Friday Favourites - Dancing With the Stars

It's almost here. Can you feel it? Are your VCR's, dvd recorders and/or PVR's at the ready? The countdown has begun, only 17 short days until the premiere of Dancing With the Stars season 4. Now I'm a bit of a late comer to the whole Dancing With the Stars phenomenon. I never did watch the first season and the only reason I tuned into season 2 had a lot to do with my husband and Stacy Keibler's 42 inch legs. However, since then I have been a die hard fan because of the dancing. They've really put on some impressive routines. My favourite being the Cheyl/Drew freestyle dance to "Save a horse ride a cowboy"

So as I mentioned season 4 is gearing up and there has already been some headlines. Vincent Pastore best known as Big Pussy on The Sopranos has bowed out of the competition before it even got started. He claims he didn't realize how physically demanding it was going to be. Umm, okay, what did you think it was going to be then? Also I have been reading rumers that Heather Mills the future ex-Mrs. Paul McCartney will be the next to announce she's quitting. Of course that is just gossip speculation at this point. Which would be too bad since I was very interested to see how she would perform.

So who can we expect to see this season? Well;

Laila Ali - female boxer and daughter of Muhammad Ali. She'll definitely have the strength for it, but will she have the grace?

Billy Ray Cyrus - Of Achy Breaky Heart fame, also Hannah Montana's Dad. Well the mullet is gone, I think we can all at least be happy about that.

Clyde Drexler - aka Clyde the Glide. Have to admit I've never heard of him, but I have heard of the Dream Team. After seeing Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith rock this contest I'm curious to see what Clyde is going to bring to the table.

Joey Fatone - Well thanks to *NSYNC we all know he can dance, but will boy band dancing help him here?

Shandi Finnessey - Ummm, who? Oh she was Miss USA back in 2004, now she has a solid career choosing tiles for Chuck Woolery on Lingo (a game show I actually like).

Leeza Gibbons - Former Entertainment Tonight reporter. I love Leeza. I even watched her talk show back in the day. I always thought she had amazing hair. She's on my list of favourites.

Heather Mills - I think we all know who's ex-wife she is. Heather will also been the first person competiting with an artificial limb. I mean, if she does compete. No offense to Miss Mills, but I can't see her having a lot staying power.

Apolo Anton Ohno - yeah, never heard of him, but apparently he is a gold winning short track speedskater. Here's another one that will have the strength, but what about the grace?

Paulina Porizkova - the supermodel. I can see myself liking her.

John Ratzenberger- A late addition to the lineup, John joined the cast to fill in Big Pussy's vacated spot. I was secretly pulling for Mark Consuelos (Mr. Kelly Ripa) to be the replacement, but I guess we'll have to make do.

Ian Ziering - Steve Sanders from my favourite show Beverly Hills, 90210. Ian got lucky enough to be teamed up with Cheryl Burke is looking for a "three"-peat.

So there you have it folks, that's who will be fox-trotting, salsaing, tangoing and quick stepping into your livingroom/TV room/media centre in less than three weeks. Will you be watching? Any contestant caught your eye already?