‘Dancing with the Stars’: Adam Carolla plugs his movie one last time

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The Week 4 results show managed to cobble together several mild surprises. First, Samantha Harris’ hairdo convincingly called to mind a Lhasa apso. Second, I totally would have picked the other team of 8-year-old dancers to win. All right, that’s only two surprises.

Other than those two items, things played out more or less as expected. Adam and Julianne got sent home, making them the second couple in two weeks to perform the encore dance and the last dance in the same show. Interestingly, the other couple in the Red Spotlight of Disgrace (i.e., the bottom two) was Priscilla Presley and Louis, which suggests that they have minimal fan support and therefore must kick butt with the judges in order to remain in contention. I’ll grant that Priscilla’s face did communicate anxiety while she waited to find out who was eliminated. (As an aside, I noticed there was a Botox commercial during this episode. Coincidence?) Also, in her comments about their illegal lift in the Viennese waltz, she says that she just likes to have both of her legs off of the floor. Do with that what you will.

Wait, there was one more surprise. When Adam and Julianne learned of their elimination, Adam went all syrupy on us, but his sentiments didn’t seem saccharine. “I lost 20 pounds of fat,” he says, “but I gained 105 pounds of angel.” If you’re baffled, he means Julianne. He also channels a bit of “The Gute” and tells us to face our own personal “Dancing with the Stars” -– in other words, whatever our biggest fear is –- and embrace it. He seems to have had some effect on Julianne, who, in the interview after their dance last night, says, “Screw the judges.” Adam replies that if they want some higher scores, that’s an idea. Well, it’s been fun, Adam.

The filler tonight was composed as follows: two songs (one old, one new) by Sheryl Crow, a competition between two pairs of little kids who ballroom dance, and a bit about how fast the pros have to cram their routines that they perform during the live music segments. Let’s address those in order. Crow performed “All I Wanna Do” and a song from her new album, “Detours.” In an intriguing juxtaposition, the latter song had a lyric about genocide just as some Latin Dance champions pranced onto stage for a peppy routine.

When we were introduced to the kids who performed in this show, at first I thought it was going to be super-creepy, like child-beauty-pageant/Jon-Benet-Ramsey creepy. But it was mostly dorky (though accomplished), which was a relief to me. The two pairs were Aaron and Daniela and another Aaron and Rashell. The first Aaron and Daniela danced a samba to “Under the Sea” from “The Little Mermaid.” I thought they did a good job of remaining synched, though it did kind of look as if Daniela were leading Aaron a bit, despite the fact that he is 9 and she is only 8. Tom Bergeron tells them that at their age, he was eating paste. Len says he’s bitterly disappointed -– because it was too short! Bruno says something about Daniela looking like a goldfish. Carrie Ann plays it straight and says they were “so adorable.”

The other Aaron and Rashell tell us in the pre-dance interviews that they want to be famous and rich. It’s good to know that the youth of today are idealistic. They dance a paso doble, which looked somewhat off to me in terms of rhythm but which was certainly high-energy. Tom asks them about the dating rumors he’s read on TMZ.com. Bruno compliments their “enormous firepower.” Carrie Ann loved the drama. Len seems bored of this already and just says they did a great job. The results? Carrie Ann says Aaron and Rashell should dance again. Len goes for Aaron and Daniela. But Bruno brings it home for Aaron and Rashell. That Aaron tells Samantha that he feels bad for the other Aaron and Daniela, but you can kind of tell he just sees them as a minor obstacle on his road to fame and fortune. (If you’re Googling yourself, Aaron, and reading this, I’m kidding. Mostly.)

Finally, here’s the quick version of the story about the pros: They have almost no time to come up with routines for the live-music acts; they want to impress the musicians; and sometimes someone has to sub in for someone else at the last second. I don’t mean to diminish their accomplishments at all, but there just isn’t anything particularly illuminating about this segment.

Next week, we’re down to eight. Who’ll be the next to go?

--Sarah Rogers