Martial artist Mark Dacascos of Iron Chef fame is going to be part of the cast alongside former House Republican Majority Leader and politician Tom “The Hammer” Delay. Mark is chairman of the hit tv show “Iron Chef” and starred in “Crying Freeman” along with his wife Mrs. Julie Condra. Tom Delay on the other hand, was a politician in the republican party who had to step down due to some dicy legal issues. A short while ago, Dacascos has told his people that he will jump into the tv show, alongside with other famous people such as Donny Osmond, Aaron Carter, Kelly Osbourne, Michael Irvin, and Natalie Coughlin.

Born and raised in Hawaii, Dacascos was a fighter of martial arts throughout his early days and soon created fame and glory himself playing roles of the kung fu hero, similiar to David Caradine or The Karate Kid. His profile on IMDB shows that he has been featured, casted, and voice acted for several movies, tv shows, and video games. 4 years ago, he earned the job of chairman of Iron Chef, a culinary (cooking) competitive show that was originally created for Japanese audiences, adopted for American television. As is custom in every introduction, he is “the nephew” of the Japanese chairman, Takeshi Kaga. While Mr. Mark Dacascos “Iron Chef” knows how to cook, fry, cut, chop, and fly his way in and around the cooking room, he has yet to prove to the world that he can dance in a fashionable way, and of course how this relates to Tom Delay, well, we’ll just have to tune into Dancing With The Stars this fall, won’t we?

So one of my guilty pleasures each year is Dancing with the Stars and Dancing with the Stars 2009 promises to be as entertaining as ever with a cast that includes none other than hunky martial artist Mark Dacascos among others!

There were some rumors that Paula Abdul of American Idol, would be a contestant this year, but apparently, that was just a rumor and Ms. Abdul denies that she will be participating. At least not on Dancing with the Stars 2009.

So who’s going to be hoofing it for the big prize this year? Well, besides Mark Dacascos, the roster includes some very famous and some not so famous names, as usual.

First of all we have Kelly Osbourne, daughter or rocker and mumble-mouth Ozzy Osbourne and Sharon Osbourne who has cleaned up her act and become quite the star on the hit TV series “America’s Got Talent”. I have to hand it to Sharon Osbourne, she cleans up really well. Kelly, who will be trying her hand . . . er feet . . . on Dancing with the Stars 2009 was once an ugly duckling but is now maturing into herself with the help of a virtual army of stylists, fashion consultants and image consultants. Kelly recently tried her hand at theater, starring as Mama Morton in a recent production of Chicago.

Next on the roster is lovely songbird Mya, who actually has quite a bit of dance training and might be considered a ringer. Another singer on kicking up her heels on the show is Macy Gray who sounds kind of like a female Rod Stewart to my ears. The singer heavy roster also includes Donny Osmond of Donny and Marie fame. You will recall that Marie tapped her tootsies on the show a while back but was not successful in getting the big prize. Maybe brother Donny will have better luck.

Debi Mazar, who is currently starring on the HBO hit Entourage (I LOVE that show!) will be giving her dance skills a shot on the show this year as well. I’ve had such a crush on Debi Mazar for years now. She has those stunning eyes that just make my heart melt when she gazes into the screen.

Also among the Dancing with the Stars 2009 cast-mates are Melissa Joan Hart who once starred on “Teen Witch”, Ashley Hamilton (son of the ever-tan George Hamilton, also a former Dancing with the Stars loser), the stunningly beautiful Joanna Krupa who started out as a model and has recently turned her talents towards acting, former Texas Congressman Tom Delay and Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin who is quite the cutie I must say.

Rounding out the cast this season are Football hall of famer Mike Irvin who played with the Dallas Cowboys, Ultimate fighter ex-champ Chuck Liddell, Aaron Carter who’s brother Nick Carter was a Backstreet Boy, Supermodel turned Super Milf Kathy Ireland and last but not least, Mark Dacascos who started out as an actor and Martial Artist and is now the chairman of “Iron Chef America” of all things.

So who’s going to take it all this year? Well, I have to put my money on Mya who actually started out as a professional dancer. Mark Dacascos, who’s learned some fancy footwork kicking butt in kung-fu flicks, could have an advantage as well.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Personally, I can’t wait!