Fametastic - WOW Warning:

Name Dropping Alert approaching ….

WOW is going to really go for it on NDA in this post so be prepared!

Lady Gaga has sung about it. . .

"All we care about is runaway models
Cadillacs and liquor bottles
Give me something I wanna be
Retro glamour Hollywood,
Yes, we live for the
Fame"

And so has David Bowie. . .

"Fame, Fame, fame…
What’s your name…"

And as the infamous dance ‘Fame’ song goes:

Fame, I’m gonna live forever,
I’m gonna learn how to fly
I feel it coming together
People will see me and cry….

WOW would like to talk about Fame (not her own which so far is limited - thank goodness - to two autograph seekers in her local village); no, the fame that is for Brian Flaming Fantastic Fortuna, and Mark Flipping Gorgeous Foster….

You may have caught on that WOW is an experienced Woman Of the World (ie long in the tooth and short in the leg), and has - over her extensive career in the media - done the following:

. . . WOW has interviewed such ‘luminaries’ as Silvio Berlusconi

(Note: interview took place pre his current ‘sleaze’ era)

. . .the divine Peter Gabriel

(WOW so impressed that got writer’s block,
wrote rubbish feature on him
and had to send him grovelling letter of apology)

. . .David Puttnam, Michael Winner, Ted Turner, Robert Maxwell (pre-pensions, and pre-death, obviously!)…Bob Geldof. .blah blah blah you get the picture…

. . .WOW has worked with Sue Johnson, Amanda Burton (from her good old Brookside days) and Paul Usher

(aka Barry Grant - most of you too young to remember?)

. . .WOW has met and spoken with a flotilla of famous folk including Simon Cowell (lovely, emanates warmth, met in 2004);

David Beckham (very slight in weight, no wonder his poor wife allegedly starves herself);

Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne; Charles Bronson (WOW was a tad overawed, Hollywood royalty and all that); etc etc…Piers Morgan blah blah blah. . .

Anyhoo, the point to all this vicarious name dropping that, aside from ridiculous crush on Donny Osmond and David ‘How Can I be Sure’ Cassidy when WOW was not a WOW but 14 year-old pillow snogger, WOW is not in the least bit fazed by ‘celebrity’ or ‘Fame’.

However, WOW was (and continues to be so) very impressed with the two Mr F’s.

Foster and Fortuna.

And the way they conduct themselves through the rather tricky field of being very very good at what they do, in the public eye, with the fickle tricky hand of Fame always tapping on their shoulder…there follows a post from WOW’s diary with her first impressions of Mr Fortuna…and then Mr Foster. WOW is posting these extracts cause they are proof that one’s first impressions are often correct….

PS WOW is reliably informed that while the following picture allegedly enjoyed a little massage c/o photo-shop. . .

This one did not. . .And then final pic of Beck's response:
Flattery, as they say, will get you everywhere....

Di’s Diary: The 2nd/Final Audition

Wednesday 13 May 2009

What a day! Am exhausted with adrenalin burn-out but exhilarated as well. Dearest Jax borrowed her ex’s convertible Mercedes and drove us to Brunel Uni in style… overwhelming feeling again was age – rest of final auditionees just seem so young. And even mentioned this to Kaaj – who said BBC duty bound to spread age-range as part of their diversity remit. Yeah, well, we will see won’t we...

Overwhelmingly the best section of the day (and there was a great deal to be overwhelmed with – everything from half hour session with a psychotherapist who specialises in reality tv – he asked if I were chosen to be one of the contestants, how would I deal with the possible media coverage – I could reply with confidence that having dealt with the world media as CEO of Limbless Association when I brought Ali Abbas to the UK for ongoing treatment

click this link to read
an early newspaper report about Ali

– think I could handle any press flung my way should I be picked as one of the contestants) to being ‘classifed’, to more interviews, endless paper work, and of course the dancing… but the dancing with Brian Fortuna was just, well, fantastic. It was brief, and like most of the day, filmed – my first thoughts on seeing and then meeting Brian were that he was much better looking in real life. And this is unusual, as most ‘celebrities’/people who are in film/tv, are from my experience, can be rather, well underwhelming…

Actually met Brian ‘by accident’ went in main sports hall door as indicated – and Brian was there, as arranged to meet me – pleasant warm handshake and winning smile (but not cheesy – as I had called him last winter during the watching of Strictly Come Dancing – my daughter Lara thought he was rather lovely – I just responded – nah, too American and way too cheesy!).

pass us the cheddar Mr BF, please!

We then had to do this whole meet and greet palava again for the cameras – which made both of us giggle and put on airs of ironic acting….another plus for Brian F – he gets irony. And comes over as very bright, focused and very polite in a rather sweetly old fashioned way. Someone said he was 26 and just couldn’t believe this having met him – he has the head of someone considerably more mature..anyhoo, he took me by the hand and guided me through some basic steps for the foxtrot – and I just loved it. It’s official: have fallen in love with wheelchair ballroom dancing. Er, and everything that could come with it?

I have to get into the final 6 now, keep getting one of my ‘destiny’ feelings about it, which happen so rarely and tend to happen.

But it would be too much, wouldn’t it, now that I am back with fiancée, to get this would just be too much, wouldn’t it?

*

Friday 15 May 2009

Yes, it is all too much – just spoke with Neil Rubes Rubenstein: I am not in the final 6.

A "first reserve" as Neil puts it. But that’s just not good enough.

Am sobbing as I write this. I honestly thought it was my destiny. I was so very wrong.

So bye-bye to Brian and ballroom dancing.

Mother's Pride

A wonderful Mother's Day Gift for all on DOW from one the Fantastic Fortunas - Picamix:

this fabulous video

Happy Mom's Day to the lovely Mrs Fortuna, WOW just knows how proud she is of her son. . .

Here are the full lyrics to the song used in the video, Heather Small's Proud, with some photos of Brian taken during the training for Dancing On Wheels:

I look into the window of my mind
Reflections of the fears I know I've left behind
I step out of the ordinary, I can feel my soul ascending
I am on my way, can't stop me now
And you can do the sameStill so many answers I don't know
Realise that to question is how we grow
So I step out of the ordinary
I can feel my soul ascending, I am on my way
Can't stop me now, and you can do the same We need a change, do it today
I can feel my spirit rising
We need a change, so do it today
'Cause I can see a clear horizon What have you done today to make you feel proud?
So what have you done today to make you feel proud?
'Cause you could be so many people
If you make that break for freedom So what have you done today to make you feel proud?

IT'S A WRAP PARTY part three (final one!)

lovely smiling and clapping Mark and Martin
*
group hug!
*
the very gorgeous Mr F and Ms R
*

flowers from Mr F
*
flowers the next day
(the sight of these helped WOW’s hangover)
*

And finally:

Dancing On Wheels. . .It’s a Wrap, but it's not the end…

Next time (next week on DOW)
WOW goes Morris, sorry Boris dancing….

IT'S A WRAP PARTY part two

Not Where’s Wally..more like where’s Marky?
Can you spot Mark? Is he hiding from James and Ola!
Also pictured: Lucy and Clara from Fever Media
*

David Tibballs has a really good time with Kristina
*

Di with one of BF’s – Jane
*

Di thanking Kaaj – one WOW’s ‘Karma police’
– Neil Rubenstein is the other…
*

Shock Horror! WOW caught bang-to-rights drinking!
Nothing escapes the Boss Brian though!

(Ed: I heard on the grapevine that WOW, without her wheels, had to be ‘carried’ to the taxi by her dance partner at 3am.)

IT’S A WRAP (PARTY) part one

Thought you wonderful WOW Watchers might enjoy some views of the Dancing On Wheels wrap party:

WOW decides to pay her own personal tribute
to Michael Jackson (RIP) in glitter jacket,
with Neil Rubi Rubenstein
(Ed: We could always hang her up from ceiling
and spin her round
– a new take on the disco ball?)
*

Brian with WOW’s gorgeous daughter, Lara
*

dance contestants pass judgement on
WOW’s DOW photo memory album
created by WOW especially for Brian
*

David Tibballs, Exec Producer on DOW,
with Pippa, Brian and Kristina

Wicked Soul

One day - soon - I hope to be able to create and perform a dance to this stunning song: Wicked Soul, by Kubb.

During training I suggested it to Brian - and Kristina - and they both loved it as well - there was then a discusssion as to what type of ballroom/latin dance should be applied. Brian thought the hustle or a merengue.
Of course I have to agree with the Boss, but tango moves keep coming to mind. Is there such a thing as a 'Tustle'? in the dance world?
So all you dancers out there - especially experienced males who think they could leap into the wheelie dancing world and whisk me off my rhinestone wheels...

. . .I am waiting.

A SMILE IN A WHISPER

Some Final Thoughts*, Di’s Diary, July 2009

(*as in thoughts from my diary, not WOW’s final final thoughts. You didn’t think I would go that easily, did you?)

So Mark and I are in the Final.

Surreal.

To think I wasn’t even in the ‘contest’ initially. And then to be paired with Mark, who, from what I can gather, received some scathingly Judgemental comments about his performances in Strictly. And I am 20 years older than any of the other contestants. Well, on those facts alone we were the rank outsiders at the beginning.

But I remember the turning point so clearly that hot day, just weeks ago, in the hottest dance studio when Brian and I were dancing so fluidly and then Mark and I did and Brian whispers to both of us, "You know guys, this was possibly only a one or two horse race, I think all that’s changed now."

And then he shouts (Bronx style): "I am pumped!"

It wasn’t only Mark and I connecting on a friendship level immediately, that helped. I think it was the laughs we had on that day that, to me, turned the whole difficult process around.I had underestimated the brain strain of taking so much instruction in, using a ‘different’ language – the language of dance, plus getting my body to move in new ways. (Although this latter part does come more easily to me – nothing could be as difficult as learning to walk again on prosthetics. It took me 6 months – and walking up and down in parallel bars with my walkman on, pacing up and down up and down like a caged lioness, until I had got it right. )

There are also the added pressures of having the cameras around, and being almost permanently miked up for sound – although it is true, you do forget about them (the equipment, not the people behind them), but the unreal world is very real when it comes to pressure. The stress upon Brian, (choreographing 6 dances for 6 different, very different couples, the demands of the production etc) is extreme.

Brian’s stress was palpable on that day vibrating in every one of his movements, and frequently in his voice.

We were working hard and I could feel the stress in Brian’s body but it was Mark, as I recollect, who cracked a few of his subtle jokes, then I did, then Mark (it was stifling in the room) suddenly took his top off and attempted our opening tango move. I laughed so much could hardly get my words out. ‘I …am ..not.. I cannot.. dance with you like that. It's like dancing with a freaking ..a ..an upmarket Chippendale..’

All of us relaxed after that. And the dancing flowed.
.
And does, and so does the humour. Most of which is unprintable. (And certainly not viewable. One infamous moment came last week when Brian yelled something at me and even Neil ‘Rubi’ Rubes put the camera down, his mouth hanging open in shock. Even I was speechless.)

It’s is the same with Pippa. She kept (and still does now) calling me Diane. Which I hate. Then she told us that ‘Pippa’ in Polish means the ‘C’ word. So every time she calls me Diane I just shout – Oy, Polish Pippa, what’s my name?

So hardly a smile in a whisper, eh Pippa, more Shout Shout, let it all out. By Tears for Fears.

I do have fears (about this final week). And there’s bound to be tears. As long as there’s smiles and laughter as well.

Bring It On.

Quotes from the Semi-Finals

Brian to Diana (while attempting to execute the difficult trick of standing, balancing on the wheelchair footplate, straddling my ‘longer leg’ for balance):

‘Di, that stump is in the way.’
(tries to move it out of the way of his legs)
Diana: ‘Surgeon anyone?
Should we call for a surgeon?’

(Ed: is there nothing WOW won’t do for this show?)

Harry: ‘Michelle (Gayle) is wonderful. If I’d got someone who was a push-over, well, I would have pushed them over. . .

. . .but Michelle, she don’t take no shit.’

James (after waterski-ing):

‘All of the water’s really warm now.
Everyone must have been peeing in it.’

FORTUNA FANTASTICS LOOK AWAY NOW!

the things WOW has to do in the name of dance -
it’s a tough job, someone’s got to do it!
(Ed: someone seems to be enjoying this training
a little too much...)

TRAINING
Dance: The Waltz (and repeat of The Tango)
Music: Fascination, Nat King Cole, Pa’ Bailar (Tango)
Debrief: Sunday
Training Days: Monday - Thursday
Training Hours: split between Brian and Pippa, with some help from Kristina.

the things Harry has to do in the name of dance…
it’s a tough life eh?

Tricky Moves:
(1) Getting down from the ramp on the floor to Mark in time with the music.
(2) Being ordered by The Boss not to let Mark kiss me until the live show. . .
(3) Not throttling James, when he - having broken his wheelchair - dismantled the whole thing in one of our training sessions, knowing full well Brian would stop training us in order to fix it (Brian is not only highly accomplished at most everything he turns his hands to, he is also a bit of geek). He fixed it – two hours later (with Mark’s help). Then Mark had a go at my chair:
Number of jellybeans consumed this week:

the trouble with jellybeans is that WOW has quite big hands
and once you have developed the ‘scooping’ action required,
before WOW realises, the whole lot has gone
(Ed – she also has a big mouth)

Back to training:

Pippa shows us how not to hold our arms in separation.

We have a go.

is it back to the effing Albatross again?

Most over-used word of the week/Star of the Show: Ralph (who's Ralph? click here!)

WOW sense of achievement: High (again) mainly due to getting to practise kissing with two hunks of burning love….

Filming with these crazy people is making us go a bit bananas:

Neil Rubi Rubenstein (Producer/Director) and
Lucy Lu Bauckman (Production Assistant)
can't stop monkeying around

THE SEMI-FINAL LINE-UP:

(with Kristina Rhianoff)

(with Lucy Bauckman, Production Assistant,
and Kristina Rhianoff)