Even though Melissa Joan Hart has made her exit from Dancing with the Stars (during a double elimination last week), she’s not bitter — in fact, she’s got warm feelings for plenty of the cast! So who’s she rooting for now? “Kelly [Osbourne]. We became good friends, so I’m rooting for her,” Melissa told OK! as Lucky magazine hosted their 6th annual Lucky Shops VIP opening party in NYC.

“Joanna [Krupa]’s also a very sweet girl. Mya’s an amazing dancer,” adds Melissa, “And Donny [Osmond] I’ve known forever and he’s a fantastic performer of course.”

As for any rumors of backstage drama and romance, Melissa insists that everything is quite serene.

“It’s pretty calm back there,” she reveals. “Everyone likes each other. I think now, even since I’ve been gone, it looks like they’ve gotten closer.”

Melissa dished to OK! last week after her elimination, saying her only regret is “I promised my three-year-old [son] I was going to be dancing to the song “Bare Necessities” [from Disney's The Jungle Book] next week, and that’s not going to happen, so that’s a bummer. But I get to go back home to them!” Melissa lives in Connecticut with husband Mark Wilkerson and their two boys.

Source, Bauer-Griffin

Melissa Joan Hart makes a cute face as she attends the Season 9 “Dancing with the Stars” party at Coco Deville Lounge.

Photo: Pacific Coast

It’s going to be a crowded ballroom for Dancing with the Stars’ ninth season. Sixteen celebrities — including Donny Osmond, Melissa Joan Hart and Aaron Carter — have signed on to do the cha cha, the paso doble on the ABC show, which premieres Monday, Sept. 21.

“When we increase the cast we find it makes the competition more interesting,” DWTS executive producer Conrad Green tells People. “It was about trying to make it as big as possible and try to get that sense of fun and excitement and real character come through on the show.”

The sweet 16 lineup, which was announced live on Good Morning America Monday, also includes familiar faces like former Dallas Cowboy Michael Irvin, reality star Kelly Osbourne and supermodel-turned-billionaire businesswoman Kathy Ireland. Lesser-known celebrities, like snowboarder Louie Vito, Iron Chef’s Mark Dacascos and model Joanna Krupa join the cast as well. But by far the most eyebrow-raising contestant is former House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

“He’s a fairly divisive figure in as much as Democrats will probably be hoping he fails and Republicans will probably be melting down the phones to keep him in,” Green admits. “I love that kind of level of engagement.”

Adds Green: “Tom loves dancing. He dances with his wife. He watches Dancing with the Stars religiously. For him it was a no brainer, but for us it was an absolute shock.”

Professional dancer/celebrity pairings will be announced on August 24, Green says, “because of geography, people will be meeting their partners for the first time at various times throughout the week.”

The complete cast for Dancing Season Nine

Mya, singer
Melissa Joan Hart, actress
Michael Irvin, former Dallas Cowboy
Ashley Hamilton, actor, comedian, singer-songwriter
Aaron Carter, singer
Kathy Ireland, former supermodel-turned-businesswoman
Debi Mazar, actress
Natalie Coughlin, U.S. Olympic swimmer
Louie Vito, snowboarder
Chuck Liddell, ultimate fighting champ
Donny Osmond, singer
Tom DeLay, former Republican congressman
Macy Gray, singer
Joanna Krupa, model and actress
Mark Dacascos, Iron Chef personality
Kelly Osbourne, reality star

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Family comes first for Melissa Joan Hart. So when the Sabrina the Teenage Witch star’s mother, Paula, underwent an intense eight-hour surgery on a brain tumor in June, the actress and her family leaned on each other for support.

“I was beyond worried but had faith,” Melissa tells In Touch. “I had to be patient. It was tough. Having all six of my siblings there made it easier. We tried to distract ourselves with games in the waiting room. I even stupidly challenged my brother to a push-up competition!” Paula’s surgery was a success, but Melissa, 33, wanted to do more to help her mom’s recovery — so she and her husband, Mark Wilkerson, recently uprooted their family from Los Angeles to Connecticut to be closer to Paula. “We moved 3,000 miles away, we left behind our house and our friends — it’s very hard,” says Melissa. “But it’s for my mom!”

One aspect of Melissa’s life that’s on pause? The diet and exercise routine that resulted in her much-publicized 50-pound weight loss. “It’s hard because I’m stressed out with the move and everything and eating a lot of traveling food — Starbucks breakfasts, that kind of thing,” Melissa admits. “I have to find a new program here and fit it in my schedule, and just watch what I eat until I can get to the gym. It’s difficult, but I did it before and I can do it again!”

Source, Fame Pictures

Actress Melissa Joan Hart has second thoughts about her decision to give birth to son Braydon naturally.

“I told my mom and my husband, don’t let me have [the drugs],” she told Usmagazine.com at the Celebration of Babies to benefit March of Dimes in L.A. Saturday.

“I kinda regret that one,” she revealed.

“But the thing is, the healing was so much faster,” the 32-year-old explained. “I didn’t have to get the drugs out of my system and was moving around a lot more.”

Hart, who had “a lot of medical intervention” during her first delivery, told Us that having a natural childbirth motivated her.

“I labored at home for 9 hours and then went to the hospital for an hour and a half – two pushes and he was out,” she said.

“When your feeling all that, you want to get that out as soon as possible, so you really work,” she added. “You’re like, ‘I’m gonna push really hard but I’m only doing it once.’”

Braydon, born in March, is now 6-months-old. Hart and husband Mark Wilkerson also have a 3-year-old, Mason.

“They’re just starting to relate to each other a lot,” Hart told Us. “[Braydon] loves to laugh at his big brother and his brother loves to make him laugh.”

So how did Hart lose her pregnancy pounds?

“Four weeks [after], I started feeling really good so I started going to the gym and started working out, went about three times a week,” she told Us. “I got delivery food for a little while.

“What I did was make sure no Sprinkles cupcakes [were] in the house, no candy,” she said. “I got used to the no sugar so I was like ok, ‘no starches.’ I slowly started to get myself back on track and get my will power built up.”

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WENN

With a new baby at home, Melissa Joan Hart says life has been crazy enough – and it’ll only get more hectic when her musician husband hits the road.

“I’m not sure I can handle two babies on my own, unlike my sis who is super-mom,” Hart, 32, who gave birth to son Braydon Hart Wilkerson in March, writes on her MySpace Celebrity blog.

The actress and husband Mark Wilkerson, 30, a Grammy-nominated musician, also have 2-year-old son Mason.

“We are adjusting nicely to being a family of four, although it is a tough job,” says Hart. “It’s about to get a lot tougher as Mark leaves on tour this week.”

But the actress says she, too, will be on a tour of sorts when she travels to New York to promote Pull-ups Training Pants and then to Baton Rouge to shoot a feature film in June, a thriller called 9 Dead that her mother is producing. And after that: she’ll shoot a new ABC family movie she’s producing.

But, for now, Hart is bracing for temporary single motherhood.

“Wish us luck on our travels,” she writes, “and say a prayer for Mark that he doesn’t die from heartbreak from missing his boys too much!”

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WENN