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closeTuesday, Sep. 22, 2009
'Dancing With the Stars': Tom DeLay brings up the rear
Tom DeLay brings up the rear, literally, in his Wild Thing debut on DWTS.
Robert Philpot
dfw.com
At first, I thought it might just be me: It looked like the producers of Dancing With the Stars were fixated more on Tom Delay's butt than they were on the booties of the other male contestants in Monday's premiere. So before I started this post, I Googled "Tom DeLay butt," which is the first and I hope last time I ever Google that phrase, and sure enough, I got a few hits with that phrase.
Seriously, I thought DeLay was pretty entertaining, in a hammy way, on DWTS. I mean, who knew? DeLay cha-cha-cha-ing to Wild Thing? But the judges weren't going for it. "You're crazier than Sarah Palin," exploded Bruno Tonioli, and Bruno should know, since he's crazy himself. Bruno, who was the target of a sassy/creepy point-and-wink from DeLay during the dance, added: "What the bloody hell was going on?"
"It wasn't up my alley," said Len Goodman, which made DeLay shake his butt at Goodman, and it's going to take a lot of scouring powder to remove from my mind that image connected with "up my alley." "That was surreal," Carrie Ann Inaba said.
Let's go to the tape, which actually starts with Michael Irvin in the interview room. DeLay's number stars about two minutes in.
By the way, one of the things I usually think DWTS has over American Idol is that all the judges seem to know what they're talking about. But last night, they were as inconsistent as Idol judges can be -- giving comments that sounded like praise, then handing out low scores, and vice versa. And none of the men knocked it out of the park, although early indications are that a combination of self-deprecating charm, talent and nostalgia are going to help Donny Osmond go far, even if Aaron Carter had the night's highest score.
Speaking of Michael Irvin, which I was before the video, the judges didn't go for him, either. In his behind-the-scene video, Irvin professed nervousness, although he seemed confident to me, and the judges did praise his charisma on the dance floor even if they slammed his dance. Actually, they were harsher on Irvin's partner, new pro Anna Demidova, for not giving herself or Irvin enough to do. Irvin tied with Ashley Hamilton (who's apparently a "star" because he's related to someone famous) for the night's lowest score. But I'll bet his charisma keeps him around -- I thought the judges were rough on him, and frankly, the dude was pretty entertaining. Here's his and Demidova's cha-cha-cha.
I've got to give the guys this season credit -- even macho men like Irvin and Chuck Liddle are into the Dancing thing, unlike last season's reluctant Lawrence Taylor and Ty Murray. I'm thinking Hamilton will go home tomorrow, because he just doesn't have the name recognition some of these other guys do.
For more on the premiere, here's the AP's take.
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