Curling

STEVENS POINT, Wis. - A member of the U.S. Olympic curling team is hoping a dose of reality TV will cure a financial shortfall preventing his family from attending the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

Chris Plys, the alternate on John Shuster's Olympic rink, will appear next month on the E! network's new reality show "Bank of Hollywood.''

The show, produced by Ryan Seacrest Productions, debuts Dec. 14 on the U.S. cable channel with eight episodes planned. The premise of the show involves a panel of celebrity judges handing out cash to people seeking money for a variety of reasons.

Plys will make his case to Candy Spelling, widow of producer Aaron Spelling, poker star Vanessa Rousso, Pussycat Dolls singer Melody Thornton and Sean Patterson, president of Wilhelmina Models.

The series is based on a British show "Fortune: Million Pound Giveaway.''

Plys, from Duluth, Minn., is asking for cash to help pay for his family to attend the Olympic Games. His father has been battling brain cancer for the past few years and was unable to be in Sweden with Plys when he won gold medal at the world junior curling championships.

"It was sweet...just the whole process of seeing how the TV production works, and getting to work with people who do this every day and experiencing the whole Hollywood thing for a few days,'' Plys said.

Plys, 22, won the world junior title in 2008 and was the youngest skip in the field at the 2010 U.S. Olympic trials in February.

It's not the first time curling has hit the airwaves. The Simpsons will air an episode with Homer and Marge on a curling team just prior to the Olympics getting underway in Vancouver in February.

And former world champions Randy Ferbey and Dave Nedohin played themselves in cameo appearances on the wildly successful Canadian comedy, "Corner Gas'', back in 2005.