocolate, of course, under glass.

Larter is the celebrity face hired by the Belgian chocolatier for its annual Valentine's Day promotion contest. This year, anyone who buys the winning box of chocolates - for $23 and up - may win the chocolate room. It is to be re-created in a suite of Manhattan's Bryant Park Hotel for a pampered getaway weekend for two in May.

The winning box - sold only in North America - will contain a note informing the buyer of his or her good luck.

Actress Ali Larter, of the NBC "Heroes" television series, admires a chocolate decorated chandelier during her visit to the preview of the 2008 Godiva Decadence Suite, in New York Tuesday Jan. 29, 2008. The winner of the company's Valentine's Day promotion will get to stay in a hotel room made of chocolate. On the wall behind her is a Jackson Pollock-inspired abstract made from chocolate.

While no doubt a shameless commercial promotion - created by Los Angeles designer Larry Abel - the demo chocolate room set up on the sixth floor of an East Village building packed a tasteful, artsy punch.

Hanging in the "living room" was a painting built entirely of multicolored chocolate pieces inspired by Gustav Klimt's painting "The Kiss." Above the dining table was a "canvas" dripping with brown and white chocolate - a takeoff on Jackson Pollock's signature "drip" paintings.

And instead of words, books opened to a mound of chocolates.

You could actually sit on the plush sofa, which was chocolate-graced only on its sides, and the walls are made of chocolate.

There were a couple of "dont's" in the room: lighting the fireplace (with its chocolate logs and mantle) and the candles (all chocolate).

In addition, sinking into the easy chairs was discouraged - unless you wanted to rise with a chocolate-covered derriere.