Las Vegas Weekly

March 30, 2009 · 9:27 AM

Maks, Karina, Chuck and Julianne spill love secrets amid DWTS injuries

By Robin Leach

Holly Madison and Dmitry Chaplin.

Photo: ABC TV

The Dancing With the Stars injury count has now risen to three, and that’s after two stars -- Jewel and Nancy O’Dell -- were KO’d before Season 8 even began airing on ABC!

Tonight, the walking wounded who are still determined to compete are Jackass stuntman Steve-0, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and the latest accident victim, gorgeous glamour girl Holly Madison.

The platinum Playmate and The Girls Next Door star has been suffering intense rib pain while practicing her Argentine tango for tonight’s fourth show of the season. Other contestants will dance the lindy hop on this evening’s show.

“Whatever the pain, Holly is such a fighter. She is determined to dance,” said her representative, Steve Flynn. She injured her rib here in Las Vegas 10 days ago while rehearsing for last week’s samba. Even when the judges commented about her stiffness, she still kept silent about the injury until finally medics were called in because of the excruciating pain.

Photo: ABC TV

Karina Smirnoff and Steve Wozniak.

The Woz is still suffering the after-effects of a torn hamstring, and Steve-O is recovering from a sprained back and impacted nerve. They, too, will dance, but all three could wind up in tomorrow night’s first-ever double elimination. Judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli have shown no mercy for the sick stars, and only sympathetic viewers have saved them up until now.

Meantime, country singer lovebirds Julianne Hough and Chuck Wicks aren’t complaining about injuries but instead have said their onscreen and rehearsal hall partnership has set off a whole new dynamic in their romantic relationship. Chuck complains that date nights have been curtailed and roles have switched now that Julianne is in charge of the dancing!

“He has to listen to me,” said the 20-year-old former Las Vegas Academy student. “We haven’t experienced this before where I have to be the one in charge. We’re growing and learning about each other in a totally different way. “Added 29-year-old Chuck: “The show has meant more time together, but we’re sweating it in the studio instead of going out on dates.”

Photo: Tao

Karina Smirnoff.

Photo: Scott Doctor/www.greatscottstudios.com

Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

For the first time, pro dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy has revealed that he first met and fell in love with his new fiance Karina Smirnoff 14 years ago. During a TV Guide photo shoot, he admitted: “We met in a Brooklyn dance studio 14 years ago. It was love at first sight for me. She’s a strong, amazing, accomplished woman, and she walked in with her pretty self. For me to even stand a chance, I knew I had to be an accomplished, strong man. So I worked my butt off to get here, and it just took me 14 years to get there and ask her to marry me.”

Incidentally, that TV Guide photo shoot is particularly sexy as the photographer had them posing underneath bed sheets. Said Maks: “He wanted us to be cute. There we were half-naked under the cover, and I kept thinking of all the other things we could be doing better there! It was very sexy and a good time, even though we laughed the entire time.”

Vegas DeLuxe will have the spoiler alert story this evening with the judges’ scores shortly after the live broadcast to the East Coast, and then it will be up to the unpredictable and unexpected viewer voting to agree or disagree with the experts!

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Share This