AP Photo / LMartinezNewsflash: When Cher is in the house, everyone feels a bit nervous on Dancing With the Stars. Even Cher herself!
We hit the live performance show tonight to gather up all the Cher-tastic goss, and discovered that Ricki Lake was reeling from her results, while two stars were nursing injuries, and everyone else was bragging about their "Cher moment" (real or imagined)...
"I am in shock…honestly!" Ricki told us of receiving this season's first 10's. "I was really uptight about this dance. I was really nervous. A lot of people didn't do well tonight, and that is our worst nightmare, when you go up there and don't remember the dance. I honestly do not know how we pulled it off."
She credits partner Derek Hough for the coup, saying, "He is truly amazing. That silhouette trick was just so cool—he really is not just a choreographer, he's a director."
Chynna Phillips and Tony Dovolani left immediately after the show to go and check out an injury he suffered between dress rehearsal and performance. And after the show, Carson Kressley was tending to a hurt finger—and a bruised ego.
"I burned my finger on a light," Carson laughed. "Which is so typical of me. We do our dance, which is so crazy and we don't die, and then then I go upstairs and I'm like ‘Ow!,' on a light. I should have lied and said [in pirate voice], I sliced a piece of me finger off!"
Carson wasn't proud of his dance tonight. "I'm not feeling good because we got off to a rocky start, we had some rough seas. We did this amazing sword fight and then they rolled back under our feet, and we were looking for them like, ‘Where are the swords?!' And I kinda forgot I was dancing." Yeah, that's probably not a good thing.
And not that there was any big deal made out of it or anything (ahem), but Chaz's mom…What's her name again? Oh right, Cher, popped into the audience, and Chaz told us "She was nervous. It's kind of a big deal." And here's what others had to say:
"The truth? I like Chaz for Chaz. Whether his mother is Cher or not. Though I'm a great big Cher fan."—Nancy Grace
"We didn't talk, if you will. But we have a connection. We shared a look. We didn't need to make it public."—J.R. Martinez
"Have I gotten to meet Cher? Are you kidding? We're practically related! Lots of people were crowding around her trying to have a moment and I said, ‘Anna just stay here and she'll come to us.' and on cue she came to us and said 'Hi' and she told Anna she's lovely. So my life is pretty much complete."—Carson Kressley
Next week is '80s week and if Rob Kardashian can stay away from his nightly runs to fast-food restaurants (he confessed he's doing that, much to partner Cheryl Burke's dismay!), he might just put a little sexy in his dance. "I think it's about time I show some skin…We need to up the sex factor."
What did you think of tonight's episode...and Chaz's mom? Sound off in the comments!
(Originally published Oct. 10, 2011, at 10:22 p.m. PT)