About (Late) Last Night: Jennifer Grey celebrates ‘Dancing With the Stars’ win with Jimmy Kimmel

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‘Dancing With the Stars’ winner Jennifer Grey joined Jimmy Kimmel via video -- live from Hollywood -- after defeating actor Kyle Massey, who placed second, and tabloid darling Bristol Palin on Tuesday night’s finale. No one can accuse ABC of not pushing cross-promotion hard enough.

‘I’ve never seen the movie ‘Dirty Dancing,’ and yet I had total confidence in you,’ Kimmel said. Grey is no stranger to the stage, though her famous footwork film was released in 1987. Still, Kimmel said he had money on her to win since day one.

‘Congratulations, number one for winning ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ number two for not getting shot by Sarah Palin,’ Kimmel said. ‘You must be happy about both.’ No one mentioned Bristol, just her mother. ‘So happy about both,’ Grey said. ‘Equally.’

Grey’s partner, three-time ‘Stars’ winner Derek Hough was commended by Kimmel, who relayed William Shatner’s kind words, calling Hough a mix between Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, a ‘national treasure.’ Much of America, or at least the cellphone-voting public, seemed to agree.

Kimmel, though, could not resist coming back to jokes about the Palins. The host told Grey that Sarah Palin tweeted, ‘I smell something fishy. Shame on you ABC.’ (She wrote no such thing.) ‘Fascinating,’ said Grey, laughing uncomfortably. ‘I actually made that up,’ Kimmel admitted, and Grey looked legitimately relieved.

And so it ends: Bristol with the bronze, Grey with the title and ABC as the real winner. Now, a toast to the deluge of ‘Nobody puts Baby in a corner’ jokes and Grey’s necessarily interminable patience. And of course to Sarah Palin, for actually being a pretty good sport.

-- Joe Coscarelli