
New Jersey's gay ex-governor said Tuesday that he's turning down an offer to be a radio talk show host.
Former governor James McGreevey said he won't entertain an offer from New Jersey 101.5 FM to host his own show.
McGreevey's tongue-in-cheek response to the politically controversial station: ''Thanks for the gracious offer, but I don't want to destroy your image.''
The offer came after an employment expert testified in McGreevey's bitter divorce trial that he is ''radioactive'' in the work world since a gay sex scandal toppled his administration four years ago. An expert for McGreevey's estranged wife, however, said he could earn $1.4 million in his lifetime because of the celebrity status attached to his name.
McGreevey, 50, has testified that he is too poor to pay Dina Matos McGreevey alimony. He is a seminary student who says he has borrowed more than $200,000 from boyfriend Mark O'Donnell to pay legal bills and other expenses.
''Governor McGreevey has claimed that he is 'unemployable' and the management of New Jersey 101.5 simply does not believe this to be true,'' the station said in written statement.
Andy Santoro, chief operating officer at Millennium Radio New Jersey, insists the offer was legitimate, saying McGreevey remains ''one of the most intriguing political figures in New Jersey's history.''
Santoro said McGreevey turned down a previous offer because of ''bad timing.'' The former governor once had a monthly show on the station.
The station wouldn't say what it would have paid the former governor for his time on the air, but said it was willing to negotiate.
McGreevey was scheduled to testify again Wednesday when his divorce trial resumes in state superior court in Elizabeth. (Angela Delli Santi, AP)
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