In a scene from D.B. Sweeney's movie 'Two Tickets to Paradise' the star and his road tripping buddies pay homage to Vanna White's childhood home (complete with Vanna White statue in the front yard) and accidentally burn it down.
But not to worry, Sweeney found a stand-in house to play the part and the puzzle-board turner of 'The Wheel of Fortune' was in on the joke.
In fact, the whole burning down scene for the movie, out on DVD today, only cost Sweeney $200 to film -- and that included making the Vanna statue.
Sweeney was inspired for the scene when driving through North Myrtle Beach, S.C., and seeing a sign proudly proclaiming itself to be the childhood home of Vanna White.
"I love Vanna White as much as the next guy," Sweeney tells PopcornBiz. "But I thought it was kind of funny. I mean wasn't there a Civil War battle here or something?"
Sweeney was able to put the inspiration in his road trip story and found a house in Wilmington, N.C., that was about to be torn down that served as the movie-version of Vanna's childhood home. Burning it down was the easy part.
"I talked the fire department into burning the house down to get a training exercise out of it," Sweeney says proudly. 'So we got the fire trucks for free.'
All the movie-maker needed was a statute of Vanna White. So he sponsored a contest at a regional art school in North Carolina.
"I said $200 for whomever comes up with the vest Vanna White statute," he says. "We had four submissions."
While not blown away by the material, he was able to get one decent submission which sits in the front yard for the scene.
"It's safe to say that Michelangelo is not studying art at East Carolina Art School," Sweeney says. "Because the one we used was the best ones. The others were not recognizable."
With that, all it took for the scene was some fireworks, some beer-affected road-trippers and the scene went, well, like a house on fire.
White, who makes an appearance in Sweeney's movie, was even on the joke.
"She loved it," Sweeney adds.
