'Somebody stop me!' Ed Balls is the man in The Mask for Strictly movie showdown

Ed Balls will take on the persona of a supernatural playboy during movie week on Strictly Come Dancing as he dances to Cuban Pete from the hit 90s comedy The Mask.

The former shadow chancellor, who is partnered with professional dancer Katya Jones, is set to dance the samba to actor Jim Carrey's version of the Cuban rumba song in tonight's live show.

Meanwhile, Anastacia, who was cleared to perform despite last week tearing scar tissue from a double mastectomy in 2013, will dance a Viennese Waltz to A Thousand Years by Christian Perri from the Twilight films with partner Brendan Cole.

Songs from classic musicals Bugsy Malone, Mary Poppins, Moulin Rouge and Singin' in The Rain will also be on show in movie week which is regularly billed as a landmark moment in each Strictly series.

Bookies' favourite Danny Mac - who is in joint first place after two weeks of action - will need to be at his swordfighting best as he and partner Oti Mabuse perform the Paso Doble to The Mask of Zorro's The Train by James Horner.

Top of the leaderboard with Mac is former pop star Louise Redknapp who will be dancing the cha cha cha to Flashdance ... What A Feeling, from Flashdance.

Laura Whitmore will dance the salsa to Moulin Rouge's Rhythm of the Night and revealed the lifts involved had left their mark.

She posted a photo of her bruised arm and leg on Twitter, and told It Takes Two: "The salsa has three lifts and I didn't realise until Wednesday when I got home, they left a lot of damage."

Meanwhile early favourite Will Young will need to channel his inner Pussycat Doll for his Salsa to Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny) which features in Slumdog Millionaire.

Coral make singer Anastacia the 2/1 favourite to be booted off this weekend, with more than 60% of bets being placed on her getting axed.

The singer avoided the dance-off despite being in the bottom two of last week's show as she was too injured to perform.

DJ Melvin Odoom and his professional partner Janette Manrara were the first couple to leave the competition, having found themselves with fewer public votes.

"After Anastacia was allowed to bend the dance-off rules last week, punters are still fuming and are wasting no time in backing the singer to be the next celeb kicked off the show," said Coral's Nicola McGeady.

Balls is priced at 9/4 and also in danger at 3/1 to exit this week is BBC news presenter Naga Munchetty, who will dance the Tango to the theme from Mission Impossible by Lalo Schifrin.

Last year's eventual winner Jay McGuinness wowed judges during movie week, collecting the first mark of 10 of the series for his slick jive combining Misirlou and You Never Can Tell from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.

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