Mirror, mirror on the ball, who's the best...

Dancer of 'em all? Well tonight, props to Emmitt Smith and his partner Cheryl Burke for winning the Dancing With the Stars title. Wonder if Burke will go for a trifecta next year?
Emmitt's remarks were classy, as always, toward Mario Lopez, who I really thought would win. I think it came down to the fact that not only should the dancing be by the book, it should be fun. After all, dance was created as a form of socialization. And Emmitt always looked like he was having a blast on the dance floor.
Congrats again to the victors and to all the dancers for making this the most competitive season yet.
*******
In regard to my predictions this year, I was wrong with Michael winning Project Runway, then wrong with Mario winning this. So I'll say Marcel will win Top Chef and be wrong. (That's fine with me cause I want Sam the "hot diabetic" to win.)
emmitt smith dancing with the stars

Trophy "wives"

Well, there's one thing certain about the Dancing With the Stars finale. Emmitt and Mario wouldn't be there if it weren't for their fab dancing partners, trophy-getting "wives."
Cheryl Burke is the reigning queen, after she and Drew Lachey roped the trophy in last year's finale. But make no mistake, Karina (no one can say her name the way Mario does, sigh) Smirnoff isn't part of the desperate trophy wives club. She's a footworking force on her own!
So here's how I score tonight's finale rounds:
Round One: Same music challenge (to Stevie Wonder's Sir Duke). Both danced the samba.
Emmitt and Cheryl looked a bit halting out of the gate. Emmitt was charming as always, despite his Gatorade-colored shoes. Mario & Karina were much smoother, although Len said he missed his running promenade steps. I would have called this even or with a slight advantage to M&K.
Round Two: Fave dance challenge
Emmitt and Cheryl brought back their hot and saucy mambo. It smoked! Ever as hot as the original performance. I grinned with glee when I heard Mario and Karina would reprise their "Mariachi" pasa doble. Ay-yi-yi-yi, indeed! Tie.
Round Three: Freestyle
Emmitt and Cheryl put on their MC Hammer-genie ware in their final dance. When they did the sidestepping funky footwork it was so fab, but I cringed everytime he lifted Cheryl. It was a bit painful to watch.
With this round, I think Mario and Karina won the title. Their street-style dance featured breakdancing and splits, moves only a younger body than retired NFL champ Smith's could achieve. Will Mario's superior skill outweigh Emmitt's devastating charm? Or will it be the performances of the trophy "wives" that brings home the title?
dancing with the stars mario lopez emmitt smith

Their pal Joey

Mario Lopez and Emmitt Smith bade farewell to dancing pal Joey Lawrence on the semifinal results show for Dancing With the Stars. It was very touching how all the dancers rallied 'round Joey and Edyta for their emotional farewell dance.
The pair really danced their hearts out and performed some clever routines during the season.
For next week's finale Mario and Emmitt will have to dance three different dances, but ala American Idol, they will dance one to the same music. (I think Carrie Ann Inaba is going to need a pair of Depends.)
I'm sure the show will be great. Emmitt oozes funky fun and charisma and absolutely deserves a spot in the Top 2. But after that razor-sharp precision tango by Mario and Karina, I think they already won the title of best dancers.
dancing with the stars mario lopez

The Dynamic Trio

{CURSES! Blogger photo uploader foils again. So picture this: a green eyelashed, purple lipsticked Monique Coleman with her head looking down as partner Louis the Taskmaster King kisses her mile-high wig.}

Monique Coleman's Halloween performance was a ghostbuster indeed with the Dancing With the Stars fans. She and Louis got the bottom score, despite two strong performances last night.
Next week, the Testosterone Three take the stage in the semifinal round. Judge Len called Mario magnificent in a review of the dancers' styles. (Guess who he thinks will win.) He made a reference to his cockiness, and that Mario shouldn't take anything for granted. That hasn't been apparent to me. No one has been more consistently "magnificent" than Mr. Lopez, IMHO. For Bruno's sake, they've been rating his performances as if he were pro.
Tonight's show included a demonstration of Swop - a dance form that combines swing and hip hop. The way one woman was being bent around at the whim of her partner, it made you wonder if she was made of the same bendable stuff as Gumby and Pokey. Very cool performance.
After how many weeks, last night I just noticed that there has been someone standing next to Tom Bergeron talking with a microphone. Willy Wonka ought to say to her "Uh, you really shouldn't mumble because I can't understand a word you're saying." Her humor has the levity of a Humvee.
dancing with the stars monique coleman

Not a P Miller in the house

Wow, no joyless, P Miller-style side-sliding on tonight's Final Four Dancing With the Stars. To use a Tyra Banks refrain, this competition is becoming "somethin' FIERCE!"
Faves:

All Mario, all the time. (Loved his "liquid" shirt look in that dreamy waltz. He wuz robbed on the scoring, though!)

Joey & Edyta's "Sympathy for the Paso Doble"

Emmitt and Cheryl's muy caliente rumba

Monique and Louis' rejection of taking things easy. But I much preferred their spooky tango to the gold hot pantsy Ghostbusters Cha Cha.

dancing with the stars

'Sir Shimmy' Smith

Well, on a Dancing With the Stars evening of wow-full, tight competition (excluding the good humored court jester Jerry Springer), the dancefloor belonged to Emmitt Smith and his partner Cheryl Burke. Their waltz had such grace, their joyful mambo, as the ever drooling Carrie Ann Inaba said, made him into "Sir Shimmy." (Why doesn't she just wear a sign: "Take me Emmitt, I'm yours!")
Again, there was the awkward pairing of "contemporary music" with a dance. Tonight's was perhaps the worst! C'mon, how can you pasa doble to Duran Duran's The Reflex?!!! Kudos to Monique and Louie for dancing their darndest.
Jerry has been fun to watch, but the heat of competition tonight proved it's time for him to get out of the dance kitchen.
At this point, as Emmitt might agree, it's anybody's game. Boy are these celebs, to use a haggard phrase from The Apprentice, really stepping up to the plate.
emmitt smith dancing with the stars jerry springer

Rumba coco

Dancing With the Stars is turning into a match.com series. This season unlike the previous two seems to be sparking more than a little romance. There's Willa Ford and the get-out-of-my-mirror-view handsome Maksim Chmerkovskiy. There's sexy dimpled Mario Lopez and his Karina Smirnoff (while Eva Longoria lusts after "her friend" from the audience). And now, even Sara Evans who's left the show to divorce her porn-perve husband is hooking up with her "always Albanian" partner Tony Dovalani next year so he can "choreograph her tour." Of course... Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

But even the best of romance has its downside. This season's biggest turnoffs:

The throbbing-veined forehead of Joey Lawrence

The weird pairings of modern music with dances in which they have no natural beats in tune

Carrie Ann Inaba's embarrassingly freakish "end zone" dance for Emmitt Smith last week

Bruno Tonioli's constant references to Mario's ... ahem... endowments. Batteries???

Mario is my Pepper Monkey for this series. Ay yi yi!
dancing with the stars mario lopez