Eat your heart out, Maks! Newly-single Dancing With The Stars pro Karina Smirnoff is kicking off her dancing shoes — along with everything else — in a new PETA campaign — “I’d Rather Dance Naked Than Wear Fur” — shot by celebrity photographer Robert Sebree.
The stunning 31-year-old stopped wearing fur after watching footage of baby seals being killed for their pelts.
“I did wear fur, especially when I was growing up in the Ukraine,” the fancy-footed beauty reveals in an interview with PETA. “But there are ways of being warm and being fashionable without being cruel.”
Smirnoff joins a growing list of celebrities–including Christina Applegate, Sophie Monk, Khloe Kardashian, Nia Long, and Kimora Lee Simmons –who have starred in PETA’s anti-fur ad campaign.
Dancing With The Stars champions Karina Smirnoff and Maksim Chmerkovskiy won’t be dancing down the aisle in holy matrimony, after all. Karina’s rep tells E! News that the ballroom pros, who spent the summer performing in the Broadway production Burn The Floor, have parted ways after nearly a year of dating.
Smirnoff, 31, and Chmerkovskiy, 28, became engaged in December and had planned on getting married in June 2010, but prolonged their engagement in July due to their busy theater schedules.
“I am confirming that they did indeed break up,” says a rep for Karina — who began dating her DWTS co-star after a messy split with former flame Mario Lopez.
Dancing With The Stars couple Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff are too busy to tie the knot!
The dancers became engaged in December 2008 but plan wait until next summer for their wedding.
Maksim and Karina have hired a wedding planner for their June 2010.
“We don’t plan [the wedding],” Maksim told PEOPLE Magazine on Friday. “We’re [working] 14 hours a day. This is our life right now,” he said. “We’re not rushing,” Karina added. “As long as we’re together, tying the knot is a plus, it’s something extra.”
The two are currently in the new Broadway dance show Burn The Floor.
Dancing With The Stars pros and real-life couple Karina Smirnoff and Maksim Chmerkovskiy have revealed to PEOPLE.com that they will tie the knot next June.
“If it was just friends and family that would be one thing, but there are so many people telling us, ‘We’ll be there, we want to come!’ So we said, Okay, the wedding is turning out to be a bigger production,” Maksim explains. “We want to take our time. You don’t want to piss anybody off or hurt anybody.”
Maks also announced that he and Karina are looking to hire a wedding planner, telling PEOPLE:
“We are currently interviewing a few wedding planners because we figure we could use professional help.”
Dancing With Stars’ Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff — who have been heating up more than just dancefloor since they began dating last year — celebrated their engagement at Disneyland in Anaheim, California on Friday.
Maks and Karina got engaged on New Year’s Eve and plan to wed later this year.
