HOLLYWOOD - Tom Bergeron the host of the hit show Dancing With The Stars has verified the rumor that one of the stars of the The Vampire Diaries, Ian Somerhalder has been asked to appear as one of the celebrity dancers for the upcoming season.
Bernadette Penderlicki, producer of Dancing With The Stars, spoke with TV ClickerWorld's Sangria Wine and informed her that she has been trying to get Somerhalder to appear on DWTS for the past two seasons.
She noted that the problem was one of scheduling. She pointed out that not only was there a conflict with the filming of The Vampire Diaries but there were also problems with several commercials which Ian was committed to filming including commercials for the Burger Bandit national hamburger chain, the Hotel Ooh La La in New Orleans, and for Paul Bunyan Glow-In-The-Dark Condoms.
Penderlicki stated that she had also asked Somerhalder's co-star Nina Dobrev to appear as a dance contestant but that she had turned down the offer.
Miss Dobrev noted that she felt she would not have taken kindly to any negative comments that would have been made by the British judge, Len "The Grouchy Grouch" Goodman.
She pointed out to Miss Wine that she knows that the first time that the old English geezer would have made an unkind remark about her dancing that she would have exploded and fired off a volley of expletives that would have made a hardened Oregon lumberjack blush.
Meanwhile Somerhalder said that he welcomes the opportunity to get to dance with a good-looking, sensuously sexy, professional dancer such as Anna Trebunskaya, Chelsie Hightower, Lacey Schwimmer, or Karina Smirnoff, who won this past season with J.R. Martinez.
Somerhalder told Miss Wine that he eventually hopes to make a musical blockbuster movie and so what better way to help achieve that dream than by getting taught by one of the world's greatest dancers.
The 33-year-old actor who portrays Damon Salvatore on the CW television drama said that growing up as a little boy in Covington, Louisiana he used to dream about playing leftfield for major league baseball's Houston Astros.
He said that his secondary dream was to appear in a musical like Singing In The Rain.
SIDENOTE: Ian has stated that if he does agree to appear as a celebrity dancer he will take the entire $200,000 celebrity fee and donate half of it to The Cajun Coalition To Save The Bayou Crawfish From The Bayou Gators and the other half to The Mardi Gras State University Research Study To Enhance The Understanding of Louisiana Creole Voodoo Rituals.
