September 2007 News Archive (Page 2)

This may be Jennie Garth's first appearance on Dancing with the Stars, but TV Guide reports the actress was asked twice before.

"But I've been having babies since I can remember," says Garth, now 35 and the mother of three with her husband, actor Peter Facinelli. "I was always pregnant or had just had a baby when the opportunity was brought to me. This time, it worked out with my life and my schedule."

Nevertheless, the former Beverly Hills, 90210 star had doubts about signing on.

"My husband said, 'You should do it,'" she says. "He was the one who sort of opened the box, in my mind. And then I started thinking that maybe it would be fun. But I feel like I just jumped off a cliff."

However, the hit reality how is a leap Garth prepared to take due to her love of dance. She studied ballet, tap and jazz between the ages of 11 and 14. Like Jane Seymour, she dreamed of becoming a professional in the dance world. Unlike Seymour, though, she saw herself more as a dance teacher than a prima ballerina.

"I dreamt of being on pointe," she says, "but I just didn't have the chops. There was just something inside of me that felt inadequate, that I would never be as good as other people. And then I stumbled into acting."

Garth's pro partner will be Julianne Hough's brother, Derek, who performed on one of last season's results shows and is also considered a sensational dancer. Garth is hoping that he can make her look â€" just a little â€" like two of the female professional dancers on the show or, perhaps, Laila Ali.

"I'm a big fan of Cheryl Burke and Edyta Sliwinska," says Garth. "I think their dancing is beautiful. And I loved the way Laila danced because she didn't do a bunch of fancy leg kicking and splits. She just kept it simple, classy and elegant, and I really like that. I think that would be more my style."

When viewers turn in to Dancing with the Stars tomorrow night, one star will be missing: co-host Samantha Harris.

How come? Because the lovely celebrity just gave birth to a girl!

According to People magazine, Harris and husband Michael Hess welcomed daughter Josselyn Sydney Hess Sunday morning at 1:49 a.m. in Los Angeles. She's the couple's first child.

"Michael and I are ecstatic to have a little girl to welcome into our lives," Harris told E! Online. "We can't wait to introduce her to our family and friends in the morning!"

ABC said it's not gonna to announce Harris's replacement; viewers will have to tune in to Monday night's Dancing with the Stars premiere to find out.

Our thanks to TV Squad for delivering the following spoilers for Survivor: China...

•  The second boot (next week) will be Ashley Massaro, the WWE Diva.

• Rumors have both Leslie and Sherea out of the game early.

• There will be no car given away this season.

• The merge is set for episode seven.

• Exile Island is gone... but the hidden Immunity Idol is hidden in plain sight.

Look out, Melanie Brown and Maksim Chmerkovskiy - Jane Seymour and Tony Dovolani are also practicing for Monday's Dancing with the Stars premiere.

And they look focused!

Congratulations are in order for Jon Reep.

The comedian withstood the challenge from other finalists and was named winner of Last Comic Standing this season. Below, he speaks to BuddyTV about the experience...

Well, it seemed like it was gonna be a really close race between you and Lavell. Were you worried?
I was worried. I was definitely worried. I think Lavell's one of the funniest guys I know, and I've gotten to know him over the past couple of months, you know, hanging out with him and stuff. It couldn't have been a closer race with anybody because, he's great.

Yeah, I mean, I seriously had no thought one way or the other what was going to happen because Lavell's got a good following out there and people like Lavell. You know, he's a funny dude. You just, you never know.

Have you tried out for the show before, or was this your first year?
It was my first year. I've been watching it, and I was always kind of hesitant about doing the show, and I didn't like it at first because, you know, they made it more of a reality show and I wanted it to be more about the stand-up comedy part of it. I never really liked comedy as a competition because I was actually on Star Search with Arsenio Hall and I had a horrible experience on that show. And I told myself, "Never again will I do this."

But I fortunately had good people on my side who said, "No, you should do it because you can't really beat the exposure." They're trying to get more established comics into the competition this year. And they took out the fact that we have to live together in a house, on a boat.  So, I thought, "You know what? Maybe it is a good time to audition for it." So I bit the bullet and did it, and I'm glad I did.

Well, what comics this season really ended up impressing you?
My goodness. Well, Lavell, Gerry Dee, Doug Benson, Amy Schumer. Those are my favorites.

Click here to read the full interview.

Rehearsing for Dancing with the Stars is not for sissies.

And Melanie Brown would be the first to tell you that the scariest thing about her now is what's coming out of her mouth.

"It's a lot of swearing," says Brown, who is paired with someone who doesn't scare easily, Maksim Chmerkovskiy. "He says I look down a lot and I turn my feet out instead of turning them in. He also says I stick my bum out. He's a really good teacher, even though we shout at each other a lot."

As TV Guide reports, Brown doesn't do anything quietly, whether it's tearing up the stage as a Spice Girl or going after actor Eddie Murphy for child support for her second child, Angel, who was born in April. Wait a minute. Scratch that. She did do one thing very quietly: She got married to film producer Stephen Belafonte in June.

"I've spent a lot of years kind of underground," says Brown, "just relaxing and being with my family. And I was trying to think of a way that I could work and have my family with me. That would be the ideal job. So they'll be with me through Dancing, and when we go on tour, my kids will come with me."

Brown checked in with her spicy pals before signing up for the show.

"I asked them if this would be a good thing and they're all so excited," she says. "Especially Emma, because she did the show in England."

Heidi Montag just turned 21 years old.

And The Hills star hasn't exactly gotten shy in her old age.

Here she is with boyfriend Spencer Pratt, and the two are getting mighty... friendly. Seriously, guys, get a room. We don't need any Antonella Barba-like images of your sex life.

This just in: most couples from The Bachelor do not work out.

Andy Baldwin and Tessa Horst appear to be the latest example of these flame outs.

With the eleventh season of the show beginning Monday, the latest Bachelor, Brad Womack, is aware of these results. But he isn't worried.

"I am very well aware of the success rate of the past Bachelors -- some have worked and some haven't," Womack told reporters during a Tuesday conference call. "Quite honestly, I didn't even let that enter my mind. I just thought, 'This is my experience and only my experience.' I wanted to go into it with an open mind, and I did just that."

While the 34-year old would not give away the name of his winner, he did admit that the proverbial question is popped on the season finale.

"All I can say is I'm extremely happy with the turnout of the show - I know that's a generic answer, and I wish I could give you more - but I'm very, very happy with the turnout," he said. "It's very, very easy for me to keep quiet about everything."

Womack said he's also "always been a very loyal person." Therefore, Reality TV World reports it should be easy for him to remain faithful to his selected suitor while being away from her over the course of The Bachelor 11's broadcast run.

"It's of course a little different in the aftermath [of filming The Bachelor]," he said. "But I think if a connection was made, then it's easy to keep it, for me anyway."

Dick Donato, a 44-year-old bar manager from Los Angeles, won Big Brother's eighth-season winner during last night's live finale broadcast of the CBS reality show.

Dick defeated Danielle Donato, his formerly estranged 21-year-old daughter, by a 5 to 2 jury vote to win Big Brother 8's $500,000 grand prize.

"I'm taking a trip man!" said Dick when Big Brother host Julie Chen revealed the jury's vote. "I'm getting the hell out of here away from some of these people. I'm going to relax, I'm doing an around-the-world thing... for sure."

Take a look and listen to Heidi Montag singing her single, "Higher," at her recent 21st birthday party.

Gosh, Spencer Pratt must be proud: