jbslater wrote:
I don't argue with a judge's scoring. No couple is perfect. But Len is a dangerous one to piss off. He can be quite cruel. One example was with Chery and Gilles and the Paso Doble. As you remember the audience went absolutely wild when the dance ended. Carrie Ann and Bruno were on their feet. Len was applauding. There was a huge amount of excitement with the crowd. But Len deflated that is just a few seconds when the first words out of his mouth were "Didn't you find it a tad hectic in places?" You could see that Cheryl and Gilles were stunned and the atmosphere in the room went from passionate enthusiasm to disbelief and anger. Len crushed the moment and scarred the performance. Cheryl and Gilles swallowed this humiliation and changed the group dance of the Paso Doble to make it more to Len's liking. They then received a 10 from him.
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P.S. I have been waiting so long to get the Paso Doble incident off my chest.
LOLOL ...
Jeannie, I think you and I are doomed to disagree on interpretation in things (and that's not a bad thing, btw, since this is a
discussion forum (ha!). Everyone has their own interpretation, which is cool). I just did not think Len was dangerous, cruel or even humiliating during the Paso Doble critiques. You are right, the crowd was simply jubilant about the dance ... they loved it and surged to their feet. Carrie Ann spoke first and was glowing in her praise, and then Len asked her, "Didn't you find it a tad hectic?" That's all. Yes, the crowd booed the remark (as they do with
any comment with which they disagree) but they didn't seem cowed or deflated to me. Their enthusiasm, judging by the ongoing catcalls, was undimmed and Gilles also seemed to take it in stride. (He even motioned for the crowd to calm down and accepted and listened intently to Len's comments.) For the rest of the commentary, Len was pretty much joking around ... with the whole "topless" schtick and making muscles (the crowd went wild for that) and even joking about his own biceps. I could be wrong but it just seemed to me like it was a small comment and no humiliation was meant or taken by the contestants. The audience booed the part they disagreed with and then good-naturedly cheered the rest of Len's comments.
Of course, we all see things differently and whether Len meant to be cruel versus whether he appeared cruel are two different things and two different people might have completely different responses. That's simply what I got from the whole thing. I really didn't take it personally or badly at all. But who can say.
Now, where I DO agree with you is that I think it's very foolish to talk back to ANY of the judges. Len can get cranky when he feels the choreography doesn't remain true to the conservative roots of the dance. Every contestant and pro knows that and I think they plan accordingly. They take a calculated risk when they put something non-traditional or theatrical into ANY dance. They know he will mark them down a point but most times consider it a good tradeoff to get Bruno on his feet. Personally, I think it's probably more dangerous to trash talk to Carrie Ann than it is to Len ... she takes things more personally than he does, I've noticed. (And she mentions it several weeks in a row when someone is "unhappy" with the judges ... kind of just pointing out that she has
heard what they say in the camera confessional. I wouldn't cross her! LOL.) Len? He's been a judge forever, and seems to expect that some people won't like what he has to say. He doesn't really seem that upset and seems to give contestants a second chance from what I've seen.
Hopefully Cheryl and Ocho can go the distance ... and hopefully she can rein him in a bit.
