Sticks and stones!
Ralph Macchio and partner Karina Smirnoff got the axe from Dancing with the Stars Tuesday night. Backstage, the duo told Us Weekly that their elimination seemed inevitable following Monday night's scathing — and questionably unfair — criticism from the judges.
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Following their racy rumba routine on Monday, Judge Bruno Tonioli went on an x-rated tangent, even uttering the "p" word raving about Smirnoff's curvy feline costume. (Smirnoff, 33, later told Us the comments made her feel "dirty.")
"We were in a hard place for even our fan base to pull us out of," Macchio, 49, said.
The Karate Kid star told Us: "That was unfortunate because I thought some of the judges' comments were rude and inappropriate and not constructive for how I could better myself. We felt circled as the one couple who didn't get praised and held up like the others did.
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Still, Macchio isn't taking things too personally. He explained: "Everyone plays a character on this show. It's a TV show! But I thought over the season we'd earned being judged on the dance and not getting comments… that was disappointing."
