‘Dancing with the Stars’ eliminated contestant: ‘People got to know me’

Maksim Chmerkovskiy, you got served!

No, the hot-headed Ukrainian American wasn’t booted off Dancing with the Stars after generating headlines for his row with Judge Len Goodman and his behavior toward his partner. But he was royally teased on national TV Tuesday by the latest contestant to leave the show – and boy did the moment generate a lot of laughs.

When Tom Bergeron announced that David Arquette would have to leave the DWTS floor for good, the actor quoted Chmerkovskiy’s now-infamous line “this is my show” when accepting his fate. The pro first uttered the line on Oct. 24 after he and Goodman argued about the judge’s harsh remarks.

“I thought about it right before I came out,” Arquette told reporters after the show. Added partner Kym Johnson,  ”We were saying to each other right before, ‘oh what if we go? What are we going to say?’ We were kind of preparing ourselves for leaving so it wasn’t such a shock.”

Well, it worked. Arquette kept a smile on his face while Nancy Grace appeared doubly shocked that she remained under the mirror ball, despite earning the lowest score on Monday. (She received a 21 for her so-so jive while Arquette nabbed a 24 for his more than decent cha cha). But Arquette seemed at peace with the vote. For one, Chmerkovskiy wasn’t annoyed by his joke! “Maks was very cool. He was like, you did a great job, you should be very proud … I’ve learned a lot, I’ve had a great experience and it’s brought a lot of joy into my life. I got to entertain a lot of people and people got to know me. That’s what I came here to do.”

Along the way, Arquette also learned a few things about himself. “A lot about grace and flow and standing upright, and having personal pride. There was a moment this week, actually, where everything went wrong in camera blocking and I was beating myself up so bad, tearing myself up. It was terrible. I had to confront myself and say, ‘what are you doing? Why do you do this to yourself?’ That’s a behavior that you have to recognize. For all I know that’s why I did this whole experience, to come to terms with that. That’s the self abusive part of my personality. The negative aspects. So to come to terms with that has been a gift.”

So is he ready to share that gift with others? He can’t see ex Courteney Cox doing the show because he thinks it would “be too much” for the already busy actress. (Hi? She stars in ABC’s critical fave Cougar Town). As for rumors that his buddy Paul Reubens may be open to a spot on the dance floor next season, Arquette wasn’t aware of any attempt by the show to get him ”but if anybody ever asks me I would totally encourage them to do it. It’s a lot, a really hard challenging thing, but you learn a lot and it’s been a really positive experience.”

Next for Arquette? He’d love to do Broadway. “When you have time to actually rehearse something for more than four
days, you can really nail things and you can have more confidence.” Until then, he’s content to take his daughter Coco to school — something she’s apparently missed since Arquette’s been tied up in the rehearsal hall.

There is one other thing Arquette wouldn’t mind trying now that’s leaving the show: “Now what I really have to time to do is to go occupy Wall Street.”