You call them stars?

After accusing Fox of false advertising last week, it's only fair to do the same to ABC this week.

And, if anything, the whopper that ABC is foisting on the public is even bigger than the one Fox tried to sell.

Quick, tell me who these people are: Lisa Rinna, Tia Carrere, Giselle Fernandez, Romeo, Kenny Mayne, Drew Lachey and Stacy Keibler.

Some of them you might know. A couple of the other names might look familiar. Some of them, I'd be willing to bet, most of you have never heard of before.

And yet ABC insists they're stars. They're part of the group that will populate "Dancing with the Stars" when it returns for a second season in January.

I'll give ABC a pass on a couple of the contestants. Actors George Hamilton and Tatum O'Neal and ex-football great Jerry Rice have at least been stars at some point in their careers. You could easily argue that Rice is the biggest star of the bunch.

As to the others, well, pretty much the best you can say about them is that some of them are celebrities.

(I said it before and I'll say it again — Fox calling Dave Coulier, Bruce Jenner, Todd Bridges, Kristy Swanson, Deborah Gibson and Jillian Barberi "celebrities" by putting them on the "Dancing with the Stars" rip-off "Skating with Celebrities" is, at the very least, stretching the truth.)

But let's run down the list of ABC's other so-called stars:

• Rinna is a ex-soap actress and home makeover show host.

• Tia Carrere is an actress who never quite achieved star status.

• Giselle Fernandez is a former newscaster.

• Romeo is a rapper (who used to be Lil' Romeo).

• Kenny Mayne is a sportscaster.

• Drew Lachey was a member of the boy band 98 Degrees, but he's best known as Nick's brother (and Jessica's soon-to-be ex-brother-in-law).

• Stacy Keibler is a pro wrestler.

It's not exactly Night of a Thousand Stars, is it?

On the other hand . . . a big part of what "Dancing with the Stars" has going for it is its sheer cheesiness. The entertainment value might be diminished if actual big stars took part and it became an actual competition as opposed to something that's just for fun.

Well, unless you got caught up in that whole Kelly Monaco-John O'Hurley controversy the first time around.