…Brooke Burke.  Keeping in mind that I can’t see the announcement on GMA for another hour or so – but Twitter is lighting up in congratulatory messages.  So…CONGRATULATIONS BROOKE!!!

I just happened to notice these when I was adding Niecy to my DWTS list on twitter – and I thought they were sweet.

I think Conrad makes a lot of good points on EW.com. Visit the site to read all of his comment – I’ve excerpted bits and pieces, below.

On Aiden Turner:

”A lot of people at the title shoot we just had were saying, ‘Oh, I thought Gilles [Marini] was the hottest star we’ve ever had until I saw Aiden.’ I’m British, and he’s British, so we’re less able to judge these things, but the reaction of a lot of the girls in the studio was promising.

Really??? He doesn’t do much for me at all. And Gilles sure did!!

On Chad Ochocinco:

”He’s the most flamboyant footballer out there at the moment — the one putting on a sombrero and bringing out a cell phone after scoring a touchdown and ringing his agent. So on our show, he can expand on some of those things and not get fined by the NFL for doing it!

Oh, Chad – this will be a fine line to walk with the audience of this show. Careful, dude.

On Erin Andrews:

”She did a bit of dancing when she was a kid, so she’s comfortable moving. She’s got an incredible figure, and she’s with Maks, so they’ll be a super-hot pair. We’ve been quite firm with him that he’s not to bully her.

She *danced* as a kid!!!??!! Ringer! Ringer! <----sarcasm. Seriously, though, I think Erin has a lot of potential and, according to HER, she's been dancing her whole life. We'll see. VERY interesting comment about Maks. I think Erin will be fine - he barks at people but they all seem to love him after it's over.

On Evan Lysecek:

”We met Evan, and we just really liked his personality. We thought he’d be someone the audience would really warm to, and that was before he won gold. We were watching the Olympics, thinking, ‘God, God, please, God!’ We’re hoping it all portends a really good season.”

Ahhhhh….they cast him BEFORE the Olympics. Well, that’s very interesting indeed. If true.

On Kate Gosselin:

I remember before Jerry Springer came on the show, a lot of people said, ‘I can’t stand Jerry Springer.’ And now he’s a very beloved figure. Kate’s a really nice woman. I think a lot of people are really gonna warm to her on the show. It’s a nice chance for the audience to come to a much closer understanding of these people.”

No comment.

On Nicole Scherzinger:

”For the Pussycat Dolls, she was primarily booked as a vocalist, not a dancer. I don’t think she’s got any more dance background than Mel B. had, or Joey Fatone, or Drew Lachey. We’ve had a number of people like that — Mya, last season — but only one of those people have won. I think the audience does compensate, you know? I think if they see someone come from nowhere and do well, they tend to appreciate that more. So she’s got to overcome that. It’ll be more pressure for Derek, too.”

Yep, I would agree. Although I don’t know if Derek gets pressured to win as much as he gets pressured to live up to his own rep as a stellar choreographer.

Just looked at the the male pros/female celebs and if you match them strictly by height, it goes something like this:

Derek 5′10″ Kate 5′7″
Maks 6′ Pam 5′7″
Mark 5′8″ Shannen5′3″
Tony 6′ Erin 5′10″
Damian 5′7″ Nicole 5′5″
Louis 5′7″ Nicey 5′4″

Of course, as you can see, they didn’t go strictly by height with a pairing that was confirmed – Mark and Shannen. So, I guess we’ll see. And I have to say, even if Derek gets a crappy partner, Heidi has LOTS of eye candy. Evan and Aiden?? Yowza!! Okay, the rest of the celebrities…

Jake Pavelka

Wiki
ABC Bio
Age: 32
Height: 5′8″
Profession: claims to be a pilot, but is on his third reality show
Professional Partner Guess: Chelsie

Aiden Turner

Official Site
Twitter Unverified
MySpace
Age: 26
Height: 6′
Profession: Actor (and eye candy)
Professional Partner Guess: Anna Trebunskaya

Buzz Aldren

Wiki
Official Site??
Age: 80
Height: 5′10″
Profession: Former Astronaut
Professional Partner Guess: No clue….hey, how about Shirley Ballas??

Okay, now that I’ve laid it all out, I’ve revised my male celeb/female pro line up:

Chelsie/Jake
Cheryl/Aiden
Edyta /Evan
Anna T./Chad
????/Buzz

I tried to go a little against type with Anna and Edyta – we’ll see.

Kate Gosselin

Wiki
Age: 34
Height: 5′7″
Profession: Professional Mom
Professional Partner Guess: Maks or Derek

Pam Anderson

Wiki
Twitter
Official Website
Age: 42
Height: 5′7″
Profession: Model/Actress, best known for Baywatch
Professional Partner GUESS: Wouldn’t be at all surprised if it were Derek, but maybe Damian??

Erin Andrews

Wiki
Twitter ??
Age: 31
Height: 5′ 10″
Profession: Sports Reporter for ESPN
Professional Partner Guess: Tony

Niecy Nash

Official Site
Twitter
Wiki
Age: 40
Height: 5′4″
Profession: Actress
Professional Partner Guess: Louis

I have no clue who’s going to get which partner, but I fully expect to be disappointed. Now that I think about it, I hear Damian is short, so he’ll probably get Nicole which will just piss me off.

ETA2: Finally!!!

Pamela Anderson

Buzz Aldrin

Aidan Turner

Erin Andrews

Chad Ochocinco

Shannen Doherty

Niecy Nash

Nicole Scherzinger

Evan Lyacek

Kate Gosselin

ETA1 – AAArRrrrhhh

I think I might hate you, Tom Bergeron.

Okay, just kidding, but the teasing is killing me.

I decided to move this up to the top of the page for easier access. I hope everyone finds it!! The evil folks at DWTS are going to make me sit through the whole damn show before they tell me anything, I just have a feeling.

This is the place – T-minus 10 minutes and I’ve got 7 celebs written up. I wonder how many will end up being correct? Any guesses on how they will do this?? One celeb every fifteen minutes?

In other news: Mark and Chelsie both tweeted about doing the title shoots today.

So, one of Corky Ballas’ supposed nom d’plumes gave out a hint on the ABC message boards that Mark is partnered with someone from 90210.

You can always count on Corky’s inability to keep his mouth shut.

Qualifier: I have no clue if he’s for real or not – but let’s just say this isn’t the first time this has happened. Of course, it could be the cousin with the large mouth. Whoever – thanks! I was starting to think that the producers had succeeded. And that’s not fun.

Yeah, I’ve had a busy weekend and I’ve been slacking off the rumor department. The producers have lulled me into believing I won’t find anything when I look. So, it’s catchup time. I apologize in advance if I mention something that someone already said in the comments and I don’t give you credit. I can barely remember my last name.

Kate Gosselin seems to have gone from rumor to sure thing – I know that was mentioned in the comments – there have been a few tweets from people running into her at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and supposedly she says she’s dancing. Which sucks. I expect her to get Derek – but I’m so happy he’s on the show that I don’t care. As should all of us who have favorite pros – beggars can’t be choosers.

Now, who’s this Nicole from the Pussycat Dolls chick?? She’s gorgeous, and rumor has it she’s dancing. Yeah, it’s not a GREAT source, but it’s also not the first time I’ve heard it. She appears tall, and she’s gorgeous. Maks? She’d be beautiful with either him or Derek.

Rebecca Budig of All My Children? Still a rumor I think, but she seems like a Mark partner. Someone with no baggage and a lot of potential.

Paula Abdul? Nope, not according to TMZ! After hearing about Kate Gosselin and thinking it likely that Derek gets her – I’m kinda wanting Paula back.

Pam Anderson – still seems to be a sure thing, but one of my buds (Hi, Caroline) told me that Evan Lysacek was tweeting about hanging out with her. Now, Evan has plainly stated to Cheryl Burke that he would LOVE to be on DWTS, so Caroline got excited and thought maybe they were hanging at the DWTS training center. But following his tweets, it seems he saw Pam at the Figure Skating exhibition last night. Pam is from Vancouver, as I recall, so it could be a really huge coincidence. But damn, that would be AWESOME. That would give me someone hot to root for if Derek gets someone crappy and exits early (for a change). Since Mark Ballas tweeted last night that he was done with his second day of training, he clearly didn’t get Pam.

Hmmm….Chad Ochocinco is heading back to Miami after a day at “Hollywood Studios” – Disney? Wonder if he’s taking a pro dancer back to Miami with him? Since the new cast is going on Kimmel tomorrow night, I wonder if this eliminates him. Of course, the whole cast doesn’t have to go.

So the dude from the Deadliest Catch, Sig Hansen (yes, I had to google) wants to be on DWTS? Get in line, dude. Evan is cuter.

Thought I’d switch it up and do the men today – pardon the expression. We’ll come back to the rest of the women later. Thanks again to the fans that helped me out with finding the information! If I leave anything significant out, let me know and I’ll update.

First up?
Maksim Chmerkovskiy

Status: Confirmed for Season 10 – not in so many words.

Thanks to Diana for all the Maks info. You can visit Maks’ Forum and Diana’s YouTube for more information on Maks. If anyone has any video or pics to add to this, let me know.

From the end of November to January, Maks did Burn the Floor on Broadway with Kym Johnson. Once he left BTF, he went to Vegas and did some choreography work for Le Reve at the Wynn. According to Dianna he went to Buenos Aires to learn the Argentine Tango. He had fun too, going to see Louis Vito qualify for the Olympics in Colorado and then back to NYC to celebrate his mom’s birthday. I saw him tweeting about shopping with his mom and it was quite cute. Yes, I know none of that qualifies as work, but it sounds like fun. Somewhere in all that he went to the Viennese Opera Ball in NYC. Very dashing!

Maks’ 3rd Studio “Dance With Me Soho” just opened in NYC – he was tweeting quite a bit about that and it sounds like he put a lot of work into it. He apparently gives lessons at his studios when not on DWTS.

Maks also works in association with DanceTeamUSA, Ballroom Dance Channel and Grand Dancesport.

Derek Hough

Status: Confirmed for Season 10 – in a manner of speaking.

Derek was a world traveler between the end of last season and now and was pretty tight lipped about it all. Since, as everyone here probably knows, I run PureDerekHough, I find this trait of being quiet highly annoying. In the extreme. Anyway…

Derek started his time off by dancing with Cheryl Burke in the Dizzy Feet Foundation benefit and also performing their new single “Move” with Mark Ballas. I was also surprised, when I went back and looked at my site, by how many magazines he got called out in: People’s 16 Sexy Chests, TV Guide’s Hottest Costumes on DWTS, and in Sexiest DWTS Couples by Comcast. There were a few others, but I’m lazy and he didn’t have to do anything to get those – except maybe finally get a publicist.

Derek then jetted off to London under a cloud of mystery. It turns out that he had a high profile choreography gig with Cheryl Cole (pop star, X-Factor judge) for her television show. He choreographed and danced with her for her new single Parachute.

Derek then went back to LA (mystery), then on to NYC for Christmas with Shannon – thought it was vacation only at the time, but it turns out that he did take Maks’ place in Burn the Floor for the last few days of the run after New Years, so there was probably a business reason there too. Somewhere in there he was in Utah for a week. After BTF it was back to LA and then on to London again, this time to choreograph and star in the music video for Cheryl Cole’s Parachute which premiered on MTV UK in February. After they shot the video, Derek and Cheryl flew to Munich, Germany to perform at a tech conference which apparently featured Lady GaGa last year.

In late January, Derek went to Provo, Utah to perform in “Move” with Mark Ballas and Chelsie Hightower. While there, he directed a music video for Mark’s solo project. Since then, he’s been hanging out with Julianne (on the set of Burlesque) and Mark, going to a movie premiere and getting his face splashed all over UK tabloids. He also promoted his friends’ band, DeVIence and, when interviewed at a premiere, said that he has “new adventures” coming up this year. Highly annoying that I don’t know what he’s talking about, but it sounds like there is stuff going on behind the scenes. Also in the video where he said this, he sure made it sound like Julianne would be back on DWTS eventually – which is why I included the link. Watch it and judge for yourself what he says. Sounds to me like she’s still under contract. Hmmmm…..

Mark Ballas

Status: Confirmed for Season 10 and already rehearsing with his partner!

If I had volunteers to help me with Mark, I don’t remember them and can’t find any communication from them. So, I’m sure to have left stuff out.

Mark has, as far as I can tell, been working almost exclusively on his solo EP project that he just recently released. The EP contains 6 songs and appears to be self-produced – Waiting for Patience. He’s worked on a couple videos for these songs, one of which Derek directed. I don’t know where these videos will show up – possibly on his new MySpace page?

When not working on that, Mark danced at Dizzy Feet with Kristi Yamaguchi, then with Chelsie at “Move” in Provo, Utah. He and Derek also sang Move at Dizzy Feet. Mark also performed in Toronto with Chelsie and Dmitry. He’s been doing a few small club dates playing his own music – I believe mainly in LA. When in Utah, he also played on Good Morning Utah.

If their fans are reading this, I need help with Dmitry, Louis, Tony and I don’t have much on Jonathan. Email me at Heidi@purederekhough.com!