After making her way to the final five on “Dancing With the Stars,” Lil’ Kim and her dance partner, Derek Hough, were voted off the “DWTS” island Tuesday night, to the surprise of many.

Kim, who managed to wrangle a total score of 52 out of 60, despite a waltz that failed to impress the judges on Monday night, was narrowly beat out by Jewel’s hubby, rodeo cowboy Ty Murray. Though he earned a much lower score of 46, Murray won the competition by surpassing Kim in audience votes.

“I think this is one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever experienced in my life,” she said. “I think I brought different viewers [to the show].” Then she replied to the audience’s cheers, saying, “I love you, too.”

After the rapper learned that she is out of next week’s semifinals, her partner, Hough, said of her, “Amazing person, amazing soul, amazing spirit — and an amazing dancer.”

The remaining four celebrities on the show are Murray, Gilles Marini from the “Sex and the City” movie, “The Bachelor” star Melissa Rycroft and Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson.

Back in March, MTV News caught up with Kim during her rehearsals for the show, and she gushed about the chance to work with Hough. “He’s the perfect person for me,” Kim said. “And I think that he’s such a great teacher that he’s going to make my dancing talent shine through.”

Kim said that she happily jumped at the chance to join the cast this season. “I always wanted to do it. I just felt like, when opportunity knocks twice, you have to say, ‘Wait a minute … I have to do this.’ Dancing is in my heart.”

Shock, relief and tears filled the backstage area of Dancing with the Stars tonight as Denise Richards‘ samba sent her packing.

“For a minute, I thought we had a shot at staying,” Denise told E! News backstage after tonight’s elimination show. “I’m really glad I got to do the dance over again and get better scores and a better reaction. It was better to go out on that note than last night.”

Better scores indeed. Denise and her partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy earned five more points in her dance-off against bottom two-er Holly Madison. “I never imagined anybody could improve in a day by five points unless you flat out fell on the floor,” says Maksim.

Find out what Chuck Wicks whispered in Julianne Hough’s ear, what made Steve-O say ‘for crying out loud,’ and what Jewel still does for hubby Ty Murray…

Chuck Wicks on preparing for the worst: “Once they had the first four names and we weren’t in there, I whispered in [Julianne Hough’s] ear, ‘We may want to start practicing the dance a little bit.’”

Holly Madison on the dance-off: “It was really scary. I thought for sure that we were gone out of the competition. I was really freaking out, so hopefully I won’t be so scared next time.”

Ty Murray on Jewel: Ty tells us that his wife and ex-competitor Jewel might be gone from the competition, but she’s showing her support…with foot rubs!

Steve-O on perspective: “This taught me not to take myself too seriously. For crying out loud, this is a dance-off. If your biggest problem is that you screwed up a dance routine or that you’re not on a dance show, I think everything is pretty good.”

Steve Wozniak on being safe: “That was the most incredible surprise. I was setting myself up to be so happy doing my dance again. When that came, my world turned in an instant…I was crying. I still have tears a little.”

Gilles Marini on Woz: “It’s not shocking. Remember one thing: many, many people vote. Maybe [Woz] has 70% of the overall vote, so who knows? If people don’t vote, we are gone. Even if we have three 9’s, they still need to vote.”

Lil’ Kim on Denise: “I’ve met a totally different person than what we read or see [in the media]. Sometimes that press bothers her because she talked to me [about it]. She’s really a sweet girl.”

Vibe magazine announced that Eminem had won its Best Rapper Alive competition, a NCAA-style tournament that pitted the “top” 64 MCs against each other.

The online contest polled users over a 5-week period. During the first week, the 64 competing rappers were paired off and users were asked to select the best 32 artists. The second week, that group of 32 lyricists was also grouped in twos and the voters picked their favorite 16. Over the subsequent weeks, the list dwindled down to the last b-boys standing, Jay-Z and Eminem. Eminem won by a landslide of 69 percent, compared to Jay-Z’s 31 percent.

“The results have sparked heated discussions.

Before getting into my opinion of the crowned champ, I am way curious as to how a Best Rapper Alive contest can include the likes of Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, Shawty Lo and Flo Rida, but not list lyrical geniuses Rakim, MC Lyte, Chuck D, KRS-One or Slick Rick. I’m 38, so yes, I’m repping a different era. But if I am to take the title Best Rapper Alive literally, I say, these guys are alive and frankly can still put to shame the majority of the 64 artists who have made it on the ballot. Maybe instead they could call this list, Best Rapper To Recently Release An Album.I’m sure some of my questions will be answered in the November 2008 issue of Vibe, on newsstands October 21. In this issue, the Best Rapper Alive staff will explain the contest in detail. I must add that I respect the publication, still having in my possession its 1994 premiere issue with Treach of Naughty By Nature on the cover and having written freelance articles for the magazine from 2000 to 2006. I just don’t get the criteria.

I understand that the results were driven by the voters, but the brackets used for voting are suspicious. Take for example the following pairings that caused upsets during the first round of voting:

Lil’ Kim vs. Lauryn Hill
Lupe Fiasco vs. Q-Tip
Mos Def vs. Talib Qweli
Ghostface Killah vs. Raekwon
Method Man vs. Redman
Common vs. Black Thought

Pairings like these assured that six of the aforementioned rappers were not going to make it to round two. Each of those artists should have made it to the second round. And in other instances, favored artists were matched with MCs who had no chance of winning the first round:

Andre 3000 vs. Dizzee Rascal
Eminem vs. Soulja Boy
Lil’ Wayne vs. Trina
T.I. vs. Shawty Lo
Ludacris vs. Young Dro

Are you kidding? I think Dizzee Rascal is dope, but could he possibly get more popular votes than ANDRE 3000? Have the majority of the voters even heard of Dizzee? Soulja Boy, Trina, Shawty Lo, and Young Dro against those guys? Is this poll even real?

Out of 32 pairings, the first round only had a handful of legitimate groupings:

Cam’ron vs. Juelz Santana
Fabolous vs. Cassidy
Lil’ Boosie vs. Webbie
Lloyd Banks vs. Young Buck
Chamillionaire vs. Paul Wall

I realize the difficulty and pressure that lies in compiling lists. As a journalist, it’s something that you don’t take lightly because you know you’re going to get called out if your list is wack. I’m feeling bamboozled by this one.

I consider Eminem to be one of the greatest MCs to have ever rhymed. He has an undeniable gift of storytelling. He can freestyle. He’s passionate, and is one of the few who is blessed with the ability to simultaneously go straight mega pop and still reach the heads. He’s top 10 without question. Free Eminem Ringtones

15: Tara Reid
Surgery botched: Boob Job and Stomach Lipo
Photographic Evidence:

Tara Reid’s stomach looks to be about forty years older than the rest of her.

14: Gary Busey
Surgery botched: Veneers
Photographic Evidence:

As the Awful Plastic Surgery site puts it, his teeth look like chiclets.

13: Lil Kim
Surgery botched: Boobs, face work, skin lightened
Photographic Evidence:

Before:

After:

Lil Kim is headed down a path forged by Michael Jackson. Can’t wait to see what she looks like in twenty years.

12: Janet Jackson
Surgery botched: Breast Implants
Photographic Evidence:

Never good when you have a giant dent in your boob. Janet needs to head to an autobody shop pronto, get that dent pounded right out.

11: Jessica Simpson
Surgery botched: Lips
Photographic Evidence:

Luckily for Jessica not all bad plastic surgery is permanent. She talked about her lip enhancement, saying “I had that Restylane stuff … It looked fake to me. I didn’t like that. But… it went away in, like, four months. My lips are back to what they were. Thank God!”

10: Kenny Rogers
Surgery botched: Facelift
Photographic Evidence:

Rogers is someone else who’s not thrilled about his surgery, telling People:

9: Tori Spelling
Surgery botched: Breast Implants
Photographic Evidence:

Not too often you see a “legit” (using that word a little loosely) actress get breast implants that look like giant beach balls, but Spelling was willing to buck the trend. The money probably could have been a little better spent elsewhere. I hear French doctors have made some real advancements with facial transplants.

8: Hilary Duff
Surgery botched: Veneers
Photographic Evidence:

Neeeeeeeeigh *snort*

7: Victoria Beckham
Surgery botched: Breast Implants
Photographic Evidence:

Fittingly, it looks as if she’s had a couple of soccer balls implanted into her chest.

6: Donatella Versace
Surgery botched: Lips, facelift
Photographic Evidence:

And now we are starting to get to the people who are losing all traces of humanity. Versace isn’t content to grow old in a graceful manner, instead making a mockery of herself.

5: Vivica Fox
Surgery botched: Breast Implants
Photographic Evidence:

Gotta agree with Perez Hilton on this one, that is pretty disgusting. Fox apparently shares a surgeon with Janet Jackson.

4: Melanie Griffith
Surgery botched: Face lift and god only knows what else
Photographic Evidence:

This definitely deserves a before shot, just in case you are forgetting how normal Melanie Griffith used to be:

She’s only fifty years old, and she’s pretty much ruined her face. If I didn’t know it was her I would have honestly pegged the person in the first picture as a woman in her sixties.

3: Pete Burns
Surgery botched: Lips
Photographic Evidence:

If you’re wondering who Pete Burns is, don’t feel bad, he’s a fairly obscure singer (he’s the You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) guy), but his plastic surgery sins are definitely egregious enough to be included this highly on the list. Now granted part of what you’re seeing there is intentional (this is a guy who has accused Boy George of ripping off his image), but those lips are absolutely frightening. Burns agreed and actually filmed a special in the UK called Pete Burns’ Cosmetic Surgery Nightmares.

2: Jocelyn Wildenstein
Surgery botched: Everything she has attempted has apparently turned out terribly
Photographic Evidence:

Before:

After:

This woman has spent $4 million on plastic surgery. I would want my money back.

Jocelyn is a wealthy socialite whose husband began cheating on her. To win him back she began undergoing plastic surgery to transform into a giant cat. Her husband likes big cats. Naturally.

Didn’t work however, and her husband said “She seems to think that you fix a face the same way you fix a house”.

1: Michael Jackson
Surgery botched: Skin lightening, nose jobs, face lifts, etc. etc. etc.
Photographic Evidence:

Could it really have been anyone else? It’s incredible to forget how absolutely normal Michael Jackson looked back in the 70’s and 80’s (attractive even!) before turning into the sideshow freak that he is today. The guy is absolutely looney tunes so it’s kind of a shame that he was always able to find a doctor to do what he wanted. Everyone should have told him no after a certain point, which was probably in about 1985.

Sean Combs and design darling Marc Jacobs squared off Friday night with head-to-head Fashion Week-ending parties. The winner: Combs, by a long shot.

This came as no surprise to Diddy, of course.

“I’m a big fan of Marc’s, you know, and with the parties, competition is nothing. I know at least, at least with the parties, I have one up on Marc Jacobs,” Diddy told us after his runway show.

Jacobs’ celebration has long been the coveted ticket, but his fete at 24 Fifth fell flat. The stars: Marc, Rachel Zoe and Padma Lakshmi, who did a sort of hipster booty dance in a corner to ’90s techno-pop. At least Lil’ Kim showed up later.

Across town at his Cadillac-sponsored bash at Tenjune, Diddy had producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Ellen Pompeo, Tyson Beckford and Denzel Washington among the boldfacers slinging back Ciroc cocktails and tearing down the house until about 2 a.m.

Both parties had one thing in common: Serious sexual tension. Even though Diddy had flown in model Natassia Malthe from L.A. to be his date, ex Kim Porter, mother of his twin baby girls, arrived at the bash about 11 p.m. Awkward.

And then there was Jacobs’ sometime fiancé Jason Preston, who found himself face-to-face with ab-rific porn star Erik Rhodes. All three of them got dirty on the dance floor and in a banquette. It was Jason touching Erik and Erik touching Jason and both of them touching Marc all night long.

When we asked Eric about his relationship with Jacobs, he just lifted his shirt to reveal a 12-pack. Guess we had our answer.