Well, we’ll say this for Bristol: She really does have an adolescent’s unerring, semi-mystical sixth sense about how to tweak and undermine one’s parents, and a knack for deploying this power with so much joy and faux cluelessness that it makes being fresh seem like an expression of love. Also, it appears she — or one of her advisers — has an innate comprehension of camp. This is a pleasant surprise. On last night’s season premiere of Dancing With the Stars, Bristol put all of these talents to use, cha-cha-ing to “Mama Told Me Not to Come.†Based on the performance — it opened with Palin in a gray lady suit, which she ripped off to reveal a red, tasseled dress — we’re sure she fully intended the title to be understood as the double entendre (and, probably, statement of fact) it is. The performance scored Bristol, whose mother did not attend, 18 out of 30 points. Jennifer Grey (who still carries her head like Baby, but why is Baby dancing around on national TV?) won the evening. Bristol’s score was good enough to keep her out of the bottom three, and also good enough to make us curious about how this all plays out.
Related: How to Pick a Dancing With the Stars Favorite Without Watching It