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Dancing With the Stars Backstage Scoop: What's Really Going On With Maria and Derek?!

Exclusive! Katherine Jenkins revealed to us that partner Mark Ballas sang in her ear to help her control her emotions during tonight's show

By Aimee Curran Apr 03, 2012 5:57 AMTags
Dancing with the Stars, DWTS Season 14, MARIA MENOUNOS & DEREK HOUGHABC/BOB D'AMICO

Ooh la la…could Maria Menounos be getting "extra" close to partner Derek Hough

It sure looked that way on Dancing With the Stars' performance show when the entertainment news host was close to full lip-lock during her rumba, which paid homage to her immigrant parents. So did they or didn't they? And what was Katherine Jenkins' secret to getting through her emotionally charged routine that brought everyone to tears? Plus, which dancing pair isn't nervous about Tuesday night's elimination?   

We caught up with the Dancing couples after the show to get all the scoop...

MORE: Dancing With the Stars Recap: 10s Already! Plus, Tons of Crying!

It's only week three, but things are already heating up on Dancing With The Stars! The most talked about routine of the night belonged to Maria and Derek, whose alleged kiss got the whole audience buzzing! When we caught up with the pair after the show, Derek admitted there was a little unplanned lip-on-lip action!

"There was a little kiss," Derek told us. "Whatever it was, it felt right." Ahhh! Is this an official hot new couple alert?! Sorry to get your hopes up, but there won't be any showmance between these two; turns out Maria's laugh is getting in the way of anything going further than friends. 

"Here's the thing, in practice it's like 'Oh my gosh I think I'm feeling something for Maria,'" Derek told us. "Then she [laughs] and it' s like 'Oh, nevermind!'"

Maria copped to having a laugh that rivals a goat's cackle and said it's a good way to keep things professional. "Gotta keep it in check," she said. "[We] need a balance or else it'd be dangerous."

It wasn't just Derek and Maria's kiss that got the audience going. There wasn't a dry eye in the crowd after Katherine's waltz for her father. It was an especially emotional routine, but Katherine said her way of getting through it was to depend on partner Mark Ballas to sing a song of nonsense in her ear!

"I knew I couldn't listen to the package, I knew I couldn't see photos of my dad so I had my hands on my ears Mark had his hands on my ears and he was singing to me in my ear," she told us.  "[It was] nonsense!" Mark laughed. "I was singing, 'You got a blue dress on I got on a satin suit, We gotta bend our legs, bend our legs, bend our legs!'"

No silly song needed to calm the nerves of Sherri Shepherd who is so blinded by her busy schedule that she forgot about Tuesday night's elimination! 

"Oh, elimination is tomorrow isn't it! I forgot!" The View co-host told partner Val Chmerkovskiy. "See? Clearly we are not nervous," he told us. "You know it's something that is out of our control. We did what we could and the rest is up to the audience. So why be nervous about it?"

"Hopefully they really got what we were trying to express and loved it," Sherri added.

Do you think Sherri and Val will make it through to another week? Would you like to see Maria and Derek as a real-life couple? Sound off in the comments!

PHOTOS: Dancing With the Stars: Season 14