Dirty dancing is Strictly part of the plan

THE definition of the word curse is: ‘The expression of a wish that misfortune, evil, doom, etc, befall a person or group’.

So after the recent revelations surrounding alleged love rat Seann Walsh on Strictly Come Dancing, it got me wondering; is there really a Strictly curse?

For a start, a curse is something rare. I mean there is only one football team in the country currently afflicted by one and to be fair, the Mayo team deserved every bit of it for failing to pay their respects to a funeral in Foxford.

The act of hooking up with your partner on Strictly seems to happen quicker than the ridiculous queue of people looking for donuts at Krispy Kreme in Blanchardstown.

Think of all the celebrities that have hooked up with their dance partners. Natasha Kaplinsky and Brendan Cole; Ben Cohen and Kristina Rihanoff (she also had a brief dalliance with Joe Calzaghe); Rachel Riley and Pasha Kovalev; and Georgia May Foote and Giovanni Pernice. And to be fair those are just the ones we know about.

But can we really call it a curse any more? I mean you are thrusting fit, fabulous and famous people together, encasing them in a media bubble and getting them to dance sensually on live television. I’m just amazed that the green room at the BBC isn’t more like the Playboy Mansion in summer.

LET’S be frank and honest, if you are part of a couple and your other half is taking part in the show, you should be worried. You can have the chat and promise that it is only dancing, but in the end you both have to know that you are taking a serious risk.

You have to weigh the chance of infidelity against the financial bounce that this will have for your career. Because, let’s face it, nobody at the top of their game is signing up to this show.

Much like I’m A Celeb, the contestants on Strictly are hoping to reignite their careers and maybe make a few quid, or land a spot in a Broadway musical (or panto if you are in Ireland).

On Wednesday this week Seann Walsh said he ‘deeply’ regrets his kiss with Strictly partner Katya Jones, but insisted he’s not the person he is being portrayed as.

Comedian Walsh and professional dancer Jones have been at the centre of controversy after pictures of them emerged locking lips on a night out, despite both being in relationships.

The pair apologised in separate statements on social media and on Wednesday appeared together on Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two to address the scrutiny. Walsh, 32, said: ‘I think that, obviously I’m sorry for the hurt that I’ve caused. We were getting on well, we were having fun.

‘We had a couple of drinks and made a huge mistake and I regret it deeply.’

Earlier this week the stand-up comic was publicly dumped by his long-term partner Rebecca Humphries, who added in a withering statement that he had called her ‘psycho/nuts/mental’ when she suspected something was going on earlier.

Personally the pictures of the pair in flagrante were nowhere near as damaging to the sometimes funny comedian as Humphries’ statement. Her simple social media post took all the power away from the dirty dancers and gave her all the prime real estate of the moral high ground.

But if the truth be told, I do have a small ounce of sympathy for Walsh. Because getting caught cheating on Strictly is now as common and passé as cat selfies on Instagram. Hot, fit people, gyrating in skimpy gear, tend to end up in the scratcher together. It is like taking the laws of attraction and supercharging them. This is not just a BBC phenomenon — it’s happened on the Irish version, Dancing With The Stars too. In series one, although not partners, Thalia Heffernan fell for dancer Ryan McShane much to the shock of the public (and the joy of the production team).

And recently, we discovered that after that series two winner Jake Carter was in a committed relationship with his former dance partner Karen Byrne.

I am just surprised that more have not fallen off the love wagon. When you see the couples together backstage they are hanging off one another. Dripping in fake tan and oiled up under the heat of the studio lights they are constantly bumping and gyrating against one another and applauded by a baying audience for doing it.

So I don’t think we can call it the Strictly curse any longer. It is a side effect; a by-product of a TV social experiment if you will.

I am told that RTE is currently casting for series three, and so far they only have two people signed up to start rehearsing next month.

Yes it is a show filled with opportunity and guaranteed to get you magazine covers and potential Late Late Show appearances. But those thinking of taking part who are in relationships had better be 100 per cent committed. Because any cracks become cavernous and before long you will be on the front cover of the Mail apologising for making a big mistake.

You have been warned...