Lee Mead – who won BBC talent contest Any Dream Will Do and a starring role in the West End – is in the running to be the new face of Asda clothing.

The George brand is searching for a celeb, or two, to replace Coleen McLoughlin, 22, who is due to marry England star Wayne Rooney this summer.

And Mead, named Outstanding New Talent at the Variety Club Showbiz Awards 2007 for his debut in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, is very much in the frame.

Not only that, but Asda is reported to be hoping to team up the 26-year-old – voted 2007 Rear of the Year – with Denise Van Outen. Van Outen, 33, was one of the judges when Mead won Any Dream Will Do and is currently fulfilling a similar role on the BBC's latest talent search for someone to play Nancy in a new production of Oliver!

An Asda spokesman told the YEP: "We love the technicolor dreamboat. We are talking to a number of people at the moment to find the next face of George, but you shouldn't rule either of them 'Van Outen'."

Asda has used a host of famous faces to promote its products in the past including glamour girl Jordan and X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne.

The Leeds-based firm is owned by US retail giant Wal-Mart.

On Tuesday it revealed that like-for-like sales, excluding petrol, had risen by 6.4 per cent over the first quarter of 2008 as lower prices and strong seasonal events had brought in the punters.

Asda's president and chief executive officer, Andy Bond, described the results as "encouraging" but added: "We mustn't become complacent – especially in the current economic climate."