Friday Morning Man: Maksim Chmerkovskiy!

I may have skipped watching Dancing With the Stars this season, but I’ve still kept up with the comings and goings of the franchise’s sexiest male pro: Maksim Chmerkovskiy. This guy, referred to sometimes as the bad boy of the ballroom, absolutely sends me.

He’s a Ukrainian Latin Ballroom dance champion with a real entrepreneurial spirit and owns three dance studios in the New York City area. Maksim has fallen in love with fellow dancer Karina Smirnoff who he is engaged to marry.

I’ve interviewed Maksim a few times at events and a few summers back, he gave me a really wonderful answer on how he feels about all the attention he gets from gay men: “I don’t want to sound shallow but, obviously, everybody likes attention and I appreciate it. I want everybody to understand that I appreciate it. I’m not kind of looking for it and I’m not asking for it but the fact that it’s there makes me very happy. I hope that people like my character as well as the looks. I’m very comfortable with being admired by men and women. I come from a dance world and a lot of dancers are homosexual and there’s nothing wrong with that. I think some of the most talented people on the planet are gay men so it”s not a problem. I just want to create a positive character for myself.”