"Dancing With the Stars" pro Chelsie Hightower and her celebrity partner, Disney Channel cutie Roshon Fegan, just managed to squeak through the past two weeks of eliminations — but the beautiful 22-year-old blonde dancer insists that's only fueling their passion to succeed.

"I think just being in that position does it to you in and of itself," she says. "You feel the emotions when you're not getting the scores from the judges you were hoping for — but that can propel you. It lights that fire even more. You want to come back and show them that you're supposed to be there."

Chelsie adds, "That's really my philosophy of life. If you have a setback or disappointment, come back even stronger, so they won't have the option of a negative response. I've always lived my life and my dancing that way. Use failures or bad things to propel you, then you turn them into something positive."

Along the way, Chelsie has had star partners ranging from Michael Bolton to "The Bachelor's" Jake Pavelka and Olympic snowboarding star Louie Vito. However, she tells us, "in terms of dance aptitude, Roshon is the best partner I've had. He focuses in on everything and retains it. And he keeps growing all the time. It's fantastic. He's great, he really is. He's so much fun — always positive, no ego, great work ethic. Fortunately, this show is about hard work. He really does come in with a great attitude every day."

Will it be enough? We'll know by May 22.

NEXT STEPS?: Speaking of "Dancing With the Stars," Melissa Gilbert, who has been expressing huge gratitude toward her large and loyal fan base for bringing her this far in the competition, would like to find another series home once she hangs up her dancing shoes. She envisions an ensemble series. "I'd be content to have younger people carry the show, and then I come in and sprinkle my fairy dust and leave," is how she put it. She could see working two or three days a week on a show, which would still give her time to be with her children and continue her burgeoning writing pursuits.

LET'S DO IT AGAIN: Protean Swedish-born actor Peter Stormare takes issue with comments that Guy Pearce is "trying to be Bruce Willis" in their current "Lockout" science fiction thriller from filmmaker Luc Besson. "He's not imitating Bruce Willis at all. He's a very cool guy. The character — he wanted to go this way with it, and with the director's blessing, he did. It was the right choice. 'Lockout' is like the hard-boiled detective novel," says Stormare. In fact, Stormare sees "Lockout" as having much more in common with classic Humphrey Bogart flicks than what he terms "crash, bang" sci fi actioners with little story and lots of explosions.

Stormare's long list of credits is wide-ranging enough to include the Cohen Bros., Steven Spielberg, Ingmar Bergman, Wim Wenders, numerous experimental films — and playing Slippery Peter on "Seinfeld." He's seen dramatic changes in recent years, and points out that while the digital revolution has made it simpler and cheaper to make movies, it has a downside:

"Because of circumstances before, when it was so darned expensive with film stock, people really had to figure out exactly what they were doing." Now, not as much. "Like, I had an experience with a director shooting 50 takes of the same scene. It was four pages long and had five actors. You do it. You do it differently. You run it, run it, and run it until you're running on empty." That's not really directing, in Stormare's view. It's putting things together. Or, as he puts it, "With that much to choose from, even a blind hen can find a golden egg."

Stormare has a string of films due for release next year, including the Jeremy Renner-Gemma Arterton "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters," Jennifer Love Hewitt's "Jewtopia" comedy and "Small Apartments," with Billy Crystal. Also ahead for him are Lionsgate's "Last Stand" Arnold Schwarzenegger flick and John Malkovich's "Siberian Education."

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.