I am seriously behind in my blogging, so let's get right to the couples, what they danced to, and how they did.
Apolo Anton Ohno and Julianne Hough (Two Hearts Living in Just One Mind) Better than last week (where I said he wasn't as good as I'd expected him to be), the judges are clearly setting him up as the front runner.
Shandi Finnessey and Brian Fortuna (Right Now) She just doesn't really have the natural grace, and is pulling low scores. She won't last long, although she might not be the first to go.
Clyde Drexler and Elena Grinenko (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher) All the judges say Clyde did well, but low scores don't back that up. He could be in danger.
Leeza Gibbons and Tony Dovolani (Independent Women, Destiny's Child) Leeza's not really relaxing and getting into it. Sure, she's 50, but John Ratzenberger is older than that and he's getting into the spirit.
Ian Ziering and Cheryl Burke (Don't Get Me Wrong, Pretenders) Ian drops to fourth place, looks like he's not much of a front runner after all.
Paulina Porizkova and Alec Mazo (La Bamba, Richie Valens) After making a big deal out of the "death drop", it's really not that big of a deal. Carrie Anne sums it up: "I think it's very apparent this is not natural for your body."
Billy Ray Cyrus and Karina Smirnoff (Ring of Fire, Johnny Cash) Much improved from last week, but still at the bottom of the pack. People on the net are speaking of the "Disney vote" keeping him around since he plays somebody's dad on some show for the teenybopper set. We shall see.
Heather Mills and Jonathan Roberts (Mambo Italiano) I was worried about the mambo for Heather, thinking that she couldn't do any serious hip wiggling. I was very wrong. Not only did she survive it, she actually did very well. She even included what I think is called a "back walkover" which is something nobody else tried.
John Ratzenberger and Edyta Sliwinska (The Lady Is A Tramp) Oh, I hate it when the old guys bust out the props (like John's pocketwatch). It never bodes well in the long run, it just says "more time spent not dancing". He does all right, that's about the best you can say. He tried. I think the difference between John and some of the other charismatic gentlemen like Springer, Hamilton and O'Hurley is that he's giving the opinion he really doesn't care if he gets eliminated. The others all seemed like they were really trying hard and wanted to stay from week to week. Ratzenberger is like "Hey, I come out and do what I do."
Laila Ali and Maksim Chmerkovskiy (I have no idea, it was not in English) The judges just love Laila, but I don't see it. Maybe they're digging on her mambo because she's got the most defined set of hips in the whole competition. For me I can't get over the man voice. The judges catapult her into the lead. Will the audience get behind her as well?
Joey Fatone and Kym Johnson (Tell Her About It, Billy Joel) The judges claim to love Joey, but his low score (24) doesn't seem to match that. Since that still left him in second place you wonder if they deliberately put Laila out in front by giving her a 27.
Who is going home this week? Seems like Billy Ray is the obvious choice, but who really knows. Sometimes it's a matter of who the audience gets behind. If that's the case then it could easily be Shandi or Paulina or even Leeza, none of them have really got the pizzazz to keep the camera focused on them.