Another football guy to Dance with the Stars
How would you like to watch this man do the mambo? Don’t be stunned. It could happen.
Professional athletes have done well on Dancing with the Stars. Kristi Yamaguchi, ice skating star; Apolo Anton Ohno, Olympic speed skater; Helio Castroneves, race-car driver. It’s also true that pro football players have done very well. Former Dallas Cowboy great Emmitt Smith won in 2006, and Miami Dolphins’ Jason Taylor came in second this year.
Therefore, it’s not surprising to hear that the producer of DWTS are courting another grid iron great, but this one? Warren Sapp, a recently retired defensive tackle, says that he’s been invited to Dancing With the Stars and he’s thinks he’s going to do it.
Warren says he’s been asked, but I’ll believe this when it’s announced by ABC. I’m not saying he’s lying, I just think something may have been lost in the translation.
When asked by the St. Petersburg Times if he’s been approached by Dancing, he said, “Yeah, it’s something that sort of came out of nowhere. But I enjoy the idea of training for something else. My whole life has been football. I could hang out in L.A. for a few weeks. My daughter would love it. There’s nothing wrong with my smile. I don’t think I speak Ebonics. I think I will (do the show).”
It’s true that Warren has a nice smile, and he is a personality. He’s larger than life, some would say — literally. Sapp is a big man. Not big as in built and gorgeous like Jason Taylor.
Warren has been called fat and flabby and perpetually out of shape, and that was by football writers. Can you imagine what the judges would say of his paso doble? There’s nothing graceful or handsome about Warren Sapp. He was a powerful player for the University of Miami, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and (to a lesser extent) the Oakland Raiders.
But he’s no dancer. If DWTS really has asked him to participate, he’ll be eliminated fast.
Gisele Bundchen’s Miami Beach Bikini Outing
Gisele Bundchen’s Miami Beach Bikini Outing
With her quarterback boyfriend playing a game at Dolphins Stadium today, Gisele Bundchen took the chance to soak up a few rays on Miami Beach.
Just yesterday (October 20), the supermodel strutted the shoreline and frolicked about the water in her black bikini, turning heads along the way.
Her man, Tom Brady, will be battling it out as his New England Patriots take on the Miami Dolphins in a day game, which Gisele most certainly will attend.
Unless the two are still fighting, that is. A Gawker insider said that they spotted the couple not long ago in NYC, telling, “I saw Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady this Monday at Extra Virgin and they were fighting. Everybody was looking at them, until Gisele left Tom at the table—seated alone! Drama!”
But then again, she probably wouldn’t be in Miami in the first place if that were the case.
Cristián de la Fuente Going Under the Knife
Just call it Surgery With the Stars.
Cristián de la Fuente may have injured himself pretty badly earlier this week on Dancing With the Stars, but he insists the show will go.
“This Monday we will be dancing,” de la Fuente said last night at the15th annual Race to Erase MS gala benefiting the Nancy Davis Foundation for Multiple Sclerosis in Los Angeles. “We have the tango and the mambo.”
Even so, de la Fuente will eventually undergo surgery. “They have to reattach the tendon to the bone,” he said. “They put you to sleep, do the surgery and then you have a month and a half recovery.”
Fellow DWTS contestant football star Jason Taylor is lending a hand, too.
“He called the Miami Dolphins, and they sent two braces,” de la Fuente said. “It’s with metal so that helps the arm not move into a direction I don’t want it to.”
Meanwhile, Derek Hough gushed over his maybe-girlfriend Shannon Elizabeth. “It’s undeniable we have great chemistry,” he said. “I mean, every day we find something. We’re like the same person. It’s really funny. She makes the same silly voices that I do and I’m like, Wait! You make that, too?"
Also part of the serious fun at the the Race to Erase MS benefit at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza: a Tommy Hilfiger celebrity fashion show and a live auction emceed by Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlinwhere a shopping and lunch date with Paris and Nicky Hilton went for $14,000. That's what we call putting the super in superficial. Kudos to all.
Additional reporting by Laura Lane
DWTS Beat-by-Beat: Kristi Golden, Is Marlee Going?
Step in time with our Dancing with the Stars blog:
It's the sixth week of the sixth season of Dancing with the Stars, meaning it's time for the seven remaining celebs' first group dance and a motley assortment of performances determined by what each high-profile hoofer has yet to try. And away they go! (And by "they" we mean clothesEdyta's looking quite scantily clad out there…)
8:06 p.m.: Going just by Jason Taylor's moves, it's hard to believe the Miami Dolphins were so utterly hopeless last season. The ridiculously well-formed defensive end earned only a 24 on his cha-cha (his lowest in three weeks) but, hey, so goes the burden of being an early favoritethose persnickety judges expect a lot.
8:12 p.m.: Derek Hough brought Shannon Elizabeth flowers during rehearsal, apparently an apology for being a one-man DWTS drama factory for the last couple of weeks. Or, just a sneaky way to bring flowers to the girl he was cuddling up with on the beach (albeit during rumba practice, but whatever).
8:15 p.m.: Unfortunately for the pair, who seem to be having a ball with each other both on and off the dance floor, Elizabeth's hips are still MIA and the judges called her out for it. But, they admitted she and Hough had chemistry to spare, and gave her a 24 despite the scolding.
"We got into character, what can I say?" Hough said backstage when asked about their oceanside romp.
8:18 p.m.: In two weeks, DWTS marks its 100th episode (my, how the time flies when you're watching careers get resuscitated before your eyes…) with the help of 30 former contestants and all sorts of syncopated shenanigans.
8:24 p.m.: Even though Henry Winkler stopped by to give her a pep talks, the rhythm finally got to Marlee Matlin. She looked unbelievable in strategically cut out tiger stripes but lost her timing repeatedly while dancing a seemingly slo-mo mambo. The judges agreed, her musicality was off. (The blue eyeshadow didn't help, either.)
8:37 p.m.: Now's the time to patronize your local farmers market. Len Goodman just vowed to "show my bum in the supermarket" if Cristián de la Fuente and Cheryl Burke repeat in the bottom two after their elegant, color-coordinated fox-trot. Pink never looked so dashing on a man.
In turn, the actor received a 27, his highest score of the competition.
8:50 p.m.: A morose ballad about stabbing an unfaithful lover to death doesn't exactly scream grace and proprietybut Marissa Jaret Winokur's Viennese waltz, danced to "Delilah," was lovely just the same. The wee Tony winner was, as Tonioli said, "all light and frothy" as she stopped bouncing and started glidingall the way to a 26, her best score of the season.
9:02 p.m.: And the first 30 of the season goes to…surprise, surprise…Kristi Yamaguchi! We all knew it was only a matter of time before the ice queenwho was born with club feet, she revealed as she practiced her jiveskated away with a perfect score.
9:15 p.m.: "Better than good sex" was how Carrie Ann characterized Mario and the practically bedsheet-clad Karina Smirnoff's smokin' rumba, which, in addition to a vice-squad raid, earned the R&B singer his first 10 of the season (the sign of ultimate approval coming from Bruno Tonioli, who always appreciates a good simulated mating dance).
9:22 p.m.: If you've been thinking the cowboy in your life has been slacking in the sparkly embroidery and faux holster department (or if you just really want to see Mario do a cartwheel), then saddle up, because the final seven contestants are going country for the first group dance of the season.
It might not get them anywhere with Carrie Ann, Len and Bruno but this hoedown/square dance melange could count for something when it comes time for the fans to pass judgment.
When all was said and danced, Yamaguchi (30) once again stood triumphant atop the leader board; Mario (28), de la Fuente (27) and Winokur (26) had made major inroads; Taylor and Elizabeth (both 24) had taken a few steps back and Matlin (21) was left hoping the at-home voters provide the needed va-va-voom.