“I am indeed recovering from a bout of the H1N1 flu virus,” Melissa said Thursday. “Like most people who become infected, I thought I had a mild case of the common flu, but when my symptoms exacerbated, I immediately went to the hospital where I was diagnosed with H1N1 and given the proper medications to cure the infection.”

Melissa Rycroft, former star of ABC’s Dancing With The Stars and The Bachelor is engaged, PEOPLE Magazine has learned.

Tye Strickland, an insurance agent, popped the question over the weekend at Dallas restaurant Cretia’s. The pair have been dating on and off for more than two years.

The two rekindled their romance after the former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader’s engagement to The Bachelor’s Jason Mesnick ended with a live breakup on the After The Final Rose special on March 2.

Last week, Melissa made her debut as a Special Contributor on ABC’s Good Morning America.

Talk about a woman who knows how to parlay public humiliation into a full-fledged career….

Melissa Rycroft — the woman who was dumped on national television on the last season of The Bachelor – is joining the cast of Good Morning America.

Word is Melissa — a former cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys –will be working as a “special contributor” during the summer, presenting “maybe eight or 10 pieces” for ABC’s popular morning gabfest.

The deal is not yet final, but the former Dancing With The Stars contestant wasted no time spreading the news of her latest screen soiree on her Twitter page this morning.

“Guess who just got a job with Good Morning America??? WHAT?!?” she wrote.

Melissa is expected to make her GMA debut shortly. We’ll keep you posted.

Someone’s snaggletooth is green with envy.

Jewel has questioned the decision by Dancing With the Stars to once again allow an injured competitor to be judged by their rehearsal dance.

In fact, the country singer — who was forced to back out of this season’s competition due to a knee injury –has a simple message for the injured contestants of DWTS: “If you’re too hurt to compete,then you can’t compete.”

Writing on husband Ty Murray’s MySpace blog Thursday, Jewel said: “I think the rule about ‘judging a rehearsal if the person is too injured to perform’ was weird both times they have used it.”

The rule states that a contestant too injured to compete on the live show will be judged on their rehearsal footage. It has already been put into practice twice this season, once when Steve-O hurt his back and a again on Monday when The Bachelor’s Melissa Rycroft suffered a rib injury.

“As bad as I felt for Melissa, who I hope feels better and comes back, I’m used to our cowboy athletes that live by the rule: ‘ride hurt or don’t get a score,’” Jewel writes. “It may seem harsh, but it seems like the only way to keep things honest.”

“But, if I were to be on the show I might change my mind. Hahah!”

Do you agree with Jewel?

Melissa Rycroft, one of the leading contestants on the current season of Dancing With The Stars, was forced to sit Monday night out after suffering a painful injury to her ribs.

Host Tom Bergeron announced the news early on the night’s broadcast: “Earlier today, Melissa was taken to the doctor with an injury that was plaguing her all week.”

While the former star of The Bachelor is expected to continue in the competition, the disgruntled judges were forced to base their scores on Melissa and partner Tony Dovolani on a practice run-through they’d done earlier in the day.

“Judging the rehearsal is kind of like judging a race car driver on a warm-up lap,” Judge Len Goodman remarked. Melissa and Tony scored a 21.

At the end of it all, Lil Kim and professional partner, reigning DWTS champ Derek Hough, proved they are serious contenders for this year’s top prize after earning the night’s highest score, a 28/30, for their dramatic paso doble.

The Bachelor’s Melissa Rycroft could be the next reality star to pose nude for Hugh Hefner.

The Hef has reportedly offered the former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader turned Dancing With The Stars frontrunner $500,000 to follow in the footsteps of fellow TV hotties Adrianne Curry and Kim Kardashian and strip down to her birthday suit for an upcoming issue of Playboy.

In fact, Hef has invited the brunette bombshell to a special dinner at the Playboy Mansion to discuss the details and crunch some numbers.

A Star source says: “Hef really wants Melissa to do a pictorial because she’s the ultimate girl next door.”

“He thinks she has it all,” the insider adds, “Beauty, brains, spunk, and it doesn’t hurt that she has a terrific figure.”

Of course, Melissa could always ask Holly Madison for a few pointers. The former Girls Next Door star is Melissa’s co-star on DWTS this season.

But don’t reach you climax too quickly, guys. It could be several months before Melissa shakes her moneymaker on the pages of Playboy.

“It states in her contract with ABC that she cannot pose nude while she’s on Dancing,” Star’s tipster reveals. “And she won’t even be able to until three months after her season ends.”

When Kimmel asked if she feels like she and pro partner Tony Dovolani are improving as the competition goes on, Melissa replied: “I feel like we take ten steps backward every time the show ends and we start again, because it’s a new routine and it’s something I haven’t done before. So, I was really comfortable with that stupid salsa that we did, and now you’ve got to throw that out the window and … foxtrot?”

Melissa Rycroft wowed fans and judges alike with a showstopping waltz during last week’s season opener of Dancing with the Stars. But the Bachelor dumpee has her work cut out for her if she hopes to win the respect of acid-tongued professional dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

Maks, who is paired with actress Denise Richards on DWTS 8, believes the former Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders has a leg up on the competition thanks to her extensive dancing background.

Is it just us or does this guy find something new to bitch about every season?

“Its very hard for me because Tony [Dovolani] is my best friend, but if we’re gonna call it what it is, it’s very unfair because Melissa’s a dancer – she was a cheerleader and did ballet,” Maksim told TVGuide.com on Sunday.

Melissa had less than 48 hours to prepare for last week’s debut after stepping in to replace Access Hollywood’s Nancy O’Dell, who was forced to drop out of the competition due to a serious knee injury.

The lack of rehearsal time didn’t seem to affect her performance; Melissa waltz earned a score of 23 out of 30 with the judges.

According to PEOPLE Magazine, Melissa Rycroft, 25, will fill th eslot vacated by Access Hollywood host Nancy O’Dell, who had to withdraw from the competition on March 5 due to a knee injury she suffered during rehearsal.

Melissa, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, is expected to perform live on tomorrow night’s premiere.

Melissa won the hearts of reality TV fans across the nation last week when she won the 13th season of The Bachelor only to be jilted by fiance Jason Mesnick, who ended his romance with Melissa to return to the show’s runner-up, Molly.

(Keep those names straight. There will be a quiz on this later.)

In other DWTS News, former Hefner hottie Holly Madison is believed to be taking over for singer Jewel, who also withdrew last week due to an injury.