Thanks


Good grief, they sound like very sensitive souls.

If I felt like I had something to apologise for, I would.

But in this instance, my immediate reaction is "too bad" We've been discussing look-alikes all series on the forum and it's something that's come up on ITT as well. I really can't see why anyone would get upset about something like that.

I'm an Ali supporter and it didn't upset me!

I thought it was funny

You are pointing your finger at the wrong person with Sid. There are many nasty threads started on here but that isn't Sid's style.

I know some posts on DS can sometimes be a bit
but I don't think Sid's thread about Ali was offensive at all, I don't think anyone has even posted a negative post on there about her

Cheers for the support you two

The last thing I'd want to do is deliberately wind people up. And I just caught up with the thread in question and none of the responses have been negative at all.

You are always fair Sid. I've even seen you post lovely comments about couples that I know you aren't keen on.

I have never seen Sid being offensive .This thread is a bit of light entertainment and was never intended as anything else
I love Ali and Brian and can see the humour intended

I do it all the time because I type so slowly!


No, the point is that even if Natalie isn't the best dancer, she is very well liked on and off the show.

I think there has been plenty of negative comments about her dancing that are not nasty. Plenty of people (me included) have said she has a problem with her posture and is sometimes flat footed, but she does usually deliver a clean routine and to quite hard choreography. Some people don't want to give her any credit at all for that, preferring instead to just write her off as a dreadful dancer - often using a personal insult along with it.

It seems to me that some people just can't stand her happy go lucky personality, believing it to be fake (like Matt Dawson before he met her). She is clearly a naturally positive person who is living her dream at the moment and thanking her lucky stars.

I don't think anyone is being told to 'big up' Natalie on ITT - she doesn't need them to because plenty of people like her already.


But they were asked about their highlight of the series so far, so should the guys have been instructed to only talk about highlights involving the remaining couples?


I agree with this too - remember Gethin with the 'Vincent the Baby Tapir video'!


I think I'm watching the same show as Jan as I think Vincent looks so much more relaxed this year and really enjoying dancing with Natalie (Vincent is not one of my favourite pros btw)!

Any 'inflated' marks have usually been tempered with some really low ones and at the end of the day Natalie has usually been in the right place on the leader board. Last Saturday was a bad week for her and most people accepted that.


I am gobsmacked that anyone would take offence at that thread.

I just don't get this Natalie being 'in our faces' thing at all. I don't even vote for Natalie and Vincent, but the idea that she is the 'chosen' one this year has completely taken me aback.

Wasn't the tapir called Gethin but Vincent did the voice for it?

I do try to be objective Star


Glad to see not all of Ali's fans have had a sense of humour bypass!

Considering I've said Natalie L resembles Chucky, they've nothing to complain about

This thread isn't about what I think of Natalie. It's about the way she's being treated by the show.


Exactly.


I wasn't supporting Lisa. I was supporting Rachel. So if we're to go that way, it would have been natural for me to be sensitive to any favouritism towards Lisa, since she was one of Rachel's closest competitors. But to me Lisa still didn't seem especially favoured.

The way Lisa was disliked last year is one of the few cases that puzzles be. Usually when a contestant gets so much dislike, I at least think I've got it mostly figured out.

All that annoyed me about Natalie initially was the way she over-acted when dancing. But that just put her in the same class as Lynda and some others. And then I didn't like the way she played the weight-loss, weight-gain media game; but that came up only because some were praising her for what they thought was her attitude towards her size.

It's only the continual gushing about how wonderful her personality and enthusiasm etc supposedly are that's really been annoying. The show seems determined to tell us that again and again and again, rather than letting viewers make up their own minds.

Noooooooo

What I meant and put badly was from the OP and some subsequent posts I got the impression that the 3 guys saying they wanted Natalie to win was being seen as some sort of positive reinforcement that would tip non-supporters over into picking up the phone and voting for her.

They can talk about Craig ... and any one else who has gone from the competition ... 'till the cows come home but having a favourite who is no more isn't going to make them come any higher than they have already.

From the point of view of mind control, talking about ex-contestants could be seen as a bit of a waste of time

Maybe you would do yourself favours if you made it clear it was SCD's handling of its celebs in general or as in this case, Natalie in particular that you have a problem with then.
As it stands, both the content of your posts and the sheer number of them suggests it is Natalie herself you have the problem with, hence the fairer minded fms jumping to her defence.

Or he knew that last year was his chance to win and concentrated more. After Louisa and Rachel you would look at this year knowing that you would be given a middle of the road performer and act accordingly when indeed you got one?

May...be... Yes!





I think that will be a factor in him being more relaxed this year. With Louisa and Rachel Vincent knew from the start he was in with a real chance. I am not bashing Natalie when I say that, just that they were good dancers coming into the show, so he was starting from a different level with them.

We don't know how popular Nat is with the voters as she has never been in the dance off. She may be the most popular of the remaining 5 couples and could go on to win SCD, as long as she avoids the dance off for the remaining weeks.

I wouldn't mind Nat winning SCD as she represents the majority of the average celebs who partake, never really bad but never brilliant.

If the best dancer is to win it should be Ricky based on what I've seen so far.

Why would I have a problem with SCD's handling of its celebs in general, when SCD doesn't handle them all the same?


I have a (relatively minor) problem with Natalie, as I explained in the post you quoted, and also with the way she's being treated by the show. Do you think I can have only one of those problems, for some reason?

As competitors / celebs, I find Ricky G and Chris about as annoying as Natalie. It's the way the SCD and ITT is treating them that makes the difference.

I don't think she has a happy go lucky personality, so for me the question of being able to stand it or not never arises.

(That's not believing it's fake, btw; to believe it's fake, I'd have to think she at least seemed happy go lucky in the first place. )


Ah! So you think there was an implication that Vincent was enjoying it more this year. I watched it again and decided that there wasn't, at least not a clear one; or else I might have given that as an example somewhere.


What really low marks has she received? Sure, there was a 5 this week, and that might count as really low; but at least from week 3 on, I think the lowest she's had is an occasional 6, and in weeks 6 through 9, the lowest she had was a 7.

However, I think it's more the judges' comments that are the problem, rather than their marks.

What do you expect them to say Apart from Alesha whoes opinions were up and down like a pair of knickers on Saturday so should really be ignored, the judges were fairly universal in not liking her Samba and said so as far as I can remember. Does saying we really really really really didnt like it make a difference Craig said he found her endearing to watch, I think quite a lot of people agree with him, do you want him to be horrible too her, as a lot of people would then say people are voting for her because Craig is being horrible to her.

Anyone who exchanges posts with you on a regular basis knows that Sid.

Personally I don't find Ali physically attractive at all, although she does have lovely eyes; but beauty is in the eye of the beholder so my opinion is neither more nor less valid than that of anyone else.

And appearance doesn't detract from the fact that the girl can dance.

Ta Ignazio

I think Ali's a pretty girl.

It just so happened that Debbi McGee popped up on telly the other night and I saw a close resemblance between her and Ali and simply had to tell everyone!

They're both beautiful ladies so if anything, it was a compliment

Yes, this one week they were more negative. Craig, I think, even criticised what she was doing with her mouth. Which may be the first time that's been mentioned.

I wonder whether forum comments have had an influence. There have been a fair number saying that Natalie wasn't being criticised in the way other celebs would be - that there were mistakes and deficiencies in her dancing that would have been mentioned, or criticised more strongly, if they'd happened in other celebs' dances.

Some even thought it was almost like the judges were afraid to criticise Natalie, and their failure to say anything about her mouth was mentioned a number of times as well.

Also, the previous week seemed to have the most complaints about the way Natalie and Vincent were marked.

It does seem possible that the show looks at forum comments as a way to get an idea of what viewers are thinking, and that the producers would want to head off any problems before they became too great. Viewers thinking Natalie wasn't being judged in the same way as other celebs would be such a problem.

Six celebs now have been on talking about favourite dances - mentions of Craig and Ricki's dances. Quick mention of Ali and Chris. None of Ricky W 's....Who do you want to win - no one picks Ricky W as the one they want to win. Add a mention of how enthusiastic Nat is ............

Someone suggested on another thread that they were evening things out after praising Ricky more earlier on but its looking very strange when they have laila and Chris featuring very little in teh discussion of winners , the main competition only just featuring and the one with the best record no one's favourite to win.

What a silly diva! Choose a lousy song and you can't possibly work up some good moves to it. It didn't have a hint of a samba in it. It's pure cheese that record.

And then of course he had Nat to choreograph for. That's a tall order.

Poor likkle Vinthent. Bacofoil on the way!

I'm not sure what you are saying here. There was no way that the judges could say that samba was good with any credibility. Are you saying that they judged her more harshly because of forum comments? Vincent (choreography) and Karen Hardy ('She sold it') shifted any blame for a poor performance from Natalie. I belong to the group that believes that no-one connected to the show wants to criticise Natalie in any way - for whatever reason.