EXCLUSIVE: Mark Ballas Opens Up About His Wedding Plans and Starring on Broadway: 'It's Like a New Chapter'

Photo: Getty Images

Mark Ballas has a lot on his plate right now -- but he's not complaining!

ET caught up with the former Dancing With the Stars pro on Friday at the Lunt Fontanne Theater in New York -- where he recently started his run as Frankie Valli in Broadway's Jersey Boys -- all while planning his wedding to fiancée BC Jean. 

WATCH: EXCLUSIVE: Mark Ballas On Getting the 'Jersey Boys' Lead and What He'll Miss Most on 'DWTS'

"We're enjoying it," Ballas said of his busier-than-usual last few months. "My fiancée just went back to LA. She's been out here for the opening night [on Oct. 18] and saw my matinee the next day."

The couple, who were based in Los Angeles before Ballas' big Broadway role, have found Facetime to be a huge asset in wedding planning from opposite coasts.

"She's been looking at tablecloths, settings and plates and dishes and the cutlery and what cocktails we're having. She's been Facetiming me in all of it. It's amazing," he said. "It's coming up really quick, so it's great. I try not to get overwhelmed. I just take each day as it comes and I'm blessed and honored right now."

"Getting to star on Broadway has been a dream of mine for years," Ballas continued. "I went to musical theater school for nine years… so I'm finally putting it to good use."

RELATED: Mark Ballas Is 'Thrilled' To Play Frankie Valli in Final Months of 'Jersey Boys' on Broadway

Putting his musical theater experience "to good use" might be an understatement -- the Houston, Texas native snagged the role of Frankie Valli before the hit musical leaves Broadway on Jan. 15, and was picked for the part by Valli himself.

"To be the last guy, I’m just very blessed and humbled and grateful," he said.  "To be honest, for the first 30 seconds [of meeting Valli] I was like [starstruck] and I don't really get like that. That was incredible. He's an icon."

While Ballas and Jean juggle wedding planning with Broadway, Ballas' longtime pal and best man Derek Hough is picking up some of the slack, and taking care of the Bachelor party.

"Derek throws a good party," he dished. "Man, I don't know [what he has planned]. When you see him, you ask him."

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Venomous Snake Bites on the Rise in Kids October 21, 2016 | Article

Credit: makasana photo/Shutterstock.com

More than 1,300 kids are bitten by snakes each year in the U.S. — and an increasing number of these bites come from the venomous copperhead snake(Agkistrodon contortrix), a new study finds.

In addition, bites from unknownvenomous snakes have also increased since 2000, according to the study.

Between 2000 and 2013, there were more than 18,000 reports of snakebites in children in the U.S., the researchers wrote in their study, which was published Oct. 20 in the journal Pediatrics. The majority of these bites occurred in males, and the average age of the kids who were bitten was 10.7 years old. While bites occurred in every month of the year, one-third of all bites took place in June and July, the study found. [The World's 6 Deadliest Snakes]

About half the snakebites that were reported were from venomous snakes, according to the study. Copperhead snakes and rattlesnakes(genus Crotalus) accounted for 70 percent of all of the venomous bites, followed by bites from unknown species (20 percent). Bites fromcottonmouths (Agkistrodon piscivorus) accounted for 6 percent of bites, while 3 percent came from coral snakes and 1 percent came from exotic venomous snakes, the researchers found.

Four children died from snakebites during the study period, the researchers found. In three of the cases, the snake was identified as a rattlesnake, and in one case the snake was unidentified, they found.   

Encounters with exotic snakes have increased, according to the study. "Fifty years ago, no exotic species were reported," by snakebite victims, the researchers wrote. In recent years, many of these exotic species are increasingly being kept as pets. With the growing popularity of these snakes, "it is reasonable to expect that the calls to poison control centers about exotic snakes will become more common" in the coming years, they wrote. 

Although venomous snakebites were reported in every state in the continental U.S., as well as in Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, the majority occurred in the South and Southwestern U.S., according to the researchers, who were led by Dr. Joann Schulte, a public health physician and pediatrician at the North Texas Poison Center.

Copperhead bites were most common in Texas and North Carolina: One-third of all the copperhead bites were recorded in these two states. Rattlesnake bites, on the other hand, were most common in Arizona and California, which reported 40 percent of all bites from these species. Bites from Coral snakes and cottonmouths were most common in Florida.

The researchers noted that there can be significant variation in the effects that snakebites cause in children. For example, up to 20 percent of venomous snakebites are "dry," meaning that no venom is injected during the bite. This occurs when a snake has used up all of its venom supply, according to the study.

The amount of venom that is injected during a bite also varies, and the severity of the symptoms can range from mild to life-threatening, according to the study. On the extreme end of the spectrum, bites can lead to severe drops in blood pressure, an inability to think clearly, rapid heart rate and breathing, and bleeding problems.

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'Planet Nine' Can't Hide Much Longer, Scientists Say By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer

Artist's illustration of Planet Nine, a world about 10 times more massive than Earth that may lie undiscovered in the outer solar system.

Credit: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)

Planet Nine's days of lurking unseen in the dark depths of the outer solar system may be numbered.

The hypothetical giant planet, which is thought to be about 10 times more massive than Earth, will be discovered within 16 months or so, astronomer Mike Brown predicted.

"I'm pretty sure, I think, that by the end of next winter — not this winter, next winter — I think that there'll be enough people looking for it that … somebody's actually going to track this down," Brown said during a news conference Wednesday (Oct. 19) at a joint meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) and the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) in Pasadena, California. Brown said that eight to 10 groups are currently looking for the planet. [The Evidence for 'Planet Nine' in Images (Gallery)]

Researchers say an anomaly in the orbits of distant Kuiper Belt objects points to the existence of an unknown planet orbiting the sun. Here's what we know of this potential "Planet Nine."

Credit: by Karl Tate, Infographics artist

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Nasty Elections: 5 Times Presidential Candidates Went Low By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer

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Credit: Ethan Miller / Getty Images

How low can they go?

One of the many memorable lines to emerge thus far from the 2016 presidential election cycle was not uttered by either of the candidates, but by First Lady Michelle Obama, during her speech at the Democratic National Convention on July 25.

Obama shared a family motto that shaped their reactions to cruel and hateful taunts: "When they go low, we go high."

The sentiments in Obama's words are admirable, particularly considering that the accusations and insults that have been flung during this election cycle are especially ugly. At the third and final presidential debate on Oct. 19, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton needled Republican nominee Donald Trump about being Russian president Vladimir Putin's "puppet," and about encouraging Russian espionage against Americans. When he boasted about his "beautiful apartment," she remarked that it had been built with Chinese steel — which is frequently imported illegally to the U.S., she had said earlier. [We Fact-Checked the Science Behind the Republican Party Platform]

Meanwhile, Trump suggested that $6 billion went missing from the State Department under Clinton's watch, accused her of deleting 33,000 emails "criminally," said that Putin had "outsmarted her at every step of the way [sic]," and capped it off by muttering, "Such a nasty woman," while Clinton was speaking about Social Security.

But this is far from the first time in American history that vitriol has poisoned the air during a political season. In fact, the tradition of tearing down one's opponent in the most vicious manner possible extends back to some of the earliest presidential face-offs. Here are five elections where candidates were really hitting below the belt.

 

Credit: PD-US

Thomas Jefferson vs. John Adams (1800)

When Federalist John Adams ran for president against Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson, many felt that the future of the young nation hung in the balance, and people representing both candidates used extremely colorful language to denounce the opposition, according to news reports at the time. [Why Did the Democratic and Republican Parties Switch Platforms?]

According to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation website, a newspaper editor and Jefferson supporter named James Callender wrote in the pamphlet "The Prospect Before Us" that John Adams possessed "that strange compound of ignorance and ferocity, of deceit and weakness."

As if that weren't enough, Callender also called Adams a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman."

The Foundation furtherrecounted, Jefferson's political opponents labeled him "nothing but a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father," and claimed that he enjoyed the taste of fricasseed bullfrog.

 

Credit: PD-US

Andrew Jackson vs. John Quincy Adams (1828)

 During this particular presidential campaign — referred to by historians as the dirtiest in America's history — Andrew Jackson was accused of multiple murders and acts of violence, according to the Miller Center, a nonpartisan center for political research and discourse at the University of Virginia.

Meanwhile, Jackson supporters charged that John Quincy Adams spent his tenure as the first U.S minister to Russia procuring American virgins for the Czar.

Even Jackson's mother was considered to be fair game by the newspapers of the day, and was referred to in an editorial as "a common prostitute, brought to this country by the British soldiers." Jackson's wife, Rachel, was hounded as well, as a loose woman and bigamist who married Jackson before she was legally divorced from her first husband. Dubbed "an American Jezebel," she suffered greatly under the strain of relentless and vicious attacks from the press throughout the campaign, and died of heart failure just over one month after her husband won the election.

 

Abraham Lincoln vs. Stephen Douglas (1860)

Abraham Lincoln's opponents were not kind about his somewhat rustic appearance, with the Charleston Mercury calling him a "horrid looking wretch, sooty and scoundrelly (sic) in aspect, a cross between the nutmeg dealer, the horse swapper and the night man," the Miller Center reported.

But Lincoln and his supporters also resorted to taunts about Stephen Douglas' looks, mockingly calling the much shorter Douglas "the little giant" and even distributing a handbill suggesting that while on the campaign trail, Douglas was a lost child whose mother was very worried about him.

Douglas fired back, describing Lincoln as "the leanest, lankest, most ungainly mass of legs, arms and hatchet-face ever strung upon a single frame. He has most unwarrantably abused the privilege which all politicians have of being ugly," Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote in "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" (Simon and Schuster, 2005).

Grover Cleveland vs. James G. Blaine (1884)

Jeering rival chants dominated the 1884 election race between Republican presidential candidate James G. Blaine and Democrat Grover Cleveland.

Blaine was pilloried by Democrats for taking bribes from railroad companies for political favors, a rumor that was only confirmed when an incriminating note turned up, bearing his instructions at the bottom to "kindly burn this letter." This soon spawned gleeful chants of "Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine; Continental Liar from the State of Maine," the University of California at Santa Barbara reported.

Cleveland, however, inspired a chant as well. After it was discovered that he had fathered an illegitimate child 10 years earlier, Cleveland was greeted with taunts of "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?"

But the Democrats wrested control of the taunt after Cleveland won the election, changing it to "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa? Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha!"

Credit: PD-US

Richard Nixon vs. Edmund Muskie (1972)

Edmund Muskie was considered a strong candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 1972 election against Republican Richard Nixon — perhaps too strong, as disparaging rumors about Muskie began to mysteriously circulate while he was on the campaign trail, and they eventually derailed his chances, Politico.com reported.

While Muskie was campaigning in New Hampshire, voters described getting rude phone calls at odd hours from people who claimed they were working for Muskie. He was also accused in a letter published in the Manchester Union Leader of using the word "Canuck," a disparaging term describing French Canadians.

Later, in Florida, letters written on Muskie campaign stationary that contained disturbing stories about fellow Democratic candidates were widely circulated to voters. The letters accused one candidate of drunk driving and another of fathering a child with an underage girl, and were clearly meant to make Muskie look bad.

The last straw occurred at a Muskie press conference in Miami, when someone released wild mice bearing tags reading, "Muskie is a rat fink." Muskie withdrew from the presidential race and George McGovern advanced to run against Nixon.

The truth emerged years later — during the hearings that followed the Watergate break-in — revealing that two Nixon staffers had coordinated the entire smear campaign that led to Muskie's downfall.

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