I've been so under the weather this week I have been woefully behind on keeping you posted so I have some catching up to do today. First, some gossip from Dancing with the Stars. I talked this week with Kym Johnson, the pro who danced with Penn Jillette until they got booted in the second week of this season (they're both pictured at right). Here's some info I didn't know:

* Penn had some trouble with his feet because he has broken both of them at various times in his life and, for example, he had trouble getting onto the balls of his feet for certain steps.

* Kym and fellow pros Cheryl Burke and Edyta Sliwinska are best friends. They've toured the country together three times and face the same challenges.  She says there's no rivalry among the pros - they help each other with problems. "We're the only ones who know what they others are going through."

* The bond between contestants is genuine. She says Cristian de la Fuente and Jason Taylor can  be seen sitting together talking on those long show days; Shannon Elizabeth and Marissa Jaret Winokur share confidences in the makeup trailer.

Kym, like the rest of America, thinks Taylor and Kristi Yamaguchi are headed toward a final showdown, but she says Shannon Elizabeth could be the dark horse.  And Kym is now doing TV coverage of the show for the TV GUIDE channel so you can catch her there.

(photo by Michael Desmond/ABC)