DWTS – Did He REALLY Say That??? The Tony Dovolani Edition
Our Pros, Celebrities, Judges and Hosts often say things that perhaps, from a professional standpoint, they shouldn’t. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they’re experiencing foot-in-mouth disease, sometimes they’re aggravating, sometimes it’s just none of their damn business. Courtney and I thought it would be fun to take some of these comments and discuss them, under the heading of “People say the Silliest Things”. Plus, some of us miss DWTS when it’s not on – this will be something to talk about. 🙂
First up, Tony Dovolani, in People Magazine Online:
“I enjoyed every bit of last season — well, most of it, I mean,” Tony Dovolani, who partnered with controversial contestant Kate Gosselin last season, told PEOPLE at the ESPY Awards Wednesday in L.A. “Next season I would like to have a more able partner, someone who doesn’t have so many distractions in their life. The producers know how I feel.”
Heidi: Oh, Tony, there are many things wrong with this statement, if remotely accurate. First off, some pros were not fortunate enough to even get a partner, let alone one that you (hopefully inadvertently) imply is disabled. Complaining about Kate – no matter how horrible she was (and she was horrible – no mistake) probably seems like Paris Hilton complaining about her new house only having 5 bathrooms to people like Dmitry, Lacey, Kym and others. And you know what, Jonathan is only sporadically on this show and he ALWAYS has a worse partner than you’ve had. Geez, you were on the cover of freakin’ PEOPLE magazine!! Besides, even slight disses against a former partner, no matter how true, strikes me as very unprofessional – and saying “the producers know how I feel” sounds arrogant. Not to mention the producers probably remember that you just took Melissa Rycroft to the final two seasons ago – more than Jonathan can say.
And then we have this gem: E!’s Awful Truth
While dishing all the goss with the Dancing with the Stars crew recently, Tony had no problem telling it like it is about Jake Pavelka and Vienna Giardi’s recent “juvenile” break up: “It was such great TV I couldn’t help but watch,” Dovolani recently joked about Jake and Vienna’s ABC special. “Wow, wasn’t that a train wreck or what? My wife and I kept looking at each other like ‘Is this really happening’,” Dovolani reiterated. “But it was great TV. Thank you!”
Courtney: Ooh wee. Now while I agree wholeheartedly with our Albanian friend that the very public, very messy demise of Jake & Vienna rivaled some of the train-wreckery previously known only to various VH1 dating series (again, I reiterate: “Can we please get a poly-a-graph test here?!” only reinforces to me that Vienna should have been cast on Rock of Love XXVII instead of The Bachelor), Tony, honey, there are definitely things that could be said with a little more tact – or in this case, not at all. So much for the alleged camaraderie of the season 10 cast (which was tenous at best), and the reasonably classy reputation that the majority of the pros tend to keep in the media. It would honestly not surprise me in the slightest if some of the pros from this season were conveniently not able to participate next season due to “lack of celebrities to match well with” – if they can sit Kym out for a season for holding out for more money, I wouldn’t put it past the producers to punish some of the more mouthy pros by not asking them back for season 11. And without getting into detail, as far as relationships go – I don’t think most of the pros on the show are in any position to be giving out opinions on relationships – there’s been enough tabloid fodder about some of them (who shall remain nameless 😉 ) to make Jake & Vienna’s split look downright civil. Just sayin’…
Heidi: Isn’t it weird that the very YOUNGEST pro on the show is the one who has shown the most tact when asked about Jake and Vienna? Chelsie was asked a direct question and, from what I saw, left it at a “could see it coming” type thing. But Courtney…you left out the best (worst?) parts of this E! thing!!
“Honestly, not my worries,” Dovolani dished to us when we asked him what he thought of the recent Kate Plus 8 investigation. “I haven’t stayed in touch with her, she hasn’t stayed in touch with me. I needed a break and I got a break—which was awesome—with my family.”
Aside from persuading “Tone-dog” to team up with Lindsay Lohan on the next season of DWTS, the babe told us he’s had it with one group of so-called celebs allowed on the ABC hit.
“I think we’ve had enough Bachelors on our show,” T.D. ‘fessed.
As for whether he’s ready to give the boot to all reality TV celebs? He said the ban doesn’t have to go that far.
“As long as they have followers I guess they are stars.”
Heidi: Well, provided that Tony is accurately quoted here, I don’t really know what to say. Dude, it just seems to me that taking direct shots at the producers in public is not really the road to job security. I could be wrong – but this is a show that has 16 to 20 pros already in the stable and they’re likely to only go with 11 to 13 stars again. Do you want to take chances?? I mean, Derek is possibly out for Season 11 (who can tell, he may never leave the bedside of a certain malaria ridden, Brit pop princess), but as far as I can tell the rest of the gang is eager to dance with a star. As far as stars to match YOU, well, there’s Maks (who is being rather circumspect right now) and Dmitry. And I KNOW Dmitry wants back on the show. He’s tweeted as much. Dude, what ARE you doing?? Even if the producers don’t care, I’ve seen several articles about your comments with the word “me-ow” included, not to mention “thrown under the bus” and other indications that we’re not alone in thinking these weren’t the wisest words you’ve ever spoken.
HAHA!
It appears that Tony was hustled and maybe drunk when he gave that interview.
Here’s what the columnist had to say
http://twitter.com/DahviShira/status/18559679303
“Happy about hustling my #DWTS excl w/my fav prof dancer @TonyDovolani. He finally spoke his mind about KATE! Deets to come. Juuuicy hahaha”
People need to learn some class from Evan….Just sayin’
what about tenley mozahlan on dancing with the stars season11
Mad props to Chelsie – she’s the one closest to the whole Jake & Vienna saga, and she’s been the one that’s handled questions about it with the most class. Lord knows why Tony feels so compelled to share his thoughts about the whole thing – it’s not like Jake did leaps & bounds better than Kate.
And Tony, I feel as though I must point out – without The Bachelor, the world would have never heard of Melissa Rycroft…and you probably wouldn’t have had a ticket straight to the finale in season 8. Be careful what you wish for…
I don’t find Tony’s statements mean or anything…just candit. Maks writes insulting and aggravating things every week and you don’t feel the need to write about them. Just sayin’
@ Guest – Just you wait, Maks will be put on blast in due time. This was just the first edition of this post, and we happened to have a lot of not-so-tactful quotes from Tony, so we made that the theme. Rest assured that several other pros have made some questionable statements, which we’ll get to later. And as for Tony being “candid” – there’s a very fine line between being frank and out & out insulting. In this case, I think he crossed that line from a professional standpoint. Questioning the choices of the casting directors and whining about not getting a good partner??? I don’t know about you, but if I all of a sudden waltzed (no pun intended) into my office and started questioning the decisions of my bosses & made VERY public complaints about my company, I’d get canned – FAST. I don’t think situation is any different – Tony is just coming across as a whiney, ungrateful ass.
LOL – is someone actually accusing us of favoring Maks???!?!?! I may have a heart attack. 🙂
Seriously, we picked on Maks plenty last season, but we only just started this particular series. And I had the idea for it BECAUSE of Mark putting his nose in where it doesn’t belong on a variety of subject, Tony being rather unprofessional (anyone in any other profession would be fired), Maks being a butt, and Louis being a whiny bitchy ass at the end of last seaon. However, I don’t have the time or inclination to go backwards in time to address them all – but going forward we sure will.
And hey, at least Tony is visible enough to mouth off – I’m starting to wonder if we will ever SEE Derek again.
I think most of us feel the same way as Tony here, but it would probably be in his best interest to just zip his lips. I find it kind of weird tough that he would say the show should stop hiring “Bachelors” when just a few seasons ago he was in the finale with a contestant from The Bachelor. It’s like when Louis and Maks complained about it being unfair to have contestants with dance experience on the show.
Nice post….yes, Tony got the shaft this season, but I totally agree with the sentiment of this article. Tony seems to like to sharing his strong opinions as facts while flashing his mega watt smile. He gets away with it.
This is so rude of me to say, and I’m sorry, but I’m expecting a Tony scandal to come out someday in the near future…marriage/cheating-wise. I don’t buy his image, entirely. Sometimes it seems like people who talk the talk so much, don’t tend to walk the walk so much.
But hopefully I’m totally, totally off the mark.
Also, here’s the article with the quote from Chelsie on the Jake/Vienna stuff. Basically, it would be tough to get any more tactful than what she said, yet still get a bit of your true feelings across. Obviously, I need to take a lesson! 🙂
….
And although she hasn’t spoken to the pair recently, Chelsie Hightower, Pavelka’s professional partner on Dancing With the Stars, says, “I’m not necessarily surprised that they broke up. I think it would be hard to get to know anybody on a reality TV show, to get to know who they really were, with the pressure of the cameras and the other contestants and all the other factors that add into it.”
Nonetheless, “I wish both of them really well,” Hightower says. “I’ve gotten to know both of them and I think they are both good people and hope that they find better matches for themselves. They have to find people who inspire them to be better than they already are.”
Both co-workers say that Pavelka is committed to the job once he’s on it. When he was on Dancing With the Stars, Pavelka did not talk much about his relationship with Vienna. “Granted that we were under the stresses of the show,” Hightower says, “but he didn’t say much. For the most part he was cooperative and was super-into the competition and wanted to do well. He had a good work ethic.”
…..
http://tvwatch.people.com/2010/06/25/vienna-girardi-jake-pavelka-chelsie-hightower/
@Susan – Unfortunately I think you’re right on the mark about Tony – something is very off about him. I’m waiting for a scandal to pop up sometime in the near future as well. He definitely talks the talk, but for someone claiming to be such a “family man” – we rarely see him with his family. And that megawatt smile just seems smarmy when it’s coming from him, hehe.
So y’all saying you agree with him but he shouldn’t have said that. Is he being ‘punished’ for being candid/saying what he thinks? He didn’t insult anybody. He didn’t say Kate is an F****** B****. He simply said Kate and I haven’t stayed in touch…the rest is interpretation.
As for whether he’s been cheating on his wife or not, I wouldn’t be surprised. Just the other week in LA he and Maks were spotted having dinner with two other girls at Madeo…trying to hide from the papz. Then those two girls stepped out of the restaurant first and left on a different car. He has had a reputation in ballroom community. Still, it’s only hearsay…unless you have facts.
Well, “Guest”, I found him to be rather insulting if you read ALL of his comments. As for being found guilty – I clearly said, “if he is quoted accurately”. Since more than one publication has similar, but not identical comments, I’m going with yes, he was quoted accurately. Other than that, you kinda missed the point – since he WORKS for DWTS, it is unprofessional to diss your former *partner* AND dissing the producers by saying the choice in “stars” up to now hasn’t always been the best. It’s simply unprofessional. I am a professional – if I was quoted saying similar things about my bosses, I would be fired. Or severly chastized. It would affect my career path, for sure. You just don’t do it, if you are a smart person thinking about your career.
I didn’t want to comment on this post and I’ve been weighing what I’ve wanted to say for a while. Courtney, you are absolutely and utterly wrong about saying that just because we don’t see Tony with his family that there is a scandal brewing. Tony works a lot but he spends every free moment he can with his wife and kids. Just because you don’t see them, doesn’t mean a thing. He doesn’t want his kids in the public eye all that much, and Lina isn’t involved with dancing. Not to mention they live on the East Coast were the paparazzi aren’t nut-o’s like they are in Hollywood. And they don’t live in NYC either so they’re even less likely to be photographed.
Just this weekend, he (and Maks) and his wife are headed to Puerto Rico to have both a vacation and do some work. So he’s with his family a lot.
Katrina, I’m going to say this as nicely as I can, but this is one issue that you and I are not going to see eye-to-eye on…period. Guest was right about one thing – Tony does have a bit of a “reputation” in the balllroom world. Do I have pictures or video of him cheating on his wife? No. But when I have multiple people involved in the competitive ballroom world telling stories about witnessing the effects of his “roving eye” – I tend to believe them.
Whether or not he spends a lot of time with his family, I’m not sure – I only see what’s in the media and hear what friends of mine involved in ballroom have to say. But I know plenty of “family men” who’ve put up a very, very good facade while having several women on the side – just look at Tiger Woods. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but my mind is pretty made up – Tony is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
“…witnessing the effects of his “roving eye”
That’s juicy. Do share please! 🙂
I’m sure he deals with temptation everyday. The thing for me is You’re Innocent until Proven Guilty. His wife is gorgeous, I can say that.