Dish Of Salt: Pam, Willa & Arby’s (December 1, 2006)
by Laura Saltman
Last night, I was less than thrilled to find myself standing out in the cold on the red carpet at the Arby’s Action Sports Awards. Roast beef and extreme sports? How do these two go together? It doesn’t matter. You see, the big story for the entertainment news shows was that Pamela Anderson would be making her first public appearance since announcing her divorce from Kid Rock, after only three months of marriage.
Oh and also that party girl, Paris Hilton, would be there and hopefully willing to talk about her new gal pal, Britney Spears, and all the damage she is doing to her life/career/underwear etc…
I was pretty convinced that both Pam and Paris would blow off the red carpet in favor of sneaking in a back door. I was more convinced neither would be willing to talk. I was right about Paris. She did what I like to call a “celebrity drive-by”, sashaying by the media and stopping only briefly to pose for photographers only. They don’t ask pesky, inappropriate questions. The stars still get their pictures in magazines wearing the outfit (they most likely got for free) without having to answer any personal questions.
Pam, however, surprised me and actually did stop and talk, albeit briefly. I guess the cold didn’t affect her. While I was bundled up in a sweater and coat, she was sporting short shorts and a flimsy silk top. Maybe posing for Playboy toughens you up. The divorce seems to have taken its toll on Pam. She looked a bit tired to me last night but bravely answered the media’s questions about the divorce saying ” I’m happy to be out. My kids are home and I need to kinda get out, this is fun!”
When asked if she had spoken to her other ex, Tommy Lee, Pamela laughingly said to someone, “What did he ask me? He said ‘Is it true you’re divorcing? If it’s true what are you doing later?’” Oh boy. I really hope this doesn’t lead to another quickie wedding for those two!
The other shock of the night was “Dancing with the Stars” cutie, Willa Ford, telling me she got engaged. Instantly, I’m thinking it was to her dance partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy. There were rumors that the two began dating while they were on the show.
Turns out the producers of “Dancing” may have just been creating something out of nothing to make good TV, “Everybody thought that we were dating and I was just trying to keep my personal life private. I think everybody was playing it up. I told everybody a million times that we were just hanging out. We would go to dinners and we were hanging out and stuff but we were professional, we knew we had a job to do. So, you know I think that everybody just took it on their selves and we were just like you know what do we do with this?” The show is after all a reality show. Implied romances boost ratings.
Willa is set to marry Dallas Stars hockey player, Mike Modano, whom she met at a charity event, “This is something that I’ve been on and off with for 4 1/2 years. We dated other people in between and we just got to a place where we decided we just, you know, couldn’t live without each other. So here we are. I was just at the house and he just sort of did it quietly, we were in bed by ourselves.”
I asked if quite possibly jealousy over Maksim could have played a role in the proposal. She laughed and said, “I don’t know you will have to ask Mike. There was like an understanding, a trust there and that’s what’s important ”
Apparently, my sleuthing skills backstage at “Dancing with Stars” were not so good. I never noticed the first week that Mike was in the audience cheering Willa on, “He kind of slips in under the radar. Nobody ever sees Mike. He was there to support before the season started and then he was playing hockey so he couldn’t come anymore. Every night he and the team would watch it on the TV when they didn’t play the game.”
More breaking news from Willa. She and Maksim have backed out of the upcoming “Dancing with the Stars” tour. Maksim pulled out for personal reasons. We have a call into him to see exactly what those reasons are. I’ll let you know. The tour producers asked Willa to dance with a different partner but she instead decided to take the time to work on a new album, “I just felt learning to dance with a new dance partner was going to be a lot and I wanted to get back in the recording studio.”
This morning Tony Potts spoke to the judge and tour director, Carrie Ann Inaba, who told him they will not be replacing Willa and Maksim on the tour, “Well actually what we have done is we have spread out more solos so the people that have been here rehearsing get more stuff.”
The tour starts December 19th with it’s first stop in San Diego.