As promised in last week's blog, Episode 5 was going to be big. The characters have witnessed their first murder, the body of one our victims, Reverend Fain, was discovered, and the possibility of Wakefield still being alive is beginning to resonate amongst some of the locals and wedding guests. The remaining episodes have a definite shift in both pace and tone, and as the killing spree becomes deadlier and gorier, our characters now find themselves in survival mode.

It is semi-final time and we're all working so hard on our dances in hopes that we make the finals. It's been a really long hard week and its only Friday! Gilles and I have been doing about seven hours a day in the studio and I think its going really well so far. We have the Salsa and the Waltz this week and I'm super excited about our music for these two dances.

I know what you're thinking. Being an assassin has to be the greatest job ever. Sit on set all day (in a chair with your name on it), eat anything and everything from the craft service table (that's always stocked), hang out in your own trailer (with heat)... all while watching other people lift heavy equipment in the snow and rain. Easy living, right? Not always.

We made it through another week. At this point any one of us could be the one's going home and of all the season's I've been on I think this is the season that's hardest to predict. It's nerve wracking to say the least!

Two days ago I was walking into Modern Video in Burbank to do some last minute fixes on Episodes 12 & 13. The friendly female receptionist at the front desk stopped me, and we proceeded to have the following conversation:

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Receptionist: I just want to tell you that I'm a big fan of your show. I'm hooked.
Me: Oh, great. Thank you. That's very sweet. Keep watching, these episodes only get better.
Receptionist: I loved last week's episode, chopping off the Reverend's head like that. Very cool.
Me: Thank you. (getting in self promotion mode) You know, I write a blog every week discussing how we kill off each character. Have you read it?
Receptionist: No.
Me: (hating self promotion) Oh.... well... you should.
Receptionist: I hope you guys don't kill off Hunter. He's my favorite character on the show. He's so hot. I've been following Victor Webster's career since he was on Mutant X. He's a big reason why I watch your show. I just love him. Please tell me he's in all 13 episodes. Please don't kill him off. I'd be so bummed.
Me: [awkward silence] So......let me tell you some more about my blog...

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So we're down to six couples left vying for the championship and this is the point where people either start to crack or start to rise to the top. We're doing two dances a week now and it is getting intense. So some of us took some time off last night to celebrate at the Hot Hollywood Party. It was a blast -- I stayed out way past my normal bedtime but it was well worth it. I got to meet Fergie for the first time ever and that made my night!

Where to begin? Liverpool, Paris, London. If you're thinking Liverpool doesn't belong in such august company, you would be wrong, at least as far as my family and I are concerned.

We went to Liverpool for a Beatles' pilgrimage and wound up falling in love with the city and its people. Expecting a grim, post-industrial city of abandoned row houses (in truth, they do exist) we found instead a lovely mid-sized city of culture, history (some ignominious -- the town prospered from the slave trade for a time) and fabulous green, open spaces just outside the city center. Some of these spaces have names like Penny Lane and Strawberry Field (singular, not plural, thank you very much.)

Last week, Liverpool honored the fallen from the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy, in which 96 people were killed and hundreds injured at a football (soccer) match. It had nothing to do with hooliganism, by the way, it involved a narrow tunnel and a barricade that gave way. 30,000 people filled Anfield Stadium last Wednesday to pay tribute. Organizers had expected around 10,000. Everything in the city came to a complete stop at 3:06 pm, the exact time at which the football match was halted on that fateful day.

Episode 2 is in the books. Heads are going to start rolling. Sorry. Couldn't resist. Three characters met their fate in this episode written by our showrunner, Jeff Bell, and directed by our good friend, Sandy Bookstaver. This was also the first episode in which "the assassin" had to perform his "assassin" duties. The cast now realizes that anyone can go at any time. Lucy's death was a shock. She was in the wedding party, a member of the inner circle. You can't kill a member of the wedding party in episode 2. Oh yeah, talk to Uncle Marty. Needless to say, the cast is on good behavior.

It's getting sadder and sadder to say good-bye to people each week as they are eliminated from the show. With Steve-O gone, I'm not sure how this is going to affect Gilles now that the other half of his bromance will be missing from the red room on Monday night.

Last week was a hard one for us -- we traveled back and forth from Los Angeles to New York and the judges were hard on us for our Jive. While its always easy to sit around and feel sorry for yourself, that's not a luxury we have on this show, because immediately on Tuesday night following the pressline after the show I started working on developing the choreography for our next dance -- the Viennese Waltz.

Hi everyone!

This week I'm writing to you from New York, where we've been trying to rehearse while Gilles gets ready for a big charity soccer game that he's playing in on Saturday. We flew out on a red-eye right after Tuesday night's show and then we head back to Los Angeles on Sunday to get ready for Monday's performance. It's been go, go, go all week!