"Dancing with the Stars" Recap: Cher is in the House, Plus Bare-Chested Jedis

Last night's Dancing With the Stars performance episode was probably the most exciting show we've seen during this season. Betwen the hotly anticipated CHer appearance, and the male pro dancers shirtless and dancing with light sabers, well, it was a bit of a gay fever dream!

Even though he was in the bottom last week, there's little surprise that Chaz pulled through. I think everyone just wanted to see Cher! Anyway, instead they sent packing that blonde girl whose name I could never remember. I am sure that you are all devastated, but try to stay strong, because this week was movie score night, which means everyone was dressed in crazy costumes!

"You can never go wrong with light sabers and spray tans!"

It was both entertaining to watch and gave me some ideas for Halloween this year. For the most part, everyone seemed to be having a good time, but there were a couple exceptions: Judge Len was in a notably crabby mood last night, especially compared to last week's lovefest. Also, Derek was revealed to have a very dirty mouth in his rehearsals with Ricki Lake.

I have finally managed to pinpoint one of the things that bothers me about this show, and that is the way that they edit the scenes that show the dancers practicing. EVERY week, for practically EVERY dancer, they always show them not doing well and getting frustrated with how hard it is. I don't know if they are trying to be nice and give us something that we know we can fast-forward through, or if the show's editors are really that uncreative that they can't think of anything else to do. Not every rehearsal has to be a disaster, I'd imagine some go swimmingly!

Performances – The night started off pretty rough, with Chynna Phillips forgetting her routine and faltering through the whole dance. It was pretty surprising considering she is usually one of the strongest dancers on the floor, but the judges gave her a decent score nonetheless.

David Arquette was very impressive, improving drastically from past weeks.

The judges praised Hope Solo, but frankly, I don't really get why they like her so much. Her dance was supposed to be fun, but she just looked mad the whole time.

Rob Kardashian, another one that the judges seem to like, was also painfully boring and his attempts to garner sympathy for being the "loser brother" in a family of multi-millionaires falls kind of flat when you see him standing next to JR Martinez.

Nancy Grace was blah once again and I am hoping that the viewers finally get rid of her for good. I am sick of seeing her putting her hands all over my future husband!

Ricki Lake continued to shine, doing a tango to the theme from Psycho that was very impressive, earning her both the top score and the first 10's of the season.

Team Acronym – Chaz Bono really pulled it out this week, performing to the theme from Rocky. He scored a respectable 21 points and even made judge Carrie Ann Inaba cry. Granted, that is not all that hard to do. Anyway, it was an impressive performance, and we got to see a bunch of audience shots of Cher cheering him on!

Carson was his usually fun self, performing in an awesome pirate costume to the Pirates of the Caribbean score. He also manages to be the only dancer who is fun to watch in rehearsal, with his lighthearted humor and fun back and forth with dance partner Anna. This week was no exception, with Carson playfully flirting with stuntman Storm, who came to teach them sword fighting.

Unfortunately, the judges don't really respond to Carson's particular style and he ended up with the worst scores of the night. Even his hilarious "Len" tattoo on his chest didn't earn him any extra credit with the judges. Hopefully his fans at home will make up for the poor scoring, because he really is the most entertaining part of the show.

Get a taste of the performances here...

Costumes – Since the performers were acting out song scores from famous movies, they used the opportunity to go all out with their costumes this week. My personal favorites were Anna and Carson. Seriously, I want Anna's outfit. I am pretty sure that JR borrowed his outfit from Carson, because it was both hot pink and bedazzled.

Hope Solo seriously needs to fire her stylist, because this is the second week in a row that I have cringed at her outfit. I know she was supposed to be a cowgirl, but it was completely unflattering.

David Arquette performed in an open shirt that showed off his impressive chest, which I will admit, I was not expecting. He should really show that off more often.

So the show actually managed to be entertaining last night and Chaz showed some real improvement. I am getting worried about Carson though, who is this week's bottom scorer on the leaderboard. Hopefully his effervescent personality will garner enough audience votes to make up for it. I am predicting that Nancy Grace will be the one eliminated tomorrow night, but I am usually wrong about these things, so we shall see.

What did you think of last night's show?