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Dancing With the Stars to cast Bachelor’s Melissa Rycroft, Holly Madison?

By April MacIntyre Mar 8, 2009, 16:41 GMT

Jason and Melissa Rycroft, from ABC

Absolutely correct claims People and Access Hollywood, who say the Bachelor’s rejected fiancee Melissa Rycroft will join ABC's Dancing With the Stars, taking the slot left open by exiting Nancy O'Dell.

Melissa was the woman that Bachelor's Jason Mesnick shined on during the season finale of ABC reality competition.

The turning point for Jason with Melissa was during the holidays, “We had spent a bunch of weekends together and spent over a week together at Christmas and all of a sudden…we had so many silences and nothing to talk about…I think we both knew there was something really missing," Jason shared with Bonnie Hunt on her chat show.

Rycroft, 25, is stepping in for Access Hollywood host Nancy O’Dell, who had to withdraw from the competition on March 5 due to a knee injury.

Hefner's ex Holly Madison was revealed to be taking over for singer Jewel, who also withdrew due to a tibia injury. According to Girls Next Door co-star Bridget Marquardt who made this announcement while appearing on FOX’s Web talk show The Strategy Room.

Allegedly Madison was prevented by Hugh Hefner and their schedules from appearing on DWTS.

"I'm so excited for her," Marquardt said. "She's wanted to do it for so long, it just never worked with her schedule and Hef was always like 'I don't want you to do that,' and now it's her time, so I'm really happy for her."