reality tv (1059 posts)

ABC/KELSEY McNEAL

Spending all season craning your neck over the judges' table is good for catching illegal lifts, but not so good on your already arthritic neck.

As Dancing With the Stars' prettiest judge (sorry, Bruno) practices the former and suffers from the latter, Carrie Ann Inaba will be undergoing the first of what may be several surgeries this morning in order to relieve the pressure caused by her spinal stenosis.

"I have arthritis," she told People. "The space around my spinal cord has become compressed. I have been locked. My neck was so stiff. We're hoping this procedure will relieve that.

"I'll be fine and if this surgery goes well, I may have another one in the future."

The curse spares no one, people.

And just like her show's dancers, who know from speedy recoveries, Inaba plans to be back on her feet in no time. Along with fellow cofounders Katie Holmes, Nigel Lythgoe and Adam Shankman, she plans to be in attendance at the Dizzy Feet Foundation's Celebration of Dance fundraiser this Sunday in Los Angeles.

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You don't have to be working on the dance floor to get injured. Just like you don't have to be a hot young thing to take home the Mirrorball Trophy, right Donny Osmond?

ABC/KELSEY McNEAL

Wait, Kathy Ireland was on this show? What the heck is Tom DeLay doing here?!

Oh right, the Dancing With the Stars finale is when a whole season's worth of contestants come out of the woodwork and remind the viewers just how right they were in casting these folks aside long ago.

With that behind them, Donny Osmond, Kelly Osbourne and Mya gathered tonight for one last spin around the floor and awaited to hear who would be bringing the illustrious disco-ball trophy home for good.

Kelly danced the Viennese waltz more gracefully than ever; Mya brought new sharpness and confidence to her and Dmitry Chaplin's nerd-meets-seductress jive; and Donny performed his Argentine-tango ass off, somehow managing to look intense but not hammy.

But, as Len Goodman said earlier, "There can be only one."

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Karen Alquist/TLC

Kate Gosselin never wanted it to be this way. But since it is this way...

Having to shut down its cash cow thanks to Jon Gosselin's gripes, TLC seemed to make sure that its litigious former star ended up smelling like a bed of anything-but-roses on Monday's series finale of Jon & Kate Plus 8.

Kate took six of the kids to an organic farm, where they pet kittens and milked cows, and everything was wholesome and lovely! Meanwhile, even raising money for firefighters, Jon came off looking like the bad guy.

"I always wonder, 'Are they safe, are they protected, are they well thought-out?'" Kate, who called the premature end of the show "bittersweet," mused during one of her one-on-camera interview segments. 

"And I do worry about his intentions and his motives for such things," she said, referring to the lemonade stand Jon set up to raise money for their local volunteer fire department. "Is this a publicity stunt? What is the bottom line of it? I don't like when my kids get caught in the crossfire of that stuff."

Cut to Jon banishing Mady and Cara from the site for being "unappreciative" and then begrudging the sextuplets their fun exploring a firetruck while he stayed outside selling lemonade. Then he donned a full fireman's suit and took a few Darth-Vaderesque breaths.

Kate's concerns come to fruition, or some crafty editing?

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Prince Williams/Getty Images

To get at the truth, the family of Kandi Burruss's late fiancé is looking to raise the dead.

A.J. Jewell did not have sickle-cell anemia, according to a spokesman for Jewell's relatives, who have requested that a second autopsy be performed by a private coroner to clear up any inconsistencies surrounding his death last month from a head injury sustained in a fight outside an Atlanta strip club.

Results are expected in about two weeks. The Real Housewives of Atlanta fixture was laid to rest over a month ago.

The Fulton County medical examiner ruled Jewell's death a homicide and the other guy in the fight, Frederick Richardson, has been charged with voluntary manslaughter.

But Jewell's family disagrees with the finding that sickle-cell anemia aggravated his injuries.

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Kannie Yu LaPack, Lifetime

Every season, it all comes down to Bryant Park.

Nine months after they marched their 13-look collections down the runway at Fall Fashion Week, Althea Harper, Irena Shabayeva and Carol Hannah Whitfield stood quaking before Heidi Klum & Co., waiting to hear who would be named the winner of Project Runway's much-delayed sixth season.

Of course it looked as if time was going to run out, garments were going to go unfinished and each woman was going to float away on a river of tears (mixed with other fluids, in the virus-stricken Carol Hannah's case).

But, wouldn't you know, all three ladies, competing in the second all-girl finale in a row, showed classy, polished and, for the most part, extremely wearable collections at the couture extravaganza in NYC.

And for the spoiler-avoiders among us, it seemed like anyone's game.

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Good things come in small packages.

Before the first-ever petite cycle of America's Next Top Model came to a close tonight, southern belle Laura Kirkpatrick and the unprepossessing Nicole Fox had two more chances to prove that they deserved to be on top.

First came the requisite Cover Girl commercial shoot, which left both girls fighting for their composure as the only words they could get their glossy lips around were easy, breezy and beautiful. (Both ended up with decent takes, but it was torture getting there.)

Then it was onto the runway for a Julia Clancey fashion show.

Off Laura and Nicole went, their dresses billowing, fringe flapping and faces shellacked with shimmer, as Tyra Banks, Nigel Barker, J. Alexander and Eddie Murphy(!) looked on from the audience.

The show—which also featured lucky losers Erin, Sundai and Jennifer—went smoothly and both finalists stalked the catwalk like pros, and tall pros at that!

So who was the last girl standing at the end of cycle 13?

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