By now we’ve all heard about Dancing with the Stars’ pro dancer Karina Smirnoff’s Playboy debut in the May issue which is hitting the stands at this moment. We’ll get into that in a minute and how it affects Ralph Macchio’s quest for the Mirror Ball trophy. For Karina, the Playboy spread was just the latest chapter in baring all.
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) organization has taken the opportunity to regurgitate the ad Karina did for them last year, in which she danced naked to spread the anti-fur message. You can link to PETA’s ad here, but please note the video contains strong and upsetting animal cruelty content. I don’t recall the PETA campaign causing as much hullabaloo as the recent Playboy controversy. In fact, I thought the PETA campaign was new until I did further research.
So why is the Playboy posing causing a huge stir for Dancing with the Stars while the PETA ad ran pretty much under tabloid press radar? Well, image, no question. Playboy is part of the ‘adult entertainment’ world, viewed by many as a self-indulgent male magazine which exploits women. PETA is the largest animal rights organization in the world, whose mission is to stop exploitation and cruelty to animals. Playboy = tawdry and PETA = charitable. Then there is the image factor of Dancing with the Stars itself.
At the center of the controversy is the rumor that DWTS and ABC were upset with Karina’s spread because DWTS is a “family” show, and they control this family image with an iron fist. This almost laughable. Not only have they had other Playboy Bunnies in the cast, (Kendra Wilkinson, Kelly Monaco, Holly Madison), their own hostess Brooke Burke has posed twice. The show is full of sex appeal, as they dress their female contestants up (or down) in the skimpiest of clothing, and allow the dancing to embody suggestive movements.
The sticking point here is supposedly a non-nudity clause in contracts that employees of the major networks have to adhere to while in their employ. There is talk that because of that, Karina could be fired from the show. However, for their part, ABC has not yet released any statement on the matter. Read more on that here. For Karina’s part, I doubt she would be senseless enough to violate the terms of her contract if these terms exist. Somehow this had to have been worked out months ago while she was in negotiations with Playboy.
It didn’t escape notice that the show made no mention of the matter right after the news hit. Jokester host Tom Bergeron kept mum, whereas we can usually count on him to allude to DWTS controversies with witty one-liners. From this we can deduce that DWTS was trying to distance itself from it publicly. I have to wonder if this was pretense, because if they really had an issue with it, why allow Karina to pose mid-season? A safer course would have been to work it out with Karina and Hugh Hefner to have her appear during the show's hiatus months.
What of Karina’s celeb partner Ralph Macchio? Rounding out this controversy is that Karina’s Playboy spread coincides with the middle of Season 12, in which the couple is poised to head into the finals. Ralph has that wholesome boy next door image, and many of his DWTS fans are fans because of that. Could those fans knee-jerk from disgust? This might not have been something the show could have anticipated when the Playboy deal was being negotiated, which had to have occurred before the season started. Then again, this could bring many more male voters over to their side. Perhaps DWTS is counting on that?
How this will affect Ralph’s standing in the show for a shot at the Mirror Ball has become the biggest issue now, and this is what remains to be seen from here on in. ABC has to be cognizant of upsetting the playing field on the show at this point, and they probably want to get a look at the entire Playboy spread to assess the need for damage control. All things considered, it's not surprising that they have not made an official statement as of yet.
