LOS ANGELES -- The new cast of "Dancing With the Stars"
was revealed Monday night, and U.S. women's national soccer team goalkeeper Hope Solo and Los Angeles Lakers forward Ron Artest will be the latest athletes to take a crack at the disco-ball trophy.
Solo was instrumental in the team's runner-up finish at the 2011 World Cup.
Earlier Monday, Artest had refused to confirm rumors he was going to be competing on the show.
"They asked me but I just don't feel comfortable wearing leotards and lingerie," Artest told the "Max & Marcellus" show on ESPNLA 710. "I'm afraid. I just don't want to be dancing and have a wedgie and have a Janet Jackson kind of mistake, now my bootie is all out. I just don't want that stuff. I can't dance. I like Prince but I don't want to wear the same clothes as Prince."
Artest recently had said he plans to play for the Cheshire Jets of the British Basketball League during the NBA lockout, but the team hasn't offered Artest insurance, which could prevent him from joining the team.
Solo and Artest will be joined by reality TV stars Robert
Kardashian, Kristin Cavallari and Chaz Bono; TV personalities Nancy
Grace, Carson Kressley and Ricki Lake; singer-actress Chynna
Phillips; actors David Arquette and J.R. Martinez; and Italian
actress Elisabetta Canalis, who may be better-known in the United
States for being actor George Clooney's ex-girlfriend, for the show's 13th season.
Ryan O'Neal was set to join the cast, but his publicist said the
actor had not yet fully recovered from recent knee-replacement
surgery.
The new cast members will perform their first dance routines on
the season premiere on Sept. 19. The first celebrity contestant
will be eliminated on Sept. 20.
Information from ESPNLosAngeles.com's Arash Markazi and The Associated Press was used in this report.
