Yahoo News Strictly's Dianne Buswell apologises after Vito Coppola prank
Strictly Come Dancing's Dianne Buswell has apologised to Vito Coppola after she and her fellow professional dancers played a cheeky prank on him.
In an Instagram video, Dianne, Nikita Kuzmin, Michelle Tsiakkas, Nancy Xu and Vito took turns dancing for the camera and shouting out "Strictly 2024!". After each person had their turn, the other dancers clapped and cheered... except when Vito had his turn.
At first, he thought he got the year wrong and that he was meant to say "Strictly 2025" before being quickly corrected. But when he did his little dance again, his co-workers still didn't react.
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Diane shared the video to her page and wrote "Sorry @vitocoppola" in the caption, surrounded by laughing emoji.
Thankfully, he took it all on the chin, sharing the video to his Stories and adding "WATCH IT TILL THE END!!! Thank you guys for this lovely PRANK... ahahah. Love youuuu" with a flurry of emoji to make sure fans knew he wasn't being serious.
The full celebrity lineup for this year's season has been confirmed now, and there's been a bit of criticism because it contains nine men to six women.
Related: Strictly's Vito Coppola goes through 13 shirts in sweaty rehearsal session
In response, a spokesperson for the BBC said: "We are really excited about this year's lineup and look forward to the series starting.
"There are many factors that influence the casting process to ensure we have a good mix of celebrities from a broad range of backgrounds. There is no hard and fast rule regarding the gender split on the show and it's never been about ticking boxes."
Strictly Come Dancing will return later this year on BBC One, while spinoff Strictly: It Takes Two airs on weeknights on BBC Two. Both shows are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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