Newsgasm: Sara Evans sex scandal deepens

We’re definitely looking forward to tonight’s episode of Dancing with The Stars, not to watch Mario Lopez foxtrot, but to watch the interview with country singer Sara Evans, who dropped out of the competition on the same day she filed a curiously sexually explicit divorce papers, and promises to explain a thing or two.

Meanwhile, the wild story keeps getting curiously juicier. Sara got a restraining order Monday, preventing her estranged husband, Craig Schelske, from withdrawing money from the couple’s joint bank account. Sara alleges that Craig transferred $274,000 from their joint holdings into an account in his name–on the day she filed for divorce!

What’s wilder is that some of the richest dirt on the case comes not from an infotainment show– but today’s New York Times.The paper of record gets its liberal laughs and uses the unlikely scandal for its own ends, referring to Craig not as a layabout deadbeat adulterous sex pervert, but a “Republican fundraiser.” The paper gets a real kick out of the fact that disgraced former Congressman Tom DeLay was a Sara Evans fan, and tried to influence the Dance vote with a mass e-mail message, urging supporters to watch the show and vote for Sara, whom he called “a good friend of mine, country music singer and G.O.P. supporter” who “represents good American values in the media”– as opposed to fellow Dance competitor, “ultra-liberal talk show host Jerry Springer.”

“We need to send a message to Hollywood and the media,” DeLay wrote, ” that smut has no place on television by supporting good people like Sara Evans.”

The Times also scores some good investigative points in this sordid country music affair, reporting that Sara, Craig and their three kids were living and living it up in Beverly Hills while Sara was competing on the ABC show and when things blew up (we’ve already heard that Craig called a Dancing stylist a “sodomite,” and according to Sara, he should know…) And though Sara’s divorce filing states that Craig is unemployed and that she was the sole breadwinner in the family (and that he kept a “Craig’s List’ of potential sex partners and acts), the Times notes that the failed congressional candidate is listed online as the chairman of CraigPAC, a political action committee dedicated to electing Republicans in state and national races. In this case at least, “CraigPac” has nothing to do with Craig’s “package,” but stands for Conservative Reform Agenda in Government.

So the Dancing Final Six is now the Final Five. ABC says it won’t comment on how Sara’s withdrawal and subsequent publicity fest screwed up the voting until after tonight’s competition and Wednesday’s results show.

But more important, speaking of Dancing contestants, when did Joey Lawrence turn into Robert Schimmel?

–Tabloid Baby