Celebrity & Dancer Pairs Unveiled for New Season of Dancing with the Stars

They've got their partners. Now, they just have to learn the moves!

Following the cast announcement on Monday, ABC on Wednesday unveiled the celebrity-dancer pairings for the new season of Dancing with the Stars, premiering March 21st.

The couples are as follows: Kendra Wilkinson and Louis van Amstel; Chelsea Kane and Mark Ballas; Wendy Williams and Tony Dovolani; Kirstie Alley and Maksim Chmerkovskiy; Petra Nemcova and Dimitry Chaplin; Chris Jericho and Cheryl Burke; Romeo and Chelsie Hightower; Mike Catherwood and Lacey Schwimmer; Sugar Ray Leonard and Anna Trebunskaya; Hines Ward and Kym Johnson; and Ralph Macchio and Karina Smirnoff.

The stars have three weeks to prepare for the premiere, and Alley, 60, said the pressure is on.

"My partner [Maksim Chmerkovskiy] is calling me 'G' for Grandma," she said at Monday's press conference. "He says I'm too slow. I call him 'M' for mean."

Dancing With The Star's Maksim Chmerkovskiy Did Not Turn Down U.S. Version of The Bachelor

While it certainly would have been the most dramatic network crossover ever, Dancing with the Stars‘ resident hunk Maksim Chmerkovskiy did not, in fact, turn down an offer to star in ABC’s hit dating show The Bachelor, according to a show source.

Though Maks writes on his blog that he “turned down the American version” of The Bachelor and will instead star in a Ukrainian version of the show, a show source said that ABC did meet with the Dancing star but never offered him the gig as chief rose-master.

Not only would the Bachelor‘s shooting schedule conflict with Dancing, which returns in March, the show has had limited success with “high concept” Bachelors (think The Fake Prince, The British Bloke, The Football Player) — and there’s no reason to think viewers would buy that notorious playboy Maks was there (all together now) for the right reasons.

Reps for Chmerkovskiy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Is Bristol Palin Headed to Dancing Finals?

Kyle Massey wooed the Dancing With the Stars judges during the semifinals, but was it enough? Or did Bristol Palin's amazing run finally end?

And did Brandy's fall to the bottom two send her packing? Or is Jennifer Grey going to be the latest surprise elimination on Tuesday night?

It's another ballroom shocker: Brandy was sent packing.

Members of the audience gasped and some booed at hearing the results, but the R&B star's pro partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, took the high road.

"People vote and their voices count," he said. "I don't regret a second ... of being on this season. It's been an amazing journey."

Moving to the finals are Massey, Grey and Palin.

Who Won on the 10th "Dancing With The Stars"? We've Got Your Results.

After performing a sexy samba and a even sexier freestyle with partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy on Monday night, ESPN reporter Erin Andrews found herself at the top of the leader board for the first time, tied with front-runners Nicole Scherzinger and Derek Hough.

An Olympian who has proved his worth in gold, Evan Lysacek, and his partner Anna Trebunskaya were close behind after the first night of competition on Dancing‘s two-night finale.

Tuesday night they danced again and two were eliminated, leaving one star the proud season 10 champ and owner of the coveted mirror ball trophy.

It’s Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger!

Lysacek was second and Andrews was third.

Scherzinger’s victory capped a banner year for the show. Not every program can top the ratings charts in its 10th season, but Dancing did just that, outdoing juggernaut American Idol several times thanks to a cast that included reality star Kate Gosselin, actress Pamela Anderson, pro football player Chad Ochocinco and Bachelor star Jake Pavelka.

There were the usual are-they-or-aren’t-they dating rumors that swirled around couples like Andrews and Chmerkovskiy, and Cheryl Burke and Ochocinco.

Not to mention plenty of off-the-dance-floor drama. Captured on tape were flaring tempers between pro Tony Dovolani and Gosselin, as well as tears from frustrated pros Chelsie Hightower and Trebunskaya. And no sooner had Andrews put the much-publicized peephole stalking incident behind her when another stalker surfaced and threatened her life.

But in the end it came down to talent, especially that of Pussycat Dolls vocalist Scherzinger, whom pro Jonathan Roberts calls “the best woman to ever be on the show,” and Olympic figure skating champ Lysacek, “the best guy to ever be on the show. In a way, it’s a tragedy that both Evan and Nicole were on the same season, because in any other given season either one of them would hands down be the winner.”

Jake Pavelka Strips Down to His Tighty Whiteys on Dancing With The Stars

Reigning Bachelor Jake Pavelka channeled Tom Cruise in Risky Business on Monday night’s Dancing With the Stars by stripping down to his skivvies. And whaddaya know? He and partner Chelsie Hightower ended up in the top 3 for the first time!

“You leave it all on the dance floor, and there’s some skin out there, I think,” Jake said afterward. “Once in a lifetime opportunity! And my knees will heal.”

Maksim Chmerkovskiy stated to E!: “He’s desperate…with his pants off. I don’t blame him. You’re in the bottom two, you wanted the numbers, there’s nothing to lose, so he just took his pants off.”

To recreat Tom Cruise’s iconic underwear scene from Risky Business was, well, risky for Jake Pavelka.

He’s jumped into hot tubs on The Bachelor, but dancing the cha cha in undies required baby steps.

“I rehearsed for the first time in underwear and there was about five people,” Pavelka told People Magazine. “Then about 20 people, and then for dress rehearsal about 40 people. And then we did it tonight for about 25 million people.”

Pavelka’s partner, Chelsie Hightower, “was loving every minute of it,” she says. “I was laughing my head off.”
Meanwhile, Derek Hough was impressed: “I love how he just comes out and doesn’t hold back. He just goes for it,” he says. “There’s no way my chicken legs are ever making an appearance on this show!”

Dancing in his tighty whiteys paid off as he survived elimination this week.

Paparazzi!: 'Burn'-ing Up!

Fire…and ice cream! Maksim Chmerkovskiy and fellow Dancing with the Stars pro Kym Johnson unveil a special, themed ice cream sundae at New York's Serendipity 3 to mark their appearance in Broadway's Burn the Floor. Chmerkovskiy previously danced in the show with ex-fiancée Karina Smirnoff.

Dancing with the Stars Update:Derek Hough Out, Maksim Chmerkovsky Steps In

If you are keeping score on this season of the hit ABC reality show Dancing With the Stars, you know that Maksim Chmerkovskiy and his partner Debi Mazar got the boot last week. Two remaining dancers were actually quite happy to be rid of “the drama”. Their relief turned out to be short lived because Maks will be back next week….at least temporarily.

Derek Hough is ill with the flu and the producers of DWTS have recalled Maks to cover for the ailing pro. He stepped back in on Thursday to assist celebrity contestant Joanna Krupa.

Not so pleased with this new state of affairs are Maksim’s ex-fiance Karina Smirnoff and her celeb partner Aaron Carter. According to Carter, the tension on the set had been strained. After the departure of Debi and Maks, Aaron told Usmagazine that “the energy has definitely gotten a lot better. We have the opportunity now to focus on the dancing without the drama.”

Hough managed a few comments on his Twitter page about his condition. He ‘tweeted’, “had a temperature of 104…Had an IV in my arm for 2 hrs. Maks is steppin up for me helpin jo.”

Debi & Maksim Leave Dancing with the Stars along with Tom DeLay & Cheryl Burke

A stress fracture in each of Tom DeLay’s feet forced the former politician to withdraw from this season’s Dancing with the Stars during Tuesday’s elimination. But the judges’ scores and viewers’ votes from Monday’s show still counted, sending home Entourage star Debi Mazar and her partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

“I didn’t want to go through another week like I had last week,” DeLay stated. “You have to practice.” Last week, doctors said he was suffering from pre-stress fractures in his feet. In a week, his injuries worsened.

On Saturday, he practiced for two hours followed by a 30-minute practice on Sunday. His partner, Cheryl Burke, was growing concerned. “It’s not worth the risk. He proved to everyone he could do it,” she says.

She was surprised when Tom Bergeron announced they were safe from elimination during the show. “People are really behind this man. They love him. He earned some Democrat votes, as well.”

Bergeron invited DeLay to return for the season finale and perform the Texas two-step, which was the dance he was expected to perform next week. DeLay promised to come back. “Cheryl has already promised to come to Texas,” he says.

As for her last dance, Debi Mazar called her departure bittersweet. “It’s sweet because I don’t have to kill my body another week, but bitter because I loved the experience,” she says. “I wish I had another chance to show that maybe I could leave my nerves at home and not bring them to the dance floor.”

Maksim Danced for Karina During Their Emmys Performance

Maksim Chmerkovskiy isn't her No. 1 man anymore, but he said he danced his heart out for ex-fiancé Karina Smirnoff's sake at their Emmy Awards performance Sunday night.

"Honestly the majority of what I did today was because I knew how big of a deal it was for her," he said at the Entertainment Tonight/People after-party, adding that he’d agreed to perform with Smirnoff before they split and wanted to hold up his end of the bargain. "She wants this. She wants to see how she can excel. Dancing at the Emmys was such an amazing spotlight. I just wanted to make sure to give it to her even if it's the last thing I do. So I wanted to do the best job I could, but it was hard."

Hard because he's still smarting from their break-up, announced earlier this month.

"It's difficult, but we're trying to work it out," Chmerkovskiy said of their effort to maintain a friendship. As for the next season of Dancing with the Stars, he says don't expect any problems. "It's not about the show. It's just us. To me it was never about anybody else or the show. It was about us. That's what was important to me. We'll see how it goes."

The fact that the video highlight seemed to play up the tragedy of their split didn't exactly help either, he said, calling the highlight of their DWTS dances together "ridiculous."

"I wasn't nervous, but I got really anxious, he said. "Karina gets nervous. I told her not to turn around for her own good. The lift was the most important. Once we were done with that everything else was a breeze."

Costar Derek Hough – who went through his own break-up with actress and former dance partner Shannon Elizabeth – told People he can sympathize.

"For instance with me and Shannon, we broke up after a year and a half, but we're still really great friends," he said. "We still love each other. It's just a different type of love."

"I think when you really love somebody – you hear who people were dating say, 'Oh, I love this person,' and then after the break-up say, 'Oh, I hate them' – I don’t understand that. When I love somebody I will continue to love them forever and be there."

Maksim & Karina's Last Dance?

The show must go on!

Despite breaking off their engagement earlier this week, Dancing With the Stars pros Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff will reunite to perform at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, September 20th, CBS and the Television Academy announced on Thursday.

Chmerkovskiy and Smirnoff will perform live in a segment honoring dance in reality television at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, just one day before Dancing With the Stars kicks off its ninth season.

On the season's Dancing with the Stars, Chmerkovskiy will dance with actress Debi Mazar and Smirnoff is paired with singer Aaron Carter.

The Emmys will be broadcast live at 8:00 pm (ET)on CBS

Maksim and Karina: What Went Wrong?

For many in showbiz it's the time spent apart that kills a relationship. But for Dancing With the Stars pros Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff, who split last weekend, the opposite proved true.

"They both knew when they had been spending more time together recently things weren't going so well," a source close to Smirnoff said. "She's not devastated but it obviously hurts, she's angry. She'll always love him and respect him but she always knew in heart of hearts from the beginning of their relationship that he wasn't the one for her."

Chmerkovskiy, 29, and Smirnoff, 31, who had gotten engaged on New Year's Day in Las Vegas, couldn't get past a major hurdle: they didn't see eye-to-eye when it came to children, pals say

"Maks was ready to start a family and have children with Karina, and he came to realize that wasn't really what she wanted," says another source close to the couple. "He's just heartbroken things didn't work out. He'll always respect Karina."

Plus, relations with the relatives were strained. "His family did not want him to marry her," says a Chmerkovskiy friend.

"Even her family thought he may not even be the one," adds the Smirnoff source, who agrees that Smirnoff wasn't ready to have children yet, but wanted to later on. "They think it worked out for the best. She knows she needs to take time to focus on herself and not jump into situations. She wants to focus on work and she'll be fine."

The pair, who were in talks to do their own reality show, will still work closely together when Dancing's ninth season premieres September 21st on ABC.

Maksim Chmerkovskiy & Karina Smirnoff Split!

It looks like Dancing With the Stars' Karina Smirnoff and Maksim Chmerkovskiy will be performing their next dances solo.

The pair, who just last month gushed about how they do everything together, have broken up after about a year, Smirnoff's rep has stated.

"I can confirm that this is true," the rep says. No reason was given and the rep says no further statement would be issued. Chmerkovskiy's rep didn't immediately comment.

Smirnoff, 31, and Chmerkovskiy, 28, who became engaged in December, had planned on getting married in June 2010, but prolonged their engagement in July because of their busy Broadway schedules.

"We're not rushing," Smirnoff said at the time. "As long as we're together, tying the knot is a plus, it's something extra."

The split was first reported by E! Online's Marc Malkin.

Karina Smirnoff Calls Fiancé Maksim Chmerkovskiy ‘Groomzilla’

They dance beautifully together, but planning the wedding may be tricky.

“He’s the groomzilla,” Karina Smirnoff says of fiancé and Dancing with the Stars costar Maksim Chmerkovskiy. “He wants a big wedding and I want it small, so we’re still in negotiations.”

Speaking at Animal Fair magazine’s 10th Annual Paws for Style fashion show sponsored by Svedka on Monday at M2 nightclub in New York, Chmerkovskiy’s bride-to-be explained his demands.

“He wants posh, beautiful … something that’s going to leave memories for the rest of your life,” says Smirnoff, who is costarring on Broadway with Chmerkovskiy in a three-week run of Burn The Floor before returning to Dancing with the Stars.

“I agree with him,” she adds, “but at the same time, I would rather have the memory be at the beach in Bora Bora [for our honeymoon], enjoying beautiful weather and clear water.”

But her “groomzilla” is not the only one making demands. “I told Max, I don’t want to dance,” Smirnoff said. “I do not want to have the first dance. But … he’s going to sing the song that I ask him to sing, which is ‘You Are So Beautiful’ by Joe Cocker. Granted, he may not really sound like Joe Cocker.”

Smirnoff also insists on a storybook gown. “Definitely white,” she said of her wedding dress. “You only supposed to get to wear a big white dress once in your life.”

As for her dream designer, Vera Wang, Smirnoff thinks she may have an in. “You know what the Internet rumor is, that she might be either coming to Dancing with the Stars . . . So I’m going to run up and say, ‘Please!’

Carrie Ann Inaba Presents Maksim Chmerkovskiy & Karina Smirnoff on Broadway

Oprah, move over. Carrie Ann Inaba is now joining the ranks of Broadway producer, too.

The Dancing with the Stars judge has signed on as a name above the title of the Latin and ballroom dance spectacular Burn the Floor, which for the first three weeks of its 12-week run will guest star DWTS's Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff in their Broadway debuts.

"I'm thrilled to get my feet wet on Broadway with this wonderful production," Inaba said in a statement Monday. "I've been a fan of Burn the Floor since its inception, and I am honored to be a part of the creative team that is bringing this wonderful show to Broadway."

Conceived, directed, and choreographed by Jason Gilkison, former World Champion Latin and Ballroom dancer and guest choreographer on the fourth season of So You Think You Can Dance, Burn the Floor was created as a special performance at Sir Elton John's 50th birthday in 1997. The stage version made its world premiere in the U.K. in 1999.

Broadway previews begin at the Longacre Theatre this Saturday in anticipation of an August 2nd opening.

Star Sighting: All the Right Moves

And, dip! Karina Smirnoff sweeps fiancé Maksim Chmerkovskiy off his feet as the Dancing with the Stars pros celebrate their engagement Friday at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

Dancing Pros Maksim Chmerkovskiy & Karina Smirnoff Are Engaged

Dancing with the Stars pros Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff are engaged.

Maksim proposed to Karina just before the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve with a Harry Winston rock for his Dancing costar, a source confirms to E! News.

The news of the engagement comes in the middle of the Dancing tour, and only six months after Karina announced her split with former contestant and dance partner Mario Lopez. Karina, 30, and Maksim, 28, began dating shortly thereafter.

No word from either camp on a possible wedding date. But, you'll have a chance to check out Karina's bling when Dancing with the Stars returns for Season 8 on March 6th.