More than a week ago, we saw Cheryl Cole come out of “hiding” in London, complete with a really bad makeover. After being dumped professionally, Cheryl did what so many women do after they’ve been dumped by a boyfriend: she cut her hair, dyed it a hideous color, and spackled on the motherload of makeup. Then, she called an ex and he came over for a booty call. Poor Cheryl! British sources say that she’s pretty much back with her douchey, womanizing ex-husband Ashley Cole, which is kind of depressing for her.

These photos show Cheryl in somewhat better light – they’re from a few nights ago in London Beverly Hills, when Cheryl made a friend come with her as she went out to meet her American ex, Derek Hough. Cheryl (who at this point, we’ve established, has AWFUL taste in men) began dating Derek shortly after she split with Ashley, and Cheryl dumped Derek when she thought her American career was going to be taking off and she could trade up for someone A-list (Clooney’s name was mentioned, hilariously). Cheryl looks better in these pics – see what a difference minimal makeup makes? She’s very pretty when she goes low-key. But! According to the British tabloids, Cheryl was a mess because Derek told her that Ashley was going to cheat on her again and again, and he (Derek) wouldn’t be around to “pick up the pieces.” For real?

He was her ‘rock’ and her shoulder to cry on when her marriage fell apart. But Derek Hough has told Cheryl Cole that if she reconciles with ex-husband Ashley then he will not be there to pick up the pieces again. According to reports, the dancer, who was also by the pop star’s side when she was gravely ill with malaria, warned her not to go back to the Chelsea footballer because she will end up heartbroken.

Taking Girls Aloud band mate and friend Kimberley Walsh, 29, along for moral support, Cheryl, 28, met Derek, 26, for dinner in Los Angeles on Friday night, and broke the news that she was reconciling with Ashley, according to the Sunday Mirror. But Derek was said to be furious at the news and warned her that she would end up heartbroken again – but he would not be there for her again.

A friend told the paper: ‘He has accepted their relationship is over. But he still cares for her as a friend and is convinced Cheryl getting back with Ashley is going to end one way… with Cheryl in tears and heartbroken.’

Derek is believed to have told Cheryl that she deserves better and was gobsmacked that she would want to go back to the man that she has spent the last year getting over.

The friend added: ‘He told her, “a cheat will never change and whatever you think, he will betray you. If he breaks your heart again, I will not be your shoulder to cry on”.’

It is the first time that Derek and Cheryl have met up since her humiliating sacking from the X Factor USA judging panel two months ago.

Derek, who dated Cheryl for over a year, arrived 10 minutes later and the group spent more than an hour at a corner table talking intimately. But Derek left looking very upset about 15 minutes later, according to onlookers.

Derek, a dancer on American TV series Dancing With The Stars, the US version of Strictly Come Dancing, met Cheryl in 2009 when he was hired to perform in the video for her single Parachutes. At the time, she was still married to Ashley but the couple split after he was alleged to have cheated on her with five different women.

[From The Mail]

I know, I know. You don’t really care. I just thought it would be fun to cover these people who are on the lower end of the celebrity food chain (in America). Besides, even though I think Derek might have a secret love affair with dong, I appreciate that he’s trying to tell Cheryl something she should already know: she could do better. Much better. I’ll say it again: Cheryl could find a much better boyfriend by simply picking up a random at a bar.

UPDATE: Sorry, this didn’t happen in London, it happened in Beverly Hills! My bad.

Photos courtesy of Fame.

I apologize in advance for all of the photos I’m using in this post, but as I was looking up Cheryl Cole pics, there were just so many that I found hilarious. I will maintain – she’s a pretty girl. But she wears a mountain of makeup, she doesn’t know how to dress, and when she’s trying to be “sexy” she looks absolutely ridiculous. Thus, all of the photos.

Anyway, as we were discussing earlier this week, Cheryl is going to try to “happen” in America now that she got a gig on the American version of The X Factor. She’ll be working with Simon Cowell again. And Paula Abdul will be around, acting crazy. Cheryl is already going to be designated “the pretty one” (as opposed to Paula’s “the crazy one”). But Cheryl still needs a little something “extra” to “happen” here. What’s the best way to get attention? Date somebody who already has a built-in fan-base! This theory was already popularized by Lainey, by the way, who suggested that all Cheryl really needed was a decent celebrity boyfriend to “happen”. Unfortunately, Cheryl already has a boyfriend, Dancing With the Stars dancer boy Derek Hough. Unfortunately, Cheryl might have already dumped poor Derek in a quest for MORE FAME, PLS.

DWTS pro Derek Hough will have to find a new partner. His girlfreind Cheryl Cole has dumped him to focus on her sizzling career – and to maybe trade up to a more famous beau, an insider tells Star.

Soon after the Brit babe, 27, landed a flashy gig as a judge on the US version of The X Factor, “Cheryl told Derek it was over,” says the insider. “Breaking up with him was particularly cruel because he stood by her through her divorce last year and her nasty bout of malaria.”

So Derek is hurt and betrayed.

“He can’t help feeling that she used him to get publicity in Hollywood,” says the insider. But Cheryl is already moving on.

“She’s incredibly ambitious – and gorgeous,” the insider says. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she winds up with an A-lister, and soon!”

[From Star Magazine, print edition]

Hahaha, “He can’t help feeling that she used him to get publicity in Hollywood.” Yes, because simply EVERYBODY knew the random blonde boy that made everyone mutter, “Dude, I think that young man dancing the cha-cha… I think he loves dong.” HE’S SO FAMOUS! As for Cheryl ending up with an A-lister… oh, boy. Jake Gyllenhaal? Bradley Cooper? What? She has a type!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

This whole post is a spoiler for the Dancing With The Stars finale
You’ve undoubtedly heard by now that Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger won the mirror ball trophy on last night’s Dancing with The Stars finale. The final two were down to figure skater Evan Lysacek and Scherzinger after ESPN anchorwoman Erin Andrews was eliminated. Scherzinger reigned triumphant, and brought home the prize. It was Scherzinger’s partner Derek Hough’s second time at the top. He won first place with Brooke Burke in 2008.

Sure enough, it was Pussycat Doll galore as Nicole Scherzinger was named the winner of the 10th season of Dancing With the Stars.

The pop star, who was repeatedly labeled by the judges the best they’d ever seen on the show, couldn’t really get any words out, choosing instead to jump up and down and scream her head off.

“Everyone’s been amazing and I’m so happy!” said Nicole’s partner, Derek Hough, a two-time Dancing champ after also winning with Brooke Burke in season seven.

It really would have been a crime if Nicole hadn’t won, really, especially after the killer jive Derek choreographed for their final number of the season.

“There were 12 days of Christmas, seven dwarves, four Beatles. There can only be one winner of Dancing With the Stars. It should be you,” said head judge Len Goodman as he and colleagues Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli awarded them one last 30.

Erin, meanwhile, was—as expected, really—the first to go, presumably regardless of the fact that the judges ranked her Argentine tango replay third behind Evan and Nicole, who placed first.

“This experience has meant everything to me,” the emotional ESPN reporter said upon her exit. “I knew that these two were going to go head-to-head in this. I came here under really crummy circumstances, and I just wanted to get my life back together and my smile back. I just wanted to be myself again.”

And, she added, pointing to partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy, “This one has just put my life back together.”

Though he didn’t get her all the way to the finish line, Maks said that, in his eyes, they had already won.

So it turns out that Olympians who make the finals can, in fact, lose, as Evan gracefully turned the spotlight over to Nicole and Derek after falling just short of the proverbial gold medal.

“It’s been such a blast, we were totally satisfied with everything we gave,” the figure skater said of his performance with partner Anna Trebunskaya, a first-time finalist on the show.

“They deserved it, they worked so hard and inspired all the other couples in the competition,” he said.

[From E! Online]

Apart from this week, I haven’t watched this show since Kate Gosselin was eliminated. I caught Monday’s competition and Scherzinger did an incredibly sensual Rumba to Lady in Red that was just mesmerizing. Here’s that dance, it starts at 1:00 in.

In last night’s finale, Nicole and Derek did an energetic jive to Proud Mary. That starts at 1:40.

Here’s the moment these two won. It’s at 1:15.

Nicole told US Weekly that she’ll be giving her trophy to her mom “because she’s the reason I really did this show.” She said she plans to celebrate her win with Derek by eating some red velvet cake and brownies together. Congratulations to Derek and Nicole on a well deserved win!

Photos are courtesy of ABC, where you can watch full episodes of Dancing With The Stars online.

The finale of Dancing with the Stars last night

Model/actress Brooke Burke, was the winner on last night’s “Dancing With The Stars.” The 37 year-old mother of four put on consistently solid performances with her partner, Derek Hough, landing first in the rankings almost every week with the exception of last week. Brooke beat out former boy bander Lance Bass and retired football player Warren Sapp to bring home the disco ball trophy on the seventh season of the popular show:

After 10 weeks of competition, Brooke Burke and her partner Derek Hough are in seventh heaven after being crowned season seven’s Dancing champs on Tuesday’s two-hour finale.

The duo raised their hands in triumph and hugged one another when their names were announced by co-host Tom Bergeron. Asked by Bergeron how it felt to win, Burke exclaimed, “Unbelievable!”
With her win, Burke joins an elite group of female stars–season one’s Kelly Monaco and season six’s Kristi Yamaguchi–who have hoisted the mirror-ball trophy and helped narrow the gap between the number of men to women Dancing winners to 4:3.

Burke and Hough headed into Tuesday night’s show with a 58 out of 60 for their samba and perfect freestyle. They received another perfect score for their third and final dance, the Viennese waltz, keeping them on top of the leader board with a total of 88 out of 90. They also won the viewers’ votes, which accounted for 50% of their total score.

For a moment it looked like crowd-pleaser, NFL star Warren Sapp, and his partner Kym Johnson had a chance to pull off an upset after Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer finished third in the competition.
But it was not to be. Burke, who was praised by the judges all season for her technical precision and grace on the dancefloor, and Hough sealed the deal Monday with a freestyle dance that simply blew away the competition.

[From People]

Jimmy Kimmel had Brooke and Derek on via satellite last night, and he showed a clip where Brooke’s fiance, David Charvet, started crying after she performed. Brooke said that he gave up a lot for her and that her family made a lot of sacrifices while she was training. Derek Hough also confirmed that he’s still dating his dance partner from last season, Shannon Elizabeth, and said she happened to be in the room at the time and was just off camera.

Congratulations to Brooke and Derek on a very successful season. It looks like all their hard work paid off.

Here are Brooke and Derek doing the Freestyle for the finals

And a Salsa from last week

Remember those pictures of dance partners and unlikely couple Shannon Elizabeth, 34, and her “Dancing With The Stars” partner, professional dancer Derek Hough, 22, kissing on the beach? The public hardly noticed and Elizabeth and Derek were voted off the competition about 11 days later to fall in 6th place. Former American Pie star Elizabeth has been dating a math teacher from Las Palmas Middle School in Covina, CA, according to the February 25 issue of Star, and she even told In Touch at the end of April that her boyfriend was fine with Derek being her partner because “He knows I’ve never dated a blond guy, plus Derek is 22.”

People thought that Derek and Shannon were yet another couple that fell in love after all that romantic exercise together. Legitimate DWTS couples include Sabrina Bryan and Mark Ballas, and Mario Lopez and Karina Smirnoff. They were faking it though, and they admitted it to In Touch:

“We are playing into the rumors with the kisses on the cheek [during their April 21 performance],” admits Shannon. “With our new ‘strategy,’ we are doing it for fun now and for the audience.” Adds a winking Derek “With our new ‘outlook,’ I think it’s going to go down a lot better. We’re like, if they want kisses, we’ll give them kisses!”

[From In Touch, print edition, May 12, 2008]

I wonder how Shannon’s boyfriend felt when he saw those kissing pictures which didn’t manage to get Elizabeth enough votes to stay in the competition. The Shannon Derek fauxmance was covered on the front page of People’s website for a few hours on the day the photos came out and even had a two page spread in Star Magazine.

Shannon and Derek are shown outside the Regis & Kelly show on 5/1/08, thanks to WENN.

Top 9 “American Idol” contestant David Cook was rushed to the hospital with heart palpitations and dangerously high blood pressure after his performance on the show yesterday.

Cook has been lauded by judges for his risk-taking and strong performances, and performed his own arrangement of Dolly Parton’s “Little Sparrow” last night. Dolly Parton praised his voice and talent during rehearsals.

Cook really nailed the performance and looked at ease on stage. All the judges praised him, with Simon tempering it a little by saying it wasn’t as good as his last performance. Cook was taken to the hospital shortly after the show. He has high blood pressure and the stress sent it skyrocketing. Cook was treated by a private physician, given blood pressure medication and released.

Cook’s brother has cancer and suffered a medical setback recently, and that is said to have contributed to his high level of stress. Hopefully he’s ok now and will be able to find ways to keep his blood pressure down.

Meanwhile dancer Derek Hough, Shannon Elizabeth’s professional partner on “Dancing With The Stars” wrenched his neck during rehearsals yesterday and was taken to the hospital. He recovered, and was back to work.

It’s not an easy job having to preform new material in front of millions of people every week.

Here’s David Cook performing “Little Sparrow” last night. You would never know he was having a problem, and maybe he felt ok until after his performance:

And here’s Derek Hough doing the jive with Shannon Elizabeth on Monday. You can see how he might throw something out with all those moves he’s doing.