Former Honorary Mayor Steve Guttenberg Bound for “Stars”

So why were celebrities Priscilla Presley, Kristi Yamaguchi, Penn Jillette, Shannon Elizabeth, Marlee Matlin and Mario all spotted in Pacific Palisades over the weekend? Well, perhaps because actor Steve Guttenberg threw a shindig at his Palisades Highlands estate. Raison de fete? Guttenberg and said personalities will compete against each other as contestants on the new season of the contest show ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ The sixth season premieres Monday, March 17 at 8 p.m. on ABC. Our former honorary mayor, Guttenberg, will be paired with a ‘Dancing’ veteran, the lissome choreographer Anna Trebunskay. ‘She’s a world-class dancer,’ Guttenberg, 49, told the Palisadian-Post. ‘She appeared in past seasons dancing with Jerry Rice and Albert Reed and they were both really terrific.’ Before donning his dance shoes, Guttenberg sought advice from some previous ‘Dancing’ contestants he counts among his friends. ‘Tia Carrera and Vivica Fox,’ he said. ‘Vivica told me, ‘It’s a great show, have a lot of fun with it because it’s over before you know it.” But what about the judges ‘ Bruno Tonioli, Carrie Ann Inaba and Len Goodman? Won’t they spook ‘The Gute’? ‘They don’t intimidate me,’ Guttenberg said. ‘Intimidation is being in Iraq on the other side of the rifle. But this is a game show. It’s a lot of fun. It’s an uplifting, positive, life-affirming show, and the judges want you to do well.’ Surprisingly, the star of such ’80s blockbuster comedies as ‘Three Men and a Baby,’ ‘Short Circuit,’ the four ‘Police Academy’ flicks, and the classic ‘Diner’ said that he never had to pull a Travolta and bust moves on screen. ‘This is my first time dancing,’ Guttenberg confesses, though he has come dangerously close to shaking his groove thing on celluloid. Technically, one can not call it ‘dancing,’ the head-bobbing and fist-pumping he does in the 1980 Village People vehicle ‘Can’t Stop The Music’ (which Guttenberg either forgot about or would like to forget). In ‘Don’t Tell Her It’s Me,’ Jami Gertz attempts to give dance lessons to Guttenberg’s obese, cancer-survivor cartoonist, but fails miserably. (He engages her in a slow dance free of actual choreography–total cop out!). Also recall that the comic actor was nowhere to be found in that scene from ‘Cocoon: The Return,’ where the alien life force-empowered senior citizens breakdance. Some might argue that Guttenberg did some dancing in his first film, “The Chicken Chronicles.” “Chicken” or no “Chicken,” Guttenberg believes now is the time to strut his stuff on national TV. ‘They’ve been asking me for a few seasons and I never had the time,’ he said. ‘But this year’s my parents’ 50th anniversary and they love the show.’ ‘I’m thrilled about going on ‘Dancing’,’ said Guttenberg, who just wrapped ‘Major Movie Star’ with Jessica Simpson. ‘We’re in a very tough economy, we’re at war, we’ve got a very tough presidential race going on. It’s a great time for the country to have this show.’