When customers of Boston Private Bank & Trust Co. in Pasadena meet with Chuck White, they’ll hear a familiar voice – if they’re UCLA or Clippers fans.
White, 54, who joined the bank last month as a vice president, has been the public address announcer at the Rose Bowl since 1993. He also announces for UCLA basketball games at Pauley Pavilion and occasionally for Los Angeles Clippers games.
He says it’s a passion, not a job, but it still requires a businesslike approach.
“Certainly impartiality is important,” White said. “Especially when you’re talking about a BCS national championship game, which the Rose Bowl will host next year.”
White got the announcer job after years of volunteering with the UCLA athletic department. As a UCLA undergrad in the 1970s, he was an All-American golfer and played with future pros Corey Pavin and Duffy Waldorf.
“The only difference between them and me is they could putt,” he said. “That’s when you go into banking.”
Uh, Maybe Not
It’s not every day that a celebrity looks to friend you on Facebook, but that’s exactly what happened to Leylie Aghili, founder of specialty fashion boutique Tribute on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica.
Aghili, 27, turned on her computer one day recently to find that a man had sent her a friend request. She didn’t recognize him.
Not wanting to be rude, Aghili sent him a message. “You look familiar, but I can’t seem to place you. Have we met before?” she wrote.
He responded, saying he wasn’t sure they’d ever met, but perhaps she had seen him in one of his many films.
Wondering what movies he’d been in, she searched his name on Google. She quickly realized her naiveté. He is a porn star.
“I thought it was hysterical that I was messaging a pretty high-profile person in the porn industry and had no idea,” she said. “I wondered how he even came to find my profile and why he wanted to friend me of all people.”
She decided she didn’t care to find out.
“I just kind of ignored that request,” she said.
Staff reporters James Rufus Koren and Bethany Firnhaber contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].
