Charlize Theron to be World Cup star

Published: 7:22AM Wednesday December 02, 2009 Source: Reuters

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South African actress Charlize Theron has landed the leading lady's role in Saturday's draw (NZT) for next year's World Cup finals in her home country, FIFA announced on Wednesday.

Theron will be joint host of the 90-minute show to be televised live to an estimated global audience of more than two hundred million people in 200 countries at 1900 local time (0600 on Saturday morning).

She will join FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke to host the procedure of placing the 32 finalists into eight groups of four teams for the tournament which runs from June 11 to July 11.

The show will include an African musical spectacular, including gospel and jazz.

A host of sporting celebrities will also take part in the draw including Ethiopia's Olympic champion runner Haile Gebrselassie, England midfielder David Beckham, South Africa footballer Matthew Booth and cricketer Makhaya Ntini and the host country's rugby World Cup captain John Smit.

South African president Jacob Zuma will be in the audience along with Nobel Peace prize winners Frederik de Klerk and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

FIFA will announce which teams will be seeded for the draw at a news conference on Thursday.

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