Dancing with the Stars Recap: Performances ... - Tv Food and Drink

**STOP HERE IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THE SCORES FROM TONIGHT?S FINALS**

Finals Night on Dancing with the Stars has arrived. The three remaining celebrities and their professional partners will have three final dance opportunities (two tonight, one tomorrow) to impress the judges and win over your votes. The winner of Season 14 will be revealed tomorrow night LIVE!

William Levy and Cheryl Burke ? Dance #1 ? Cha Cha

Len: ?As good as I?ve ever seen in 14 seasons?
Bruno: ?An intoxicating Cuban cocktail!?
Carrie Ann: ?Clean, sharp, defined. You have grown miles!?

SCORE: 30/30

Katherine Jenkins and Mark Ballas ? Dance #1 ? Paso Doble

Bruno: ?Technical brilliance!?
Carrie Ann: ?It?s like watching a prima ballerina. Every movement perfectly executed.?
Len: ?Fabulous!?

SCORE: 30/30

Donald Driver and Peta Murgatroyd ? Dance #1 ? Argentine Tango

Carrie Ann: ?I loved it the first time and I loved it again!?
Len: ?As always the lifts were great. For me, it was a tad careful. I?d have liked you to have gone at it a little stronger.?
Bruno: ?You went for the subtle and intimate. I could read everything in the story, and it was very very effective.?

SCORE: 29/30

William Levy and Cheryl Burke ? Dance #2 ? Freestyle

Len: ?I liked it, but it was too predictable. All you do is shake your butt and get the women screaming!?
Bruno: ?You were like two devils unleashed upon the Earth! Sinful but ever so good?
Carrie Ann: ?That was just exactly what a freestyle should be!?

SCORE: 29/30

Katherine Jenkins and Mark Ballas ? Dance #2 ? Freestyle

Bruno: ?I have never seen so much content, so fast, so well-executed. You were on the money all the way ?
Carrie Ann: ?That was the dance of a champion. You are a champion?
Len: ?If I?m asleep and dreaming, don?t wake me up. That was a freestyle!?

SCORE: 30/30

Donald Driver and Peta Murgatroyd ? Dance #2 ? Freestyle

Carrie Ann: ?This is by far my favorite finals. And that is, by far, my favorite dance tonight!?
Len: ?Fantastic!?
Bruno: ?A country-inspired TRIUMPH!?

SCORE: 30/30

HIGH SCORE OF THE NIGHT: Katherine and Mark with 60/60

LOW SCORE OF THE NIGHT: William and Cheryl tied with Donald and Peta, each with 59/60

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Pippa Middleton Turns Heads in Raspberry Dress

Pippa Middleton, sister of Kate Middleton, looked stunning as always in her tight-fitting, raspberry-hued Issa silk dress at a friend's wedding over the weekend.

Her longtime friend Camilla Hook tied the knot with fiance Sam Holland in East Lothian, Scotland, according to the Daily Mail. It was a wonderful ceremony.

Not surprisingly, though, all media eyes were on Pip:

If this dress looks familiar ... it is! Kate Middleton's engagement dress, which flew off the shelves in late 2010 and early 2011, is the same thing, just in blue.

There are worse people to take couture cues from.

In any case, Pippa has rebounded nicely from her recent gun scandal and is back to doing what she does best ... looking lovely at high-society gatherings.

Check out our full gallery of Pippa Middleton pics!

[Photo: WENN.com]

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Thinking Jew Girl: Q&A: Commitment's a Problem

Dear Tania,
I liked your good answer to I wish I knew, and hope you can provide me with one as well.
I have been dating this really good guy for almost two years. Our two year anniversary will be this July, to be exact. He is smart, nice, witty, funny, handsome, has a good job, sincerely frum, and he essentially fits all my criteria except for one. He has not proposed yet. I don't know what is taking him so long to pop the question. My friends tell me he has commitment issues, but that judgement does not help me.?
I am sick and tired of this relationship dragging on for so long, but i dont want to break up either.
Sincerely,
Sick-'n-tired-of-it-all

Dear Sick-'n-tired-of-it-all,

Congratulations on your upcoming anniversary! Spending two years in a relationship is an accomplishment. That being said, I am afraid you are stuck in a bit of an unhealthy situation.

You say this young man fits all of your criteria except for the fact that he cannot commit to marrying you. That's a problem. It is similar to viewing a gorgeous painting which simply does not belong to you. ?

Long term relationships are perfectly fine as long as both parties involved are happy with the arrangements. My experience has shown that those situations are limited to cases where couples cannot settle down for practical reasons: long distance, schooling, financial, and parental support.?

You say he is an amazing person with phenomenal qualities, but the very fact that he is keeping you in a relationship without offering commitment on his part indicates a lack of sensitivity on his part.?

I have seen people get engaged after extended periods of dating, times where I was sure the couple would never take a step forward as was the case with the boy who couldn't commit, times where I encouraged the girlfriend to end things if he didn't propose. She stuck with him and eventually he did propose. There is hope, but what kind of behavioral pattern does this kind of non-committal attitude indicate? For the rest of your life, you will have an idea and for him to come around to it would take a good couple of years. Is that what you want your marriage to look like?

In every relationship I have lived through, the couple reaches a point where they decide if they will be taking the next step in the courtship. If they don't decide to move forward in a reasonable amount of time, then there is no stagnation, keeping the relationship alive becomes near impossible. "When you aren't moving forwards, you are moving backwards."?

I remember going out with someone for a couple of months, we had a couple of discussions about marriage and the like. We decided on an engagement date, and then, a week later, he realized that marriage lasts longer than five minutes, and he told me that he never realized what he was saying when he asked me to marry him, he wanted to date me "and see where things go." He wanted to keep on dating me and think about it.?

I told him to think all he wants, but without me please. That was the end of that one.

Had he wanted to think before we discussed marriage, that would have been normal. But in relationships, once you go forward, you can't really go back.?

For every couple that "next step" point can be at different stages of dating. It can be from three to five dates where you decide "whether you are dating or not", then from two months to a year when you decide if you will be spending the rest of your lives together. I truly believe that a year is enough time to know if you could marry the person or not. According to millionaire matchmaker Patti Stanger, if a guy doesn't propose to a girl after a year of dating, he must release her back into the sea so that she can find another fish.

I really cannot offer you practical advice since I do not know you personally and the details of your relationship. However, I do wish you the strength required to be honest with yourself in assessing whether this relationship is one worth clinging to.?

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Spain's 'indignants' have huge support: poll

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Chinese activist renews call to fight injustice

Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng arrives at Washington Square Village on the campus of New York University, Saturday, May 19, 2012, in New York. Chen escaped from his village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy after seven years of prison and house arrest. He is planning to study law at NYU. But before that, he says he is planning to spend time recuperating. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng arrives at Washington Square Village on the campus of New York University, Saturday, May 19, 2012, in New York. Chen escaped from his village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy after seven years of prison and house arrest. He is planning to study law at NYU. But before that, he says he is planning to spend time recuperating. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng arrives at Washington Square Village on the campus of New York University, Saturday, May 19, 2012, in New York. Chen escaped from his village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy after seven years of prison and house arrest. He is planning to study law at NYU. But before that, he says he is planning to spend time recuperating. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng arrives at Washington Square Village on the campus of New York University, Saturday, May 19, 2012, in New York. Chen escaped from his village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy after seven years of prison and house arrest. He is planning to study law at NYU. But before that, he says he is planning to spend time recuperating. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng, center, arrives at Washington Square Village on the campus of New York University, Saturday, May 19, 2012 in New York. Chen escaped from his village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy after seven years of prison and house arrest. He is planning to study law at NYU. But before that, he says he is planning to spend time recuperating. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng, center, arrives at Washington Square Village on the campus of New York University, Saturday, May 19, 2012 in New York. Chen escaped from his village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy after seven years of prison and house arrest. He is planning to study law at NYU. But before that, he says he is planning to spend time recuperating. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A blind Chinese legal activist who escaped house arrest, endured a nearly monthlong diplomatic tussle and a hurried daylong flight paused ever so briefly upon his arrival in New York City before taking up a familiar fight.

Taken from a hospital in his homeland and put on a plane for the U.S. after Chinese authorities suddenly told him Saturday to pack and prepare to leave, Chen Guangcheng embraced his new surroundings at New York University and renewed his call to fight injustice.

"I believe that no matter how difficult the environment nothing is impossible if you put your heart to it," he told a cheering crowd at NYU shortly after arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport on Saturday evening.

"We should link our arms to continue in the fight for the goodness in the world and to fight against injustice. So, I think that all people should apply themselves to this end to work for the common good worldwide."

Chen was suddenly allowed to leave China earlier in the day, ending a dispute that tested U.S.-China relations.

Dressed in a white shirt and khaki pants and using crutches, his right leg in a cast, Chen was greeted with cheers when he arrived at the apartment in Manhattan's Greenwich Village where he will live with his family. The complex houses faculty and graduate students of New York University, where Chen is expected to attend law school.

"For the past seven years, I have never had a day's rest," Chen said through a translator, "so I have come here for a bit of recuperation for body and in spirit."

Chen thanked the U.S. and Chinese governments, along with the embassies of Switzerland, Canada and France.

"After much turbulence, I have come out of Shandong," he said, referring to the Chinese province where he was under house arrest. The U.S. has granted him partial citizenship rights, he said.

Chen gave a short statement, which was greeted by cheers in Mandarin and English. He didn't take questions from reporters.

The departure of Chen, his wife and two children to the United States marked the conclusion of nearly a month of uncertainty and years of mistreatment by local authorities for the self-taught activist.

After seven years of prison and house arrest, Chen made a daring escape from his rural village in April and was given sanctuary inside the U.S. Embassy, triggering a diplomatic standoff over his fate. With Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Beijing for annual high-level discussions, officials struck a deal that let Chen walk free, only to see him have second thoughts. That forced new negotiations that led to an agreement to send him to the U.S. to study law, a goal of his, at New York University.

"Thousands of thoughts are surging to my mind," Chen said before he left China. His concerns, he said, included whether authorities would retaliate for his negotiated departure by punishing his relatives left behind. It also was unclear whether the government will allow him to return.

In New York, he said China had promised him protection of his rights as a citizen there.

"I am very gratified to see that the Chinese government has been dealing with the situation with restraint and calm, and I hope to see that they continue to open discourse and earn the respect and trust of the people."

Chen's expected attendance at New York University comes from his association with Jerome Cohen, a law professor there who advised Chen while he was in the U.S. Embassy. The two met when Chen came to the United States on a State Department program in 2003, and Cohen has been staunch advocate for him since.

Before leaving China, Chen asked his supporters and others in the activist community for their understanding of his desire to leave the front lines of the rights struggle in China.

"I am requesting a leave of absence, and I hope that they will understand," he said.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland praised the quiet negotiations that freed him.

"We also express our appreciation for the manner in which we were able to resolve this matter and to support Mr. Chen's desire to study in the U.S. and pursue his goals," Nuland said in a statement.

The White House also said it was pleased with the outcome of negotiations.

China's Foreign Ministry said it had no comment. The government's news agency, Xinhua, issued a brief report saying that Chen "has applied for study in the United States via normal channels in line with the law."

Chen's supporters welcomed his departure. "This is great progress," said U.S.-based rights activist Bob Fu. "It's a victory for freedom fighters."

The 40-year-old Chen is emblematic of a new breed of activists that the Communist Party finds threatening. Often from rural and working-class families, these "rights defenders," as they are called, are unlike the students and intellectuals from the elite academies and major cities of previous democracy movements and thus could potentially appeal to ordinary Chinese.

Chen gained recognition for crusading for the disabled and for farmers' rights and fighting against forced abortions in his rural community. That angered local officials, who seemed to wage a personal vendetta against him, convicting him in 2006 on what his supporters say were fabricated charges and then holding him for the past 20 months in illegal house arrest.

Even with the backstage negotiations, Chen's departure came hastily. Chen spent the last 2 1/2 weeks in a hospital for the foot he broke escaping house arrest. Only on Wednesday did Chinese authorities help him complete the paperwork needed for his passport.

Chen said by telephone Saturday that he was informed at the hospital just before noon to pack his bags to leave. Officials did not give him and his family passports or inform them of their flight details until after they got to the airport.

Seeming ambivalent, Chen said that he was "not happy" about leaving and that he had a lot on his mind, including worries about retaliation against his extended family back home. His nephew, Chen Kegui, is accused of attempted murder after he allegedly used a kitchen knife to attack officials who stormed his house after discovering Chen Guangcheng was missing.

"I hope that the government will fulfill the promises it made to me, all of its promises," Chen said. Such promises included launching an investigation into abuses against him and his family in Shandong province, he said before the phone call was cut off.

Much as Chen has said he wants return to China, it remains uncertain whether the Chinese government would bar him, as they have done with many exiled activists.

"Chen's departure for the U.S. does not and should not in any way mark a 'mission accomplished' moment for the U.S. government," said Phelim Kine, a senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The harder, longer-term part is ensuring his right under international law to return to China when he sees fit."

___

Associated Press Writers Didi Tang, Gillian Wong and Charles Hutzler in Beijing, Andrew Duffelmeyer in Newark, N.J., and Matthew Lee in Washington, and videojournalist Annie Ho in Beijing contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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U.S. test flight seen as "giant leap" for commercial space

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - An Obama administration plan to cut the cost of spaceflight services faces a key test on Saturday when a privately owned rocket lifts off for a practice run to the International Space Station.

If successful, Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, would become the first private company to reach the $100 billion outpost, which flies about 240 miles above Earth.

"It is, by all accounts, an important step, bordering on a giant leap, for commercial space," said Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut and space station commander who now heads the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a Washington-based industry association.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule are scheduled for launch at 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT) on Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

If everything goes as planned, it would reach the space station on Tuesday.

Since the space shuttles were retired last year, NASA is dependent on partners Europe, Japan and especially Russia to fly to the station.

Instead of building a shuttle replacement, the U.S. space agency is spending about $3 billion a year on a new rocket and capsule to send astronauts to the moon, asteroids and eventually to Mars.

To reach the station, NASA is investing in five U.S. firms - SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp for cargo transports; and SpaceX, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp, and Blue Origin, a startup owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, for passenger ships.

All the companies are contributing their own funds as well, a break from traditional U.S. government procurement practices. Rather than having their costs reimbursed, NASA's commercial partners are paid when they achieve predetermined milestones.

COMBINING TEST FLGHTS

SpaceX, for example, has received $381 million from NASA so far for work on its station cargo hauler. In December 2010, the company successfully launched, orbited and returned a test Dragon capsule.

For the upcoming second flight of Dragon, SpaceX will attempt to combine two test flights into one and berth the spacecraft at the space station.

If successful, SpaceX can collect another $15 million from NASA and start working off a separate $1.6 billion contract to haul cargo to and from the station.

"This is a big leap in terms of complexity from the last flight," said Lawrence Williams, a former SpaceX vice president who now runs a business consulting firm. "If we're able to have a successful launch and dock with the space station, it's hard to overemphasize the significance of it."

A successful flight would not only validate SpaceX's technology, but also NASA's lower cost, milestone-based alternative contracting arrangements, Lopez-Alegria said.

The Obama administration is pushing Congress to embrace the partnering arrangements for commercial space taxis as well.

Congress last year halved Obama's request for the so-called Commercial Crew program to $406 million. Proposed spending bills for the fiscal year beginning on October 1 cut the White House's $830 million request to no more than $525 million.

The House of Representatives version also directs NASA to change its competitive strategy and work with one industry partner, a prospect that industry experts say will doom the program.

"Historically, anytime that people try to save money by saying 'Well, we can only afford to have one,' you quickly find out that if you think you can't afford to buy two providers, wait 'til what happens when you have monopoly prices from one," said Jeff Greason, founder and chief executive of privately held XCOR Aerospace.

"It's way too early to put your money on one horse or another," Lopez-Alegria said.

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Vicki Allen)

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