NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK - WAHLBERG SIGNS UP FOR NEW TV SHOW

Former NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK heart-throb DONNIE WAHLBERG has signed up to star in a TV show loosely based on his life.

Singer-turned-actor Wahlberg, older brother of MARK WAHLBERG, will chronicle his upbringing and music career in the series, which is expected to hit US screens next year (06).

He says, "(The show will be about me) growing up in Boston in the '80s and being bused to a predominantly black neighbourhood from (age) seven 'til high school.

"(Those years were) the greatest blessing that ever happened in my life. A lot of kids older than me heard what their parents were saying, and it was a problem for them to go to school in a black neighbourhood, but I was young, and I didn't care.

"I got to school and had fun with my friends, and most of them were black. So (the show) goes back to my roots and how being exposed to all those different ingredients shaped me."