Health Watch and Debi Mazar on DWTS 9
This first article, from Entertainment Weekly, seriously cracks me up – it’s titled ‘Dancing with the Stars’ Health Watch. Fantastic concept, considering the fiasco that was last season which had more injuries than were even widely reported. The ignored injuries belonged to Lil’ Kim and Derek; ribs and knee, respectively. While this article claims that everyone is injury free, that’s not quite true. If you watch all the celebs and pros on twitter, you know that Derek has hurt his back/neck (again) and Mark Dacascos has a hurt foot. This article mentions, but downplays, the foot – not as sexy as a popped rib, I guess. 
The 16 contestants for Dancing With the Stars‘ ninth season have all survived their first two weeks of rehearsal (despite this photo of Donny Osmond on the ground and Mark Dacascos’ much-publicized bruised sole). The celebs, who had various start dates from August 17 through August 21, were given training guidelines for the first time in the show’s history. Why? “When they do the show in the UK, people take it much more like it’s a bit of fun, but Americans are so competitive,” exec producer Conrad Green told us when the cast was first announced. “Everyone comes into it, ‘Oh, this is a bit of fun, it’s a bit of fun… Ohmygosh, look at his quickstep, it’s incredible! I’ve got to do better!’ We do spend most of our time encouraging people to just relax a little.”
“Once the first two weeks are out of the way, there should be sufficient muscle development and muscle memory to help cope with the trauma of training,” Green said. Which means: Game on! The contestants are now on their own.
Article number two appears to be a rehearsal blog from Debi Mazar (who I root for when Derek and Joanna aren’t looking) from More.com, a blog celebrating women over 40. Some excerpts are below, but I highly recommend going to the site and reading the whole thing.
It’s been an enlightening experience: I’ve found out that I’ve been dancing sloppily for 30 years. I grew up in New York and I’ve been to salsa clubs and discos; Madonna and I used to enjoy dancing together “back in the day,” just going out and shaking it on the dance floor. But I guess we were more into freestyle, and when you go into a ballroom dancing situation it’s extremely purist in form.
I have no formal dance training, so it’s been challenging because for the first time I’m watching myself in the mirror. I do have rhythm but I don’t have form. Because I’ve had two children and two C-sections, I don’t feel like I have core strength. I lost my baby weight, but I haven’t gone back to the gym; I don’t have time. But I look like a dancer, and it’s kind of working against me, because everyone goes, “Oh, you look so great, you’re going to be fabulous!” And it’s like, but I’m out of shape! Why is size a factor? Why are you saying just because my arms are defined, which is god-given—I haven’t lifted a damn dumbbell in years—that that means I can sell it?
I have to work really hard because I’m completely uncoordinated. Maks says left, I go right; he says flex, I point. I’ve become dyslexic out of pressure. And he’ll throw me into a pose and say, “Oh, that hurts?” Yeah, it hurts! He’s always telling me how he threw Mel B. into a split, and saying, “You’ll be doing splits by the end of this.” And I’m like, “Listen, I have no desire to do a split. I didn’t do a split when I was 12, or 20, or 30, and I’m definitely not doing it at 45. And if you do a split with me I’m going to kick you in the balls and you’re going to end up in the hospital, I’m going to end up in the hospital, and we’re going to be eliminated! My legs are going to snap off like a Barbie doll’s!”
I love her. I would love to see her kick Maks in the balls, just to see the fireworks. I’m really twisted that way. 
My first week I was really broken and in pain because I hadn’t had a workout like that in a couple of years. And I picked up my daughter from camp and I was sort of crying a little bit in the car, and she goes, “Mommy, it’s not about winning.” I’m like, “You’re right, but unfortunately it is a contest and I want to stick around, I want to be good.” The thing is, I’m not a competitive person but I’m competitive with myself. So I have tried to take this on as a character study: I’ve gotten the spray tan, which is actually required because of the lighting, and the outfits are up to your crotch—I’m not used to showing off my body, and I’m dancing in a bikini, basically. I’ve gotten the nails, because it gives you pretty hands.
Hahahaha…I knew Debi would be a fun one to watch. And yes Heidi, I would love to see Debi kick Maks in the crotch…just for entertainment value (I am a bad, bad person. LOL) Maks always does seem to get a rise out of his partners…and so far it seems like the only one who really dished it out in return was Mel B. I have a feeling a sassy New Yorker like Debi ain’t gonna take his crap laying down…could be a major blow-up between these two. I guess we’ll have to stay tuned!
funny! i think i will enjoy debi too. i have loved her for a long time. it is true as well that abc and other entertainment shows choose to highlight certain injuries over others. i was so ticked off last year at how they did not highlight lil kim and derek’s injuries but almost shut down the show for Melissa. let’s all hope they stay healthy this year.
I think Derek’s and Kim’s injuries were downplayed to an extant because they are both performers and I think ABC’s thinking in hyping Melissa’s injury is that “she’s not a performer so it’s more serious OMG.”
This is just my opinion and shouldn’t happen but I really think they did it for ratings
but Melissa didn’t perform on the night ,how they would hide that ,it is different, Ty had a small injure too but nobody knew, i know because i saw this interview with Jewl, when the injure is big like Melissa or Derek on season 6 they always show.
It really gives an advantage to the person injured. But I really think that it’s also not in Derek or Kim’s nature to make a big deal of an injury because they ARE performers – and the show must go on, no matter what. Derek supposedly twisted his knee pretty badly, to the point it was swelling. The ONLY reason we know about it is because he tweeted – but if I remember correctly, he then erased the tweet.
As you will see in some videos that I upload tomorrow, Donny is already listing his injuries. :::sigh:::
we can’t forget Gilles and his shoulder ,he make sure to remenber us pretty much every week about,and there is a interview that he give to Maks sayng that his shoulder was completelys epareded ,wich for me is a big lie becouse he wouldn’t be able to dance like he did if his shoulder was completely separeded .Mark when he had his shoulder problem had to go right to the hospital and had surgery before even think about dancing again, and i still think Melissa injure is very weird because she was just fine in the next week,but whatever.
And guess what? Now Donny has a broken bone in his foot. I’ll be posting that video shortly. :::rolls eyes:::
Your bias against Maksim shows up in so many columns, and I do so wish you’d get to know him better to rid yourself of it. What somebody who id’s himself as in Maks’ camp says is certainly not what Maksim himself would say. Indeed he’s thoroughly consistent in saying it’s all private!!
Beyond that he’s a gentlemanly, talented, businesslike, and gorgeous guy. You really need to get better acquainted with him.