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Dancing With The Stars Season 8

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RealityFreakWill:
Dancing Recap: Lil’ Kim Wows the Crowd

Contenders or pretenders? This week marked the halfway point in the competition and the dancers showed who’s really it in for the win. A new leader emerged with Lil’ Kim’s jumping jive and Shawn got a rousing standing ovation for her rumba. But Steve-O and Ty just couldn’t nail down their routines and fell flat with the judges.

Ty Murray literally kicked off the night with a jive that incorporated touch line dancing that allowed the rodeo champ to show off some fancy footwork. Looking a bit stiff throughout the routine, Murray then “went for the jive like a wild animal,” Bruno Tonioli said. “You did about 20,000 kicks and flicks and none of them were right.” He was applauded for his charm and effort but that still wasn’t enough to get him more points. “Unfortunately tonight it took a long while to get started and once you did start it wasn’t that good,” said Len Goodman.

Slow dances seem to be Shawn Johnson’s forte. The gymnast, who’s gotten rave reviews for her waltzes, got the crowd on its feet with a sensual, romantic – and “age appropriate” (as pointed out by partner Mark Ballas) – rumba. Carrie Ann Inaba could “see the discomfort in your eyes at the beginning” but once relaxed she “came to life.” “The rumba is a bit like a fire,” Goodman explained. “It can be warm and it could burn. I think you got this just right.”

Edyta Sliwinska got some teaching aid from former Dancing star Warren Sapp, who paid a visit to one of Lawrence Taylor’s practices. The football champs goofed around but got down to business with Taylor highlighting his lighter footsteps and not-so-serious personality. “You brought your groove back!” Inaba exclaimed about his jive. “You were having a good time. You were on it all the way,” added Tonioli. “You never lost timing.”

Melissa Rycroft mirrored Shawn’s elegance in a rumba that Goodman praised was both clean and precise but could also be “a bit more earthy.” While the Bachelor star may be one of this season’s breakout stars, the judges agreed she’ll have to let go and not hold back to improve. “What I want to see in the future is Melissa the maneater,” Tonioli said. “Go for it, girl, because you’ve got everything to gain.”

Lil’ Kim proved why she’s tough competition for the early front runners, jiving her way to the top of the leader board with an energy-packed number. Dancing along to “Jailhouse Rock,” the hip-hop star and partner Derek Hough had almost all the judges squealing and jumping from their seats. “Guilty! Arrest me! Frisk me!” Tonioli joked. “That was amazing, I don’t know how you do it!” said Inaba. One person who wasn’t as thrilled: Goodman, who slammed the pair for being too “theatrical” and neglecting to put on a “formal jive.”

As for Steve-O, who had the misfortune of following Lil’ Kim’s electric jive, the judges criticized his rumba for lacking hip action and coordinated footwork. The Jackass stuntman was also hit with some harsh comparisons to a “confused puppy.” His awkward moments and hesitancy throughout the dance had people responding but for all the wrong reasons, according to Tonioli, who simply described the dancing as “bad.”

The Italian judge also had some choice words for Gilles Marini. “You looked like a mad squirrel,” he told the actor about his fast-paced jive. Goodman echoed the same thoughts, telling him and partner Cheryl Burke that the whole dance looked “a bit frantic.” The head judge, however, did give props to the duo for “very nice footwork.”

Described as one of the most passionate and sexy numbers this week, Chuck Wicks’s rumba wrapped up the night and had most of the judges begging for more. While the chemistry was there with girlfriend and partner Julianne Hough, the country singer was advised to work on technique –- and to keep everything PG rated. “For me, parts of that was more suitable for the bedroom than the ballroom,” said Goodman. “This was for me too much in the face, a little too raunchy!” –Eunice Oh

Here’s how the remaining eight contestants stacked up after Monday’s dance:
Ty & Chelsie: 18 out of 30 for their jive
Shawn & Mark: 26 out of 30 for their rumba
Lawrence & Edyta: 22 out of 30 for their jive
Melissa & Tony: 27 out of 30 for their rumba
Lil’ Kim & Derek: 28 out of 30 for their jive
Steve-O & Lacey: 16 out of 30 for their rumba (7, 4 5,
Gilles & Cheryl: 26 out of 30 for their jive
Chuck & Julianne: 23 out of 30 for their rumba

Tell us: Can you believe Lil’ Kim has taken the lead? Did the judges score Gilles & Cheryl too harshly? And who will be in tonight’s dreaded dance-off?

http://tvwatch.people.com/2009/04/14/dancing-recap-lil-kim-wows-the-crowd/

RealityFreakWill:
DWTS' Derek Hough Teases Lil' Kim About Wardrobe Malfunction 

Derek Hough can't stop laughing about partner Lil' Kim's wardrobe malfunction on Monday's Dancing With the Stars.

"She desperately tried to pull a Janet Jackson!" he told Usmagazine.com after she had some trouble with her top at the end of a jive. (The blip was edited out by the time the show was rebroadcast on the West Coast.)

"Don't say that!" Kim interrupted. "That's a whole other show! I'd have to get paid a lot a lot of money!"

Hough added that host Tom Bergeron "covered up the girls, that is for sure."

The malfunction didn't seem to bother the judges: Kim and Hough earned the night's best score, a 28 out of a 30.

Hough still can't get over how good she looked.

"When she came out, I'm not going to say what I said, but...." he began.

"No, say it - I like to hear it!!!" Kim interjected.

"I was like, 'Yeah, I'd hit that!'" he teased.

Joked Kim, "I saw him checking me out!"

Kidding aside, Hough is still dating former contestant Shannon Elizabeth.

"Shannon, Derek's girlfriend, is so amazing," Kim told Us. "She keeps him calm at practice, so that is a good thing for me!"

Said Hough, "Shannon is always on hand, taking lots of pictures, bringing snacks and keeping our spirits up in rehearsals! She's the best."

http://www.usmagazine.com/news/dwts-derek-hough-jokes-about-lil-kims-wardrobe-malfunction+-2009144

RealityFreakWill:
'Dancing With the Stars' Recap: A Rumba in the Jungle

Last night's Dancing With the Stars halftime show featured plenty of bizarre stunts. Namely: Frantic rumbas with liberty and whiplash for all. Somber, all-black jive costumes. A self-proclaimed ''man's man'' cloaked in a form-fitting sequined lace shirt. Tom Bergeron detecting, protecting, and correcting an exposed Lil' Kim nipple guard. The long-lost Tasty Chilean Sea Bass of a Man winking his way back into our hearts because he'll be on Brothers & Sisters this Sunday! It was all crazy and nonsensical, DANCMSTRs, which is to say it was business as usual on our favorite televised quest for a hardened knob of glitter. Here's how the eight remaining couples ranked after dancing either the jive or the rumba on week 6....

Lil' Kim and Derek: 28 out of possible 30 points Their jive, cheekily set to ''Jailhouse Rock,'' easily could have served as the couple's final-three freestyle routine instead. DANCMSTR complained about the excessive theatrics, while Bruno and Carrie Ann flipped the eff out over the jive's brilliance. ''I am guilty of love in the first degree!'' wailed a begging-to-be-handcuffed Bruno, while C.A. executed one of her trademark Standing Whoops. You know Carrie Ann truly thought a performance was amazing if the next sentence out of her mouth is ''Where'd my diamonds go?'' Personally, I caught some mistakes by Lil' Kim on my first watch and couldn't understand the 10s, but on my second try, I was pretty much in awe of Derek's clever choreography and completely ridiculous hair. Considering this was Lil' Kim, the theme was ''prison,'' and the rehearsal segment featured fried food, this couple's ''jive'' might be one of my favorite DWTS performances, ever. But was it worthy of 10s? Nah. Did anyone else nearly taste those chocolate shakes through their TVs and then die a little inside upon the realization that there's about a 2% chance Lil' Kim and Derek actually drank them?

Melissa Rycroft and Tony: 27/30 I love Easter (candy), but even I could not get behind this couple's Easter Bunny pink-and-yellow ''gradient effect'' costumes. I kept expecting them to ditch the rumba and hunt for eggs in the nooks and crannies of the judges' desk. (In your dreams, Bruno!) Their rumba was technically precise, but DANCMSTR hit it on the head (bopped Little Bunny Foo Foo on the head? Okay, enough) with his suggestion that Melissa ''could be a bit more earthy.'' Despite the progress in emotional depth that Tony insisted she'd made over the weeks, Melissa's performance felt pretty flat to me. Maybe I was too focused on the half-baked Beyoncé impression assaulting my ears. ''If I Was a Boy'' did seem lyrically appropriate for Melissa, at least. I kept imagining how she might improvise the lines: ''If I Was a Boy...they probably wouldn't enhance my classy lower back tattoo with purple sparkles…'' and so on. How funny was Tony with that engagement ring analogy during rehearsal? I also loved his quintessential Sappy Days compliment to Melissa: ''The beauty's coming through you like a beam!'' Awwwwww. That's so Tony!

Shawn Johnson and Mark: 26/30 Uh oh! The rumba's the ''bedroom dance,'' and Shawn's a 17-year-old girl, so clearly a fabulous balloon-heavy prom-for-two to emphasize the fact that no one is taking her precious innocence lightly! was in order. I cracked up when Mark presented her with that sequined prom gown...what if it'd been fringed prom pants?! Shawn's was easily my favorite rumba of the night, and DANCMSTR's ''simplicity is the way to go'' advice rang true again for Team Shark. Instead of thrashing around and simulating various sexual acts (ahem, Julianne), Shawn showed control and a slight, though restrained, sultriness throughout, and Mark really ramped it up with the light cheek grazing. (This gushing text message just in from EW.com's Mandi Bierly: ''I love, love, love the way Mark kept putting his face right into Shawn's. Such a good way to keep the connection. It's the cold meds. I'm way too obsessed.'') No such thing, my dear colleague. DANCMSTR paid Team Shark a Goldilocks-inspired compliment: that the rumba can be warm or it can burn, but these two ''got it exactly right.'' He probably just had porridge on the mind, because it goes well with his favorite snack of a cheese roll and a cup o' tea. Ready for the least likely sentence of this recap? I didn't even realize Mark was wearing a sheer shirt with clear sequins until the dance was nearly over, because Shawn looked so beautiful and I was watching her instead. Which is the point of this television program! Success!

Gilles Marini and Cheryl: 26/30 Is it just me, or would Gilles' sporty soccer outfit (yellow knee socks, I'm looking at you) have made a much more appropriate jive costume than those strange leather getups? Neither the pair's costumes nor their song choice — Fall Out Boy's ''Dance, Dance'' — jibed with the jive last night. The song, especially, was so frantic and unsettling that its dramatics may have worked for a paso doble, but even that's a stretch. Gilles could definitely keep up with the beat, but it was almost like he and Cheryl were ''winning'' the ''race'' against the music, and as the song was imploring its live accompaniment to ''dance, dance'' anyway, it made for a rather confusing conflict that never should have existed in the first place. At least the set designers didn't decide this would be Astro Turf Week for the ballroom floor, because then Gilles would have been writhing around in delight the entire time. And then Steve-O's dog Boogie would take a poop mid-field. And then Steve-O would fart in everyone's face. (Only one of those three scenarios did not occur last night.) Season 6's Latin Lover extraordinaire Cristián de la Fuente looked gorgeous, but my sister and I detected a slight air of defeat, as if he could feel his ''foreign deliciousness'' status melting away as fast as papaya chutney might slide off of a tasty sea bass filet. Never, Cristián! Never. ''Zheeeeel'' doesn't even have a protein assigned to him yet!

Chuck Wicks and Julianne: 23/30 The couple with very little discernible chemistry got scared that no one would believe they had any chemistry. So they decided to recreate their first date at the Santa Monica Pier, which featured churros, the ferris wheel, and inexplicable dialogue like ''I'm so glad to be your girl right now.'' (Who says that?) If they were aiming for consistency between what we saw during that segment and what we saw in the ballroom, perhaps Chuck and Julianne's fabricated first date should have taken place on a run-down street corner at 2 a.m. Julianne's thigh-high lace fishnets certainly distracted from whatever Chuck was doing during that dance. We shall never know exactly what that was. The jerks! The whipping spins! The thrashing of Julianne's hooker hair! It was all way, way too frantic for a rumba. ''A bit too rawwwwwnchy,'' said DANCMSTR.

Lawrence Taylor and Lady Legwarmer: 22/30 ''Where's the NFL diva?'' Why, he's pouting right here, waiting for you, season 7 runner-up Warren Sapp! Warren swooped down on L.T.'s rehearsal, mostly to make him smile for once, and for some mild (to NFL divas, at least) physical contact. Watch Lady L.'s facial expressions throughout all of this, if you get the chance. She's slightly amused, but you can tell her thoughts have meandered down a legwarmer-lined sparkly brick road and she's really wondering, ''Can I pull off neon melon boot-cut legwarmers that are supposed to match my partner's costume but will end up clashing with it instead?'' The answer was obvious: Not really! Even so, LT was able to bring his groove back a bit for their week 6 jive. I do consider it an improvement that he smiled a few times and bent his knees and sort of swiveled a bit. But for such a large guy, I'm getting pretty fed up with his limited range of movement.

Ty Murray and Chelsie: 18/30 Seriously, what was with the weird trend of mostly black jive costumes last night? I can't imagine anything less suited to complement a jive (or a sparkly American Flag tube top, for that matter) than a spooky witch skirt and a prince of darkness getup for our Cute Cowboy, Ty. He was kicking that hula hoop's ass during rehearsal footage, but his hip action failed to move the judges to whoop through joyful tears (Weepy), grin smugly (Grumpy), or contort themselves into giant indiscriminate balloon animals (Dopey). Instead, they complimented Ty's gentlemanly nature, said he wasn't suited for the jive, and gave him straight 6s. I didn't think he was that bad. He got that ''slide'' part right! Ty may be as ''bewildered'' as DANCMSTR thinks he is, but people think he's adorable and I say he stays tonight over LT, Chuck, or Steve-O.

Steve-O and a Victoria's Secret Angel: 16/30 Lacey decided to wear her negligible jammies to the ballroom last night, as if in defiant response to her partner's treatment of the rehearsal studio like another shared room in their house, the bathroom. Dude would not stop farting, and it smelled like mildew. Ewwwwwww.com. The segment did produce an invaluable and quintessential Dancing With the Stars mantra, though — ''The passion that you have with your dog right now? That's exactly what you need with your rumba.'' Timeless wisdom right there. After Steve-O and Lacey's rudimentary rumba and a fun cut to Wee Man (no Wee Girl behind him this time), Weepy broke free of Grumpy and Dopey's ''you're no good!'' vibe and claimed to have been ''totally taken in'' by Steve-O's ''oddly mesmerizing'' performance. I see her point, but wonder if she caught one too many of Steve-O's magical trance-inducing gas fumes. Still. A freakin' 4, DANCMSTR? Really? Worse than Woz? I think not!

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20272208,00.html

RealityFreakWill:
Monday’s Dancing: What You Didn’t See

Take a Number, Man: It’s no secret he’s a hit with the ladies, but actor Gilles Marini is acquiring quite a male fan base. “That’s my bromance for the season,” pro hoofer Tony Dovolani declared to PEOPLE. “We get along so well. We’re both Europeans, we both like soccer, we like a lot of the same things.” For Marini, the feeling is mutual. “Steve-O I love. Tony I love,” Marini declared. “Everyone of us has a little something to tell and to show and to share and it’s like a big bonding.”

Even actor Cristian de la Fuente, who took time out from guest starring in USA Network’s In Plain Sight to root for his former partner Cheryl Burke, is smitten. “I just met him two hours ago and I’m falling in love with him,” de la Fuente said of Marini. “If he had longer hair… I may date him. But he’s married and I’m married and, oh well. But he is cute and he’s got that French accent, you know?” Oh, we know…

Royal Gesture: Lil’ Kim and Derek Hough ignited the studio audience with their high energy “Jailhouse Rock” jive. Kim’s biggest fan Monday night? Pal Queen Latifah, who sprang to her feet and applauded wildly the minute the dance ended. “She’s like my big sister and she is so busy, but she called me and she said, ‘I am coming, I am coming!’” Kim recounted minutes after the show ended. “She said she was in tears she was so proud of me.”

Kim’s partner, Hough, was proud of her, too. “She came up with half the choreography,” Hough revealed. “That routine was choreographed in about two and a half hours. Some routines take days but that one came together so fast. It was such a great team effort.” While their jive brought the house down, it was not without two simultaneous wardrobe malfunctions. The fast-paced routine coupled with Kim’s skimpy outfit caused the hook on her top to come undone while she and Hough were being scored by the judges. At the same time, judge Carrie Ann Inaba was so blown away the duo’s performance, the bracelet she was wearing flew off her right wrist and into the audience. “That was sweet,” Hough said. “I thought she was giving us diamonds. Like here, take this $10,000 bracelet, please.” Alas, no such luck. Inaba retrieved the bauble and affixed it firmly back onto her wrist.

Going Over to the Dark Side: Season 8 is at the halfway mark, but the spray tans may have already gone well over the line. Take good old country boy Chuck Wicks, who readily admits he’s willing to do whatever it takes to be a dancer. “I’m addicted to the spray tans,” Wicks told PEOPLE, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend and dance partner Julianne Hough. “He gets his before I get mine,” Hough jokingly huffed. “I look forward to every Sunday,” continued Wicks. “I love Sundays because Sunday is spray tan day. I wear pants and a towel so they don’t get the spray tan on my pants. I shaved my chest. I did it all this week.”

And the couple managed to look — and dance — the part of the rumba. Wicks and Hough’s mutual passion oozed throughout their dance, which had Inaba and Bruno Tonioli squirming in their seats and fanning themselves. “That’s exactly what we wanted to do,” Wicks said. “We were happy with the Carrie Ann, but a little awkward with the Bruno,” Hough joked, acknowledging that their performance was a departure from what fans have come to expect from them. “We’ve always been the sweet, romantic couple, and now we got to be the sexy couple,” Hough said. “I got to have some fun. I got to show that I’ve been on the show for two years and I’ve grown up!”

Rumba Secrets: Sultry, steamy, seductive are all words to describe a properly executed rumba. But dancing cheek to cheek isn’t the only requirement of the dance. “Breath mints –- about nine or 10 of them before we go out there,” Dovolani joked after the show. He and partner Melissa Rycroft performed the rhythmic dance much to the delight of the audience. But as for her parents sitting in the front row, Rycroft confessed, “I didn’t look at them at all before, during or after we danced. I know they can appreciate it as art and not as this romantic-ness going on on-stage so it’s okay.”

The same thing was true for Mark Ballas and Shawn Johnson, whose rumba managed to be sultry without crossing the line. “My parents knew the dance was going to come up, and they knew what we were doing,” said Johnson. “They loved it. They thought it was a beautiful dance.” As for Johnson’s peach-toned, delicately sequined frock, she says the credit all goes to Ballas for designing it. “It’s my proudest season 8 outfit. I love it,” Ballas said.

http://tvwatch.people.com/2009/04/14/mondays-dancing-what-you-didnt-see-22/

RealityFreakWill:
Ty's blog:

‘We can’t have anyone lose faith on us’



Obviously we didn't get as good of scores as we would have liked to last night. The Jive is such a fast song that if you miss one little step your behind and then it's a chain reaction, and you can have a mess on your hands pretty quick.

But I thought we were doing a good job on the part before I missed the step. Then, once we recovered, I thought we finished out OK so, I guess, that's the bright side of it.

If we make it past tonight we have the waltz next week.

We can't have anyone lose faith on us. We have actually gotten a nine before and, I think, we can do that again.

Maybe the waltz will be a good one for us. The quickstep and foxtrot went pretty good for us and, I think, the waltz is somewhat similar to the foxtrot.

I still think we have a really strong fan base and that's a good thing because that's what Chelsie and I have to rely on when we don't get great scores, but we'll find all that out tonight on the results show.

It's just like my riding career: you take it one day at a time and try to give it your best every day so that's what I'm going to keep doing. I know that I'm not the best dancer, but we have so much room to improve that if we can get better we can, perhaps, surprise some folks.

I got a good night's sleep. Now we're just going to bare-down and see how it goes tonight.

http://www.pbrnow.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/4/14/We-cant-have-anyone-lose-faith-on-us#more

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