[Photo: newscom.com]

According to an article on BuddyTV, Dancing With the Stars’ season 8 dancer and runner-up Gilles Marini has been cast in the final season of the series Nip/Tuck. Once again, he’s going to be playing hunky man-candy, so it has to be a great enticement to watch the show, even for those of us who aren’t regular viewers.

Here’s a bit of a description of his type of role on the show:

“You don’t see me in the shower. You see me in a towel and you realize that I’ve just had sex and I’m coming out of the shower because I needed to be clean,” Marini described his sort of naked scene on Nip/Tuck.

The former Dancing with the Stars contestant will be playing the new husband (a much younger bad boy) of Vanessa Redgrave’s Erica—which means that Julia’s evil mama is definitely back!

It looks like being a part of DWTS has really paid off for Gilles! It’s great news too for his fans!!

[Photo: Bauer-Griffin]

TV Guide revealed that Dancing With the Stars season 8 finalist Melissa Rycroft has been hired as a summer special correspondent for ABC morning new show Good Morning America. She’s come a long way from being dumped by that loser on The Bachelor! I’ll bet he’s sorry now…

She was so impressive on DWTS, even after having only two days to prepare for her first performance show, that she ended the season in third place. Her fans will be happy to know that she’ll be making regular TV appearances now so they can continue to watch her.

I’m happy for Melissa and will keep you informed about her as new things develop.

Get ready for a brand new take on the dance reality competition. It’s a new series on Oxygen network called Dance Your Ass Off. It’s a bit of a hybrid between The Biggest Loser and Dancing With the Stars. I personally like the idea of the show. And with the bubbly, vivacious host, Marissa Jaret Winokur, how could it go too far wrong?

[Oxygen Photo: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

Marissa was on season 6 of Dancing With the Stars and was an absolute delight to watch. Now she’ll be heading up this new series, so it has one advantage right from the start.

The show will take a dozen overweight people and pair them with professional dancers to learn dance routines each week. That part sounds a lot like Dancing With the Stars…but there’s more. They will be trying to lose weight in the process and they will be scored by judges on their dance techniques, combined with their amount of weight lost that week. That part sounds a lot like Biggest Loser. It will preiere on Oxygen on Monday, June 29th, at 10/9C.

I’m eager to see how this series goes. It could prove to be the newest hit dance show…or the latest flop. I’m hoping for a hit.

Here are the dancers who will try to both win our hearts on the dance floor and slim down during the process:

[Oxygen Photo: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

Teased about his weight as a child, Warren continues to get the “fat” comments still today. Warren has a degree in nursing and currently works with children and adults with mental and physical disabilities. He is married with two children, and he hopes to get healthy for his family and continue to help others.

“My biggest struggle was finding the motivation to workout and eat right without getting discouraged within the first few days. I am probably one of the world’s worst dancers, but I am willing to try anything to start shedding the pounds.”
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Today, FOX announced the nominations for the 2009 Teen Choice awards. Several dance TV stars and shows have been included on the list this year. DWTS season 8’s winner Shawn Johnson is nominated, along with DWTS Season 7’s Kim Kardashian & Misty May Treanor. I’m very surprised that So You Think You Can Dance got no nominations this time out.

Here are the official nominations:

Choice TV: Reality Competition
“America’s Best Dance Crew”
“America’s Next Top Model”
“American Idol”
“The Bachelor”
“Dancing With The Stars”

Choice TV: Personality
Tyra Banks, “America’s Next Top Model”
Simon Cowell, “American Idol”
Lil Mama, “America’s Best Dance Crew”
Mario Lopez, “America’s Best Dance Crew”
Ryan Seacrest, “American Idol” / “E! News”

Choice TV: Female Reality/Variety Star
Teyona Anderson, “America’s Next Top Model”
Lauren Conrad, “The Hills”
Paris Hilton, “Paris Hilton’s My New BFF”
Shawn Johnson, “Dancing With The Stars”
Kim Kardashian, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”

Choice Athlete: Female
Shawn Johnson
Nastia Liukin
Danica Patrick
Kerri Walsh and Misty May Treanor
Serena Williams

Choice TV: Female Reality/Variety Star
Teyona Anderson, “America’s Next Top Model”
Lauren Conrad, “The Hills”
Paris Hilton, “Paris Hilton’s My New BFF”
Shawn Johnson, “Dancing With The Stars”
Kim Kardashian, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”

Vote for your favorites at www.teenchoiceawards.com

This is a totally fun video clip for fans of Dancing With the Stars! In it, the final four couples this season talk about being on the show while they do a photo shoot for TV Guide Magazine. We get to see them posing, being made up for the cameras and casually talking in between it all.

Be sure to stay with it all the way to the end, because Ty Murray clowns it up and has Chelsea Hightower giggling. It’s very cute!

After winning the 8th season of Dancing With the Stars, Shawn Johnson & Mark Ballas stopped to talk a bit with a correspondent from TV Guide.

Shawn says that the mirror-ball trophy feels like her second gold medal. Mark was obviously very moved by winning too. Even though a lot of people were upset that Gilles or Melissa didn’t win, Shawn has obviously got tons of fans because it was their votes that put her over the top. Check it out:

And it’s so amazing how graceful both Gilles Marini & Cheryl Burke were after coming so close to winning. Gilles said that it was fitting that Shawn would win. She’s 17 years old and he’s 33 years old. He wanted her to win. WOW! How cool is he?

[Photos: newscom.com]

After last night’s amazing season finale of Dancing With the Stars, all three of the finalist pairs were guests on Good Morning America today. They danced for the crowds and showed off why they were the final three.

I found some great photos of them dancing on GMA, as well as a very cute photo of Shawn Johnson & Mark Ballas with their masks from last night. All I can say is that season 9 had better be fabulous, if it’s going to live up to this season…

[Photo: Bauer-Griffin]

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[Photos: newscom.com]

Last night was the exciting season 8 finale of Dancing With the Stars. I was honestly ready to see any of the three win it this season. They were all three amazing! Amid performances by Lady Gaga and all of this season’s dancers, we saw repeat performances by the final three couples. All three final performances were given perfect 30 scores by the judges, so it all came down to the viewers’ votes.

First, we had to see Melissa Rycroft & her partner Tony Dovolani get eliminated. Then we found out that Shawn Johnson & Mark Ballas were the seaosn 8 winners. Apolo Ohno told Shawn that no Olympian who made it to the finals had left without winning the trophy. She certainly took it to heart, because she danced fabulously!

[Photo: Bauer-Griffin]

I’m not surprised that Melissa didn’t get as manay audience votes as the other two, since she is so new to the celebrity world. But after being the consistent leader all season and being as totally hunky as he is, I was surprised that Gilles Marini & Cheryl Burke didn’t win.

But overall, there were three of the most wonderful dancers ever in the finale this season.

We have just found out who Maxim named for their annual Hot 100 list and four of the past and present dancers for Dancing With the Stars are on the list this time.

[Photo: Zuma Press]

No one should be surprised that the absolutely stunning pro dancer Julianne Hough is #25 on the list. She is so beautiful both inside and out, it seems completely deserved.

[Photo: Zuma Press]

And DWTS season 7 dancer Kim Kardashian has been named #53 on the list. She may not have made it very far in the dancing competition, but she definitely has a following among the male audience members. She’s very lovely and fits the list perfectly.

[Photo: Zuma Press]

Stacy Keibler from the DWTS season 2 has been named #77 on the Maxim Hot 100 list. She’s been a regular member of this list for years, so this is no surprise at all.

[Photo: Bauer-Griffin]

Melissa Rycroft has rocketed from obscurity to the limelight in just a matter of weeks. Before she was chosen to be on the reality show The Bachelor, she was an unknown. Now, she’s one of the finalists on season 8 of Dancing With the Stars and has been named #99 on the Maxim Hot 100 list. Way to go, Melissa! And it’s well deserved.

Congratulations to all four women for being recognized for being so beautiful!

[Photos: newscom.com]

After this week’s elimination from Dancing With the Stars, Ty Murray and his pro dance partner Chelsea Hightower stopped to chat with Hollywood 411 about the season. Ty’s so cute, he says that he thinks he was in the competition 9 weeks too long. LOL!

But he’s also very sweet because he gives the credit for his long run on the show to Chelsea and to his fans who voted for him each week. Check it out: