Hot on the heels of the terrifying incident in which she was mugged and her engagement ring stolen, Strictly Come Dancing star Rachel Stevens has had another frightening brush with crime.

Last night, Rachel and her family were enjoying a meal at the Harry Morgan restaurant in St John’s Wood, London, when a masked gunman apparently burst in and “fired a volley of shots” according to today’s Sun.

The paper says that Rachel’s party and other diners – including the BBC’s chief economic correspondent Hugh Pym and his family – threw themselves to the floor as the gunman fired at a man he’d chased into the restaurant.

The man was apparently later taken to hospital with gunshot wounds to his leg and another man was treated for wounds caused by broken glass. The gunman escaped and was being sought by police last night.

Rachel’s spokeswoman told the paper, “Rachel and her family were dining when the shooting happened. It was very frightening.”

Hugh Pym also said, “I immediately went to ground and pulled my 15-year-old son under the table. Everyone was shouting, ‘Stay down, stay down.’

“People were pretty shaken up and were wailing in shock.”

An eye-witness added, “We saw two men running in. We heard a volley of shots, followed by screaming.”

Rachel and her fiancé Alex Bourne are due to be married in France in August but I think if I was her, I’d be staying in from now until the big day!

Dancing With The Stars is America’s answer to Strictly Come Dancing. In fact so similar is the show that they have the same theme music, two of the same judges and even an identical glitter ball!

This year some of their contestants seem familiar to me too, Steve Wozniak in particular stands out as the new American John Sergeant.

On last years Strictly John won the hearts of viewers with his crap dancing and funny ways, in the end he dropped out of the competition for fear that he might actually win. From the moment Apple founder Steve Wozniak stepped onto the dance floor, resplendent in his pink feather boa, it was clear that he intended to play the Sergeant card. Instead of stomping like John, Steve minced about the floor but his skill level was about the same. He made funny gestures, pulled strange faces and minced about the floor for almost two minutes.

It’s not yet clear how long these antics will work for Steve, after all Todd Carty on Dancing On Ice tried the same but ultimately failed. However I suspect that the whole Sergeant debacle has now set a precedent, maybe next year we will see John Candy hamming it up on the dance floor in a bid to reignite his career.

The Strictly Come Dancing tour kicks off this month and we have the pictures to prove it.

Rachel Stevens looks as stunning as ever…..Bitch

Strictly Come Dancing runner up has revealed that she was upset by press claims that she had said Tom Chambers shouldn’t have won the show.

In an interview with Take 5 magazine, she insisted: “That really upset me – I didn’t say he shouldn’t have won. We’re all friends and spent four months together. Yes, it was a competition but we didn’t go over the top with it.”

Although Snowdon’s performances with professional partner, Brendan Cole achieved high scores from the judges, the pair found themselves in the bottom two more than a few times.

Asked how she coped with the lack of public support, she explained: “I did feel a bit vulnerable. Obviously I knew that’s the way the show works, and that some people might not know who I was. I don’t have an existing fanbase like some of the others. But it did test me.”

Strictly Come Dancing bosses are spending thousands of pounds cleaning up their stars fake tan in hotels all over the country.

The dancing stars have went on a UK wide tour and as each celebrity smothers themselves in fake tan, the production team are paying a small fortune for specialist cleaning crews to remove the orange stains.

An insider told The Mirror: “The competitors have to look their best throughout the 45-date tour and that means loads of fake tan.

“The makeup department spray it on liberally and on a daily basis, but unfortunately it has a tendency to run at night.”

The source added that some participants wear more tan than others, with Julian Clary said to be a “lively shade of orange”.

Blonde bombshell, Camilla Dallerup has announced that she is leaving BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing. Camilla had hinted towards her decision earlier in the week, but today confirmed that 2008 was her last series.

Camilla and her celebrity partner, Tom Chambers, won the show last month and although she has been with the show since its launch in 2004 Camilla feels that this is the right time to go.

“I think some people will be surprised at my decision but I feel now is the right time to go,” Dallerup told the News Of The World. “I have to follow my dreams.”

“I need to give other things a go before I settle down and have a family,” she continued. “Winning the show was just the icing on the cake. I’ve always been told to leave a party when you’re having a good time.”

Dallerup also called for a change in the show’s set up and thinks that the role of the judges and the voting system should be completely revamped.

“I think they should just act as guides to the public, who then have complete control over who goes through to the next round. The British public spend their money and want to know their call makes a difference.”

She added: “Strictly’s an entertainment show, not a professional competition. The public love people who can’t dance as well as the other contestants but are great entertainers.”

Jodie Kidd has said that she is so glad to have taken part in Strictly Come Dancing this year as people got to see the real her.

Jodie was the tenth contestant to be voted off the show and says that people thought she was a bitch before she entered the show.

“Strictly was fabulous,” she told Red. “I loved every minute of it. It was a wonderful experience to learn a new skill and I’ve made some great friends.

“I’ve presented a few shows, like The Red Bull Air Race for Channel 4 and Jodie Kidd’s Fashion Avenue in America, but, this time lots of people have said, ‘We didn’t know she was like that’.

“Perhaps everyone thought, ‘Model…She’s going to be a bitch’. And now it’s, ‘Oh, she’s not that bad, actually’.”

Poor old Brucie! Grandad Forsyth has revealed that he was very hurt by all the criticism of his performance on this years Strictly Come Dancing series, and its almost like hearing someone giving your favourite grandpa a hard time.

“When you’re 80 you don’t have many plans for the future. So we’ll have to see what happens,” he told the Daily Star Sunday.

“This series has been particularly hard, especially with all the criticism I’ve had to face. If I make a mistake I’m labelled as being doddery and not up to it.

“I had to pace myself. I had to rest a lot and made sure I lay in bed a long time. It was the only way I got through it. I spoke to my doctor as I got quite ill towards the end and he reckoned the reason I was still able to carry on was all to do with my adrenalin.”

Personally I think the BBC should leave Bruce where he is and get rid of the hugely annoying and strange eyed Tess Daly. That one really has a face for radio!

Strictly Come Dancing bosses have refused to follow in the footsteps of ITV and release the voting figures from the recent series.

ITV have revealed that during the recent series of X Factor, Eoghan Quigg won six out of ten shows and on I’m A Celebrity David Van Day at some points was receiving double the votes of the eventual winner, Joe Swash. However BBC have refused to release their voting figures saying that it wouldn’t be fair to the celebrities who took part.

An insider told The Sun:

“It’s strange ITV feel they can release their figures, but the BBC are refusing.

“So much for this new honesty and being above board that we are all supposed to be embracing. This will feel like a huge cover-up, even if there isn’t anything fishy.

“The BBC seem to be unwilling, or incapable, or putting the fans’ needs ahead of the celebrities.

“Strictly bosses are going to have to have a serious shake-up before the show returns.”

Filming was stalled on this weeks Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special after the judges scoring of the couples led to a four way tie.

The situation meant the bottom two couples could not win after a vote from the studio audience.

A BBC statement released today said:

“During the course of pre-recording the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special there was a four way tie at the top of the leader board after the judges had voted.

“In these circumstances Len Goodman, as head judge, ranks the tying couples and that is what happened on this occasion.

“In order to allow for this contingency the show was stopped to give Len an opportunity to reach a considered decision and for producers to brief the presenters and dancers on the changed running order.”

Celebrities performing on the show will be, Jill Halfpenny and Darren Bennett performing an American Smooth to Favourite Things; Kelly Brook and Brian Fortuna jiving to Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree; and Alesha Dixon and Matthew Cutler performing the Viennese Waltz to White Christmas.

This year’s winners Tom Chambers and Camilla Dallerup do a Foxtrot to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer; Lisa Snowdon and Brendan Cole perform the Quickstep to Sleigh Ride; and Rachel Stevens and Vincent Simone Rumba to 2 Become 1.