Nobody ever really put Baby in a corner

I really don’t think it’s an exaggeration to call Jennifer Grey’s win on the 11th season of the US Dancing With the Stars (DWTS) the feel good story of 2010.

It has all the vital elements; a cancer survival, struggle with persistent injury, a revival after a hey-day in the 80’s movie super stardom.

But was Baby ever really put in a corner? This is being heralded at Jennifer Grey’s big comeback, but as I’ve said before here, comeback is an overused word and to use it to talk about Jennifer Grey isn’t really fair. I don’t think she really ever went anywhere; she just wasn’t living everyday of her life in front of the paparazzi or making three movies a year.

In the lead up to the finale of DWTS on Tuesday, things got pretty heated. According to some reports in the US last week, one angry man blasted his TV set with a shotgun while watching the show, and an envelope filled with what turned out to be talcum powder turned up on the show's Los Angeles set.

Unless you were lucky enough to be in the US watching the final episode live on Tuesday – you may need a bit of a catch up in how The Feel Good Story of the Year wrapped up.

Monday – The Finale Performances

Jen is up against Bristol Palin (WTF? Can NOT dance), daughter of former US Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin and actor Kyle Massey (not sure exactly who is he is but I think he’s a former Disney actor).

She whips out the big guns by performing a freestyle routine to the classic ‘Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance)’ from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, complete with the watermelon just like the one Baby carried in the movie. This was a genius move by her dance partner and choreographer Derek Hough, who also used a song from the iconic movie’s soundtrack for Jen’s very first performance of a Viennese waltz. The pair’s second performance was an encore of their Paso Doble from earlier in the competition, which then didn’t see them score highly, but this week shot them into first place with a perfect score of 30. The couple wowed the judges with both routines, got a standing ovation and scored a perfect 60 leading into the final results show.

Tuesday – The Results Show

From there it was up to people power – the viewer vote - and 24 million Americans tuned in to watch the result. Jen wasn’t a safe bet – there was a late surge by Bristol Palin, which many attributed to a conspiracy by the both the Republican Party and the new Tea Party movement.

But the conspiracy theories didn’t materialise – and the US Dancing With the Stars Season 11 crowning glory and mirror ball trophy was bestowed on Jennifer Grey – queen of the dance floor.

There’s now talk of Jennifer featuring in an episode of Glee. Bring it on, I say. And welcome back Jen, even though you really never went away.