Las Vegas Weekly

April 7, 2009 · 11:14 AM

Exclusive: Las Vegas and ABC’s DWTS; mayor joins injured list

By Robin Leach

Mayor Oscar and Carolyn Goodman.

Photo: Scott Harrison/Retna/www.harrisonphotos.com

Our Merry Mayor of Mirth Oscar Goodman isn’t so merry right now! In fact, he’s in so much pain that he had to cancel his dance rehearsal this morning.

Oscar told me yesterday: “The dancing is going … going wrong, Robin. I’m so stiff, I can’t tell you. I’ve had two lessons: The first lesson, I learned that I had two left feet! After the second lesson, I got a Charlie horse from my feet up my entire right side to my shoulder. I couldn’t believe that one human being could be in so much pain!”

Our fearless leader is the star attraction at the “Las Vegas Dancing With the Stars” cancer charity fundraiser April 19 at Rain in the Palms. He has been working with Dana Delgado, who, with her husband Tony, runs Delgado Dance Studios in Summerlin, where many of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars’ pro dancers and celebrities train.

Oscar continued: “I’m dancing the tango. If I wind up on the injured reserve list, I’ve got a couple of substitutes standing by, but with a couple of props I have as a secret surprise, I think we might struggle through it. My wife Carolyn doesn’t want any part of it. She won’t even try to rehearse with me at home.

Photo: TVT

Holly Madison and Dmitry Chaplin pose for a photo with aspiring dancers at Delgado Dance Studios in Summerlin.

“I’ve had to have my first two rehearsals in my office. We have something pretty pat down there: around the desk and out the hallway and then back to the stool I can collapse on.

“My partner Dana is wonderful. Her husband Tony is the greatest. They are wonderful and have tons of patience with me. I feel sorry for them having to cart me around and to hold me up.”

Since Mayor Oscar is the one man who controls everything in Las Vegas and leads the government, I had to ask him who was leading whom and if this was the one thing he just couldn’t control.

He replied: “In my whole life, I used to represent the alleged mobsters, all the people in the movie/casino business in real life, argue cases in front of the Supreme Court of the U.S. I was on the Senate floor. I never sweated once! Now, I am sweating every single night just thinking about the dance I have to do two Sundays from now!

Photo: Wayne Bernath

Lance Burton.

“It feels like I have 14 days left to learn how to walk, let alone dance. I’m scared to death, and I know that some of the other dance teams competing are rehearsing every day. I don’t have time, and I’m in too much pain, so we will have just one more rehearsal next week before the get-go day.

“I’ll just have to pull some rabbits from my hat. We have a magician who is the master of ceremonies (Lance Burton). Let’s put it this way: He said if it gets real bad for me, he can always make me disappear.”

The “Battle Against Cancer” fundraiser will benefit the American Cancer Society, the Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer organization. I’m one of the judges for the charity event, along with Excalibur heavyweight comedy headliner Louie Anderson and La Cage entertainer Frank Marino. Among the performers will be Phantom -- Las Vegas Spectacular stars Tina Walsh and Brent Barrett, Zowie Bowie’s Chris Phillips and radio disc jockey Chet Buchanan. Mrs. Nevada America 2008 Tiffany Comstock will present the trophies.

For ticket information and voting procedures, go to DancingWithTheLasVegasStars.com.

Photo: ABC TV

Tom Bergeron and Julianne Hough approve of Chuck Wicks' dance moves.

ABC’s Dancing With the Stars

Meantime, tonight is the results show of ABC’s top-rated Dancing With the Stars, and as usual we’ve got the first official photos from last night’s dance floor action.

It look as if another one of our Las Vegas favorites nightclub regular Steve-O and partner Lacey Schwimmer face being kicked off the show this evening, although as we’ve seen in previous weeks, unpredictable viewer votes can always upturn the judges’ low scores and have another couple axed! Click HERE for last night’s recap.

We’ll have that verdict right here at Vegas DeLuxe this evening in advance of the tape-delayed West Coast telecast.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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