Slam-dumped at a basketball match

It was intended as a romantic gesture - but one basketball fan's on-screen wedding proposal at a US college match could not have been more disastrous.

Instead of saying yes on "Mistletoe Cam" at the game in Los Angeles, the man's embarrassed girlfriend takes one look at the ring, shakes her head and walks off.

Her devastated boyfriend can only hang his head as the presenter stands awkwardly by, with the crowd booing and jeering.

To make matters worse, the episode, at a game between UCLA and Richmond, was captured on mobile phone and posted on YouTube. Getting down on one knee and pulling the ring from his pocket, the fan says: "I knew I was going to do this the first day I met you, so I know this is going to sound corny but ... will you marry me?"

As she flees, the commentator offers scant encouragement, telling the crowd: "Sometimes people get a little camera shy, I understand. It happens."

Such was the humiliation that it prompted some to question the authenticity of the proposal on December 23.

But a spokesman for UCLA insisted it was not a stunt, while the setting of a half-full stadium suggests the proposal was not just for publicity.