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From ‘Dirty Dancing’ star to ‘Dancing with the Stars’ champ, nobody puts Jennifer in a corner!

Watching Jennifer Grey win the Mirror Ball Trophy on the Nov. 23 season finale of Dancing with the Stars was nothing short of fulfilling. Not only did it reaffirm my belief in justice (take that, Bristol Palin!) but it also reminded me how much I love a good comeback story. America fell in love with Jennifer, 50, when she starred in 1987′s Dirty Dancing alongside Hollywood icon Patrick Swayze – yes, even I was humming “The Time Of My Life” in the womb — but she gradually faded from the spotlight and feared she might never return.

In a previous interview, she attributed her disappearance to her nose job-gone-wrong in the early ’90s: “I went in the operating room a celebrity — and came out anonymous,” Jennifer has said. “It was like being in a witness protection program or being invisible.”

But Jennifer, and her nose, got the last laugh when she and Derek Hough dominated the 11th season of the hit ABC reality series.

And I guess that’s what Dancing with the Stars is really all about: bringing back personalities we once knew and reminding us why we loved them in the first place. … Or in some cases (Kate Gosselin, etc.) we’re reminded why we never liked them to begin with.

Watch Jennifer and Derek win DWTS below:

And see her with Patrick in Dirty Dancing:

— Andy Swift