Drama. Drama. Drama. From Marie collapsing to the Samantha Harris/Drew Lachey debate, “Dancing with the Stars” is not lacking for primetime drama. And forget about what’s taking place on the dance floor in front of millions, it appears the really juicy events are transpiring behind the scenes.
In this corner… professional dancer (and Jane Seymour’s partner) often moody Tony Dovolani.
And in this corner… persnickety judge Carrie Ann Inaba.
Let’s get ready to rumble!
According to show sources, Dovolani has come out swinging at Inaba. The pro dancer is still irate with Inaba’s call (the one she made weeks ago) about Dovolani and Seymour’s illegal lift. Dovolani refuses to let the matter die and has spent the last few days calling out Inaba on various entertainment news shows about what he calls her “lack of judging ability.”
For all of you non-“Dancing” fans, on the October 15th episode Inaba chided several dance teams—-notably Seymour and Dovolani and their Viennese waltz—-for maneuvers, which featured the dancers feet leaving the floor. According to Dovolani, the moves fall into a “grey area” which Inaba is not trained to navigate.
“She’s the inappropriate judge to pick on the lifts,” Dovolani kvetched to reporters. “She does not have a ballroom background. She really comes from the hip-hop world. While we have the utmost respect for her as a dancer—it’s not as a ballroom dancer.”
OUCH!
But, the swinging didn’t stop there. Last week Dovolani told PEOPLE magazine that the former Fly Girl-turned judge is ill equipped to call out the illegal lifts.
“She does not understand what ballroom dancing is. She’s never done it herself,” Dovolani seethed to the magazine.
POW!
For his knock out punch Dovolani reportedly presented Inaba with a ballroom rulebook last week.
“Because she does not know anything about ballroom, I figured she should at least read the rule book,” said Dovolani. “I highlighted the parts I wanted her to read including the description of what a lift is.”
ZING!
Inaba’s comeback… According to Dovolani, the judge presented him with a finger gesture and a smile.
SNAP!
“I thought it was a very ladylike gesture,” Dovolani told PEOPLE. “I laughed because I thought I hit home. And then I paid for when we got the lowest score from her.”
Sounds steamy, but according to show producers, the rulebook presentation and the gesture never happened. Instead, a source from “Dancing” issued a statement that said the official rulebook for the show is different from the rulebook for traditional ballroom dancing and the matter about the lifts has been addressed.
So move on will ya…
What do you make of the behind-the-scenes controversy? Do you think Inaba was being too picky or do you think Dovolani is overreacting?
Either way I predict the battle is going to be over fairly soon. After last night’s show I have a feeling Dovolani and Seymour won’t be around next week to take another spin on the dance floor.