It is an offer many men would find hard to resist - being paid to sleep with someone else's wife.

George Clooney lookalike Gary Tate was offered £5,000 to give the woman a night to remember.

When he declined, the businessman upped the money and begged him, saying his wife was swooney over Clooney.

Gary said: "He kept ringing me and hassling me to do it and every time the money crept up.

"At the time I wasn't with anyone so I could have done it but in the end I thought it would make me feel like a prostitute so I turned him down.

"The husband was deadly serious about it and would have gone through with it but I couldn't. He didn't send me a photograph and I didn't ask for one."

Gary, from Stone Cross, near Eastbourne, earns up to £600 a night doubling for Clooney, who shot to fame as paediatrician Dr Doug Ross in medical drama ER and has gone on to be one of Hollywood's hottest names.

Gary said: "I've done lots of things as George Clooney and am frequently treated like a star, especially in America, but that is the most unusual request I've had."

The offer has echoes of the film Indecent Proposal in which Robert Redford offers gambler Woody Harrelson $1 million (£544,679) to sleep with his wife played by Demi Moore.

Gary, 46, has been leading a double life for seven years. He first realised he was a dead ringer for Clooney when a fellow guest at a wedding was left star-struck.

He said: "This woman was beside herself. She said 'Oh my God, what are YOU doing here?'. I had no idea what she was talking about because that was in the early days of ER and I had never heard of George Clooney.

"Then it happened again while I was out shopping. Around that time The Sun was running a contest to find the best lookalikes and my friends convinced me to send in a photo."

Since then Gary has travelled the world, opening casinos, attending parties, doing TV advertising and generally looking like Clooney when required.

He said: "Looking like George is easy. It's when someone asks you to talk like him it gets difficult."

Today Gary is one of the lookalikes in the TV programme Stars And Their Doubles 2004, presented by Dale Winton. The show is the climax of a country-wide search for the best doubles.

Gary causes a stir when he goes speed dating, along with Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and Jude Law lookalikes. There are also skits involving an Elton John double and the real Anthony Costa from Blue.

The climax of the evening is an Oscar-style awards ceremony where statuettes will be presented by celebs, including Jodie Marsh, Vanessa Feltz and The Cheeky Girls.

Gary said: "Being a lookalike is not something I ever thought of doing. But you can't help what you look like."

He still has his feet firmly on the ground, running a double-glazing business in Eastbourne and captaining the pool team at the Prince Albert pub in the Old Town.

Stars And Their Doubles 2004 will be shown on ITV1 tonight at 9pm.