Hasselhoff Double-Crossed!

Maybe David Hasselhoff dried out his Speedos a little too soon. 

The ex-Baywatch lifeguard probably wishes he could go back to the beach now that Double Cross, his latest foray into syndication, has been abruptly canceled due to money problems. 

Set to debut this fall in more than 80 percent of the country, the show, originally called AKA Picasso, was to feature Hasselhoff as a master art thief turned globe-trotting secret agent. Presumably Doublecross, which would have also been coproduced by Hasselhoff, would have a high hot-babe factor à la Baywatch. 

While the premise sounded really promising, the international financing reportedly fell through at the 11th hour, scotching the project. It's nearly impossible to launch a show without international backing--Baywatch, for example, is such a huge success because of its international support. 

According to the trade paper Daily Variety, some of the stations that had signed on for Double Cross were told yesterday the series was being pulled by its distributor, New York-based BKS. Apparently shooting on the Montreal-based show had not yet started. 
 

"We were pleased with what Mr. Hasselhoff accomplished with Double Cross and it is no fault of David or Henry [Siegel, CEO of production company Kaleidoscope and the man who helped launch Baywatch on NBC in 1991] that the series is not going forward," Hasselhoff's manager tells E! Online. 

Hasselhoff blew off his Baywatch duties last September for Double Cross. "Since I'm an equity partner, I'd love to see Baywatch go on forever," he said at the time. "But my commitment is to [Double Cross]. I've waited a long to time to branch out and do something I really want to do. Ten years of running down the beach is too much. I'm tired of doing sit-ups." 

Now that Double Cross is dead, Hasselhoff, who had been doing part-time duty on Baywatch Hawaii this season, could be rethinking his stance on sit-ups. It won't be easy, though: The cliffhanger season finale of Baywatch Hawaii, airing this month in syndication, shows Hasselhoff's Mitch Buchannon seemingly blown up--a turn of events the actor wasn't too pleased with. 

But he's on the road to patching things up with his swimsuited Baywatch buddies. Hasselhoff will be hosting a beach-front party in Santa Monica tonight to celebrate a full decade of the jiggly, sun-lovin' series.