The lineup for season 28 of Dancing with the Stars has been revealed, with The Bachelorette’s Hannah Brown, supermodel Christie Brinkley, former NBA star Lamar Odom and actor James Van Der Beek — who truly foretold his casting within the 2012-13 sitcom Don’t Belief the B**** in Residence 23 — breaking out the sequins. However it’s one other ballroom-bound bold-faced identify who’s making the most important waves: former White Home press secretary Sean Spicer.
Throughout his tenure for the Trump administration — he left in 2017— Spicer made headlines for insisting that Trump had “the most important viewers to ever witness an inauguration, interval, each in particular person and across the globe,” regardless of proof on the contrary. His gaffes and behavior of berating the media grew to become fodder for Melissa McCarthy, who received an Emmy parodying him on Saturday Night time Stay.
After reportedly turning down a earlier supply to star on DWTS, the 47-year-old has formally agreed to lace up his dancing sneakers. And whereas he advised Instagram followers that he’s “excited” to hit the dance flooring, critics of his work for the Trump administration are much less enthused.
As together with his controversial look in a skit on the 2017 Emmys, Spicer’s DWTS casting is being slammed as endorsing and normalizing a “professional liar.” Some have additionally threatened to boycott the present.
I’ll by no means suppose it’s an amusing diversion for Sean Spicer to be on Dancing with the Stars. He defended and lied about amoral, monstrous if not legal insurance policies and actions. Approach to launder amorality, ABC. Gross.
— Mo Ryan (@moryan) August 21, 2019
That is appalling. How about we do not reward the person who served as a mouthpiece of the worst fashionable administration by placing him on some dance present so he can twirl his dishonest ass on TV for pay?
— Awesomely Luvvie (@Luvvie) August 21, 2019
For six months, Sean Spicer served as White Home Press Secretary to probably the most vile “president” in fashionable historical past. In that point, he repeatedly lied, obfuscated, and endorsed the badgering of a free press. He enabled hatred.
He belongs on a public blacklist, not in a waltz.#DWTS
— Charlotte Clymer🏳️🌈 (@cmclymer) August 21, 2019
You’ll face a boycott. A giant one. Of the present and of your whole community.
And it will likely be nicely deserved.
People will contact each advertiser you’ve got and demand they cease operating advertisements.
So, good luck with all of that. The one good transfer right here is to exchange him instantly.
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) August 21, 2019
In the meantime, DWTS host Tom Bergeron has posted a word on social media explaining his hope that the present “could be a joyful respite from our exhausting political local weather and freed from inevitably divisive bookings from ANY social gathering affiliations.” Whereas Bergeron didn’t explicitly identify Spicer, he admitted that producers opted to as a substitute “go in a unique route.”
Spicer — who has spoken about the moments he “screwed up” throughout his White Home stint — was additionally known as out by reporter Katie Pavlich for denying he’d do the present throughout a 2018 interview.
“Effectively it’s true that I’ve no rhythm,” he responded on Wednesday.
Will his two left toes and public backlash consequence lower his DWTS time brief? Or will conservatives again Spicer à la Bristol Palin, daughter of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who sashayed her option to a third-place end in 2010? Viewers will discover out when the brand new season kicks off on Sept. 16.