Karina Smirnoff
Gossip

Aaron Carter and Karina Smirnoff are sexy, single and partners on Dancing with the Stars.

So they must be getting it on, right? Wrong, Carter says.

“It’s really funny,” Smirnoff told People. “The rumors are that we are hooking up, but then we’re not sexy enough on the dance floor [according to head judge Len Goodman]? Let me tell you, if that was the case, the dance would have been very raunchy, as Len wanted it to be."

It's true. The pair only scored 18 points last night.

Added Carter: “We have a lot of respect for each other and I have a lot of respect for her. She’s a lady and I’m going to treat her like that. She just went through a breakup so it’s important to respect her.”

Late this summer, Smirnoff and fiance Maksim Chmerkovskiy split up. It's been a difficult recovery period, she said.

“If Aaron wasn’t by my side, kind of being there, a shoulder to lean on, I don’t think it would’ve been possible to get through it. He reminds me that I do what I love: dancing. And he’s always happy, always smiling, saying, ‘Come on, girl! You can do this!’ I tip my hat off to Aaron for being as strong as he is.”

She may tip her hat to Carter, but she's never played "Just the Tip" with him. Big difference there.

Having broken up with Maksim Chmerkovskiy this summer, Karina Smirnoff is now free to flirt, go on dates and show off her naked body to pretty much anyone.

Case in point: the Dancing with the Stars professional in the latest in a long line of random celebrities to don her birthday suit in a PETA campaign against fur. (Season nine contestant Joanna Krupa has also bared it all for the same cause.)

"I did wear fur, especially when I was growing up in the Ukraine," Smirnoff said, adding that she ceased sporting it when she watched footage of baby seals who were killed for their skins.

It's terrible "when we take advantage of an innocent animal that cannot defend herself," Karina said. "There are ways of being warm and being fashionable without being cruel."

That's true. There are also ways of getting this message across, PETA, without wasting millions on these ad campaigns. Perhaps you should actually save troubled animals with that cash instead.

We are sad to report that the smoldering Dancing with the Stars duo, Karina Smirnoff and Maksim Chmerkovskiy, have just called off their engagement.

"I am confirming that they did indeed break up," Karina's rep told E! News.

Word of the split comes just a month after they debuted on Broadway in Burn the Floor. Perhaps it was their busy schedule that contributed to the split.

That Broadway performance, in addition to the upcoming Season 9 of Dancing with the Stars, had already pushed back their nuptials until next summer.

"We don't plan," Maksim Chmerkovskiy said this summer.

"We're [rehearsing] 14 hours a day."

Karina and Maks will no longer be dancing the horizontal mambo.

"The only thing we've decided on is next year in June," Karina said. "We were supposed to pick the place, but we've never actually had the time to go further."

"We don't feel like we're messing out on the wedding dress fittings," she continued. "As long as we're together, tying the knot is a plus. It's something extra."

Or it was, anyway.

Will their breakup cause tension on the Dancing with the Stars set? What's the over-under on how long it takes before Karina reunites with Mario Lopez?

Stay tuned.

Karina Smirnoff and Steve Wozniak combined for a measley 10 points on this week's Dancing with the Stars.

Shockingly, such a low score wasn't the worst part of Smirnoff's week.

The professional dancer actually attended a party thrown by TV Guide with the following hairstyle. We wish we could say this was a wig...

What do you think of Karina Smirnoff's hairstyle?

Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff are prepared to entertain friends with the greatest first dance in wedding history.

Indeed, this pair of Dancing with the Stars professionals is set to get married!

The engagement took place just prior to midnight on New Year's Eve, as E! Online reports that Chmerkovsky sealed the deal with a Harry Winston number.

Smirnoff and Chmerkovskiy began dating soon after Karina ended a two-year relationship with Mario Lopez.

Karina Smirnoff is a professional on Dancing with the Stars.

Based on the reaction to the sight of her below, however, Sean Stewart wants her to appear on Shagging with Washed Up Sons of Singers. At least for one night.

There's nothing like a little fun in the pool.

Especially if you're C-list celebrities with no jobs... or at least ones that offer a heck of a lot of time off in between seasons.

On the left, The Hills' Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag chicken-fight their way to $10,000 paydays from a certain celebrity photo agency.

On the right, Dancing with the Stars' Karina Smirnoff and Mario Lopez show they're still an item, frolicking in Miami and apparently indicating that they'd welcome the challenge of taking Spencer and Heidi down. Hard.

Who would win a chicken-fight between Speidi and Marina?

As adamant defenders of all Saved By the Bell alumni - we seriously believed Dustin Diamond didn't release that sex tape! - we feel the need to call out Karina Smirnoff.

What are you doing, home girl?!?

The Dancing with the Stars professional accompanied the wrong Mario to Crustacean Beverly Hills Monday night. We have no idea where boyfriend Mario Lopez was as these two headed out after performing the paso doble in the ballroom.

But we do know this: AC Slater was All-City in four sports in high school and sang in the chorus. Don't mess with him, wanna be Mario!

Karina Smirnoff heads out on the town with a Mario whose last name is not Lopez.

That's Mario, the R&B singer who uses only his first name (real name Mario Dewar Barrett), and not Mario Lopez, former Saved By the Bell Star.

Karina Smirnoff is partnering with the former on Dancing With the Stars this season. Three seasons ago, she partnered with Mario Lopez.

Mario Lopez and Karina Smirnoff fell in love and are still dating as a result of that season of Dancing With the Stars. All caught up?

The DWTS pro and certified cutie responded this week to rumors that she is hooking up with her current partner, the R&B singer Mario.

"We have a completely professional relationship," Karina Smirnoff said. "I have a lot of respect for Mario. He is a great person."

Mario and Karina: The 2008 Dancing With the Stars edition.

The New York Post reported this week that the current DWTS iteration of Mario and Karina were "making out by the valet with their hands all over each other" at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. Juicy gossip!

Mario's rep denies the claim, saying "this did not happen."

But a source close to the talented singer insists "there is definitely chemistry and a flirtation between the two." Then again, it is dancing.

Ah, what would Dancing With the Stars be without constant hookup rumors? Or the incredibly attractive and somehow still chaste Julianne Hough?

Karina Smirnoff now has something in common with Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz.

No, those actresses haven't seen Mario Lopez naked.

But all three celebrities have undergone plastic surgery on their nose, as Smirnoff underwent the procedure for medical reasons on November 2.

According to People magazine, a doctor performed the routine procedure to repair the nasal passageway and reshape Smirnoff's nose, which she's broken twice in accidents in the past six years.

The professional dancer is expected to make a full recovery in time to appear on the November 27 Dancing with the Stars finale, when all of the season five couples will reunite on the ballroom floor.

"She can breathe easier," the surgeon, Dr. Nicholas Nicolov said. "She may find being a little less tired, a little less winded."