The new cast of Dancing With the Stars has been revealed, and they don’t disappoint. It’s a motley crew of reality TV stars, boxers, talk-show hosts, rappers turned actors, and more. In addition to an interesting cast, they’ve made some new additions to the show. Entertainment Weekly caught up with the show’s executive producer, who gave them some intel. He said that viewers can expect more theme weeks like last season’s tributes to rock ‘n’ roll and TV.

See below for the full cast:

Wendy Williams, 46

Sugar Ray Leonard, 54

Romeo, 21 – rapper, actor and best of all, Master P’s son

Kendra Wilkinson, 25 – various E! reality TV shows

Ralph Macchio, 49 – the star of the original Karate Kid movies

Kirstie Alley, 60 – Fat Actress and Cheers

Petra Nemcova, 31 – a Czech model

Psycho Mike, a.k.a. Michael Catherwood, 31 – a popular DJ for KROQ in Los Angeles

Chelsea Kane, 22 – She’s best known for playing Stella on Disney Channel’s Jonas L.A.

Chris Jericho, 40 -  pro wrestler (WWE)

Hines Ward, 34 – NFL Pro Bowler from the Pittsburgh Steelers. He’s the third wide receiver to appear on DWTS.

Who do you think will do well? I think Wendy Williams might surprise us and go far because she’s competitive and knows how to win. Romeo also has a lot to prove. His father was on the show a few season ago and didn’t do too well because, surprisingly, he had two left feet and not much energy. However, Romeo has to do better to redeem the family name and I think he will. Who are you betting on? Let’s hope there won’t be another Bristol Palin voting scandal?

Dancing With the Stars returns to ABC on March 21.

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Bristol Palin responded to Margaret Cho’s claims that Mama Palin forced her to compete in Dancing With The Stars, among other things.

“Let me be blunt: my mom did not ‘force’ me to go on DWTS. She did not ask me either. The show approached me. I thought about it. I made the decision,” Palin wrote on her FaceBook page to the openly bisexual comedienne.

She added:

“You say you ‘don’t agree with the family’s politics at all’ but I say, if you understood that commonsense conservative values support the right of individuals like you, like all of us, to live our lives with less government interference and more independence, you would embrace us faster than k.d. lang at an Indigo Girls concert.”

She added:

“It saddens me that people would think that my mom would ‘blame’ me for anything that occurred in the 2008 election — much less ‘harshly’ and ‘openly,’” Palin wrote. “After first worrying for me in terms of being exposed to those who hate us for what we believe in, both my mom and my dad became my number one supporters.”

Unh! Take that haters.

In other news, I’m looking at my watch and their 15 minutes are almost up. Next!

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Margaret Cho claims that Sarah Palin forced Bristol to compete on Dancing with the Stars. Cho, who was also a contestant in the recently wrapped season of the ABC show, made the claims via her blog, noting that she was repeating claims from people who “should seriously know the dirt.”

“Sarah supposedly blames Bristol harshly and openly (in the circles that I heard it from) for not winning the election, and so she told Bristol she ‘owed’ it to her to do DWTS so that ‘America would fall in love with her again,’” Cho wrote.

Cho also debunked rumors that she didn’t get along with Bristol.

“Everyone was trying to pit me against Bristol, but the truth is, we got along well,” Cho wrote. “She never asked me to babysit Tripp or anything like that, but I consider her a friend. … Although I don’t agree with the family’s politics at all, I really like Bristol as a person. She’s warm and incredibly supportive, and I think that she looks beautiful out on the dance floor.”

Cho was eliminated in the third week of the competition.

This sounds bizarre but I wouldn’t put anything past Sarah Palin. Thoughts?

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I’m still mad about Brandy losing to Bristol Palin on Dancing With the Stars but at least I know that America isn’t completely blind. Jennifer Grey and her professional partner Derek Hough have won this season. Kyle Massey and Lacey Schwimmer finished second and Bristol Palin and Mark Ballas came in third.

Despite the fact that I was rooting for Brandy to win the whole time, I knew that Jennifer Grey was a formidable opponent and actually had a feeling that she would win no matter what (because she kept getting perfect scores). I’m not mad. She did a great job the whole way through so I guess all is right with the universe. BTW, even Jennifer Grey admitted that Brandy was better than Bristol. She didn’t say that exactly but check out her exit interview where you’ll see what I mean:

DWTS Week 9: Jennifer Grey & Derek
Uploaded by tvguide. – Classic TV and last night’s shows, online.

I don’t know if this is part of the Tea Party backlash, but there’s no way that Bristol Palin should still be on Dancing With The Stars while Brandy is not. Really, America? I’m speechless (or textless…whatever). Politics aside, this isn’t really a matter of political affiliation. It’s a matter of anyone with two eyes being able to see that Bristol Palin did a decent job on DWTS but over all, she was stiff. She got better during her time on the show, but she should have gotten the boot, not Brandy, who had proven to be a better dancer.

I’m so disgusted that Brandy didn’t pull in enough votes to win. Honestly, despite rooting for Brandy all the way, I think Jennifer Grey is going to win in the end, but Brandy should still be in the competition, not Bristol the pistol water gun. There’s no point in being redundant because at this point, it is what it is. Plus, this isn’t the first time I was extremely irritated by someone wrongfully getting the boot from the show (i.e.- Mya). Super-side eye to the judges and voters.

End rant.

In other news, Brandy and Maksim Chmerkovskiy worked really well together and had amazing chemistry. I’d actually like to see them date.

Those of you who have long salivated for the sight of Gayle King two-stepping will have to continue hoping that someone sneaks video of such moves and posts it online.

Despite being asked multiple times to join in on the nationwide craze, Gayle King refuses to compete on Dancing With The Stars.

It seems the O magazine editor and satellite radio host has been asked three separate times to take part in the show, only she thinks it’s best she keep her dance competitions out of public view.

As she explained to Us Weekly: “I think it’s good to keep my public humiliation to a minimum. I would never want to embarrass my children ever…or myself! I can’t dance.”

Neither could a lot of people like Brandy, but they’ve since learned to “fly above” (forever indebted to you for this phrase, Kandi).

Gayle says while she never plans to take part, she does have her favorites, adding, “I like Jennifer Grey, but I also like that guy Kyle [Massey]. I didn’t know him, but he has personality and moves.”

I personally wouldn’t mind watching Gayle and Oprah serve each other to “Get Me Bodied.”

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Now that Brandy is a confirmed competitor on Dancing With The Stars, how do you think she will do? ABC leaked some preview video of the new contestants practicing. See Miss “I Wanna Be Down” in action for yourself. Her first challenge is the Cha Cha:

That was actually pretty good, especially for their first rehearsal. If she can keep her whininess in check, she has a good shot at advancing to the finals. There were a few times when she stumbled, but she seemed to be picking up the steps relatively quickly. I wonder if her bff Kelly Rowland will be there to support her or even give her a few pointers on dancing.

Who is your money on this season? There’s some interesting contenders this season like, Bristol Palin, The Situation, David Hasselhoff and more.

The season premiere kicks off Monday at 8pm on ABC.

Brandy and Jersey Shore’s Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino will be joining the cast of Dancing With The Stars 11 according to Reality TV World. Brandy was confirmed by OK! magazine a few days ago but news of The Situation is the latest word.

“We’ll have to see [if he can dance], but we can’t wait to see what he pulls off. He’s going to be hilarious,” an insider told E! News, which reported Sorrentino’s participation is a “done deal.”

So far, other leaked castmembers, according to OK!, include retired NFL quarterback Kurt Warner and Audrina Patridge formerly of The Hills. In addition, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman and The Bachelorette couple Ali Fedotowsky and Roberto Martinez haven’t been officially confirmed but according to rumors they may also be part of this fall’s line up as well.

ABC will announce Dancing with the Stars’ eleventh-season cast in a live “press conference” that will air on August 30.

I’m excited about Brandy and, dare I say it, The Situation, but since when did reality TV folks get classified as stars.

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Ever wonder why Sisqo never tried to reclaim relevancy by way of one of those reality dance shows?

You know, because his lil’ self used to pop lock, drop, and roll all over the stage and sets of his videos.

Well, it seems he had a plan to join one but the deal fell through once he told producers he used to kick it with a bunch of dancers – as if he were getting training.

And then they invited a classically trained dancer to join. D’oh.

Here’s Sisqo on the issue:

Do you plan on following in her footsteps with Dancing With The Stars?

“It’s funny because they asked me to be a part of that before. I think it was the season that Mario had done it but I think I threw them off because they asked me if I had any dance training. They asked me what I had been doing for the passed year and I had gone into the underground dance community real heavy, especially with the America’s Best Dance Crew thing. It’s a whole world under everything that you know or see. These guys that dance for me or Usher or Chris Brown spend hours and hours in these dance workshops and I was just with them getting my chops up and that’s what I told them and I think it threw them off because when they bring somebody on there they want them to be off the scene and not have much dance background. I was like, “Well, I never did no ballroom dancing,” but I don’t know why they didn’t want me to do it because Mya had some dancing background as well. But to me it seems the whole premise of the show was to take someone from one level and put them on another level and I think maybe I didn’t fit the format of what they wanted but we’ll see maybe in the future. I need my own reality show anyway.”

But apparently, he still has plans for another show:

Everyone else seems to have one so where’s yours?

We shall see. It might be something going on in a mansion in Miami some time soon but I don’t know…

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Chad Ochocinco made it all the way to the semi-finals of Dancing With the Stars before getting the boot but he left graciously and hit a landmark in the process. He became the 100th celebrity to get the voted off over the course of its 10 seasons.

He was very entertaining so it was sad to see him go but at least he went with a bang (sorry to be cliche). Plus, he was the only one on the show with no prior dance experience but still excelled. He and his partner Cheryl Burke did an exit interview on Good Morning America yesterday. They talked about the usual stuff like what it feels like to get the axe, but one of the main questions was whether Ochocinco and Burke had something going on. They had really good chemistry throughout the show and Ochocinco was not ashamed of flirt with her excessively. He also gifted her with a diamond pendent. Of course they denied that anything was going on. They also skirted around selecting their choices for this season’s winner. But anyway, it’s still sad to see them go. Check out the clip below:

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