British tabloids gaga over our Hayley

NEIL MACKENZIE/Dominion Post

RISING STAR: Kiwi dancer Hayley Holt is stirring up a lot of interest in Britain.

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British tabloids are clamouring to find out more about Kiwi dancing star Hayley Holt after the leggy blonde's debut on the BBC's equivalent to Dancing with the Stars.

The News of the World has described her as the "blonde babe who is sexing up Strictly Come Dancing", and says that back home she and her All Black captain boyfriend Richie McCaw are New Zealand's equivalent of Posh and Becks.

But the tabloid says a lovestruck McCaw is worried about whether their romance will last when they are thousands of miles apart given Holt's "track record" of being linked with her dance partners on the New Zealand show.

In an online story headlined "Sex Secrets of New Strictly Star Hayley Holt", the News of the World said the 28-year-old set tongues wagging after her dance partner, Brendon Pongia, appeared on a radio show the morning after the pair were eliminated and admitted that he had not been home.

Later that day, it said, Holt and the ex-basketball star appeared bleary-eyed on a TV show, yet denied they had quick-stepped it back to her place.

It claims Holt was also linked to another of her dance partners, double Olympic gold medallist Danyon Loader - and that was good news for her Strictly Come Dancing partner - Olympic swimmer and British team flagbearer Mark Foster.

But Holt told the paper she's aware the producers try to match the dancers "with people who might make headlines, romance possibilities etc".

Holt's agent, Sara Tetro, told the Sunday Star-Times that she was fielding several calls a week from British media wanting to find out more about Holt and asking for pictures. "The interest in her is really building and she is getting stopped in the street by people."

Asked if Holt was interested in more work on UK television, Tetro said the BBC show would bring her into contact with many influential players in the industry.

She said Holt was having to slow herself down when she was interviewed because some Brits couldn't understand her accent.