Interest is mounting in the return of TV's Dancing With the Stars next week, or more specifically, in the participation of British activist and former model Heather Mills.

Mills will be the first contestant with a prosthetic limb to participate in the ABC-TV reality dance competition, which pairs celebrities with professional ballroom dancers.

An online gambling website is taking bets on whether Mills's prosthetic leg will fall off while she is competing on Dancing With the Stars.
(Associated Press)

Online gaming site bodog.com — established by Canadian-born billionaire Calvin Ayre — has opened betting on several Dancing With the Stars topics, including whether Mills's prosthetic leg will fall off during a dance routine, alongside bets about reality hits American Idol and Survivor.

Site operators specified that "Heather Mills' leg must fall off, not be purposely taken off, during a dance routine."

Another bet asks the question: Will Heather Mills drop out of Dancing with the Stars 4?

Mills herself addressed the issue in a recent interview with U.S. celebrity program Extra.

"It's very, very unlikely my leg's going to fly off even though it would be quite funny to knock one of the judges out," she said.

Mills, 39, lost part of her left leg after being struck by a motorcycle in 1993. In an interview on Larry King Live in 2002, she removed her prosthetic leg to show it to the CNN host.

"This is just basically, not to be dramatic, but just to show people," she said.

The latest edition of Dancing With the Stars begins March 19 and will also include female boxer Laila Ali and actor-singer Billy Ray Cyrus vying for the top spot.

Aside from controversy about Mills, currently embroiled in divorce proceedings from Paul McCartney, the new instalment has made headlines because its physically demanding training period has already forced one original contestant — former Sopranos actor Vincent Pastore — to throw in the towel.