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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 the late actor Christopher George.

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.

White's first national television appearance came on the June 18, 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. 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, The 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 and Full House, as well as in movies such as The Naked Gun 33⅓. In 1992 the Guinness Book of World Records recognized White as "television's most frequent clapper".

White divorced her husband of 11 years, George Santo Pietro, in November 2002, and maintained custody of their two young children, Nicholas and Giovanna. Because of her glamour, celebrity status and high visibility, Vanna White has been a tabloid favorite for many years. White is engaged to businessman Michael Kay; no wedding date has yet been set, although Pat Sajak has (jokingly) suggested that maybe Vanna should wed on an episode of Wheel of Fortune.

On April 20, 2006, White received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Litigation

In 1993, White won a lawsuit[1] against Samsung Electronics over their use of a humorous ad featuring a robot turning letters on a game show; White claimed that this violated her personality rights under California law by "evoking" her image, even though it did not actually use her name or likeness. This court decision has been widely criticized by people decrying the expansion of intellectual property rights, at the expense of the public domain and fair use, in recent years.

Trivia

In a late 1980s' episode of TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes, White was part of a practical joke played on Pat Sajak during a taping of Wheel of Fortune. White's gown was setup so it would snag on the gameboard and rip off, leaving her in a slip in front of a surprised Sajak. Promos for the episode ran with the tagline "What happens when Vanna White loses her dress?", with their trademark "censored" stamp hiding a clip of White losing her clothes. NBC executives were concerned that airing the risqué practical joke, as well as White's appearance in Playboy magazine, would do damage to the show's family image. The episode was replaced with a rerun and was never aired.

Notes

External links

• Vanna White's biography on wheeloffortune.com
• Judge Alex Kozinski's dissent in the White v. Samsung Electronics appeal

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