It wouldn’t be Dancing With The Stars without injuries — and in the last 24 hours, there have been two doozies, both involving the professional dancers. On Tuesday night, despite the fact that he had just dislocated his shoulder, Derek Hough powered through the pain to perform a reunion dance with his movie star sister, former pro Julianne Hough.
“He’s such a trooper,” said one staffer. “They put the shoulder back into place, and he’s in a lot of pain, but he’s going to dance anyway — including doing the lifts.” It remains to be seen whether the injury will affect his rehearsals this week with talk show host Ricki Lake, who is currently in first place.
Meanwhile, insult was added to injury for the just-voted-off Tony Dovolani, still limping as a result of the sprained ankle he suffered during his dress rehearsal Monday night with singer Chynna Phillips. Dovolani’s ankle twisted on the floor after the crew did a test run of the fog machine used to create a special atmospheric mood on set. “The fog sometimes leaves a little oil slick in its wake,” said one staffer. “It can really be slippery.”
But a sore ankle was nothing compared to the blow to this couple’s pride. Phillips had a mental lapse during her tango and didn’t want to be voted off after not doing her best. It was clear that she was devastated. “Imagine you’re at your final exam,” she says, “and you’ve studied all night, and you thought about it, prayed about it, and did all your homework, and then all of a sudden, there’s that paper in front of you and it’s like — everything goes blank. I had a moment. I’m human. I feel terrible that it had to happen last night. I feel terrible for Tony. It could’ve been his year [to win the mirror ball trophy]. I dropped the ball.”
Dovolani, who’s still replaying the disastrous dance in his head, says, “I saw the look in her eyes and how terrified she was. She froze a little bit on me. But I knew she was gonna go with me. I felt like it was my child. I wanted to be there for her. Everything in me shook because I felt so bad. I knew how bad she wanted it, and I hoped that the audience would give us a second chance. We’re the only couple that didn’t have a fight, didn’t have drama, so I guess that’s not good enough.”
So he’s shocked that they are no longer in the competition? “Shocked would be an understatement,” says Dovolani.
Story courtesy of Deborah Starr Seibel of tvguide.com
