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Monday, August 25, 2008
8/25: Former Atlantan Toni Braxton joins “Dancing With the Stars” with Susan Lucci, Kim Kardashian, Lance Bass
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Atlanta R&B singer Toni Braxton is joining the fall season 7 cast of “Dancing With the Stars,” which begins on ABC Sept. 22.
She’s best known for hits in the ’90s such as “Breathe Again.” “You Mean the World To Me” and “Un-Break My Heart.” She had been doing a show at the Flamingo in Las Vegas. She clearly has graceful dancing skills and could do quite well. She’ll be dancing with Alec Mazo, who won the first season with Kelly Monaco.
Here’s a clip from that Flamingo show:
Among the others this season:
-Lance Bass. This ‘N Sync singer has been rumored to be on the show for ages and there was even talk about him having a male partner. But that isn’t going to happen. He’ll be dancing with Lacey Schwimmer from “So You Think You Can Dance.” He has a dancing background from his boy band days so he should do well and voters will give much love.
-Brooke Burke - She’s a big lad’s magazine cover gal who also hosted “Rock Star” for two seasons on CBS. She looks pretty athletic but she is going to have to be truly amazing to stick around awhile given she has relatively modest name recognition. Her partner: Derek Hough.
-Rocco Dispirito Met this guy at the Taste of Atlanta festival at Atlantic Station last year. He definitely thinks highly of himself though I think he’s more humble than his days on the Fox reality show “The Restaurant.” He has next own reality show on A&E starting in October called “Rocco Gets real.” No clue if he has any hoofing skills whatsoever. His partner: Karina Smirnoff
-Maurice Green They need athletes. This time, we have a track star who won two gold medals in Sydney in 2000. We’ll see if he can transfer that speed into the quick step. His partner: Cheryl Burke, who won with Emmitt Smith and Drew Lachey in past seasons.
-Kim Kardashian Hoping to draw that 18-34 demo, the show brought in this somewhat useless reality show star. Is she coordinated? Who knows? Who cares? Her partner: Mark Ballas.
-Cloris Leachman This “Last Picture Show”/”Mary Tyler Moore” star is the token “old person.” I just recently saw this Oscar/Emmy winner on the “Comedy Central Roast for Bob Saget” and she can take it as well as she can give it. At age 82, she is easily the oldest person ever to attempt this show. Wow! She gets a new partner who has never been on the show: Corky Ballas (presumably Mark’s bro.) I bet she’ll get votes if she manages not to fall.
-Cody Linley is yet another Disney actor to join the show. He is the youngest ever to compete at age 18. He is part of some obscure show named “Hannah Montana.” Most Disney actors need to know how to dance. We’ll see. He joins Julianne Hough, who has won the show twice with Apolo Anton Ohno and Helio Castroneves.
-Susan Lucci She must be glad Cloris Leachman is on the show because that means Lucci is not the oldest person on the show by any stretch at age 61. The “All My Children” star went decades before finally winning an Emmy and that streak became a running joke. She seems elegant and coordinated. We’ll see if she can hang in there given the competition. Her partner: Tony Dovolani
-Misty May-Treanor. Straight from a gold medal from Beijing in beach volleyball, she jumps into dancing. Most athletes rock on this show. She probably will look great in a dress! Her partner: Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Ted McGinley He’s that random has-been star kind of like Steve Guttenberg last season. He was known as the killer of many a TV show from “Happy Days” to “Love Boat” but actually did just fine in “Hope & Faith” and “Married.. With Children.” I’ll have to see if he has any steps at all. I can’t imagine he’ll stick around long.
Jeffrey Ross This is the pure comedy addition, along the lines of Adam Carolla last season. He’s get Edyta Sliwinska, the only dancer to be on every season. But he has zero chance to win and probably won’t even last as long as Adam.
Warren Sapp Recently retired defensive tackle and Super Bowl champ continues in a line of NFL players who have tried their hand at dance. Think Emmitt Smith and Jerry Rice. He might surprise, too. He gets the adorable Kym Johnson as his partner.
