KEEPING IT FRESH: Monday night’s "dances of love" theme had a few couples popping more than their fair share of breath mints. But Nicole Scherzinger joked that partner Derek Hough's "breath is kicking like Bruce Lee!" The two, who are constantly joking around backstage, laughed at the line, which Scherzinger confesses, “I heard in a movie.” The truth is the couple’s breath "is always fresh," Hough insists.
DOUBLE TROUBLE? Did Monday night’s ‘double scoring showdown’ delight the contestants or discourage them? The opinions were mixed: “It brought attention to detail,” Hough said. “As we saw, they were truly hard on us tonight in general, but I think it was good and it grounded everybody." Cheryl Burke also liked the new scoring method. “In the studio we always work on technique and we always work on performance," she said, "so it’s nice to see them separated.” Maksim Chmerkovskiy, however, was not a fan. “It was a double opportunity to score somebody wrong,” Chermovskiy says, noting that some of the judges’ comments did not reflect the scores they gave the contestants. “A lot of couples were confused."
SLIP 'N' SLIDE: Jake Pavelka almost fell during his tango with Chelsie Hightower when the heel of his shoe slid on the hardwood floor, causing The Bachelor star to lose his footing. "In rehearsals Chelsie said maybe I should put something on my heel to keep it from slipping, but I thought it would be fine,” Pavelka says. “That’s going to cost us some votes.” And Pavelka, who was in the bottom two last week, may not have any to spare. "You’re never safe. You always have to vote," he says. "My brothers didn’t even vote for me last week because they thought I’d be okay."DARK HORSE: Now four weeks into the competition, Pamela Anderson is emerging as a contestant to watch. Her sultry rumba had tongues wagging Monday and her partner bragging. "She was all butterflies backstage,” Damian Whitewood says. To calm her nerves, “we just focused on our connection. This week was good because we worked a lot harder on the technique and the timing, so she was more confident with the ground work ... The last run-through we did before we go on, she nailed it. There was no question.” --Monica Rizzo
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