Ousted 'Dancing' star Josie Maran: "I should have cut off my legs"

Ballroom dancing apparently isn't the only thing Josie Maran is bad at.  Making jokes is another.


"I should have cut off my legs," Maran said during a Wednesday night Jimmy Kimmel Live appearance that followed her elimination on Dancing with the Stars' first fifth-season results show.

Maran's comment -- an apparent reference to Heather Mills, the former Dancing with the Stars participant who, despite losing her left leg in a 1993 traffic accident, managed to outlast all but one of her female fourth-season celebrity competitors -- drew loud gasps and groans from the Jimmy Kimmel Live studio audience.

"Well, if you had gone for two [legs], that would have been amazing... [losing] one would have been fine," Kimmel replied after Maran's comment.

Maran and professional partner Alec Mazo had performed a foxtrot during Monday night's broadcast of Dancing with the Stars 5's first performance episode.  They were eliminated based on a combination of the judges' scores -- a 16 out of a possible 30 points, the lowest score of any of the 12 couples who performed -- and home viewer votes cast following the broadcast. 


But Maran said she had a feeling she'd be the first one to go based on some of the judges' comments.  Len Goodman said "the one constant throughout the whole thing was that your footwork was bad" and Bruno Tonioli added Maran looked like "a beautiful sailing ship stranded on a sand bank."

Josie Maran and Alec Mazo perform the foxtrot on Monday night's Dancing with the Stars performance show (Photo credit ABC/Carol Kaelson)

"After those comments, I'm not very shocked," Maran told Kimmel, who said Maran should have seen her elimination coming because Dancing with the Stars' home viewer voters are "mostly women" who "have no interest" in a 29-year-old supermodel.  (Dancing with the Stars' last three winners have all been men.  First season champion Kelly Monaco  -- a General Hospital actress whose daytime soap status is believed to have given her a strong female voter base -- has been the show's only female winner so far.)

"I knew that from the beginning, but I thought maybe... [I could change that]," Maran told Kimmel after he explained his Dancing with the Stars viewer voting theory to her.  "I tried to talk about my daughter, being a mom... they just didn't get it." 

Despite her early exit from the competition, Maran said she still has a favorite to take home the show's fifth-season mirror ball trophy.


"I think Cameron...," Maran began before stumbling All My Children actor Cameron Mathison's last name.  "The soap guy."

"He would be next on my list," Maran replied when Kimmel commented that he considered professional race-car driver Helio Castroneves to be the competition's favorite.

Since her Dancing with the Stars' journey was so brief, Maran said she doesn't foresee another reality show in her future.

"No, I don't think so," she said.  "But you know, I'm usually wrong with these predictions."