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Information about Vanna White

Vanna White
Birth nameVanna Marie Rosich
BornJanuary 18 1957 (1957--) (age 50)
inNorth Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, U.S.
Statistics
OccupationTV presenter, Game show presenter
GenderFemale
Marital statusSingle/Divorced
SpouseGeorge Santo Pietro 1991-2002
ChildrenNicholas Pietro, Giovanna Pietro
EthnicityCroatian, English, Italian, Spanish, German, Greek
Notable credit(s)Wheel of Fortune (NBC, CBS, Syndicated)


Vanna White (born Vanna Marie Rosich on February 18, 1957) is an American television personality, best known as the hostess and puzzle board operator on the long-running game show Wheel of Fortune. She is the niece of actor Christopher George.

Television career

White's first national television appearance came on the June 20, 1980 episode of The Price Is Right, where she was one of the first four contestants to "come on down." She did not make it onstage, but the clip of her running to Contestants' Row would be rebroadcast as part of The Price Is Right 25th Anniversary Special in 1996 and was also shown on Game Show Moments Gone Bananas. Two years later she auditioned for the letter-turning job on Wheel of Fortune that Susan Stafford had vacated. Merv Griffin chose her over two other finalists, and her first episode as Pat Sajak's regular assistant aired December 13, 1982. She remained with the daytime version of Wheel until its cancellation in 1991.

White's popularity soared after the nighttime version of Wheel debuted in September 1983. Within a year, Wheel was the highest-rated syndicated program, in large part because of "Vannamania". Her 1987 autobiography, Vanna Speaks!, was a best-seller.[1] Also in 1987, she was featured in a Playboy pictorial, comprising photos of White wearing see-through lingerie that were taken before Wheel.

White was the subject of "Weird Al" Yankovic's 1988 song, "Stuck in a Closet With Vanna White". In 1989, she was in the NBC TV-movie Goddess of Love, in which she played Venus. The film was universally panned, and TV Guide said White's acting was "wheely" bad.

She has also made cameo appearances on television shows such as Married... with Children, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, and Full House, movies such as , and served as a guest timekeeper at WrestleMania IV. In 1992, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized White as "television's most frequent clapper". On April 20, 2006, White received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Personal

White was born in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to a family of Croatian background. She later took the name of her stepfather, Herbert White, a former real estate agent in North Myrtle Beach. One of White's ancestors, whose last name was Barnes, was one of the first mayors of the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico.

White dated actor John Gibson in the 1980s, and they eventually became engaged. This changed with his tragic death in a plane crash in 1986. She divorced her husband of 11 years, George Santo Pietro, in November 2002, and maintained custody of their two young children, Nicholas and Giovanna. From 2004 to 2006, White was engaged to businessman Michael Kaye, the senior partner at a large LBO fund in southern California.

Vanna's first car, (purchased by her father, for her) was a metallic blue 1972 "Marathon Edition" (Volkswagen Beetle). Vanna's father tried to get her to consider other makes of cars, but Vanna held firm on her decision. Vanna so desired the car due to the corporate initials of (Volkswagen AG) being the same as hers, "V.W.". A picture of Vanna's Bug was featured on a Summer 2007 episode of Wheel Of Fortune, in which she revisited her hometown.

Litigation

In 1993, White won a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics over their use of a humorous ad featuring a robot turning letters on a game show. The decision was later affirmed by the Ninth Circuit. The issue was over the property right to publicity. The court ruled in favor of White's claim of a right to her property of publicity. This case has been widely criticized by property lawyers who cite the dissenting opinion by Judge Kozinski, from the denial of a rehearing en banc, which stated, among other things, that "Overprotecting intellectual property is as harmful as underprotecting it. Creativity is impossible without a rich public domain. Nothing today, likely nothing since we tamed fire, is genuinely new: Culture, like science and technology, grows by accretion, each new creator building on the works of those who came before. Overprotection stifles the very creative forces it's supposed to nurture."[1]

Trivia

Former model Liza Greer claims she had a lesbian affair with Vanna White in her tell-all book You'll Never Make Love In This Town Again. According to the book, they met at the Playboy Mansion.

References

1. ^ "About New York," The New York Times, May 23, 1987.
1. "About New York," The New York Times, May 23, 1987.

External links

founded Lima, the capital of Peru.
  • 1562 - Pope Pius IV reopens the Council of Trent for its third and final session.
  • 1670 - Henry Morgan captures Panama.
  • 1701 - Frederick I becomes King of Prussia.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    • 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
    1920s  1930s  1940s  - 1950s -  1960s  1970s  1980s
    1954 1955 1956 - 1957 - 1958 1959 1960

    Year 1957 (MCMLVII
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

    Seal
    Location of North Myrtle Beach in
    South Carolina
    Coordinates:
    Country United States
    State South Carolina
    County Horry
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Motto
    "In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
    "E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
    Anthem
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    A host (sometimes hostess, in feminine form) or presenter is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    game show involves members of the public or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, playing a game, perhaps involving answering quiz questions, for points or prizes. In some shows contestants compete against other players or another team whilst other shows involve contestants
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Female (♀) is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces ova (egg cells). The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon is produced by the male.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Croats (Croatian: Hrvati) are a South Slavic people mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There is a notable Croat diaspora in western Europe, the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    English (from Old English Ænglisc) are a nation and ethnic group native to England and speak English. The largest single population of English people reside in England — the largest constituent country of the United Kingdom.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    120 - 140 million (est.)
    Regions with significant populations  Italy      56 million (95% population of Italy)

     Brazil [1]
     Argentina
     United States [2]
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    Spanish people or more properly Spaniards are a nation native to Spain, in the Iberian Peninsula of southwestern Europe. The Spanish people have varied origins, due to Spaniards long history of invasions and migrations.
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    Germans (German: Deutsche) are defined as an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, citizenship, speaking the German language as a mother tongue and being born in Germany.
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    17,000,000
    Regions with significant populations
     Greece [1]
     United States
     Cyprus
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    Wheel of Fortune is an United States television game show devised by Merv Griffin, who also created Jeopardy!. Three contestants compete against each other to solve a word puzzle similar to those seen in the game Hangman (game).
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    National Broadcasting Company

    Type Broadcast television network
    Country  United States
    Availability    United States, also distributed in Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean
    Founder David Sarnoff
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    CBS Broadcasting, Inc. (CBS)

    Type Broadcast radio network and
    television network
    Country  United States
    Availability    National; also available in  Canada,  Mexico, and the Caribbean
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    In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows to multiple individual stations, without going through a broadcast network.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    February 18 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

    Events


    ..... Click the link for more information.
    19th century - 20th century - 21st century
    1920s  1930s  1940s  - 1950s -  1960s  1970s  1980s
    1954 1955 1956 - 1957 - 1958 1959 1960

    Year 1957 (MCMLVII
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Motto
    "In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
    "E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
    Anthem
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Television (often abbreviated to TV, T.V., or more recently, tv; sometimes called telly, the tube, boob tube, or idiot box in British English) is a widely used telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    game show involves members of the public or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, playing a game, perhaps involving answering quiz questions, for points or prizes. In some shows contestants compete against other players or another team whilst other shows involve contestants
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Wheel of Fortune is an United States television game show devised by Merv Griffin, who also created Jeopardy!. Three contestants compete against each other to solve a word puzzle similar to those seen in the game Hangman (game).
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Christopher George

    as Sgt. Sam Troy in The Rat Patrol.
    Birth name Christopher John George
    Born January 25 1929(1929--)
    Royal Oak, Michigan  United States
    Died
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    June 20 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    19th century - 20th century - 21st century
    1950s  1960s  1970s  - 1980s -  1990s  2000s  2010s
    1977 1978 1979 - 1980 - 1981 1982 1983

    Year 1980 (MCMLXXX
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    The Price Is Right is an American game show centering on contestants guessing the retail prices of featured prizes and other promotional products. The current version premiered on September 4 1972 on CBS and was hosted by veteran game show host Bob Barker until his
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    -1996- 1997 1998 1999  2000 .  2001 .  2002 .  2003  . 2004  . 2005  . 2006 

    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Game Show Moments Gone Bananas is a television series on VH1. The first of five hour-long episodes aired on May 21, 2005, with the last first-run episode airing on June 18.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Susan Stafford (b. 1945) was the original hostess of the game show Wheel of Fortune from January 5, 1975, until she left on October 22, 1982. She also returned briefly in 1986 to substitute for Vanna White.
    ..... Click the link for more information.


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