At first glance, “Dancing With the Stars,” with its notoriously skimpy, spray-tan revealing costumes – might seem like a strange choice for ESPN commentator Erin Andrews.

Andrews, who was on the list of new cast members announced Monday night, saw her name all over the tabloids and the Web last summer, when she was the unknowing victim of a video camera hidden in her hotel room.

The “peephole video,” as it became known, was posted on the Internet, where anyone with a dial-up connection could see the unsuspecting Andrews in her room in various states of undress.

While insurance executive Michael Barrett, 48, was apprehended and in December pleaded guilty to interstate stalking in the case, reverberations from the incident will likely haunt Andrews for a long time.

Several media outlets, for instance, chose to publish stills from the footage. Now months later, if you type “Erin Andrews” into Google, “peephole video” is still the first related search to come up.

Andrews later went on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to talk about the incident, calling it a “nightmare” and saying she was freaked out by the hordes of reporters camped outside her home after news of the video broke. “I did nothing wrong, and I’m being treated like . . . Britney Spears,” she said in a 911 call at the time.

It was clear to anyone who watched the sit-down with Oprah that Andrews did not consider that a good thing.

Now, some might say, she is choosing to put herself only a degree or two removed from Spears by participating in a splashy reality TV show that has nothing to do with her abilities as a commentator and sports journalist.

And for anyone who has seen “Dancing With the Stars,” the costumes in which female contestants regularly appear could, one might think, give a recent stalking victim pause about the light in which she’ll be shown when she’s in the spotlight.

But Andrews was actually set on appearing on “Dancing With the Stars” well before there was any peephole video.

She told The Sporting News last May that while she said no to certain types of appearances that she felt would detract from her reputation as a journalist, she would jump at the chance to be on “DWTS.”

“I want to do it, because I think I’d be good at it,” she told Dan Steinberg for The Sporting Blog. “That’s the big push,” she continued. “I would love it love it love it. I want to be like, ‘Who do I call? Let’s do this.’ ”

In fact, at the time of that interview, she was covering the Scripps National Spelling Bee, where she met “Dancing With the Stars” host Tom Bergeron, according to The Sporting Blog. That may have planted the seed for her upcoming stint on the show.

The Sporting Blog interview went on to mention several other reasons why Andrews’ appearance on the show is a no-brainer.

1. She was a Dazzlers dance team member during her college years at the University of Florida.

2. Her sister, Kendra, is a professional dancer who appeared in a Chad Dennis video and has a major role in “Step Up 3-D,” a dance movie due out this August.

3. And despite her comment on Oprah, she is actually a huge Britney Spears fan. They’ve even shared a stylist, Paige Geran, who has dressed Britney, and Andrews named Ms. Spears, along with Justin Timberlake, as her favorite warm-up music before her appearances on ESPN.

It won’t be the first time Andrews has shown herself in a manner that some might find inappropriate for a serious journalist. Before the peephole incident, she posed for GQ.

And why not? Andrews – or any woman in the public eye – risks attracting stalkers and inciting strong opinions about how she presents herself no matter how she dresses or what choices she makes.

She might as well do what makes her happy – which is clearly “Dancing With the Stars.” link

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