By IANS,
London : Former British prime minister Tony Blair has been offered 250,000 pounds ($381,000) to sign up for the next series of “Dancing With The Stars”, the US version of the reality show “Strictly Come Dancing”, according to a media report.
Conrad Green, executive producer of the show, is desperate for the former prime minister to come and strut his stuff for the American public, Daily Mail reported on its website Monday.
The media mogul has called on Blair – who this week returned to help boost Labour’s flagging election campaign.
Whether 250,000 pounds for signing up to an entire series of “Dancing with the Stars” would appear good value to Blair is uncertain.
Last week the Mail revealed that the former prime minister can make as much as $350,000 for just four hours’ work speaking to millionaires at a convention centre in Kuala Lumpur. Green said he would pair Blair with Ukrainian dancer Karina Smirnoff, 31.
“I think she would be very happy with him,’ Green said. “Tony is very popular in the States and I think he may as well come out here and give it a try.
“Hopefully he might be able to squeeze it in between solving the Palestinian problem and all those other things he’s got on.”
Although he has completed some unpaid humanitarian work since standing down in 2007, Blair has earned millions advising banks, companies and Arab governments.
He has also made huge amounts from public speaking engagements. Last year he said that he had “got out of politics early enough to have a second act in life” and complained that the media attacked him for doing so.
He also insisted that it was only in the UK that he was disliked whereas in the US nobody complained about how much money he was making.
The next series of “Dancing with the Stars” begins in the autumn and will be shown in the UK on the cable TV station, Watch.
Green said he wants to use Blair’s pulling power to convince former US president Bill Clinton to join him on the show. “I did ask Clinton once – we rang up his office. But sadly the conversation only lasted as long as it took to say ‘Dancing with the…’ before they hung up.”