'Dancing With The Stars: All-Stars' Pairings Announced
by Sean Comer
More than one "Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars" hopeful will be hoping for one hell of an encore alongside a familiar partner, Zap2It.com announced Monday.
With the pairings now official for this fall's fifteenth season, a few find themselves in familiar arms. Of course, several others return to ABC's ballroom with their respective previous pros off to bigger, better things.
Two returning contestants, race car driver Helio Castrovenes and Olympic gold-medalist speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, previously danced with Julianne Hough before Hough abandoned ship to conquer country music and Hollywood.
Actress and ex-Jenny Craig endorser Kirstie Alley has been reunited with prior pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy. Likewise, former NSYNC member Joey Fatone has once more been paired with Kym Johnson. Controversial daughter of the GOP Bristol Palin is once more with partner Mark Ballas. That means that former 2008 Olympic gold-medalist gymnast Shawn Johnson will be swapped to dancing with Derek Hough.
Two former contestants have previously been paired with pro Cheryl Burke - former 98 Degrees member Drew Lachey and French actor Gilles Marini. This time, neither will be joined by the lovely brunette. Lachey has drawn Anna Trebunskaya and Marini will be dancing with Peta Murgatroyd.
Burke herself is meanwhile paired with previous Mirror Ball Trophy winner and Pro Football Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith.
In other new pairings, in absence of her former pro Damian Whitewood, actress and former Playmate of the Year Pamela Anderson will be trained by Tristan MacManus. Alec Mazo's stunning former celeb Kelly Monaco is now paired with Valentin Chmerkovskiy. As for Julianne Hough's previous two partners, Castrovenes is now joined by Chelsie Hightower and Ohno by former Mirror Ball Trophy winner Karina Smirnoff.
Rounding it all out, Melissa Rycroft will be dancing with Tony Dovolani. The thirteenth and final celeb is still to be decided by a fan vote between Carson Kressley, Sabrina Bryan and Kyle Massey.