Strictly’s Russell, having the time of his life!

By Sara Nathan

Last updated at 1:36 AM on 5th November 2011



Her petite frame wrapped up in the burly arms of Patrick Swayze, there are few who can forget Jennifer Grey’s starring role in Dirty Dancing.

The 51-year–old actress was aged 27 when she signed up to play naïve teenager Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman in the low-budget film that confounded expectations to become a worldwide hit.

And as she prepares to take over from Len Goodman as a judge on tonight’s Strictly Come Dancing, the star looks barely a day older than when Swayze uttered the immortal lines ‘Nobody puts Baby in the corner.’

Star gazer: Astrologer Russell Grant meets Jennifer Grey of tonight's Strictly Come Dancing

But while in 1987, Miss Grey was partnered by the classically trained ballet dancer Swayze, who became a heartthrob for millions following his role as dance instructor Johnny Castle, yesterday, she posed up with a rather more portly partner – Russell Grant.




She spoke of her love for the 60-year-old TV personality after watching him in rehearsals, calling him a ‘hoot’, adding: ‘He is so divine. He is a ball of energy and love and sunshine. He has such humour and is enjoying himself so much, it’s such a beautiful thing.’

The star is taking over from Mr Goodman, 67, as he takes a week’s rest from travelling between London and Los Angeles, where he also films a judging role on Dancing With The Stars, the US version of Strictly.

Miss Grey made her big comeback on Dancing With The Stars last year, where she won the mirrorball trophy, partnered by Cheryl Cole’s ex-boyfriend, Derek Hough.

She had suffered a career slump after having an ill-fated nose job in the early 1990s that radically changed her appearance so much that fans failed to recognise her.

Heartthrob: Patrick Swayze with Jennifer Grey in 1987's Dirty Dancy

The actress admitted that following Dirty Dancing – and at the zenith of her career – she had made ‘a lot of choices most ambitious people would not have made’.

But Dancing With The Stars actually saved her life, as while undergoing a routine health check for the programme in 2009, she was told her spinal cord had been compressed following a horror car crash.

She was then forced to put back her appearance for a year as surgery for the spinal disorder led to a cancer diagnosis.

The actress had been in pain for more than two decades following a 1987 car accident in Ireland with actor Matthew Broderick, her Ferris Bueller’s Day Off co-star and then boyfriend.

The head-on collision left the occupants of the other car, a mother and daughter, dead and Broderick was severely injured

It had left her neck in such a precarious position that her doctor, Robert S. Bray Jr, said: ‘one slip, one fall, one minor rear-end-that’s how close she was to paralysis.’

However, it was during two spinal surgeries that he discovered a lump on Miss Grey’s neck and persuaded her to have it removed.

It turned out the growth was full-blown thyroid cancer, forcing the star to undergo two more surgeries to have her entire thyroid removed. ‘If that tumor had broken out of the capsule of the thyroid,’ said Dr Bray, ‘that’s a very bad cancer. She caught it in time.’

Following four operations and with a titanium plated secured with screws in her neck, Miss Grey went on Dancing With The Stars a year later than planned and won.

The actress, who has a nine-year-old daughter Stella with her husband, actor and director Clark Gregg, then underwent surgery again last November – a month after winning the show - to repair a ruptured disc in her back.

She paid tribute to her Dirty Dancing co-star Swayze, who died after battling pancreatic cancer, in September 2009 – admitting he had taught her to take more risks.

Speaking about Strictly, Miss Grey said: ‘I am delighted to be involved. I so look forward to making the pilgrimage to the birthplace of the greatest dance show, the mecca of spray tans and tangos, and to sit in for the great and pernickety Len Goodman.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2057878/Strictly-s-Russell-Grant-Jennifer-Grey-having-time-life.html#ixzz1coiGIQvY