‘Dancing With the Stars’: Good personalities make up for what dancing lacks

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While it’s still unclear why exactly viewers of “Dancing with the Stars” were treated to an extra bonus week without any elimination, it’s kind of nice to have every star pigeonholed before they all get voted off. It’s sort of like seeded teams in the NCAA tournament: While we all expect certain players to do well, we’ve picked our underdog favorites who might come from behind and stun us.

There isn’t much controversy right now about the skill levels of the dancers, so for those in the lower rankings, this is the time to show off their sparkling personae and the winning chemistry they have with their dance partners. It just so happens however that the best dancers also have a lock on the best personalities and seemingly best relationships with their professional partners.

Speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno and his partner, 18 year old blonde pixie Julianne Hough, are cuter together (and maybe more talented) than Britney Spears ever was with Justin Timberlake. Joey Fatone performs - and jokes - like the kind of consummate entertainer who will probably pack ‘em in at the Sands when he’s 87 years old. And boxer Laila Ali surprises with her seemingly genuine saucy attitude and saucier dance moves - some of us are just accustomed to the gruff awkwardness of other female athletes like Serena Williams. While Alishe and her partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy seem to have a fine rapport, she really seemed to get along well with Joey Fatone, as they mugged for the camera before the commercial breaks. Don’t worry about Maksim, though - in what seemed like an odd burst of starstruckness or possibly drunkenness, after his number he was assaulted by show co-host Samantha Harris with all the subtlety of a co-ed at closing time.

In the meantime, basketball player Clyde Drexler and supermodel Paulina Porizkova maybe aren’t naturals on the dance floor, but both have appealing personalities - Clyde seems to have a heart of gold, and Paulina, more spunk than a woman that beautiful should be allowed to have. No wonder Ric Ocasek married her! Even country singer Billy Ray Cyrus is charming in his own way - when he’s not reminding us that he’s Billy Ray Cyrus.

Then there are those who struggle when it comes to winning us over and try other tacks. Former Miss USA Shandi Finnessey obviously overcompensates for lack of chemistry and dance skills with Brian Fortuna by impressively filling out her skimpy outfits.

“Cheers” and “Toy Story” actor John Ratzenberger seems like a nice enough guy but it’s never a good move to rely upon mini-sketches and props to eat up performance time. TV Host Leeza Gibbons meanwhile is letting us know that she’s going to talk about whatever she damn well pleases on this show - turning 50, her website, being fearless, turning 50, her ailing mother, and even turning 50. She seemed incensed when her dance partner Tony Dovolani dared speak into the microphone during her backstage interview - we can only imagine how it must have burned her up when “Beverly Hills, 90210’s” Ian Ziering trumped her sick mother story with his dead mother story. Take that, Leeza!

We’ll give Heather Mills a pass though for her own particular charity mentions - after all, she did warn us from the beginning that she was above all, a charity activist. And she danced the hell out of that mambo.

-- Claire Zulkey