Heather Mills

Nothing came off without a hitch.

Heather Mills had said her biggest fear about appearing on Dancing With The Stars was that her artificial leg would fall off.

But Mills, whose marriage to ex-Beatle Paul McCartney fell apart, hung on to all her parts last night in the live fourth-season debut of the reality series Dancing With The Stars on CTV and ABC.

Mills was described as a "charity campaigner" rather than "Mrs. Paul McCartney" on the show, which teams 11 quasi-celebrities with 11 professional dancers. Mills and her pro partner Jonathan Roberts performed a fox trot that earned them 18 of a possible 30 points from the judges, who promised that they would judge Mills no differently than any other competitor.

"I really enjoyed that -- I'm just glad I didn't fall over," said Mills, whose upper-body stiffness was the focus of the judges' criticisms.

Referring to her dress, Mills said, "I feel a bit like an ice cream sundae. I'm not used to dressing up to this level."

Mills and Roberts ranked seventh at the conclusion of the evening, behind leaders Joey Fatone (formerly of N*Sync) and his partner Kym Johnson, who garnered 24 points from the judges.

Mills, whose left leg was amputated below the knee after she was hit by a police motorcycle in 1993, is the first person with an artificial limb to compete on Dancing With The Stars. She also clearly is the most polarizing public figure in the history of the show.

Mills recently came to a divorce settlement with McCartney that reportedly will pay her almost $70 million. For the record, Mills -- who seemed slightly out of place when trying to yuk it up with her fellow celebs -- says she's doing Dancing With The Stars for charity and to inspire the disabled, not to rehabilitate her image.

Fan voting factors into the calculation on Dancing With The Stars, which makes one wonder if Beatlemaniacs will orchestrate an anti-Mills movement. Then again, maybe all those old Rolling Stones fans from the 1960s will get their revenge by providing some, uh, sympathy for the devil.

Regardless, nobody was eliminated last night, so we'll have to wait till next week to find out how audiences are responding to Mills.

Other celebrity contestants include Laila Ali, Billy Ray Cyrus, Clyde Drexler, Shandi Finnessey, Leeza Gibbons, Apolo Anton Ohno, Paulina Porizkova, John Ratzenberger and Ian Ziering.