Joey finds the right steps on ‘Dancing’

Billy Ray tries to keep his hat in the ring
In contrast, Billy Ray Cyrus is still bad, but he’s still really trying. He seemed quite distraught when his notoriously volatile partner Karina Smirnoff went into the bathroom to cry in frustration during their rehearsal, and he poured on the charm when admitting that if he was his partner, he’d probably cry as well. His paso doble was, as Bruno pointed out, not the work of a “technician,” but it was clear that he was trying — counting in his head, concentrating, wearing every smidgen of effort on his face, yes, but at least he was trying. The judges rewarded him for the effort, giving him straight 7s.

Heather Mills quite reasonably suspected that the waltz would be easier to her than some of the jumpier dances like last week’s jive. What she discovered was that slow dances were harder for her because of some balance issues, but partner Jonathan Roberts pointed out later that slow dances are harder for everyone, because there isn’t the opportunity for tricks that add excitement.

She also struggled with the emotion and romance, proving to be another who couldn’t do the serious look of love without giggling. When she got out on the floor, her waltz was perfectly nice, if not especially interesting. Len and Bruno offered good reviews, though Carrie-Ann had a few issues with Heather’s arms and shoulders. Heather landed in third place (at the time) behind Ian and Apolo, a good but not excellent showing, considering that several weak performances had come earlier.

The show wrapped up with Joey Fatone, whose silly “Star Wars” tango was inexplicably praised highly last week. This week, he was looking to undo the only criticism that the judges really had last week, which was that his behind had a tendency to stick out. Even his daughter visited practice to tell him to haul it in. He and partner Kym Johnson performed the only traditional paso doble of the night, and it was quite good indeed. It’s difficult to judge a paso doble done to the right music against one done to “You Give Love A Bad Name,” but Joey certainly seemed to have the hang of the delivery and the technique. To the surprise of no one, he got the night’s best scores, including the first 10 of the season from Carrie-Ann.

Heading into tomorrow’s results show, Leeza is the obvious odds-on favorite to leave, given her poor showing last week and a dance this week that was probably worse. Clyde’s scores are lower, but his fan base will likely keep him around longer, and John has the advantage of the traditional “crazy old guy” position, making him not due for elimination for a couple more weeks. Look for Leeza to head home tomorrow night.

Linda Holmes is a writer in Bloomington, Minn.

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