Candy Lane's Creative Daughter

Candy Lane and 14 year old daughter Jaz feature in this week’s New Idea. Candy named her daughter Jaz after her favourite number - All That Jazz - from the musical Chicago. Jaz is probably thanking her stars that mum didn’t favour the Rocky Horror Picture. Imagine being called Frankenfurter?

Candy also has an 11 year old son, Zak. Were names with four letters too difficult to remember?

Although Jaz says she has her mother’s legs - on a time share basis, perhaps? – she says she prefers creative pursuits in art and music.


Photos: TVNZ

Reality Television Caption Contest #1

Win prizes by submitting your caption for this photo.



There have been some comical moments on this year’s Dancing with the Stars and TVNZ have been good enough to provide us with some stellar shots of the celebrities in action, so we thought we’d give you the chance to have your say and win prizes.

We’ll be publishing new photographs during DWTS and all you have to do is provide us with the best caption. The winning caption will be published on our site and we’ll send you a cool prize.

The prize for choosing the best caption for Caption Contest #1 is this cool DVD ‘A Guide to True Happiness’ that will help you find true happiness. The producer of the DVD, Steve Hart, has just packaged it up to send to Britney Spears to help her in her quest for happiness! Now you can have this DVD, too.

It contains advice from New Zealand experts including doctors, a psychologist, motivational speakers and life coaches.

If you would like to sponsor a prize in future contests, please email us.

Terms and conditions

1. To be eligible for the prize you need to email us from a valid email address so we can reply to send you your prize details.
   
2. Include the words Caption Contest #1 in the heading of the email.
3. You can enter as many times as you like, so keep the suggestions coming.
   
4. The best caption will be decided at the sole discretion of New Zealand Reality Television.
5. If the same caption is submitted multiple times, the first person to submit it will win the prize.
   
6. The prize is only available to New Zealand residents and will be mailed by standard post.
7. Your email address will not be used for any purpose other than to confirm your entry and to contact you if you are successful in the contest.
8. Please keep it clean!
9. Entries close Sunday 6th April, 2008 at midnight.

Photos: TVNZ

Candy Lane Eliminated from DWTS?

Tomorrow night on Dancing with the Stars the celebrities will dance twice. They get to choose one Ballroom and one Latin dance that they have yet to dance from those already performed.

The choices are:

• Ballroom: Waltz, Quickstep, Tango, Foxtrot
• Latin: Cha Cha, Jive, Rhumba, Paso Doble

Click here for Candy’s descriptions of each of the dances.

On the subject of Candy Lane Miss Prozac hears that Candy wasn’t entirely popular on the dance circuit when she competed. That’s to be expected when you’re at the top of the pecking order but some of the stories were too funny to resist:

• Hayley Holt says that Candy had her dress slashed when she left it in a dressing room! Poor gal, must have had to dance in slashed threads. Remind anyone of a Samba costume we saw recently?


• Those that competed against Candy say she had a “stage mum” who used to hand out “Clap for Candy” fliers to everyone and encourage them to cheer for her. It didn’t go down well with her opponents…

Finally, has TVNZ made a mistake on their website or has Candy been sent packing?


Candy has been MIA from the Dancing with the Stars website for a few days now, raising hopes that she wouldn’t be inflicting lame jokes on us in tomorrow’s show, but it looks like someone "eliminated" her by accident! Ouch, that's got to hurt.


Photos: TVNZ

Brendan Cole & Candy Lane Cha Cha

This week on Dancing with the Stars judge Brendan Cole and co-host Candy Lane wowed us with their Cha Cha.

For me, the dances by Brendan and Candy are one of the highlights of Dancing With The Stars. I’d be happy to watch them every week. I’d also love to see our professional dancers pair up to show us how it’s done.

One of the things that most amused me about Brendan and Candy’s dance was the changing sentiment from viewers. Where viewers have in the past dismissed Brendan as a sleazy womaniser (a reputation he disputes), and have been angry with some of his critical remarks, he is now gaining respect.

He also appears to be getting a bit of a fan club here in Kiwiland. In the UK we hear people either love him or hate him. He has an active fan club of drooling women who call themselves Brendan’s Angels*, and talk excitedly about his “peach” of a derriere. (Guys, if you’re reading this… women love men who know how to dance. There’s always a shortage of men in Ballroom/Latin dance classes, so if you’re single head on over to your nearest classes…)



Candy gives some helpful tips at the beginning of each week describing the dances to be performed, but I’d love to see some of the professionals demonstrate them for us before we see the celebs take their turn, perhaps on a pre-recorded video. It would also be great if we could see the pro dancers do group Ballroom and Latin demos. One of our readers suggested that New Zealand copy the UK format which sees the professionals (or one pair) dance while the guest artist is singing. What a brilliant idea!

I was a big fan of an old TVNZ show Battle of the Ballroom, which was a national Ballroom dancing contest. I know Nerida Jantti was one of the contenders (1999) and I believe some of the other professionals from Dancing with the Stars have also appeared on that show. The dancing was superb, as was the commentary from Jim Mora and Mark Leishman. I'm hoping TVNZ will bring this back to our screens in the near future.



There are two videos you can watch of Brendan and Candy’s Cha Cha. I recommend the TVNZ video. It's only small but it's high quality (as far as I can tell you can’t enlarge the video). There is also a YouTube recording which you can watch on a full screen, but the quality is poor.


* Miss Prozac and I want to thank Jane of Brendan’s Angels for sending us all the latest goss on Brendan and letting us know what he’s up to.


Photos: TVNZ

Win an Evening Gown with DWTS

This week's New Idea magazine is giving you the chance to win an evening gown or cocktail dress from Second to None boutique, who proudly support Candy Lane’s cleavage.

Second to None sell second hand clothes as well as new one-off samples and according to Candy is "the best-kept secret in town".

For your chance to win, watch the final three episodes of Dancing with the Stars (airing April 1, 8 and 15, 2008) and note down which dress Candy almost wears.


Photos: TVNZ

Has Candy Lane had a Face Lift?

You tell us.



Our Dancing with the Stars co-host is always changing her appearance but has she gone under the knife in her efforts to make her face as youthful as her body?

In October 2006, these photographs show Candy Lane’s face with that disturbing wind tunnel effect. Or is she just turning Japanese? Note the lines around her neck that don't match the smoothness of her face.

Click the photos for an enlarged image or click on the comments (below) to tell us what you think.


Related Stories:
Candy Lane Random Factoids
Candy Lane Profile


Photos: Norrie Montgomery The A-List

Candy Lane Random Factoids

Miss Prozac just learned some interesting random factoids about Candy Lane, co-host of Dancing with the Stars.

Random Factoid #1
According to a recent radio interview Candy is of mixed lineage. Is that a euphemism for mongrel? She's part Fijian, Maori and Irish.

Random Factoid #2
Of Dancing With The Stars she says:

She believes that the key to a successful partnership is trust the expert: When the professional dancer says bend over, don’t question it, just say how far?!

Hmmmm, that might explain some of the “friendly” relations between dancers and their celebrity partners…

Random Factoid #3
Candy is a regular at "A List" parties, often with hubby Chris Jones in tow.


Related Stories:
Candy Lane: Man or Woman?

Photos: The A-List

Candy Lane Dancing With The Stars Host

Do blondes have more fun? Candy Lane will certainly be hoping so, after she transformed her raven haired locks to blonde late last year.

Since dancer Candy started co-hosting Dancing with the Stars in 2005, she’s been the butt of many jokes, with her appalling delivery of sexual innuendo and scripted lines in the back room of the studios, as well as the object of perennial questions:

• Is she a man in drag?
• Seriously, we’re not prejudiced or anything, but is she a transvestite?

The answer to both questions is no.

Candy is definitely all woman and even has two fruits of her womb as evidence. But, you could be forgiven for being confused. Whether it's the lighting or makeup, or Candy simply doesn't photograph well is unclear because Candy looks a lot better in real life than she does on film. Our Candy has looked more masculine than her runty co-host Jason Gunn in earlier years. Partly due to clothing choices that emphasis her wide shoulders.

She has a fabulous body and a not too feminine face, but fortunately she has softened her image in recent times.


Why does she look so masculine? We don’t know. We suspect too much botox, a face lift, overplucked eyebrows (thankfully she's breathing life back into her eyebrows these days) and not enough chocolate. The woman could do with a good feed. Mind you, Miss Prozac thinks Swiss chocolate and a few glasses of wine is the solution to most problems. World peace anyone?

Those who have met Candy say she is a lovely person with a risqué sense of humour. It's a pity she can't convey that on the box.

"I was actually named after an American friend of my mother's. I always joke that with a name like mine I was either going to be a prostitute or a dancer. Either way I’d have a bad back," laughs Candy.

Candy married her second husband Chris Jones in January 2007 with a theatrical wedding at the Civic Theatre in Auckland. Naturally, co-host Jason Gunn was invited together with Mayor Tim Shadbolt, Nicky Watson, Nerida Jantti, Shane Cortese and a host of celebs and dancers.

Predictably, colourful Candy was married in a bright red dress.

Candy is a seriously accomplished dancer, having won every New Zealand title as well as being the Australasian & South Pacific Championship undefeated for five years. She is an international adjudicator and has judged at the Ballroom and Latin American World Championship as well as performing for the Royal family. She has learned Ballroom, Latin, tap, ballet and American Jazz dancing as well as teaching dancing. She runs a dance company, the eponymous Candy Lane Dance Company, who provide dancers for corporate events and Dancing With The Stars.

Related Stories:
Dancing with the Stars 2005 Recap
Dancing with the Stars 2006 Recap
2007 Best & Worst of Dancing With The Stars Awards
Click here for the full line up of dancers and celebrities for 2008 Dancing With The Stars


Photos: TVNZ

Brendan and Candy's Paso Doble

In my last post I included a photograph of Brendan Cole and Candy Lane dancing the Paso Doble in Season 2 of Dancing with the Stars. The youtube video of their performance is now available! These two show us how it's done, with as little as an hour to devise and practise their performance.



Related Stories:
Candy Lane & Brendan Cole Waltz
This week's DWTS Gossip
Brendan Cole: Suzanne not my #1
Brendan Cole and Candy Lane Jive
Brendan Cole and Rachel Hunter Rhumba

Candy Lane & Brendan Cole Waltz

Recently added on YouTube this video of Brendan Cole and Candy Lane dancing the waltz


Related Stories:
This week's DWTS Gossip
Brendan Cole: Suzanne not my #1
Brendan Cole and Candy Lane Jive

Images: TVNZ

This week's DWTS Gossip

Brendan Cole and Camilla Dallerup

Brendan Cole would like to have a nose op!
Brendan Cole swears he's really a nice lad. He says he's had his heart broken by women, and maybe broken a heart or two along the way but he promises he's never cheated on a woman and that he wanted his ex (dancing and romantic partner) Camilla Dallerup to keep the diamond engagement ring he bought for her. What a guy!

Brendan Cole and Camilla Dallerup

Despite his many affairs of the heart and loins he reckons he hasn't told any women he loves them for many years (unless you count his Mum). Turns out the poor lad is self conscious about his nasally voice and would consider getting a nose job. Nice guy Brendan also supports the Bubble Foundation.


Hayley Holt doesn't know her All Blacks
How celebrities get a date: When All Black captain Richie McCaw asked Holt's agent if Hayley Holt would like to go to the premiere of Oceans 13 on Wednesday night with him, Hayley said she had no idea who he was! We're still waiting to hear whether she accepted or declined the date...

In other news Hayley is one of the coaches at Snow Girls, A new extended programme of residential female-specific snowboard and ski camps at Snow Park NZ.


Why Megan Alatini supports Youthline
You have to wonder what's wrong with the Megan Alatini publicity machine that we only find out after DWTS has ended that her chosen Dancing with the Stars charity, Youthline, was chosen after she lost a cousin to youth suicide. Now that sort of news could have won her support from text voters, but instead some bright spark in publicity chose to promote Megan wearing fringed bikinis, lusting after her much younger and happily in love dance partner Jonny Williams, and pawing her hubby in the middle of photo shoots. In the end she came across as trashy, cheap and desperate.

The news that Megan has a personal interest in Youthline and the tragedy that prompted her interest in the charity could have altered viewers' perceptions. Instead we were given the plucky older Suzanne battling injury and past tragedy against the cheap trashy upstart in skimpy clothes. Is it any wonder that Suzanne Paul won the vote?

I suggest Megan sacks her agent and gets someone who knows how to brand and position her to wide appeal. Fellow TrueBliss member Keri Harper insists that Megan is a fun and sweet person. However, there was nothing to suggest this in her publicity. Instead she was portrayed as smug, over-confident and sexy. I'm not saying sexy is bad - but there's trashy sexy and classy sexy. Suzanne had the classy sexy sewn up with her leggy dancing display.

April's cancer link
April Ieremia's mum has been battling breast cancer for several years leading April to choose the Breast Cancer Foundation as her chosen charity for DWTS.


Suzanne celebrates with an early night
After her Dancing with the Stars win and celebrated by heading to bed early with a hot water bottle and a cup of tea. She has put forward two ideas for television shows staring her fine self and is waiting to hear back. Our advice to TVNZ - get Hayley Holt to front your next television show. Right now she's the hottest thing in lycra.

Candy Lane's column
There was nothing from Candy Lane this week. Perhaps she stepped on a few too many toes last week when she revealed that one DWTS celeb has to fortify themselves with a drinkie or two before the show and two sets of couples are rumoured to be doing the horizontal Rhumba.

Related Stories:
Best and Worst of Dancing with The Stars NZ
Brendan Cole and Candy Lane Jive
Holmes confirms horizontal tango
Why Megan Alatini should be this year's DWTS champion
Elimination Interview with Keri Harper
Hayley Holt voted NZ's Sexiest Woman

Images: TVNZ, Himawari, Igor Timoshenko
Sources: NZ Herald Sideswipe 8/6/07, Star celebrity magazine, New Idea, NZ Women's Weekly

DWTS Aftermath

It seems people are still talking about the Megan Alatini / Suzanne Paul showdown and whether the best legs won on the night. According to a Close Up interview (video link) with Mark Sainsbury, Megan Alatini and Jonny Williams were in it right to the end but perhaps what gave Suzanne the winning edge was her ability to sell herself.

The Dominion Post has an entertaining piece on Dancing with the Stars, praising Candy Lane and Brendan Cole for their dynamic jive and letting us into a few behind the scenes stories.

HAVING been to a couple of these shows before, there's no such thing as a free lunch, for those privileged enough to be invited along.

You are strenuously encouraged to go "ohhh" in a hammy, crestfallen end-of-pier way when Jason reflects sadly on the loss of the previous week's competitor, and instructed to put on your happy face so that, should the camera pause to rest on your visage, you at least look like you're having the time of the life.

Whaaaat, you mean it's not spontaneous? All that fun, frivolity and heartfelt sympathy is scripted? Who'd have thought it? Not us, as Candy Lane struggles with her comic timing in each week's sad attempt at humour...

This week we couldn't stop chuckling when she muffed her lines. There was that famous incident when she was talking to Suzanne Paul about those legs. Oh yes, Suzanne twitters on cue, legs run in my family. Now that Suzanne has comic timing down pat.

Dutifully Candy Lane executes her well-worn and rehearsed spontaneous query to Stefano asking him what runs in his family. Stefano quipped that Suzanne always tells him that noses run in his family. Ah how we guffawed in our lounge. Poor Candy was all at sea. Either Stefano departed from the script (unlikely) or Candy doesn't recognise a pun when she hears one.

The Dominion Post writer also refers to a Close Up piece showing a young ballroom dancer, Scott Savage from Mosgiel, who is laughed at by his peers. We're sure that will all change when he's old enough to dance with the likes of the hot and sexy . If you want to see what a buffed ballroom body looks like take a gander at Brendan Cole in the altogether and you will see that now is a good time to be encouraging your sons, brothers and partners to be getting out on the dance floor.


Related Stories:
DWTS Biggest Necklace Competition
Suzanne Crowned Dancing Queen
Brendan Cole: Suzanne not my #1
Brendan Cole and Candy Lane Jive

Images: TVNZ & Cosmopolitan

Brendan Cole and Candy Lane Jive

In this week's final of NZ Dancing with the Stars Candy Lane and Brendan Cole thrilled with a fun-filled Jive to the song Candy Man.

Related Stories:
Brendan Cole and Rachel Hunter Rhumba
Brendan Cole Crooning!
Paul Holmes' Thriller

DWTS News 28 May 2007

Lover boy Brendan Cole has been seen out and about chasing an assortment of young women, and has reportedly been seen on a date with actress Katrina Hobbs.


This week's New Idea features Nerida Lister and Shane Cortese describing the painless water birth of their baby, Kees, accompanied by baby pics. Also, in other news the Sunday News reports that Nerida Lister hopes to dance in season 4 of Dancing with the Stars.

New Zealand has other celebrities? When you consider that any stars associated with TV3 won't be invited to participate (far too much publicity for the competing channel's stars) and the small pool of celebrities, our pick is the next show will either be a trans-Tasman challenge or a best of the best from the first three series, a la Pop's Ultimate Yawn Star


In Saturday's NZ Herald an opinion piece suggests that contestants show their true colours when the pressure is on in Dancing with the Stars.

The chance of a meltdown, whether it be physical, mental or social, is the real reason that the programme has such high viewer numbers. Dancing With the Stars is the grand prix motor racing of entertainment shows, without the risk of a real tragedy.

One of the two finalists next week, the television saleswoman Suzanne Paul, has been the surprise package of the series. An "older" woman with a cloud of debt and business failure hanging over her, she has been the sunny, energetic, inventive stayer in the contest. All went well until last Tuesday night when a microphone wire became unhitched from her costume during her routine. Thrown, as all of us would have been, she was upset throughout the judges' comments, later arguing back petulantly. Worse, she let slip that she wanted to make the final, yes, for the charity she has nominated but in truth to resurrect a television career, make money and (half jokingly) pay back creditors. It was one of those revealing, unfortunate moments that live interviews can elicit.

NZ Herald report that Megan Alatini will be performing a rhumba, quickstep and freestyle dance in the final. Expect to see a lot of spectacular lifts.


Candy Lane and Brendan Cole will be performing a jive tomorrow night on the show. Now that should be fun. The jive is a high energy dance and we're looking forward to seeing this talented pair in action.

Craig Revel-Horwood and host Jason Gunn will be singing, hopefully not together.

Check out this clip of Craig Revel Horwood singing 'I am what I am' on a comic relief singing contest in the UK.


Sunday News interviews past contestants to ask who they think will take out the DWTS title tomorrow. It seems Suzanne Paul is the favourite. Jason Gunn echoes this sentiment in his TVNZ interview when he says the name on everyone's lips is Suzanne.


Related Stories:
DWTS Episode 7 Recap – Tears and Tantrums
Why Megan Alatini should be this year's DWTS champion
Readers’ Poll: Suzanne Paul Snarky or Sassy?
Megan's bedroom secrets and other DWTS goss

Images: TVNZ

Wardrobe Malfunctions in Dancing with the Stars

During last night's waltz, Suzanne Paul's dress got caught up on partner Stefano Olivieri’s microphone causing problems while Stefano disentangled the microphone from Suzanne's strappy dress.

Suzanne Paul and Stefano Olivieri

Suzanne Paul is not the first contestant to suffer the embarrassment of a wardrobe malfunction. Krystal Stuart blamed the famous spear tackle fall from grace on a wardrobe malfunction and several other contestants have come unraveled on the dance floor.

Megan with Jonny in her Rhumba costume

Megan Alatini had a similar incident earlier this year during her Rhumba when the elastic holding the back of her costume started coming apart and it looked like she'd end the dance topless.

What did each of these dancers do? They carried on. Candy Lane tried to console Suzanne Paul by saying a professional wouldn't have been able to handle that sort of wardrobe malfunction. We disagree. A professional pastes a smile on the dial and does their best to finish the dance with style and grace.


Related posts:
DWTS Episode 7 Recap – Tears and Tantrums
Readers’ Poll: Suzanne Paul Snarky or Sassy?
Why Megan Alatini should be this year's DWTS champion

Miss Prozac demands royalties

Well. It seems Dancing With The Stars host Jason Gunn has been stealing our material. He introduced studly Brendon Pongia as Brendon The Body. Hello! That's our term. How much should we ask in royalties? Miss Prozac is hurrying to the patent office to trademark all our intellectual property.

We're just hanging out for Jason to call Paul Holmes 'The Gnome'

Of course, an invitation for all our staff to attend the finals and pre-dance cocktails in lieu of royalties wouldn't be sneered at...