Some viewers may find it unfair that Joey Fatone is a celebrity participant on Dancing with the Stars' fourth season due to his prior dancing experience as a member of N Sync -- but he said in reality -- they're two different worlds.
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Despite the differences, Fatone has been one of the celebrities to excel during Dancing with the Stars current run. With the aid of his professional partner Kym Johnson, the duo has been ranked the judges' Top 3 scores during all six of the season's first six performance shows. During the fourth week of performances, Fatone and Johnson were the first couple to score a 10 in Dancing with the Stars 4, which was awarded by judge Carrie Ann Inaba. No surprise it came from a Paso Doble performance, since Fatone said he prefers freestyle and Latin dances to ballroom.
"It's tough," Fatone told TV Guide about ballroom dancing. "The posture, the arms, all that technique. It's just fraggin' my brain right now."
Fatone has been married to his wife Kelly since 2004 and said she's not concerned about him forming a romantic relationship with Johnson -- a 29-year-old former champ of Australia's Dancing with the Stars -- because Kelly's "pretty secure with herself and she trusts me." In fact, he said she's also been a big help.
"She danced when she was younger -- ballet and ballroom -- so she understands it," Fatone told TV Guide. "She'll tell me, 'You did okay.' And then she'll critique me a little bit: 'Don't slick your hair back again, it's not attractive. Not attractive at all.'"
The 30-year-old Brooklyn, NY-native said he's also received support from all four of the other members of the now defunct N Sync.
"I was at [Justin Timberlake's] concert in Tampa a couple of weeks before I started the show. And he was like, 'Joey Fatone's in the audience. You'd better win and everybody better vote for him,'" Fatone told TV Guide. "When he was doing the show in Pittsburgh, he held the show [up] so he could watch me dance the first night, which was kind of cool."
Fatone said he's also sticking to the NutriSystem weight-loss plan he started a couple of weeks prior to Dancing with the Stars' rehearsals.
"I lost about six pounds during those first two weeks. And then when I really started dancing with Kym, the weight really started coming off," he told TV Guide. "I was 235 pounds when I started. Now I'm 216. It's pretty cool to see my stomach get smaller."
As he laces-up his dancing shoes prior to performance episodes, Fatone told TV Guide, "Don't screw up, don't screw up, don't screw up" is running through his head. Overall, Fatone said Dancing with the Stars is mentally more difficult than performing with N Sync, and of course, physically more demanding as well.
"Right now my feet are killing me," he told TV Guide.
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio
