How’s this for pressure:
The Bachelor’s Melissa Rycroft, still reeling from a humiliating rejection on national television on Monday, March 2nd, got a call on Friday, March 6th—five days later—and was asked if she wanted to substitute for the injured Nancy O’Dell on
Dancing With the Stars If her answer was “yes,” she would have to dance in front of millions in three days.
“One of the ABC execs called and said, ‘Hey, here’s an idea,’ ” says Rycroft. “And you have thirty minutes to make the decision.’ ”
So she hung up and dialed her parents and her new boyfriend. “And I said, ‘What do you guys think?’ ” When their answer was a unanimous, “yes,” Rycroft hopped a plane Saturday morning “and we’ve been going non-stop ever since.”
“She is very sore right now,” says her pro partner, Tony Dovolani, who couldn’t stop laughing after the show over the absurdity of having to start over with Rycroft and produce a polished waltz in two days. “We knew it was kind of ridiculous,” he says, “so we went out there and said, ‘Oh, well, let’s see what happens.’ ”
When they scored an astonishing 23 points—the second highest of the night—it was probably because Dovolani had good raw material to work with. Rycroft had extensive ballet training as a child, then graduated to the drill team in high school and, eventually, to cheerleading for the Dallas Cowboys. She did that up until two years ago. “But I could feel things ripping,” says Rycroft after the show, and after showing some impressive flexibility in her dance. “I’m 25, but gosh you feel old sometimes when you have to hike your legs up.”
O’Dell, side-lined with a bad knee that will require surgery, gave the pair a standing ovation. Said judge Bruno Tonioli, “I don’t know that
Bachelor guy, but he’s a loser.”
Then there’s the other 11th hour substitute, Holly "
Girls Next Door" Madison, Hugh Hefner’s ex girlfriend. According to her rep, Madison threw her hat in the ring to do
Dancing last fall. When she wasn’t asked to be part of last season’s cast, rumors flew that Hefner didn’t want her to do the show. But Madison, who split from Hefner last October, says that it was never an issue between them. “We had a nine o’clock curfew at the mansion,” she says, “so that may have been a part of it.”
When the call came last Monday to come in as a substitute for the injured Jewel, Madison didn’t hesitate for a second. “We started rehearsing Tuesday and we rehearsed six hours a day for six days,” says Madison. “And then we got three sixes for a score—which is kind of Satanic.”
Madison is working with
Dancing newcomer Dmitry Chaplin, who says he had mixed feelings when asked to stay on with a new partner. “To have someone new is very stressful,” says Chaplin. “People don’t realize how hard ballroom dancing is.”