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Dancing with the Stars

Trump ex-wife joins 'Dancing with the Stars'

Bill Keveney
USA TODAY
Marla Maples, who was married to Donald Trump, will partner with pro Tony Dovolani in Season 22 of ABC's 'Dancing with the Stars.'

A former Trump wife, a Real Housewife and an influx of NFL life highlight the new season of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, due March 21 (8 p.m. ET/PT).

During a presidential campaign that's been compared to a reality show, the dancing competition establishes a definitive connection as Marla Maples, ex-wife of Republican front-runner Donald Trump, on Tuesday was named one of 12 celebrity dancers competing for the mirrorball trophy in the show's 22nd season.

Kim Fields, star of The Real Housewives of Atlanta and The Facts of Life, is dancing, too, and so is a trio of football stars: Super Bowl MVP Von Miller, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown and former CFL and NFL quarterback Doug Flutie.

Executive producer Rob Wade acknowledges the larger-than-usual football contingent, and says he sought “a cast full of really current personalities that’s a lot of fun. Marla’s someone we’ve been talking to a lot. She is a very interesting woman,” he says. “The fact that Mr. Trump is very newsworthy at the moment was something that attracted us.”

Actress Kim Fields, left, will dance with pro Sasha Farber on ABC's 'Dancing with the Stars.'

The female stars and their pro partners: Maples and Tony Dovolani; Fields and Sasha Farber; Fuller House star Jodie Sweetin and Keo Motsepe; The O.C. star Mischa Barton and Artem Chigvintsev; Good Morning America weather anchor and new mom Ginger Zee and Valentin Chmerkovskiy; and UFC fighter Paige VanZant and Mark Ballas.

Male celebrities and their pro partners: Miller and Witney Carson; Brown and Sharna Burgess; Heisman Trophy winner Flutie and Karina Smirnoff; Fox News Channel's Geraldo Rivera and Edyta Sliwinska; Boyz II Men’s Wanya Morris and Lindsay Arnold; and America’s Next Top Model winner Nyle DiMarco and Peta Murgatroyd.

Season 22 includes many familiar themes – including Disney, switch-up, Latin and judges weeks – and features the return of Len Goodman, who rejoins Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli at the judges table. The season will be Hough-less, as judge Julianne temporarily departs and brother Derek, a six-time champ, won’t be competing.

Julianne Hough hangs up her 'DWTS' judge's paddle for now

Von Miller to appear on 'Dancing with the Stars'

Wade sees some natural rivalries, starting with the football players and extending to “a battle of nostalgia comedy” between Sweetin and Fields.

DiMarco faces a special challenge: Deafness. “He has no frame of reference to any kind of music,” Wade says. “What tools will he use to find the beat?”

Geraldo Rivera will dance with Edyta Sliwinska, an early-season mainstay who returns for Season 22 of ABC's 'Dancing with the Stars.'

For DWTS fan Fields, 46, the show made sense as a new challenge, a great fashion opportunity and a link to her heritage.

“I’m in love with the whole vintage lifestyle, in terms of fashion and Hollywood," she says. "My maternal grandmother was a ballroom dancer at The Savoy” Ballroom in New York.

For non-dancer Rivera, the decision to join Dancing was “kind of nerve-racking, outside my comfort zone. But it was on my bucket list.”

When he consulted his 96-year-old mother about competing, despite a lingering foot problem, she told him others danced despite far greater physical challenges: “She said, ‘Come on. This is nothing.’ She gave me like a high school football coach cheer. ‘OK, Mom. I’m going in there.’ ”

Rivera senses a more communal spirit on Dancing than on his last reality show, Celebrity Apprentice.

“Everybody is trying to do the best they can but they cheer everybody,” he says. With “Celebrity Apprentice, I never had any activity in my life where you had as much to fear from your own teammates, stabbing you in the back”

Super Bowl MVP Von Miller, left, will partner with Witney Carson as he attempts to win a 'Dancing with the Stars' trophy, too.
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