Why I stick to sports:
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Ted Haggard will swap wives with Gary Busey on reality show
By Lisa de Moraes
Ted Haggard, the former megachurch pastor who fell from grace amid a sex scandal, stands with his wife Gayle. (Ed Andrieski - AP) Evangelical pastor Ted Haggard has agreed to star in the new, celebrity version of ABC’s reality-TV series “Wife Swap.”
He’s going to swap wives with Gary Busey.
Seriously. You can’t make this stuff up.
ABC confirmed Haggard had been cast in the celebrity version of its long-running “Wife Swap” show in which people, well, swap wives, but only for a relatively short period of time. Tension and hilarity ensue, some tears are shed, and a good time is had by all.
Haggard, who founded the New Life Church in Colorado Spring, Colo., went on to become president of the National Association of Evangelicals. He was forced to resign in 2006 when it came to light he’d bought crystal meth from a male prostitute with whom he’d had sex.
Through it all, Haggard has remained married to his wife, Gayle.
After two years of silence following the ’06 revelation, the former religious bigwig gave his first interview to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s daughter — celeb-documentarian Alexandra — for an HBO documentary called “The Trials of Ted Haggard.”
Haggard came to Winter TV Press Tour 2009 to talk about the documentary, but tippy-toed around every question he was asked about homosexuality. He told GQ magazine this year that if he were younger, he’d probably identify himself as bisexual.
Busey, meanwhile, is a born-again Christian and professional reality-TV-series “celebrity.” Busey’s appeared on “Celebrity Rehab” and “Celebrity Apprentice.” It’s unclear whether the “wife” he’ll be swapping for Gayle Haggard is his girlfriend Steffanie Sampson, who is the mother of his infant son.
ABC had already announced that “Celebrity Wife Swap” would feature Carnie Wilson, Tracey Gold, Flavor Flav, and Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snyder.
By Lisa de Moraes | 05:58 PM ET, 09/21/2011
