Gilles Marini Wows On 'Dancing With The Stars: All Stars'; Palin, Alley, Anderson Flounder

Gilles Marini, 36, the French-American actor best known for playing Luc Laurent in Brothers & Sisters and Dante in Sex and the City: The Movie, lit up the stage on the season premiere of Dancing with the Stars: All Stars on Monday night, when he paired up with last season's winner with Donald Driver, Peta Murgatroyd, switching from his eighth season partner of Cheryl Burke.

DWTS judge Carrie Ann Inaba, 44, was especially wowed by Marini. "I missed you," she told him. "That was just poetic and gorgeous," she said of the old-school foxtrot that Marini and Murgatroyd performed.

The new returning cast members for the All-Stars include Winter Olympic short-track speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, who's dancing with Karina Smirnoff; Bristol Palin who is teamed up with Mark Ballas; Drew Lachey and Anna Trebunskaya; Emmitt Smith and Cheryl Burke; Helio Castroneves and Chelsie Hightower; Joey Fatone with Kym Johnson; Kelly Monaco and Valentin Chmerkovskiy, Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani, Pamela Anderson with Tristan MacManus, Shawn Johnson with Derek Hough and, of course, Kirstie Alley with Maks and Marini with Murgatroyd.

While the highest score of the night, 24.5, went to Smith and Burke for DWTS, Marini was a clear standout, with his "poetic" and "sophisticated" foxtrot, ending up with an even 24. Most contestants hovered somewhere around 21 and 22. Palin didn't surprise with her 19.5 low score, but Alley came up shorter than expected with a 19. Anderson and MacManus hit the lowest score of the evening, however, with 17. Not to be outdone, however, Alley planted a kiss right on the lips of host Tom Bergeron.

Catch Dancing with the Stars Monday and Tuesday nights on ABC at 8 p.m. EST.

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