The Washington Post's TV Column, written by Lisa de Moraes, explains Bristol Palin's success on Dancing With the Stars. The show is very popular now, and about four times as many people watched DWTS than watched Sarah Palin's Alaska.
Monsters and Critics called last night's first dance a "raunchy Pasodoble," and noted that afterward Judge Carrie Ann Inabe hugged Bristol and told her she had "nailed it." Ms Inabe's explanation for Bristol's success, before last night's episode, can be viewed at People.
That's raunchy?
In a remark that may explain the outcome of the recent midterm election, The TV Column states:
What if Bristol wins? This question was just a laugh line until last week when she made it to the semi-finals. If the very thought seems an outrage, Green [DWTS' Executive Producer] offers an outlet: "It's a very simple solution: Mobilize to vote for someone else." Green said he's been astonished when he's encountered people angry about seeing so much of the Palins on this edition of the show, "and I ask who they voted for and they say, 'No one'."
Anyway, The TV Column reminds us, "Tuesday night, viewers will find out if Bristol is going to make it to next week's final round; the winner of the coveted yet hideous Mirror Ball Trophy will be announced next Tuesday."
Update: November 16, 2010: CBS News reports that Bristol is going to the finals on DWTS,
Update: November 17, 2010: The Washington Post's Lisa de Moraes has new comments, here. Her post includes news of the man who shot his TV after learning that Bristol had made it to the finals!
... Anyway, in Palin's case, it's all meaningless for now. She's saying and doing some of the things that indicate presidential ambitions. But if she's just in it to enhance her influence on a segment of the electorate and/or make lots of money, she would be doing the same things. No matter what her real intentions, she has to keep America wondering if she will actually run. The prospect, however remote, of Palin in the White House is critical to her unusual marketability. Supporters are even more motivated to listen -- and buy -- when there's a chance she will one day represent their views in high office. Detractors pay attention out of concern she'll do just that. Journalists meet demand from both groups by reporting on pretty much anything Palin-related, and pollsters take time to conduct surveys testing her viability. It all feeds her mystique -- and fills up her bank account.
If she's smart, she'll keep this up as long as she can, then announce she's not running. She couldn't win, since so much of the country thinks she's simply unqualified. But she could try to play kingmaker as a leader of the Tea Party, her endorsement swinging a portion of the GOP primary electorate behind her chosen candidate.
Sarah was "scared to death" when Bristol went on DWTS, but Bristol returned victorious to Wasilla -- with dance partner Mark Ballas -- where they were welcomed with a "huge rally." A video and short story are at ET Online.
Kelly Osbourne tells People that she is upset that no one from the Palin family was in the audience when Bristol danced on DWTS:
"I have a real soft spot for Bristol Palin. I really do. I think she's going out there and trying, and to not have a family member in the audience is the hardest thing in the world," Osbourne, 25, says in an interview set to air Thursday on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Osbourne adds: "Half of that show is family support, and to go out there that first week and not have anyone there, and having everybody looking at you the most – I give her so much credit."
Tina Fey has weighed in on Bristol's DWTS performance:
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Tina Fey may not have had a reason to do her Sarah Palin impression lately, but the “30 Rock” star is still interested in the former vice presidential candidate and her family, including Bristol, who made her debut earlier this week on “Dancing with the Stars.”
“I thought she was a pretty good dancer,” Tina told Access Hollywood in New York City on Thursday. “I thought she did well.” ...
See? Stephen Stromberg is right! Even a comic book is trying to cash in on will she run? The Today show's Rick Schindler wrote about the Archie cover, here.
The author of a blistering Vanity Fair article on Sarah Palin says his attempt at a positive piece went so awry, he couldn't even include all the bad stuff he found out.
"The worst stuff isn't even in there," Michael Joseph Gross said on MSNBC.
"I couldn't believe these stories either when I first heard them, and I started this story with a prejudice in her favor. I have a lot in common with this woman." ...
... You can read the Vanity Fair article yourself and draw your own conclusions, but he paints Palin as an abusive, combative figure with an extreme ability to lie.
"This is a person for whom there is no topic too small to lie about," he said of the ex-Alaska Governor and mother of Bristol Palin. "She lies about everything."
Meghan McCain has nothing on this. As for Palin's political future?
"If we decide to let her keep lying and getting away with it, she's gonna still be around," he said. "But if we start returning to the standard that a politician has to talk with people, and a politician has to tell the truth, then she's outta here."
In The Washington Post's "A limp response from Palin," Ruth Marcus, while she says, "As it happens, I think Palin had a legitimate beef with the Vanity Fair piece. It was very short on identified sources. You could hear a lot of axes being ground in the background," criticizes Palin's response:
... There are sexist aspects to the commentary about Palin, as with other female politicians. Sometimes sexism is imagined or overplayed; sometimes it is real and deserves to be called out. A new campaign, Name It, Change It, has been launched to expose such episodes.
Fine, but women politicians have to keep to the high road if they don't want men making fun of their high heels. Impotent and limp? No male politician accused a female reporter of being hormonal or frigid.
Governor, there were any number of other adjectives you could have used. You didn't need to go there -- and you shouldn't have.
Doesn't Palin's response to the article confirm one of the article's major points? That Sarah Palin has a foul temper?
Here we see Sarah thinking, "Darn! Why didn't I learn any geography? The least my PAC could do is hire someone to fact-check me before I go shootin' off my big mouth. Again!"
Sarah's latest faux pas was also reported by Boston's Herald, which noticed some other facts she overlooked while endorsing a candidate in the neighboring state of New Hampshire.
NY Times' The Caucus blog noted Palin's endorsement of a "Granite Grizzly" in New Hampshire. Is she statuesque? (I do know that New Hampshire is referred to as "The Granite State.")
People reports that Bristol and Levi are playing hardball in their negotiations for a reality show. They want a full season! Way to go: get the money up front; you don't need no stinkin' pilot.
... With a November election approaching, politicians have latched onto the issue as a high-profile platform to attack their opponents.
On Tuesday, Rick A. Lazio, a Republican running for governor, urged the landmarks commission to protect the [existing] building [at the planned site of Cordoba House], constructed in the late 1850s in the Italian Renaissance palazzo style; this would effectively halt the plans for the Muslim center. The commission expects to vote on the issue in August.
“This is about getting questions answered,” Mr. Lazio told reporters. “This is about transparency. This about the safety of the people of New York.”
“Religion has nothing to do with this,” he added.
Representative Peter T. King, a Republican, joined Mr. Lazio in calling for an investigation into the financing of the project. But Andrew M. Cuomo, Mr. Lazio’s Democratic opponent and the state’s attorney general, has rebuffed those requests.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has strongly endorsed the project, arguing that it is not the role of government to meddle in religious and business affairs.
“Government should never — never — be in the business of telling people how they should pray, or where they can pray,” Mr. Bloomberg said on Monday. “We want to make sure that everybody from around the world feels comfortable coming here, living here and praying the way they want to pray.”...
Bristol and Levi, 20 -- who famously called off their previous engagement two weeks after welcoming son Tripp in December 2008 -- tell Us Weekly they reconnected three months ago while working out a custody plan for their 18-month-old son.
"I really thought we were over," Levi tells Us Weekly. "So when I went, I had no hope. I think we both just started talking — and then we took Tripp for a walk."
Says Bristol, "When he left that night, we didn’t hug or kiss, but I was thinking how different it was. He texted me: 'I miss you. I love you. I want to be with you again' ... I was in shock." ...
US Weekly's story continues with Bristol telling the magazine that she's scared of Sarah's reaction.
NBC's Today has an interesting story about the engagement:
Update: The unavailability of NBC's video may be due to an embargo that may end soon. After it broadcasts on the west coast?
Update:Sarah and Todd Palin said in a statement on NBC's "Today" show Tuesday that they want what's best for their children and that Bristol believes in "redemption and forgiveness." And it seems Bristol blames her mom for their initial breakup. In a newly released People interview, Bristol says that had her mom not been a VP candidate, she and Levi would already be married and would never have split. (via HuffPo, which has a large hi-res picture of Us Weekly's cover)
Update: The new video is not the earlier video with Matt Lauer, but it is an interesting interview with Caroline Schaefer, Us Weekly’s executive editor.
Update: From Bristol's interview with People Magazine:
Bristol, who did not wear an engagement ring during her conversation with PEOPLE, replied to the question of if they would marry: "Yeah. I mean, I don't really want to get into detail about what's in store for our future, because who knows? But all I'd like to say about it is, hopefully we will be a family."
As for how they managed to bury the hatchet after their very public falling out, Bristol credits Levi's "just coming around. But, I don't know. It's good. It's good for all three of us [including son] Tripp Easton!"
Looking back, Bristol believes that if fame, money and her mom Sarah Palin's vice presidential campaign had not become part of her and Levi's lives, the ex-couple would already be happy living a simple life.
"I think Levi and I would be married," she says without hesitation. "He would still have his [oil] job on the North Slope, and we'd be in a one-bedroom apartment, scraping by."
Bristol, who says all of her friends have gone out of state, has no plans to follow them. "Levi and I are both Alaska based, and I don't see us moving anywhere else."
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