Karina Smirnoff News

Earlier today, we reported that Maksim Chmerkovskiy was excited to team up with Debi Mazar on season nine of Dancing with the Stars.

That may be true, but it turns out he wasn't that excited to marry fellow professional Karina Smirnoff. The pair has broken up.

The couple got engaged on New Year's Eve, but never actually seemed too keen on walking down the aisle. Asked about plans for the wedding a few weeks ago, Smirnoff said:

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

Now, however, comes word from Karina's rep, courtesy of E! News: "I am confirming that they did indeed break up."

Will this sad news affect Maksim's performance with Mazar, or Smirnoff's with Aaron Carter? Tune in to the September 21 premiere of Dancing with the Stars and find out!

Karina Smirnoff is engaged to Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

But she has her sights set on another man.

Asked over the weekend who she'd love to see on Dancing with the Stars, the professional dancer cited a certain Matrix actor.

"I have always wanted to meet Keanu Reeves," Smirnoff told Us Weekly at the Paws for Style Fashion Show in NYC Monday.

Has she had any luck making her plea for him? Not exactly.

"I've said it for, like, eight seasons, and it doesn't seem that he's gotten the message. He hasn't responded, so I'm starting to give up."

Come on, Keanu. What the heck else do you have to do? We doubt studios are calling too often with movie offers.

Why, oh why, Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff?!?

The pair, who seems to be happy together, are setting their relationship up for failure by agreeing to star on a reality show.

The engaged Dancing with the Stars duo haven't fully agreed to a contract yet, but the series would premiere in the fall and would follow the couple's bi-coastal, wedding-planning lives. Sounds... exciting?

“We haven’t signed on the dotted line yet, but hopefully it’s going to premiere this fall," Smirnoff told Life & Style. "The show’s just us trying to have a normal relationship being in the entertainment industry and opening a studio together.”

Right. Because, as Jon and Kate Gosselin - among countless others - have proved, shows that follow "normal relationships" always turn out well for the couple.

Not only are Karina Smirnoff and Maksim Chmerkovskiy engaged, but the couple told Us Weekly this week that wedding preparations are underway.

"We started talking about it and figuring out when and where we're going to have it," Smirnoff said. "But there's so many family members that have a say that we got to try to make sure that everyone will be happy. But we think it will be sometime before the end of this year.

Both professionals in midst of rehearsing for Dancing With the Stars' upcoming season, debuting March 9.

Phew.

Karina Smirnoff, one of our favorite professionals on Dancing with the Stars, says she's feeling "great" after undergoing knee surgery late last week.

"I'm walking around easily, doing my physical therapy. The doc did an amazing job and said that I should be 100 percent by February 10," Smirnoff told E! News on Monday.

Karina Smirnoff will be back to dancing and - gulp! - stretching any day now.

Added Smirnoff's rep:

"She is resting comfortably and is expected to make a full recovery. She's looking forward to the new season of Dancing With the Stars."

So are we. It debuts on March 9!

Maksim Chmerkovskiy is very smooth on the dance floor.

Not so much when it comes to proposing, though, apparently, as new fiancee Karina Smirnoff told The Insider.

"It was the most perfect proposal ever - yet the most disastrous," the dancer said about the New Year's Eve proposal.

Chmerkovskiy proposed at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel Resort and Casino on by handing his love a limited edition Louis Vuitton bag.

"The box with the ring [a 3-carat Harry Winston] was inside, and I thought it was the receipt or something," Smirnoff said. "When I opened the box, I freaked out and closed it again. I re-opened the box, and he still wasn't saying anything! He tried to form sentences, but nothing would come out. We both stood there staring at the ring."

Brooke Burke has nothing but positive words for reality TV's latest engaged couple, Dancing With the Stars' Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff.

"I'm really happy for them," she told Us Weekly at last night's People's Choice Awards.

As for her life on the dance floor, Burke added that she hasn't shaken her booty since conquering all competitors on last season's Dancing with the Stars.

"I haven't worn high heels!" she added. "I miss it a little bit, but it was a perfect way to end the year."

For Maksim Chmerkovski and Karina Smirnoff, 2008 couldn't have ended on a better note: the Dancing with the Stars couple got engaged on New Year's Eve in Las Vegas.

"I'm in love and so is she," Chmerkovskiy told People Magazine in an exclusive interview. "Everything is beautiful."

Regarding her new finace, Smirnoff said: "He is such a softie. The way he proposed was so romantic."

As the couple rang in the new year, Chmerkovskiy presented Smirnoff with a three-karat Harry Winston platinum and diamond ring tucked inside of a Louis Vuitton bag.

Prepare for the most exciting first dance in wedding history.

Karina Smirnoff and Maksim Chmerkovskiy, two veteran professionals on Dancing with the Stars, are getting married!

According to E!, the pair got engaged just before midnight on New Year's Eve.

No date has been set for the nuptials, but both stars are expected back when season eight of Dancing with the Stars kicks off March 9.

Karina Smirnoff is no fool.

She knows how good looking partner Rocco DiSpirito is, and she has every intention of exploiting that fact to her advantage of Dancing with the Stars this season.

“He’s very handsome,” Smirnoff told People Magazine last week. “A lot of women kept telling me, ‘Oh, my god, you have a hottie! You got a hottie this season!’ So I’m sure we’re going to try to play off the handsomeness of Rocco.”

How far do you think Karina Smirnoff and Rocca DiSpirito will advance this season?

As for other strategy, Smirnoff said Rocco simply has to relax.

“I think he’s a lot of fun when we like just hang out or talk, but when he’s actually in the studio, motivated and determined to do well, he gets very tight,” she said, “so I need him to let go of all inhibitions and just go for it.”