Her divorce battle with Sir Paul McCartney may not have won her many friends in Britain, but Heather Mills McCartney is fast becoming an American sweetheart.

The amputee jived her way into contention on the US TV show Dancing With The Stars after taking to the floor with a brand new leg.

On the Tuesday results show, broadcast early today British time, she was safe, with former Miss USA Shandi Finnessey ejected in a public vote following a dance-off.

The estranged wife of former Beatle Sir Paul, who lives in Hove, had a more flexible prosthetic leg fitted for this week's performance.

She danced an energetic jive with partner Jonathan Roberts and the judges declared it "fantastic".

After watching her dance in Monday's show, judge Bruno Tonioli called her "the incredible Heather Mills", adding: "One, two three legs, I don't care how many - you did a fantastic job."

And fellow judge Carrie Ann Inaba said: "That was fantastic. You add difficulty where you don't need to because you are so good."

Lady McCartney scored 24 points out of 30 - putting her in joint first place at the end of Monday night's programme.

In the show, broadcast on the ABC network, the scoring is divided equally between the judges' scores and the viewer votes.

The couple with the lowest combined score will be eliminated from the competition.

There was no results show when the series kicked off last week - meaning this was the first time Mills will face the public vote.

In next week's show Lady McCartney will perform either the paso doble or the waltz.

Earlier she told a television interview that she had been vilified in the press when all she did was "fall in love with someone madly".

She told US E! Entertainment Television: "People label me a gold digger and, if I was, I would've been a very wealthy woman when I met Paul, and that wasn't the case at all.

Lady McCartney added: "Starting in a few weeks, I will start flying back and forth to England every week to be with my daughter as she goes back to school.

"My husband and I share 50/50 custody because I've always felt the father is just as important as the mother."

While Lady McCartney remains on the show she will fly home on a Tuesday and return to Los Angeles on the Sunday evening.