Joey, Apolo & Laila Turn Up The Heat on ‘Dancing’

Joey Fatone has a feminine side, and he’s not ashamed of it.

On last week’s “Dancing With the Stars,” former contestant Jerry Springer was brought in to help make Joey more “masculine.” Last night, Fatone performed the samba with his partner, Kym Johnson, which prompted the judges to comment on his manliness.

“I’m allowed to have a feminine side,” he told Access after the show. “There’s nothing wrong with it, I’m getting inside with my emotions.”

Fatone says that his friends wonder why he’s picked on for being too feminine. “I have a best friend who’s a really great support of me,” he says. “He’s funny — he’s like, ‘what the hell are they talking about, they don’t even know nothing.’”

While Joey is proud of his masculinity, he appreciates the “Dancing” support he receives from gay friends and fans, and offers his support to them in return:

“I’m fully aware [of a gay following], obviously, and Lance [Bass], who is gay, he’s such a great guy — and it’s like, ‘I don’t care who you like,’” says Fatone. “We’re great friends, me and him are brothers. You do what you want to do behind closed doors, it has nothing to do with me. I have a lot of friends who are gay, so I’m a huge supporter of gays and lesbians.”

Masculine, feminine, it doesn’t matter — the bottom line is that whatever Joey’s doing, it’s working. The judges gave him nines across the board, with a total score of 27 out of 30.

Apolo Anton Ohno and Julianne Hough did well for themselves with the rumba last night, scoring a 28. Bruno gave them a perfect 10 score, and said “That was a choreographed poem to me. It was fresh and new and I loved it.”

The true star last night was Laila Ali, who performed the cha-cha with partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy. She received a score of 28 and raves across the board from the judges, who referred to her performance as “fantastic” and “pure gold.” Bruno even said that Laila was turning into a “magnificent obsession.”

“Wonderful” was the word Laila used to describe her feelings to Access after the show. “We’re happy, I had a good time. I think the fans really enjoyed the dance and you know we just have room to grow.”

Laila spoke of her father, the legendary Muhammad Ali, about the support he gives her:

“He’s definitely watching. He watches every week and he’s like, ‘you make me proud, I didn’t know you could dance like that, I didn’t know you could move like that.’ My dad cannot dance, so he’s happy.”

But it’s her own personal achievement that matters most to Laila.

“What’s wonderful about this is this is my own thing,” she said. “No one can say ‘her dad did it’ or ‘she got it from her dad.’ I actually got it from my mama because my mom can dance and my dad can’t.”

“I have ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ I’m dancing every week,” she gushed. “It can’t be more fun than this.”