Priscilla Presley Next To Go On Dancing With The Stars
This week on Dancing with the Stars rock ‘n roll star Priscilla Presley was eliminated off the show along with h her dance partner. The 62 year old actress and the former wife of Elvis Presley was not one who lacked any grace and poise in her dancing. In fact she was excellent at most of the dances. However, it was the rumba that became her downfall and showed her lack of technique.
“This has been an incredible experience…I learned so much about myself and all the things I could do,” the famously private Presley said before leaving the ballroom. But although the competition ended for her, the Naked Gun star had one more trick up her sleeve: To all those fans (and apparently there were quite a few) who couldn’t wait to contact Presley after finding out she was running her own psychic hotline, she reminded them that she had revealed that bit of background info on April 1.
And with that, it was on to the requisite post-elimination appearance on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live. Meanwhile, competent almost didn’t cut it for Cristián de la Fuente, who found himself in the bottom two after his rumba only garnered a 23 from the finicky judges. “It didn’t blow me away—well, it didn’t!” Len Goodman, taking a page out of the Simon Cowell playbook, insisted upon hearing the boos from the audience.
Safe right off the bat, as usual, was Kristi Yamaguchi, who broke the curse of the encore after her fantastically fluid rumba earned both a leaderboard-high 29 and a request for a do-over to kick off Tuesday’s elimination show. Clad in coordinating lavender outfits (with Yamaguchi’s containing more flowing chiffon and revealing more skin), the Olympic gold medalist and partner Mark Ballas Jr. struck one perfect pose after another, earning their first 10 from Len and just missing perfection from Carrie Ann Inaba, who thought Yamaguchi lost a step while simultaneously upping the emotion factor.
So, although the 10s have started to fly, at least in a few people’s direction, there have been no perfect 30s to speak of yet this season. Tied for second were the resurgent Mario and the curiously agile Jason Taylor, who is easily rivaling season-three champ Emmitt Smith in the best NFL star-turned-dancer department. Shannon Elizabeth, already saddled with a suddenly fragile partner, was punished for being a Skinny Minnie, however, with the judges raking her across the coals for skimping on the hip action during a not-sexy-enough samba.
“I don’t really have any [hips],” the rueful American Pie star said after being slapped with a 23, her lowest score in three weeks. On the plus side for Elizabeth (apart from avoiding elimination), Derek Hough is back in action after his second trip to the hospital in as many weeks, this time for a nasty case of food poisoning that had him tossing his cookies all morning before show-time Monday. Marissa Jaret Winokur, meanwhile, has stormed back from the brink of irrelevancy, turning in a 24-caliber samba that Len said had “more bounce to the ounce” than any he’d seen before.
“More shakes than a cocktail bar!” Bruno Tonioli added. Also hanging in there is Marlee Matlin, who moves very well and is beyond great for someone who literally can’t hear the music, yet had more than a few stumbles dancing the samba last night, earning only a 22 in the process.
The pros and stars shared center stage Wednesday with another couple of cute-as-can-be junior ballroom competitors; James Blunt, who sang his latest single, “Carry You Home”; and the L.A.-bred, world-fusion rockers Ozomatli.