Reality Rumors

“Dancing with the Stars” is back — and so are the low score paddles.

While model-actress Brooke Burke dominated the dancing competition with a score of 23 out of 30, several of the seventh season celebrity participants began at the bottom of the pack. Television legend Cloris Leachman received a lousy 16. “All My Children” matriarch Susan Lucci was given a measly 15. And celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito cooked up a lukewarm 14.

“I forgot we had a 4,” quipped host Tom Bergeron of the low score paddle flashed to DiSpirito.

However, the lowest number — a pathetic 12 — went to comedian Jeffrey Ross, who suffered a scratched cornea after his partner Edyta Sliwinska accidentally poked him during a rehearsal Monday. Ross wasn’t the only performer to dance despite suffering a previous injury. Professional dancer Karina Smirnoff, who’s partnered with DiSpirito, sprained her ankle.

Leachman brought the most drama to the ballroom. After dancing, the 82-year-old actress lifted her leg onto the judges’ table, fell to her knees in front of Len Goodman and then sat on Carrie Ann Inaba’s lap as the arbiters attempted to evaluate her routine. She wasn’t any more subdued backstage. Her reaction to her low score had to be censored.

“They can’t even add up the numbers, they’re so stupid here,” she said, grabbing an off-camera card with her score.

Celebrities who managed to score above 15 included singers Lance Bass and Toni Braxton; reality TV star Kim Kardashian; actors Cody Linley and Ted McGinley; NFL star Warren Sapp; and Olympic gold medalists Misty May-Treanor and Maurice Greene. One dancing couple will be eliminated Tuesday. Following another routine, a second team will be sent home Wednesday.

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Source: AP News

Despite previously announcing plans to hold the ceremony in the Bahamas, The Bachelorette couple DeAnna Pappas and Jesse Csincsak are apparently have second thoughts about the location of their wedding.

“We keep going back and forth from California to Georgia to Tennessee to the Bahamas,” Pappas told OK! magazine over the weekend. “We are still kind of stuck on the Bahamas.”

During The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose special that followed the finale, the couple revealed that they’d decided to wed in the Bahamas on May 9. 2009.

“We chose the Bahamas because that’s the place where we really fell in love. We chose the date because that was the date — exactly a year from the date when we got engaged,” Csincsak told Reality TV World the following day. “We just thought it was appropriate.”

However, although they haven’t finalized a wedding location yet, Pappas and Csincsak remain in agreement about their desire to start a family — sort of.

“We want three kids. I have to say I want all boys!” Jesse told OK!.

“God’s going to get him, and he is going to give him all girls,” DeAnna joked back. “We are going to get married first, and then we will go from there.”

The reality show “Big Brother” will be back for an 11th edition, CBS announced Monday.

The 10th season of the competition series wrapped up last week with Dan Gheesling, a 25-year-old Catholic school teacher from Dearborn, Mich., winning $500,000.

Gheesling competed for the top prize against a dozen other contestants, who were eliminated over the course of 71 days of isolation from the rest of the world and constant surveillance in the “Big Brother” house.

The 10th edition of the show averaged nearly 7 million viewers this summer, the network said.

The new season is to begin in the summer of 2009.

Two couples are to be eliminated from the first week of competition on the upcoming seventh season of the U.S. series “Dancing with the Stars,” ABC said.

The latest edition of the show is to debut Sept. 22, the network said, adding that the Jonas Brothers and Jesse McCartney are scheduled to perform on the Sept. 24 episode.

“Season Seven marks the largest cast assembled to date, the oldest and youngest competitors ever, and includes two Olympic Gold medalists, a Grammy-winning singer, a television legend, an Oscar winner and a Super Bowl champion,” ABC said in a news release. “Additionally, all four professional dancers who’ve previously tasted the thrill of victory return to compete against one another for bragging rights. Can one of them reclaim the mirror ball trophy?”

For the first time, all 13 teams will be required to prepare two routines for the first week of competition, one of which they’ll perform that first Monday night.

Those competing are singer Lance Bass, singer Toni Braxton, actress Brooke Burke, celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito, Olympic runner Maurice Greene, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, soap star Susan Lucci and 82-year-old actress Cloris Leachman.

“Hannah Montana” co-star Cody Linley, 18, is the youngest contestant to appear on the show. Also slated to compete are volleyball champ Misty May-Treanor, actor Ted McGinley, comedian Jeffrey Ross and Superbowl hero Warren Sapp.

American Idol winner Jordin Sparks defended the Jonas Brothers at the MTV Video Music Awards from the event’s host who mocked their vow to not have sex until married.

VMA emcee Russell Brand made numerous jokes throughout the show Sunday night about the wildly popular fraternal trio’s decision to wear purity rings to remind them of the promise they made to stay virgins until they wed.

Sparks leaped to the teen brothers’ defense when she took the stage to present an award.

“I have just one thing to say about promise rings; it’s not bad to wear a promise ring because not everybody — guy or girl — wants to be a slut,” she said, prompting applause from the audience.

Brand later apologized from the stage as the Jonas Brothers, seated in the audience, looked on, not smiling.

“I’ve gotta say sorry because I said them things about promise rings; that was bad of me. I didn’t mean to take it lightly, whatever. I love the Jonas Brothers and I think it’s really good. I don’t want to (tick) off teenage fans,” Brand said. “Promise rings, I’m well up for it. Well done, everyone. It’s just, you know, a bit of sex once in a while never hurt anybody.”

Usmagazine.com and People.com both reported that Sparks also wears a purity or promise ring.

ABC announced Wednesday that it has picked up the U.S. reality competition series “Wipeout” for a second season.

“Each week 24 daring new contestants of all ages, shapes and sizes will go head to head through four rounds of grueling and physically demanding but wildly hilarious obstacle courses to win the title of ‘Wipeout Champion’ and the grand prize of $50,000,” the network said in a press release. “The contestants and the courses change every week.”

John Anderson of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and John Henson of E! Entertainment’s “Talk Soup” are to continue to preside over the competition series as hosts in Season 2, ABC said.

“American Idol” winner David Cook has teamed up with producer Rob Cavallo for his debut album, 19 Recordings/RCA Records said Tuesday.

The record label said Cook’s CD is due out this fall.

Best known for his work with Green Day, Cavallo has also produced records for artists such as Kid Rock, Eric Clapton, My Chemical Romance and Goo Goo Dolls. He is also working with the Dave Matthews Band on an upcoming release.

Cook has been in the studio when not on the road performing with the “American Idols Live” tour. He co-wrote many of the upcoming album tracks, alongside “some of music’s hottest rock songwriters,” his label said.

Texan singer Melissa Lawson has won the country music competition series “Nashville Star.”

The 32-year-old working mother of five boys is now preparing to perform Aug. 12 at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Her performance will be telecast on NBC’s “Today Show.”

Lawson Monday won the show’s top prize — a record contract with Warner Bros. Records — beating out fellow Texan Gabe Garcia and Iowa’s Shawn Mayer in a live broadcast on NBC.

During the show’s finale, all of the original 12 acts that began the competition in June returned to the Acuff Theater to join host Billy Ray Cyrus in a performance of his hit single, “Achy Breaky Heart.”

Country music icon George Jones also made a surprise appearance.

The top four finalists are to begin a U.S. tour this year.

A representative for JPMorgan Chase says a 30-day hold has been put on the foreclosure of a Lake City, Ga., “Extreme Makeover” house.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said the hold was activated to allow Milton and Patricia Harper the opportunity to negotiate a deal so they can stay current with their payments.

The couple’s family was presented with the new 5,300-square-foot, five-bedroom, eight-bathroom house on “Extreme Makeover” in 2005. They were chosen from among thousands of applicants for the show because they said their septic tank flooded the basement, forcing the family to sleep in their van.

The house, which the Harpers used as collateral for a $450,000 loan to fund a construction business, had been scheduled to hit the auction block Tuesday, the newspaper said.

However, JPMorgan Chase spokeswoman Christine Holevas told the Journal-Constitution a 30-day hold has been granted and an agreement is expected to be signed in the next few days.

“We’re confident the Harpers will stay in their home,” she said.

The newspaper said the Harpers did not returns phone calls seeking comment.

A pair of So You Think You Can Dance finalists reportedly took the expression “dance ’til you drop” a little too literally.

Two of So You Think You Can Dance’s Top 4 fourth-season finalists reportedly collapsed during Saturday rehearsals and were subsequently rushed to nearby Cedars Sinai Hospital, People reported Monday.

“The kids are completely dehydrated — two of them,” So You Think You Can Dance judge Mary Murphy told People. “I’m sure they’re doing a lot of blood work to see if there’s anything else.”

Stephen “Twitch” Boss, Katee Shean, Courtney Galiano and Joshua Allen comprise So You Think You Can Dance’s Top 4, however People reported Fox representatives declined comment and did not release the identities of which two were hospitalized.

The two hospitalized dancers have since been released, a source close to the show told People.

Out of fairness for the finalists, Murphy explained that there were “no more rehearsals” on Saturday after the hospitalization and added “all rehearsals were called off” on Sunday.

“The other two [dancers] could not rehearse as well, and so hopefully everybody is going to be in the same boat,” Murphy told People. “Hopefully everybody will be refreshed by having a full day off.”

In addition, Murphy said the Top 4 finalists have been rehearsing 10 to 12 hours a day in anticipation of So You Think You Can Dance’s two-night fourth-season finale.

“They want it so bad,” Murphy told People. “So they keep pushing themselves and pushing themselves and not letting anybody know that, ‘Hey, I’m running on empty,’ and then it catches up on them and then they collapse.”

So You Think You Can Dance’s final fourth-season performance episode will air Wednesday, August 6 at 8PM ET/PT. The live two-hour fourth-season finale will then air on Thursday at 8PM ET/PT, with the winner being revealed based on home viewer votes.