Navratilova joins "Dancing with the Stars" lineup

Happy Leap Day! A few fine stars of today and (ahem) yesterday will link arms with pro dance partners for the fourteenth iteration of "Dancing with the Stars." Among them? Jaleel "Steve Urkel" White and one Martina Navratilova.

If Snooki's alleged spawn wasn't enough, surely it's this week's sign of the apocalypse.  

One beef about "DWTS": People are complaining about the caliber of this cast, as if the show's lineup hasn't been in a tailspin for years. Was Bristol Palin so highbrow? Would you prefer one of Mitt Romney's five dashing sons? That said, it's probably not a great season if headlines announcing the cast say, "Green Bay Packer leads the group." Surely that Packer has a name, were he famous enough. Still, Maria Menounos is worth watching. Vivacious as heaven, and very down-to-earth to boot; I met her on the red carpet at Rolling Stone's Super Bowl party on Feb. 3.  

Now Navratilova herself has (finally) joined Twitter, jumping from 374 followers on Day 1 there to 2,928 at the time of this writing. Find @Martina here, and note that she's already proclaiming herself not too proud to acquire hair extensions and a spray tan.  

There's tennis-meets-dance precedent for Navratilova to live up to, if not supersede entirely. Let's take a look:  

Monica Seles, ousted early on a previous "Dancing" season.

Martina Hingis, on the BBC's "Strictly Come Dancing."

Justine Henin, appearing on a Belgian TV show.

Well, it certainly won't be difficult to top Seles and Henin in the dance department. Navratilova's namesake, Hingis, was fairly good, though. Still, says here that Navratilova, forever stubborn and focused, will see to it that she bests all of their moves.

At the least, it will entertain. This is worth DVR-ing, and starts on March 19 on ABC. Check it out, Spin Nation.  

—Jonathan Scott (Follow me on Twitter @jonscott9.)