WASHINGTON, DC: Until Monday night, the enduring mystery on American reality TV was how did terribly off-key Indian-American singer Sanjaya Malakar make it to the top 11. Starting Tuesday, the new mystery is, how the heck did Heather Mills do the audacious back flip on Dancing with the Stars, despite her prosthetic leg?
Mills, a former model who is better known as Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney’s estranged wife, stunned the nation in the second week of the hit reality show on ABC with a dance sequence that included an extremely difficult back flip. Judges awarded her and her dance partner Jonathan Roberts 24 out of a maximum 30 points, which has put her in fifth place in the competition. The animal rights and anti-land mines activist had lost her leg in a 1993 traffic accident, and has been wearing a prosthetic leg since her recovery.
Her performance led judge and choreographer Bruno Tonioli to say: “Beyond any expectation. You were on warp drive tonight. Red-hot Heather... I can’t believe what you did.” Another judge Carrie Ann Inaba said she was “blown away” by Mills’ performance on Monday night. “The level of difficulty in that routine was far higher than anyone else’s routine tonight,” she told Mills, “and you would think you wouldn’t throw that in, but you did and you nailed it.”
In response to the judges’ positive feedback, Mills told viewers not to voter her off the show. “A year ago there’s no way I would ever have believed I’d be dancing now, so I am enjoying every second of it. I really, really hope I’m not going to be the first to go.”
Head judge Len Goodman has repeatedly said on air that Mills would get no sympathy votes because she is an amputee. After her dance routine in the first episode last week, Goodman said: “You are an inspiration to people who want to get out and dance... (but) this is a dancing competition... Heather’s leg does not come into the equation... and I am sure Heather wouldn’t want that too.” Tonioli said that Mills had “more guts than Rambo”.
Meanwhile, a report in contactmusic.com said that Mills wanted a gay dance partner to avoid rumours of a romantic relationship, given her divorce case. Contactmusic.com quoted her as saying: “I asked for a gay guy. I said, ‘I haven’t had a date in 10 months and yet I’ve been associated with all these different people, which is rubbish.’ Jonathan turned up and I said, “Well, he doesn’t look gay.” I said, ‘Are you gay?’ And he said, ‘No, I’m not, I’m married...’ He’s just a great person.”
