Lisa Rinna's trip to Neiman Marcus was like walking a crackhead through a drug den.

As part of her personal belt tightening, Rinna is restricting shopping sprees to her own closet, she told me last week. She was in the metro promoting her book "Rinnavation: Getting Your Best Life Ever" and an upcoming TV Land Prime reality show "I Love Lisa," co-starring her husband, Harry Hamlin. No shopping means no more Christian Louboutin shoes. The sacrifice has been tough on the former soap opera actor and owner of the L.A. boutique Belle Gray.

"It's been very painful, but I've been able to do it," said Rinna, wiping away fake tears. "But let me tell you something: I had to walk by Neiman Marcus and I just had to wander in and take a peek. And I just held one of those red-soled shoes [bedazzled in] glitter; gold glitter. And I just held it close to my heart for a minute. I turned it over and I looked at the price and I just put it back on the shelf and walked out. It was one of the hardest things. It was like a drug addict having drugs in their hand and then having to put 'em back."

Those shoes were real budget busters at $775, your gossip later found out. You can see Rinna's struggle at startribune.com/video.

Rinna was delightful, charming and very low-maintenance. (Yeah, that's a shot at you, Lauren Conrad. Can't remember the last time I've heard so much criticism from so many celebrity handlers, like Lola Red's Alexis Walsko, about the PR nightmare the former "Hills" star was when she was here.)

Despite a career well beyond "Hills" -- "Chicago" on Broadway, four-time Emmy nominated host of "Soap Talk," successful ballroom exercise video with her "Dancing with the Stars" partner Louis van Amstel -- Rinna didn't star trip her way around the metro. First clue: She rolled into Minnesota as a posse of ONE. "It's just me, baby, no entourage," said Rinna. Her strategy? "I keep movin', I walk those streets. I move and groove. I went to the Farmer's Market, I went to Barnes & Noble, I went to Target. One girl recognized me and had a little moment in Target. I get a few sideways glances. Nobody bothers me. Nobody even looks at me."

Uh, not exactly. Derek Naill, assistant veep at Associated Bank, thoughtfully shot me an e-mail the day before her Twin Cities appearances: "Maybe you are already aware of this, but I saw Lisa Rinna walking down Nicollet Mall. No sight of Harry Hamlin, just Lisa walking alone and far more anonymously than anyone with those lips should. She looked quite content. [Perhaps] she was desperately looking for me. ..."

If Naill had been red and decorated with glitter, he might have distracted Rinna for a second, before she moved on.

An eye and ear witness tells me that former Sen. Norm Coleman and his buddy KQ92 Tom Barnard had dinner at Zelo last week.

Esme Murphy is apologizing to Dan Buettner.

They're all kissed and made up after she Twittered that Buettner stood her up for the second time on her WCCO-AM show, where he was scheduled to talk about his book "Blue Zones."

"It was a miscommunication with the producer. I owe him an apology for the second standing up; it didn't happen," Murphy said.

"What?" Buettner finally wrote to me via e-mail. "I've been backpacking in the Bighorn Mountains with my dad, brothers and son for the past six days. Completely off the grid. A week ago Saturday I was in northern Wisconsin waiting by a cabin phone for Esme's call while she was waiting for mine. Human error. I would never stand up anybody."

Be still on the keyboard, my naughty fingers ... be still.

The Learning Channel is shooting a pilot for a reality show about the Mall of America, as seen through the eyes of the cops who work there.

C.J. is at 612.332.TIPS or cj@startribune.com. More of her attitude can be seen on FOX 9 Thursday mornings.