The Women of Dancing with the Stars, Season 9

On September 22, 2009, the second night of the premiere of Season 9 of Dancing With the Stars, the female celebrities performed.

Actress Debi Mazar is currently in "Entourage" (though I remember her best from the underappreciated "Civil Wars" and from "L.A. Law"). She and Maksim Chmerkovskiy made a great couple, two strong personalities with an easy way of joking around with each other. Debi wasn't a great dancer out of the box, concentrating too hard on getting the steps right, but the routine was entertaining. I think she will improve and go on at least to mid-season. I hope so. Being a former Queens girl myself, I love hearing her accent.

The next couple were also well-matched. Actress Melissa Joan Hart, formerly Sabrina the teenage witch, and 2-time champion pro Mark Ballas both appeared grounded and calm. And how cute was it that Mark was a fan of Melissa's show! I thought their Viennese Waltz was beautiful, with Melissa a vision in white gliding gracefully across the floor. The judges were harsh, continuing their practice of being too critical of the best dancers and too encouraging to the worst, but I think Melissa could go far.

One-named Grammy-wining singer Mya has a lot of dance experience, doing tap since she was 5 years old and dancing in her music videos. She and Dmitry Chaplin performed a professional-looking Waltz. I was left wondering, as I had last night after Donny Osmond's terrific performances, if it was really fair to let the entertainment pros compete with the awkward wrestlers and up-tight politicians. Carrie Ann and Bruno raved about Mya's performance, breaking the pattern of the judges coming down hardest on the best dancers, but then Len took up the mantle, yelling at Mya and Dmitry for breaking the hold, and giving them a 5. Nonetheless, I expect she will go far.

Former supermodel Kathy Ireland still looked great. She and her partner Tony Dovolani were both so pleasant that I wished I could root for them, but her dancing, unfortunately, was bad. In her backstage interview, she gave a shout-out to God, so maybe that will get her some votes from religious viewers, but unless her dancing improves quickly, I don't think she will be on the show for long. .

Natalie Coughlin, the second Olympian on the show, is a gold-medal winning swimmer. Her partner Alec Mazo was the Season 1 champ. Her salsa seemed tentative, but had some good moments. I think that as she gains more experience with dance and becomes more comfortable, she could make rapid progress. I think she'll be around for a while.

Grammy-winning singer Macy Gray, unlike many of the "stars" on the show, really is a star. What she is not is a ballroom dancer. The rehearsal footage was deliberately misleading, setting us up to think that her Viennese Waltz would be a disaster. But when she came out, she had a larger-than-life diva quality that compelled attention and made her a pleasure to watch. The judges all acknowledged her charm, even while calling her technique unspeakable and scoring her low. I think she is the most unpredictable, and therefore the most interesting, of all the contestants, and I hope that she and her partner Jonathan Roberts will be around for a while.

When supermodel Joanna Krupa and her partner Derek Hough got together there was a lot of blonde hair in the room The judges all said their salsa was super-hot, but I thought she was just another one of the boring models that show up so often on the show. I don't think she will last very long.

Kelly Osbourne, daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, was the second contestant of the night given the misleading-rehearsal-tape-footage treatment. The tape made it seem as if Kelly could never be graceful enough to do ballroom dancing, but when she came out, she did a pretty Viennese Waltz, wonderfully choreographed by her partner Louis van Amstel. Len declared it the best Waltz of the night. . Kelly's parents, in the audience, cried with pride, and Kelly herself became overcome and started crying during the backstage interview. The emotion of all the Osbournes seemed genuine, and I think that, along with Kelly's innate talent, will carry her far into the season.

I thought the women, as a group, did better than the men. Leading the female pack were Mya and Kelly, closely followed by Debi Mazer, Mellisa Hart, Natalie Coughlin, and Macy Gray. Kathy Ireland will probably be the first woman to go, followed by her fellow model Joanna Krupa.