Dancing with the Stylists

I'm not really a natural Dancing with the Stars watcher. Generally I'm only interested when there's a politician I dislike on board and I want to see them fail miserably. Which I acknowledge is uncharitable, yet still I watch until they get voted off the island.

This season there are no politicians to draw me in. In fact I couldn't work out who any of the women were who I saw on the telly ad or the bus-stop pictures. One I thought might be Geraldine Brophy (who I have a lot of time for), but I only saw that billboard once. Another sort of looked a bit like one of those acting Hobbs sisters, if I squinted just so. A third reminded me of someone else off Shortland St, but I couldn't be certain. The fourth, a blonde woman, was a total mystery to me, but I figured maybe she was just someone I had never heard of, which given my lack of interest in celebrities wouldn't necessarily mean they were unknown to most New Zealanders.

The men were easily identifiable to me, except for one. The one and only John Rowles looked just like the one and only John Rowles. Josh Kronfeld looked like a slightly cuddlier version of his All Black persona. That guy who does the weather on Breakfast telly* looked pretty much as he does every morning. Then there was some other bloke I didn't see on any bus stops, but couldn't place from the advert; turns out he is Chris Hobbs, from Shortie St back during the time I didn't really watch it much.

Can you see where I'm going with this? Here's a pic that might help:

Any guesses who she is, before you make with the clicky and

I thought maybe they had scored a big coup and got Olivia Newton John over from Oz. Although she looked too young to have starred in the original Grease. I was shocked when I checked who the contestants were on the website to discover that the blonde woman on the bus stops was actually a woman whose career I have followed for many years.

I'm a big fan of Barbara Kendall. I sailed (mainly dinghies) in my youth, and while my one attempt at wind-surfing board-sailing failed miserably, I'd love to try it again one day. I find Kendall an inspirational figure in many ways, not just for her sporting ability but also the balance she has found between sport and family, and her work as an athlete's representative within the Olympic movement. I didn't recognise her at all from the publicity material Dancing with the Stars used.

Barbara Kendall is an amazing woman who has achieved much. Why use such an over-styled and mis-representative picture of her, when one without the airbrushing would have been even better?



* And I want to give him some props for picking Rainbow Youth as his charity and doing some media about why it is important to him.