Remember those pictures of dance partners and unlikely couple Shannon Elizabeth, 34, and her “Dancing With The Stars” partner, professional dancer Derek Hough, 22, kissing on the beach? The public hardly noticed and Elizabeth and Derek were voted off the competition about 11 days later to fall in 6th place. Former American Pie star Elizabeth has been dating a math teacher from Las Palmas Middle School in Covina, CA, according to the February 25 issue of Star, and she even told In Touch at the end of April that her boyfriend was fine with Derek being her partner because “He knows I’ve never dated a blond guy, plus Derek is 22.”

People thought that Derek and Shannon were yet another couple that fell in love after all that romantic exercise together. Legitimate DWTS couples include Sabrina Bryan and Mark Ballas, and Mario Lopez and Karina Smirnoff. They were faking it though, and they admitted it to In Touch:

“We are playing into the rumors with the kisses on the cheek [during their April 21 performance],” admits Shannon. “With our new ‘strategy,’ we are doing it for fun now and for the audience.” Adds a winking Derek “With our new ‘outlook,’ I think it’s going to go down a lot better. We’re like, if they want kisses, we’ll give them kisses!”

[From In Touch, print edition, May 12, 2008]

I wonder how Shannon’s boyfriend felt when he saw those kissing pictures which didn’t manage to get Elizabeth enough votes to stay in the competition. The Shannon Derek fauxmance was covered on the front page of People’s website for a few hours on the day the photos came out and even had a two page spread in Star Magazine.

Shannon and Derek are shown outside the Regis & Kelly show on 5/1/08, thanks to WENN.