Backstage: Warren and Cloris Connect with the Audience
Cloris Leachman and Corky Ballas by Kelsey McNeal/ABC
Here's what we know after the seventh season premiere of
Dancing with the Stars: It's going to be a wild ride.
Never in the show's history have two dancers had to be carted off to the hospital for mishaps during opening-night dress rehearsal. Pro Edyta Sliwinska twirled and hit comedian Jeffrey Ross in the left eye with her fingernail, leaving him with a painful scratched cornea. And pro Karina Smirnoff landed on the outside edge her high heel, resulting in a sprained right ankle.
They both got meds for pain relief and soldiered on. But it was two other dancers - two unlikely dancers - who stole the spotlight and won standing ovations: venerable actress Cloris Leachman, who did the fox trot as if she were in her own little world, and 300-pound NFL bruiser Warren Sapp, who had the crowd buzzing about "the next Emmitt Smith."
"I was thinking crazy thoughts before I went out there," says Sapp, who told his pro partner, Kym Johnson, that he was afraid he was going to fall down the glittering staircase during his grand entrance. "I just told him that if he did, it would make great television," says Johnson.
Leachman wowed the crowd with her agility, and then tried to ratchet up her score by showing judge Bruno Tonioli a little leg. Host Tom Bergeron looked a little shell-shocked during the commercial break, telling Kim Kardashian's stepfather, Olympian Bruce Jenner, who was sitting ringside: "I didn't think she was going to put her leg on the
desk."
"I was just carried away by the music," says Leachman after the show. Her pro partner, Corky Ballas, says he wants to get the old gal moving even more tomorrow night. "I want her to cover more ground," says Ballas, who tried to conduct a professional interview while Leachman flirted with him. "He's not interested in me and I don't know why," she says. "I don't mind, but I'm curious." She turns to Ballas. "Why aren't you interested in me?" she demands. "Because," he says, "I want to remain a mystery." Smart man. -
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