Renee Zellweger is being lined-up to appear on Dancing with the Stars.

Bosses for the reality show are keen to pull out all of the stops for the next season by choosing celebrity contestants who have all won Oscars, and they believe securing Renee - who took home the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role in Cold Mountain in 2003 - will encourage other stars to sign up.

"Renee is being seen as the lynchpin contestant that would seal the deal for the theme season. The producers are fixated on Renee, in part because she hasn't done much dancing at all since Chicago more than 10 years ago and there's this real mystery about her and what she's up to. They keep raising the amount of money they are willing to give her in the hope that she'll say yes, and the theory is that if they can get her to sign on, then it would attract some other really prominent Oscar winning stars - who wouldn't normally do reality TV - to fall in step," a source said.

Ratings for the ABC program have decreased in recent seasons after producers only wanted celebrities with little dancing experience to take part, but they believe a talent like Renee's could boost viewings. "Now that the rule that stars had to be total dance novices has been broken, it opens the door wide for someone like Renee, who hoofed it in Chicago, to strut her stuff. The DWTS masterminds think the idea of having a theme of Oscar winners would be a sure ratings-grabber," the source explained.