• Wayne Newton: A presence more than a performance

  Los Angeles Times - Found Oct. 29, 2009 I spoke to his former dance partner Cheryl Burke (pictured with Vanna White), who has kept in touch with Newton and stays at his house... Wayne Newton Hints at Calling it Quits - CBS News Video: Wayne Newton's Limited Engagement Production Once Before I Go ... - Reuters Wayne Newton Contemplating Retirement? - Starpulse Hot Mess: Holly Madison At Wayne Newton's New Las Vegas Show - Starpulse Explore All

  WCBS-TV

• Pat Sajak and Vanna White enjoy good Fortune

  Boston Herald - Found Sep. 4, 2009 ... us quasi-celebrities.? Pat is, of course, in town to tape 15 shows with his lithe letter lovely, Vanna White, who confessed to us that she...

• Tracked Down: Vanna White, Jennifer Garner, Paul Pierce & more...

  Boston Herald - Found Sep. 3, 2009 ?Wheel of Fortune? letter lady Vanna White filming a promo in front of the Union Oyster House . . . Ben Affleck?s fave gals - wife Jennifer

• Worst Talk Shows in TV History

  FOXNews.com - Found 16 hours ago We think if they'd glued sparkly pie-shaped wedges to the top of it and had Vanna White be the sidekick, the show may have lasted longer than... Wanda Sykes: Bringing the Funny to Saturday Night - ABC News Wanda Sykes Has a Show (or So They Tell Her) - New York Times Wanda Sykes Has a Show (or So They Tell Her) - New York Times Wanda's world - USA Today Explore All

  Star-Telegram

• STAGE TUBE: 'Celebrity Autobiography' - Will Forte Reads Tommy Lee

  Broadway World - Found Nov. 6, 2009 Some of the 'authors' that are featured includeIvana Trump, VAnna White, Mr. T,Star Jones, Kenny Loggins,Tommy Lee,Sylvester Stallone, 'N Sync...

• Remarks by The First Lady at Department of Energy Event

  Research & Development - Found Nov. 6, 2009 We're all set up. I'm like Alex Trebek -- (laughter) -- and Secretary Chu is like my Vanna White.

• With a Solid Council Win, Reyna Breaks With a Formidable Patron

  New York Times - Found Nov. 5, 2009 Inexperienced and seen as serving an ambitious mentor, her opponents dubbed her Vito Lopezs Vanna White. Police Charge Driver In Stolen SUV Shooting - KITV 4 Fight may have led to shooting - The Desert Sun VETERAN?S DAY, NOV. 11Lopez to dedicate Korean War Memorial - Cibola County Beacon Life as she knows it - Kerrville Daily Times Explore All

  The Desert Sun

• Dr. Leather Meets Mr. Right

  POZ.com - Found Nov. 4, 2009 It?s not about choosing Bill Clinton?it?s about choosing Vanna White.? When Mills won his leather title, he didn?t engage in the...

• In fight over credit rules, she wields a plan

  Boston Globe - Found Nov. 3, 2009 Casting herself as Vanna White, she pretended her blackboard was the Wheel of Fortune, twirled her arm in the air, and asked: Do you want to...

• In battle over credit abuses, Warren wields a plan

  Boston Globe - Found Nov. 3, 2009 Casting herself as Vanna White, she pretended her blackboard was the Wheel of Fortune, twirled her arm in the air, and asked: Do you want to...

Vanna White
The handprints of Vanna White in front of Hollywood Hills Amphitheater at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.
Born	Vanna Marie Rosich February 18, 1957 (1957-02-18) (age 52) North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, United States
Occupation	Game show co-host1
Years active	1980–present
Spouse(s)	George Santo Pietro (1991-2002)

Vanna White (born February 18, 1957)² is an American television personality, best known as puzzle-board presenter & co-host on the long-running game show Wheel of Fortune.

Biography

Early life

White was born Vanna Marie Rosich in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the daughter of Joan Marie and Miguel Angel Rosich.³ White took the name of her stepfather, Herbert Stackley White Jr., a former real estate agent in North Myrtle Beach.

Television career

White's first national television appearance came on the June 20, 1980 episode of The Price Is Right, in which she was among 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 August 1996 and also would be featured on the special broadcast Game Show Moments Gone Bananas. In 1982, White auditioned to become the letter-turning assistant on Wheel of Fortune, a job that Susan Stafford recently had vacated. Producer Merv Griffin selected her over two other finalists, and her first episode as Pat Sajak's assistant presenter aired December 13, 1982. White remained with the daytime version of Wheel until its cancellation in 1991.

White's popularity soared after the primetime version of Wheel made its debut in September 1983. Within a year, Wheel was the highest-rated syndicated program on broadcast television. Her 1987 autobiography, Vanna Speaks!, was a best-seller.⁴ Also in 1987, she was featured in a Playboy pictorial, showing photos taken of her (prior to her career on Wheel of Fortune) wearing see-through lingerie.

White is the subject of "Weird Al" Yankovic's 1988 song, "Stuck in a Closet With Vanna White". In 1989, she appeared in the NBC television movie Goddess of Love, in which she played Venus. The film was panned universally by critics, with TV Guide joking that White's acting was "wheely" bad.

White also has made cameo appearances on television shows such as Married... with Children, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, 227 and Full House, movies such as Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, and served as guest timekeeper for WrestleMania IV. In 1992, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized White as "television's most frequent clapper." On April 20, 2006, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Personal life

White dated Playgirl centerfold/Chippendales-dancer-turned-actor John Gibson in the 1980s, and they eventually became engaged. The relationship came to a tragic end in 1986 when Gibson was killed in a plane crash. White divorced her husband of 11 years, George Santo Pietro, in November 2002, maintaining custody of their two young children, Nicholas (born 1994) and Giovanna (born 1997).⁵ From 2004 to 2006, she was engaged to businessman Michael Kaye, senior partner in a large leveraged buyout fund based in southern California.

White is an avid crochet and knitting enthusiast and has a line of yarns called "Vanna's Choice" through Lion Brand Yarns.

Litigation

In 1993, White won a lawsuit against the Samsung Electronics corporation over its use of a humorous ad featuring a robot turning letters on a game show. The decision later was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for 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. The case has been criticized widely by property lawyers who cite the dissenting opinion of Judge Alex Kozinski after 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".⁶

References

External links

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

Wikisource has original text related to this article: White v. Samsung Electronics America, Inc.

v • d • e Wheel of Fortune American TV series 1983–present syndicated version · 1975–1991 daytime version · Wheel 2000 International versions Wheel of Fortune (Australia, 1981–2006) · Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune (Australia, 2008) · Roda a Roda (Brazil) · Lykkehjulet (Denmark) · La Roue de la Fortune (France) · La Ruota Della Fortuna (Italy) · Wheel of Fortune (Philippines) · Koło Fortuny (Poland) · Pole Chudes (Russia) · Wheel of Fortune (United Kingdom) · Chiếc nón kỳ diệu (Vietnam) · Ratas Fortuny (Lithuania) · Other international versions Cast and crew Creator: Merv Griffin Hosts: Edd Byrnes (pilot) · Chuck Woolery · Pat Sajak · Rolf Benirschke · Bob Goen · David Sidoni (Wheel 2000) · Leonid Yakubovich · Vladislav Listyev Announcers: Charlie O'Donnell · Jack Clark · M. G. Kelly Hostesses: Susan Stafford · Vanna White Misc. Video games