Yes, I am (mis)quoting a cartoon. Why? It’s the first thing that sprang to mind when reading Access Hollywood:

But Access’ “Dancing” casting news doesn’t end there!

Access has also learned someone who has walked on the moon is set to shake their former-intergalactic groove thing in the ballroom too, the source said.

Buzz Aldrin, who was the second person to set foot on the moon, is the favorite, thanks to his regular appearances across television. Although, it still yet could be Neil Armstrong.

Buzz has appeared on “The Simpsons,” “Celebrity Jeopardy,” “NUMB3RS” and most recently, “The Price Is Right” in November 2009.

Access Hollywood also confirms that Pam Anderson will be dancing this season. And after being afraid that Derek might not even be on the show, I’m actually okay with her dancing with my favorite. It’s called perspective, people.

The following was dug up by Reality TV Magazine when they found some court documents that details what Shawn Johnson was being paid to be on Dancing with the Stars. My commentary will follow:

According to the contract filed in court between Johnson and BBC Worldwide Productions, which produces the show, Shawn Johnson is being paid a guarantee of $125,000 to do the show, Access Hollywood has reported. The guarantee covers training, the first two weeks of Dancing With The Stars and her appearance at the finale.

Shawn Johnson will receive $10,000 for getting through the third and fourth weeks of Dancing With The Stars.
…
For weeks 5, 6 and 7, the gymnast will take home $20,000 a week. She’ll earn $30,000 for weeks 8 and 9, and if she makes it to weeks 10 and 11, Shawn Johnson will earn $50,000 a week, for a grand total of $365,000.

If Dancing With The Stars chooses to produce specials of the show she can earn $30,000 for each one made.

The money doesn’t end there either. Future Dancing With The Stars programming which would complement her Dancing With The Stars run would earn Shawn Johnson $10,000 per show, and $5,000 for each in studio interview promoting the possible new official programming tied into the show. She is not paid, however, to do publicity for the show.
Source

Ok, so we all knew that Dancing with the Stars was paying a reasonably large amount of money for the stars to participate. It’s just fun to see the actual numbers. Seems like a reasonable sum to me considering she’s going out of her comfort zone and dancing in front of 30 million people LIVE each week. I’m really happy for her and I’m glad that she’s getting paid. I’m sure she’s doing alright for herself, but being a gymnast isn’t the most lucrative job in the world I’m sure. Granted, she is probably the highest earning gymnast in America. Regardless I’m cool with the amount. Doesn’t sound too outrageous to me.

What would be interesting is to know how much Woz and Mark Cuban got paid/are getting paid. They are both billionaires and so $365,000 (which they’ll get much less) is just more than a rounding error for them. Hopefully they did something nice and gave it to charity.

I bet Melissa must be really happy. I wonder how much she’s getting paid to step in at the last minute and do this. Enough for her to quit her job. I’m actually glad she’s getting paid after Jason Mesnick screwed her over. There’s always a silver lining.