Why You Know Her
If you're Italian, you may know Elisabetta Canalis as the former host of the Italian Total Request Live and of numerous music-related specials. If you're not Italian and pay a lot of attention, you may have caught her small role in Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (but you may have missed that -- probably for the best). Avid TV watchers may have caught Elisabetta's recurring role as the mysterious Italian agent on season 3 of Leverage.

But who are we kidding? The real reason you know anything at all about Elisabetta Canalis is because she used to date George Clooney. Yes, between 2009 and 2011, Elisabetta dated one of the world's sexiest men. Now she doesn't.

Why She's on Dancing with the Stars
See above, RE: No longer dating George Clooney. On a less-cynical note, it's evident that Elisabetta would like a Hollywood acting career. This is certainly a way to get noticed a little bit more.

Dancing/Performance Experience
While she may have no formal dance past, Elisabetta is indeed a performer. She's also beautiful, which never hurts.

DWTS Potential
Since Elisabetta is paired with Val Chmerkovskiy (a new pro and therefore an unknown quantity), it's hard to say how well she'll do. Her rehearsal photos don't look bad, and there's definite potential there. On the other hand, will people vote for a woman they've barely heard of?

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Want to know about the other Dancing with the Stars contestants? Click on any of the names below!

Carson Kressley
Chaz Bono
Chynna Phillips
David Arquette
Hope Solo
J.R. Martinez
Kristin Cavallari
Nancy Grace
Ricki Lake
Rob Kardashian
Ron Artest

(Image courtesy of ABC)