answer call dialog is hidden initially

Binary package hint: empathy

When I receive an incoming call from a Google chat caller I hear a ring tone, but no dialog raises up to allow me to answer it.
Instead I frantically hunt around closing windows and clicking things until the dialog appears.
What I think should happen is that incoming calls use the new "black box" pop ups to let me know there is a call and give me an obvious way to answer,
Answering would be best done right there and then, with answer/reject buttons, but at least there should be a pop up of the communication types native answer/reject dialog if I click on the notification.

This happens every time I get a call.
This is a fresh install.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Jan 16 20:58:56 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/empathy
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Package: empathy 2.28.1.1-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-17.54-generic
SourcePackage: empathy
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-17-generic i686