Bristol Palin's Success On DWTS: The Politics of Dancing?

Over the past few weeks, a conspiracy theory has been swelling during season 11 of the ABC reality competition series Dancing with the Stars.  Despite being considered by many (including the DWTS judges) as one of the worst dancers this season, Bristol Palin (daughter of Tea Party darling Sarah Palin) has managed to make it to the finals. The conspiracy whispers grew to a roar in some circles during week 9 of the competition when Bristol & her partner Mark advanced, while singer/actress Brandy her partner Maksim were sent packing. Since I quit watching DWTS a couple of seasons ago, I went to You Tube to see  if Bristol's dance skills did pale in comparison to Brandy's.







To me, it's no question... Brandy blew Bristol off the stage!

According to the comments section of a post on the website Conservatives4Palin, it's clear that some of Bristol's supporters are voting as many as 50 times to ensure that she wins!  However, what isn't clear is whether or not all of the multiple votes are being counted. In an interview with EW.com, Conrad Green (exec. producer of DWTS) states that the voting system has security checks in place which will negate any excessive votes (even though they will appear to the voter that they are being counted).  Hmm... I'm viewing that with a bit of skepticism.  If voters have found a way to get around the system and submit more than the allowed number of votes, does anyone expect the exec. producer to admit this in an interview?  I wonder if Michael Palin will sign on for season 12 of DWTS thinking he might be able to get some of the Palinbots to vote for him by virtue of his last name. 

Although I'm not outraged by Bristol/Sarah fans who are stuffing the proverbial ballot box (or at least trying to), I'm just wondering what they hope to gain by doing so. If their efforts are successful, is this supposed to demonstrate the power of The Tea Party?  My answer is an emphatic no!  If the Tea Party was as powerful as some people believe it is, the excessive voting wouldn't be necessary. What the excessive voting shows me is that there are Sarah Palin supporters who will go to great lengths to ensure that a member of the Palin family emerges victorious, even if it's only on a reality competition series.  If it's really that important to them for the daughter of one of their political heroines to dance away with a mirror ball trophy (not to mention the cash prize), I say "whatever".

To what do you attribute Bristol Palin's success on DWTS?

Final Results of the Recent DWTS Poll

In a surprising landslide, Brandy was selected as the celebrity most likely to walk away with the mirror ball trophy for season 11 of Dancing with the Stars. 

Here are the final results:

Brandy- 66%
Jennifer Grey- 14%
David Hasselhoff, Kyle Massey, Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, and Kurt Warner- 4% each
Michael Bolton, Margaret Cho, Rick Fox, Florence Henderson, Bristol Palin, and Audrina Patridge- 0% each

Thanks to all of you who participated.  Season 11 of DWTS kicks off on Monday, September 20th at 8 pm EST.

Please Take A Moment To Vote In the Current A.I. Poll... Thank You

Kristin Chenoweth Gets Gleeful

Over the past few weeks, various bloggers and co-workers have been raving about the new Fox musical comedy series Glee. Based on what I've been hearing, I had planned to give it a look. However, I made sure I didn't miss the September 30th episode because of two words... Kristin Chenoweth. I've been a fan ever since her role as Olive Snook in the brilliant but canceled Pushing Daisies. She's now on my short list (no pun intended) of performers who when I see their name in the credits, I know they alone will make the movie/TV show worth watching.

In the episode of Glee, Kristin guest starred as April Rhodes, a boozy former classmate of Will's with an awesome set of pipes. As expected, Kristin gave her customary kick-ass performance. Below is the clip of her performing the Carrie Underwood song Last Name.




There are talks that Kristin's role on Glee may be recurring (if the producers of the show haven't signed her up for future episodes, they need to get on it yesterday). Even if this is the last we see of Kristin on Glee, I'll be checking it out again. The show sucked me in from the beginning when members of the glee club launched into Journey's Don't Stop Believing. If you want to check out the tunes featured on Glee, you can visit Glee Songs.

American Idol Season 8: Is The Outcome A Done Deal Like Some Think?

Kris Allen and Adam Lambert

Although I normally don't follow American Idol, I've lately become intrigued by the eventual outcome of season 8. Based on what I'd been reading, it sounded like Adam Lambert had the A.I. crown sewn up tighter than those pants he likes to wear. For most of this season, pretty much everything I've heard in relation to the contestants has been about Adam. Hell, I didn't even know the name of the other finalist (Kris Allen) until I read the recent Entertainment Weekly cover story about Adam.

Once I read the EW article, I began to think that maybe it isn't a guarantee that Adam will take the top prize. This is because the writer of the article posed the following question: can an openly gay contestant win American Idol? The thought that a gay contestant couldn't win American Idol had never occurred to me, but the writer could be on to something. Having said that, both the writer and I realize that Adam hasn't officially come out (even though he has admitted that the photos of him kissing another man are real). Some may say, "duh, of course he's gay!" However, until he confirms that he is or isn't, all we can really do is speculate.

Of course, Adam's assumed sexuality shouldn't matter; but we know it does to some people. The thing is, will it matter to enough voters to cause Adam to lose? The question posed by the EW writer makes me now wonder about Clay Aiken's surprising (to me anyways) loss to Ruben Studdard during season 2. Don't get me wrong, I think Ruben was a deserving winner. However, all the buzz I was hearing led me to believe that Clay had the title in the bag. Since I don't remember, I'm depending on you longtime A.I. fans to answer a couple of questions for me. Were there rumors about Clay's sexuality when he was a contestant on A.I? If so, do you think the rumors kept him from winning?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to finding out how the season finale of A.I. plays out. For the record, I think Adam is going to win. Even though I feel that he fucked up Steppenwolf's biker anthem Born To Be Wild, I'm going with the buzz factor that surrounds him. Plus, his slowed down rendition of Tears For Fears' Mad World was superb. Even if Kris Allen does prevail, it may not have anything to do with viewers reluctant to vote for an assumed gay contestant. The EW writer also raised an interesting point when he said that voters generally prefer that A.I. contestants be humble (which could play in Kris' favor).

Do you think it's a lock that Adam Lambert will be crowned "American Idol"? If he loses, will it be due to his assumed sexuality or because of the "humble Kris" factor?