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Dancing With the Stars' Kirstie Alley: "I Feel Mediocre"

The stars react to their scores on the first night of competitive performance; how is the show changing Kendra?

By Jennifer Arrow Mar 29, 2011 8:38 AMTags
KIRSTIE ALLEY, MAKSIM CHMERKOVSKIY, DWTSABC/ADAM TAYLOR

After last week's breakout performance on Dancing With the Stars, Kirstie Alley was hoping to build on her success with even higher scores this week, but it didn't happen, and the always quotable actress wasn't shy about admitting that she struggled some this week: "I feel mediocre. I'm telling you the truth. I know what steps I missed, I know what I screwed up on, so…that's all. I wasn't as tired [as I was last week], the stamina's gone up a bit, but this dance is hard! Who the hell walks around like this? Nobody walks like this!" (It's true: The quickstep has tripped up greater dancers than Alley!)

Meanwhile, which dancer has all but given up hope of success, and which dancer is living the fairy tale?

Is Mike Catherwood being too hard on himself, or is he just being realistic when he says, "I'm starting to realize something: I may want to rethink this dancing thing. Even if I make it through next week, I might want to find some other way to entertain the people. I'm not very good...It's hard to feel confidence. Let me put it this way: I know that I don't have the biggest fanbase, in fact I probably have the lowest fanbase of anybody here on the show, and I now know that I have the collectively lowest score. Lowest score and the lowest fanbase—what is there to be confident about, my friend? I gave it all I got and I think people can respect that." Aww, we sure can. Cheers to you, Psycho Mike!

Another dancer who's taking the experience personally is Kendra Wilkinson-Baskett. Hef's former lady (who was also cheered on tonight by fellow Mansion alum Holly Madison) says, "I am going through this stage in my life where I'm going to blossom into a lady—not just a hot girl, but a lady, an elegant lady. [This is] not only for dancing but for my husband and my son, and just me. And it's emotional." 

As evidence of her success becoming an "elegant lady," Kendra got some kind words from judge Carrie Ann Inaba about her look, to which the E! star responded, "That made me feel really good, and I know they know how I feel, they know I'm just coming out here and being real. I'm not fake. I'm not coming out here with some big ego. And they know that. They know how to talk to me, and I appreciate that."

Also appreciating notes from the judges was adorkable charmer Ralph Macchio, who said of this week's lower scores from the judges, "I think the notes were constructive, and I'll take the notes that were positive, [as well as] the notes that there was room for improvement. I think there's places to build from on that. And this number was high-energy, high-intensity, the choreography was not simple—we challenged ourselves—and we delivered all the hard work that we had put in. The crowd seemed behind us and I had fun. The main thing is to have fun."

Personal enjoyment, of course, does seem to be the pinnacle of the DWTS experience, and two other celebs who struggled on the floor didn't let their footwork failures get them down. Talk-show host Wendy Williams told us, "I felt great last week and I feel great this week. You will never see me cop to last week's 14 score, regardless of what the judges said. This week I felt equally as great and equally as present." And kind-hearted supermodel Petra Nemcova said, "I messed up, I must say, so I was disappointed in myself, but I had amazing time. It was lots of lots of fun."

Which performances did you find most fun? Which dancers are your faves so far this season? Post a comment with your take!

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