Whenever we report on Dancing With The Stars, people inevitably comment that there are no real stars involved. To me it doesn’t matter that it’s all has beens and never will-bes because their personalities come out on the show, and we’ve usually heard of at least some of them. Last season there was Kirstie Alley and she’s a minor television personality and cult spokesperson, and this season we have David Arquette, a minor movie personality and chronic oversharer. Other just-announced participants include transgender advocate and Cher’s son, Chaz Bono (as rumored), George Clooney’s ex, Elisabetta Canalis (also as rumored), acerbic legal analyst Nancy Grace, and former talkshow hostess Ricki Lake. It’s a decent group of people, and some of them are sure to bring it this season. Here’s more:
With its flair for a mix of athletes, reality stars, former stars and personalities, it looks like next season will not disappoint! Check out the new cast, according to ABC: Ricki Lake, 42, actress and talk show host; Ron Artest, 31, NBA star; Kristin Cavallari, 24, former star of Laguna Beach and The Hills, Chynna Phillips, 42, pop singer; David Arquette, 39, actor; Carson Kressley, 41, TV personality and style expert; Nancy Grace, 51, HLN host and legal commentator; J.R. Martinez, 28, Army vet and All My Children star; Hope Solo, U.S. soccer player; Rob Kardashian, 24, Keeping Up With the Kardashians star; Elisabetta Canalis, 32, Italian actress and George Clooney’s ex-girlfriend; and Chaz Bono, 42, author and star of Becoming Chaz, son of Cher and Sonny Bono.
[From OK! Magazine]
We’ve seen Elisabetta Canalis try to dance and it’s not pretty. She’ll probably be out in a couple of weeks. Also, I could have sworn that Kristin Cavallari is the chick who is dating George Clooney now, but I always confuse her with Stacy Kiebler, who is his current piece (or she was a couple of weeks ago) and also participated on DWTS back in 2006. It almost doesn’t matter who we already know, though, because it’s usually the athletes who take home the mirror ball. I’m not as familiar with them.
Here are the official cast portraits, from ABC.
How much would you love to see Nancy Grace fall on her ass?
Kristin Cavallari’s makeup is ridiculous.
J.R. Martinez is an Iraq war veteran and soap actor and he sustained burns to his face in the line of duty. I’ve never heard of him, and he’s got an inspiring story.
I loved Carson Kressley on Queer Eye.
Chynna Phillips needs to lay off the ‘tox.
Daivd Arquette should bring some laughs. He’ll probably wear some silly outfits.
And you know Elisabetta is going to be all about the T&A. She’ll probably be hanging out more than Pamela Anderson did.
RON ARTEST BABY!!! metta world peace for the win!!!
I would ONLY watch for the Iraqi vet and Chaz.
I’ve NEVER watched, so that is saying A. LOT.
Actually, maybe this won’t be that bad? I’ve never watched, but they’re not total d-listers. Except for Elisabetta….and Rob…wait, ok.
dancing with the STARS!!! Are you kidding me, no STARS here
I may have to tune in just for Nancy, my curiosity will get the best of me with that one. I dont think I could stand to watch Elisabetta, hopefully she’ll get kicked off on the first show. Ill watch after she goes.
Dancing with the stars ? more like “dancing with the has-been and never-been”
That poor guy, J.R. Martinez.
Sustained such burns and for what? Protect the interest of a bunch of rich people who got tax-cuts on top of that while sending their children to private schools, not the army.
Worse than ever!
Nancy grace is going to be a mess.
I’m rooting for Ricki!
I saw the roster and shook my head. If one is looking to be taken seriously this is an awful opportunity for them(like career suicide). Chaz is an advocate, Nancy Grace a talking head on serious matters. Who would “listen” to them after their participation in this three ring circus. I had boycotted the show after seeing Palin promoted (awful dancer that she was/is) but I will definitely turn on this season to see the lot make fools of themselves.
The only one worth watching is the war veteran. No one else is even slightly interesting. The show is on it’s last leg. George Clooneys ex? Really?
@Flan ITA
I always think along these lines when I see stories like his “That is another man compromising his entire life and his family’s life to protect the interest of a powerful group who would never take their places, btw”.
Chynna and her receding hairline are stars.
Pretty lame when your claim to fame is being somebody’s ex-girlfriend.
@Skins In Eli Canalis’ case, being someone’s ex-girlfriend is her ENTIRE CAREER.
I will be cheering on Hope!
Stars my a$% they should call that show “Dancing With Anyone Whose Name You May Recognize”!
@Flan & @Grace: Neither of you apparently has any idea what being in military is really about. This is a thread about Dancing with the Stars–please keep you political viewpoints limited to another thread.
As a proud member of the US Army for over 13yrs I can tell you that being in the service has nothing to do with politics and ‘rich white guys.’ If you ask an injured soldier “What was it for?” he’d tell you it was for his comrades, his family, and for you.
PS I thought DWTS was going to guarantee a ‘more A-list’ cast? Fail. A male Kardashian? A woman only known for dating a famous guy (George)? The biggest name is Ron Artest for Pete’s sake!
Hope Solo FTW!!!
I may tune in to watch Clooney’s ex but I actually do not watch this..
nahhh, I’ll pass altogether..
I’ll catch clips of The EX Mrs Clooney on utube..and get my giggles there.
Trainwreck..won’t be watching…wait, it might be interesting to see the Kardashian kid actually DO SOMETHING as I highly doubt this loser ever works at anything except taking up space.
Flan and Grace, they are not serving white men and their business interests. They are serving you so you continue to live in a free country and can continue being an ass about it. You’re welcome for my fater in law’s service, my husband’s service and my son’s. Happy you appreciate it.
I really enjoy JR Martinez on AMC on the times I’ve watched him, so it will be interesting to see him on Dancing. He has a very charming, charasmatic personality I think – not the best actor in the world – but I don’t believe it’s his main profession so I give him a pass there. Looking over this list – he’ll get my votes on a weekly basis, even if I’m not watching!
Flan is right. My husband is a Gulf War vet and would agree as well. It’s not necessarily rich white men though, it’s actually another group of extremely rich powerful people who shape our foreign policy…but I will not say who. However it is pretty obvious if you think of who has the most interest in the Middle East and why. I love and support our military, as does my husband, and I feel that supporting our military does not mean blindly cheerleading policies that send them to be killed and maimed for nation-building and meddling in affairs that do not concern us. Wanting to prevent needless and pointless deaths is, IMO, truly supporting our troops. And I’m about as right-wing as they come but that does not mean supporting asinine policies that get our fellow citizens/soldiers killed. Hope that makes sense! Oh and DWTS is sooo lame lol! But we might check it out for Nancy Grace and Metta World Peace (who according to my basketball fan husband is actually mildly retarded). Good times man!
GO J.R.!!
I thought the army veteran was Seal. I don’t even know him but I’m rooting for him.
Chaz Bono–oh that will be fun. he’s so graceful. Nancy Grace..Kate Gosselin revisited. David Arquette will do well on the show.
GO CARSON! 😀
Flan this is not the place to debate the Iraq war; because to do it properly we would have to extensively discuss the way the first bush ad conducted the Persian Gulf war and all the complications during both Clinton administrations, but to play the faux “anti-war” leftist (did you ever oppose saddam’s war on the Kurds, probably not, selective moral indignation is not admirable);
Some points: on moral grounds alone the sadism, as several new movies and books have highlighted, of saddam’s regime would be grounds enough to overthrow the dictatorship; second point – the wall street journal, among others, has pointed out recently, that many of the contracts in oil are going to countries like france, china, gulf states, etc.;
Third – the price and control of oil from the persian gulf affects all people, rich and poor, and since like it or not we are dependent on that oil, defending access to it is not immoral.
Fourth, how does it benefit poor people if the dictator of Iran gains control of the gulf and jacks oil up to 7 dollars a barrel?
Finally, i’m liberal, but a thinking liberal not a knee jerk lib, and plenty of rich libs take advantage of cheap oil while letting other sons and daughters fight to defend it – no ideology or political party is without hypocrisy.
Sandrine, what does “blind cheerleading” have to do with complex political, moral, strategic arguments on whether the US should militarly act in places around the world.
Jover as a fedarist/conservative, I wholeheartedly agree with your post! It was a very eloquent post. Thank you.
You should see the load of horseshit that ABC has put on their site as skanknalis’s bio. I’ve never seen such a blatant whitewash job. You know whoever was tasked with writing it must have laughed his/her ass off while doing it. Credit goes to the Italian blog http://www.levipere.com for the link: http://abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars/cast-announcement/ThemeGallery/842920
They refer to her “gorgeous figure and striking expressions” when they should say she’s cokewhore thin with bowlegs and has arrogant nasty expressions. They list the names of magazines she’s been on but don’t bother to mention that almost all of them were Italian versions of the magazines and that she was on most of them only after she was associated with Clooney. They also don’t mention that the Cavalli contract was her only “fashion model” job, and that it started and ended with her association with Clooney. They refer to her job on Striscia la Notizia as an acting role rather than simply dancing half naked every once in a while during the show, and they say she received critical acclaim for this “role.” I’m going to quote what they said about “Leverage,” as it boggles the mind:
“Elisabetta has also demonstrated her impressive dramatic capabilities in America with a recurring role on TNT’s smash hit Leverage.”
Impressive dramatic capabilities? Recurring role? Um, her number of episodes were cut because she was awful, and she was on for less than one season. They also mention the “anti-fur campaign for PETA,” but they don’t mention it being a nude shoot, or that she wore a fur coat on a red carpet or that she was photographed yanking her dog up by his leash instead of picking him up. And of course, they don’t mention that she’s implicated in a drugs and prostitution investigation in Italy.
Do they actually want people to WATCH this show? Because this cast is a joke. I have watched this show ever since it started, and the last two seasons almost made me quit watching (Kate Gosselin, Bristol Palin, Situation, ughh!) but I hung in there. But I absolutely WILL NOT watch Nancy Grace for love or money. CAN’T STAND HER. And Chaz Bono — really? Who wants to watch it dance? Not me. I’m through with it; its insulting to expect us to give up our time for this mess.
I might watch this dreck for the first time.
Hope Solo FTW indeed.
I was hoping the rumor that Ryan O’Neal would be on was true, but it wasn’t.
Don’t watch the show but if I give it any consideration it would be because:
A. Martinez: want to know more
B. Arquette: he’s entertaining (& loveable in a semi-tragic way)
C. Grace:
1. I would love to see her fall on
her a**
2. I would just delight in seeing
her have to SHUT THE F*** UP and
actually listen to somewhat
else is saying especially if
they tear her to pieces with no
mercy
But, probably won’t watch it. Hope the stuff with Grace happens though and I can search the net for a clip!
I second what Flan and Sandrine say. You’ll never see the rich & privileged in the military. It’s people like JT that pay the price for human greed & Western arrogance.
Having said that, I’m stoked for Chaz, Carson, and JT! Not sure about Nancy, and bad move DWTS getting Elisabetta & Chynna & Kristin on the list.
What a shit cast. There are a couple I wouldn’t mind seeing, but most are a joke. I’ve always liked this show until a couple of seasons ago when they put on that Gosselin creature and then ‘Teen Advocate’ Bristol Palin, but they are really grasping and it’s turned into a freak show. I’m over it.
Great detective work observer;
Eternalcanadian, what western arrogance; I don’t want to be political on a celebutard thread, but sanctions on Iraq were approved by the UN in the 1990s before shrub’s admin.;
Second, unless your life is completely green, you’re the beneficiary of relatively inexpensive oil, too, get off your moral highhorse;
You and others remind me of George Orwell’s comment that western democracies have produced people that don’t want to know where their security and wealth come from in order to maintain their political and moral purity;
I opposed the Iraq war, however, the kurdish and shia communities may not like our invasion, they certainly are shedding no tears for the demise of Saddam’s sunni dictatorship.
It’s a complicated world out there and tossing around loaded and empty phrases like “western arrogance” doesn’t help”;
Btw, where do most of the world’s refugees emigrate to – the western democracies.
DWTS must have a lot of people turn them down if this is the best they can come up with. I cannot stand Nancy Grace. She’s as irritating as Suze Ormon. Chaz Bono could use the weight loss that comes with the show, but he doesn’t look healthy enough for the daily rigors of dance training. He’ll probably get an injury and have to drop out.
George Clooney has now dated three women from DWTS? He is going to be the brunt of so many jokes. Elisabetta Canalis, with the right instructor (I’m betting she gets someone who speaks Italian) may actually learn to dance without making a fool of herself, which will help her when she lands back in Italy dancing on tables, umm, I mean Italian shows.
Ryan O’Neal would have been fun to watch, but he’d just blame everyone else around him whenever he screwed up. He never takes responsibility for anything, and has passed that trait onto his kids.
The only way to watch this show is to tape it and skip over all the awful parts. Which sounds like it could be pretty much the entire show this season.
Jover-
Blind cheerleading is relevant simply because so many people seem to confuse criticism of the REASONS we go to war with hating the military and being unsupportive and unappreciative of their sacrifices on our behalf. I was simply trying to point out that you can support the military while questioning their mission.
Also, I personally do not think we have ANY business intervening in the affairs of other countries unless it is in America’s defense. I absolutely oppose any form of so-called “humanitarian intervention”, and think we need to focus on fixing the US instead of “bringing democracy” to nations that do not want it. We cannot and should not be “Team America: Captain Save a Ho”, we need to focus on building a nation that can be self-sufficient as possible so we won’t need to meddle or get involved in many of the world’s petty squabbles. It would save us a lot of money as well if we weren’t fighting stupid wars. Bring our troops home, put them on the border, have them build roads, etc. We have focused on the needs of other nations while ignoring our own, and we wonder why we are going down the crapper! So basically, screw everyone else, we got tons of issues of our own.
they really should have tried to get another jackass, i only watched the show when Steve O was on.
Is Kevin Federline inelegible?
Sorry…. can’t bring myself to watch Chaz Bono. I’ll be skipping the show this year.
DWTS a human tragedy. and a misnomer. maybe notorious is a better word. anyway, this show is fixed imo. “reality” shows (another misnomer) are voyeuristic by nature. don’t blame the “stars” that “dance” on this show, blame the viewing public without which these shows would not and could not exist. in these economic times who would turn down the money paid, albeit for a foray into public humiliation? pride is for sale, the money compensatory.
They should do like they did in Swedish version of Dancing with the Stars: have atleast one openly gay judge and a 150 kgs strongman with a great ass, it makes for great entertainment.
The real name of this show should be.I Need The Money and hopefully you can turn me into a Star.BTW I’d love to see Bruno try to criticize Nancy Grace we all know she won’t be going down without a fight
So excited about Ricki Lake and Carson Kressly
Nancy Grace… ewwww!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don’t watch DWTS, but I hope the judges don’t pull any punches regarding NG. NG is a total bully and if she sucks, she should be told so.
I would watch this just for Carson Kressly. I LOVE him.
Will Canalis be leading?
Re; the’cast’ list. Is this what’s called scraping the bottom of the celebrity barrel?
“Sustained such burns and for what? Protect the interest of a bunch of rich people who got tax-cuts on top of that while sending their children to private schools, not the army.”
Geez, maybe you should tell him that to his face. Or, you could chat up a family member of someone who’s KIA. Perhaps picket the funeral or something, holding a big sign. I’m sure your message will be well received.
“Sustained such burns and for what? Protect the interest of a bunch of rich people who got tax-cuts on top of that while sending their children to private schools, not the army.”
That’s a true statement, but that doesn’t mean the guy isn’t aware of this fact, and it doesn’t mean that other people who are aware of this fact have anything against him. I feel bad for him and for anyone harmed in war. It’s a game played by the rich and powerful.
@Sam: I appreciate soldiers a lot, which is why I feel sorry for those being send on wars that were ill-prepared and unclearly-justified.
This should have been clear from my comment, since I expressed sympathy, not scorn for soldiers. No need to mention your family just because you want to feel indignant about something neither Grace nor I even said.
@Jover,since J.R. Martinez is introduced here as a war veteran and as someone who sustained burns during this war, viewpoints about this should be allowed to be mentioned here. Also, funny that the person says we should not discuss the Iraq war here, writes the most about it 😉
@32. Observer: Thanks for that overview, I’m LMAO!! It’s a pity the Americans haven’t got a clue what television is like in Berlusconistan, i.e., women can become big stars in Italy by shaking their asses on a weekly basis on a tv show. And I don’t mean ‘cohosting in skimpy outfits’. They do not say a word. I guess it’s great for the likes of Eli Canalis though, who can brag about being ‘a tv star’ in Italy without even lying about it. It’s true. How sad.
ooo, good call- I wonder why K-Fed hasn’t done it? He’s a dancer, right? and god knows he could stand to lose some weight, Kirsty Alley-style.
%53 I never said people weren’t allowed to discuss Iraq or any subject on this site – don’t put words in my mouth. In both my posts I made specific statements, not airy generalizations, which neither you nor several others have specifically addressed. Oh, so WW2 was just a game by the rich and powerful and it didn’t matter who won; and it doesn’t matter who wins in Libya – tell that to the libyan people. As George Orwell remarked, it usually does matter who wins in conflicts even if comfortable citizens of western democracies are too snooty to acknowledge the fact. Just because there are causes for which you wouldn’t die doesn’t mean other human beings won’t fight and die for them, and that doesn’t necessarily make them senseless. Where’s you’re multicultural understanding?
Watching Nancy Grace “dance” on this show is hilarious; she looks like one of those stiff, blow-up dolls being dragged around the floor by her partner. I think tuning in is worth my time because it gives me a huge pre-sleep giggle (and sweet dreams about what it’s going to look like to see
Grace deflate when she falls on her butt).
Sir. Archbishop Michael