Black & blue on ice

Four-time world champion figure skater and Alberta native Kurt Browning has seen his share of gold over the years.

Now, thanks to Skating with Celebrities, he's gotten a glimpse of black and blue, and even a little blood red.

"Oh yeah," says Browning, "there's blood - stitches, too."

Just who gets roughed up? Tune into the new series starting tonight at 10 on Fox (Cable 16) to find out.

Not that the stars and the skaters came to blows, of course. But when you pair pros with people who, by comparison, really can't skate, explains Browning, accidents are bound to happen.

The pairings include Full House's Dave Coulier teaming with two-time Olympic medallist Nancy Kerrigan; Olympic decathlon gold medallist Bruce Jenner and world pairs skating champion Tai Babilonia; Diff'rent Strokes's Todd Bridges and U.S. national pairs champion Jenni Meno; actress Kristy Swanson and Canada's Lloyd Eisler, a pairs Olympic medallist and world champion; and Fox NFL Sunday's Jillian Barberie and three-time U.S. pairs champion John Zimmerman.

Like a lot of people who haven't skated in a while, Browning's partner, former teen pop star Debbie Gibson, said getting going wasn't the problem. Stopping, on the other hand ...

"She had a tiny bit of experience," Browning said during a recent phone interview from his home in Toronto. "The way she put it was she had rented skates around Christmas and had gone skating with her family. She'd never actually owned her own pair of skates."

However, Browning said Gibson's skating was among the most improved of any celebrity in the elimination format show, an ice-skating spinoff of Dancing with the Stars.

Reluctant at first to give the show a chance, Browning was won over by Dancing with the Stars last year, thanks to his wife.

"She's with the National Ballet of Canada and at first I was like, 'You don't want to watch this - these guys aren't going to be any good.' But she loved it.

"About halfway through (the season) we realized why we liked it - the celebrities were really trying."

When Browning was contacted about taking part in the Skating with Celebrities show last summer, he hoped the stars would demonstrate the same work ethic.

However, he was still hesitant about signing on because of his own work-related commitments.

Hitting more than 50 cities a year with Stars on Ice, the three months required to film Skating with Celebrities in L.A. was too much for Browning. Fortunately, Gibson, busy herself with a career that's taken her to Broadway, agreed to train with him in Toronto.

Gibson's perseverance was inspiring, says Browning. But in spite of his champion skater status, he can't say he was necessarily the best teacher.

"If (2006 BMO Canadian championships winner and 2005 world silver medallist) Jeffrey Buttle comes to me and needs help with his triple Axel, I can help him. But if Debbie Gibson comes to me and says, 'How do I turn from frontwards to backwards?' well ... it's such an obvious thing to me, but I had trouble explaining it to her.

"I actually hired somebody to help us who has a dance background on and off the ice. He also works with kids, so I thought he was a good choice."

Each star-skater pairing also had their own choreographer, which was another relief for Browning. Unaccustomed as he is to teaching and training, he says the stars are the ones who really put their reputations on the line.

"Week after week, you'll see the celebrities really putting the effort in. It's not one of those reality shows where people try to make each other look bad. Here, they've put themselves out there in something that can make them look quite foolish, which I think is quite brave."

Speaking of guts, at 39, can Browning still pull off one of his famous quads?