Love at first fox-trot? The Brady Bunch’s Maureen McCormick is immediately smitten with Dancing With the Stars partner Artem Chigvintsev, as seen in Us Weekly’s exclusive sneak peek.
The ABC competition series’ preview clip from the Monday, September 12, season 23 premiere shows the former child star, 60, gushing about the hunky dance pro, 34. McCormick is best known for playing Marcia Brady for five seasons on the popular 1970s ABC sitcom The Brady Bunch.
“First impression of Artem?” the Celebrity Fit Club alum says to the camera. “Well, hot! Really cute. Um, wow — the body! I mean the body on all these people is like freaking me out.”
“Hopefully, I just want to be an open, blank canvas that he can paint,” she continues to the camera. She then adds to Chigvintsev, “I’ll do anything you want, Artem.”
Chigvintsev, who is participating in his fourth season of the ballroom bash, appears to be similarly drawn to McCormick. “She’s so compact and tiny and small, and you just want to … hug her and protect her — it’s the weirdest thing,” he tells the camera. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt something like that before toward my partners, but I think this is something new.”
As they begin to learn their routines in rehearsal, McCormick tells the dance pro, “Wow, this is unbelievable. … Oh, I love you, Artem. I’m so in love with this man!”
The warm feelings are probably a welcome change for Chigvintsev, who butted heads frequently with season 22 partner Mischa Barton before her exit in second-to-last place. (The pro dancer has yet to win the mirrorball trophy.)
Watch the hysterical clip in the video above. Dancing With the Stars season 23 airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
