Former contestant blames Wheel's Pat Sajak for bad back

WASHINGTON — Will Wright had just won $48,400 and the "Wheel of Fortune" audience was cheering with abandon. Suddenly, Wright says, host Pat Sajak leapt at his body and wrapped his arms and legs around him.

Sajak's midair bear hug that October 2000 night in a District of Columbia auditorium was edited out of the broadcast for television viewers, Wright says. But Wright, 38, who no longer is in the market for a vowel, remembers it well. The puzzle-guessing champion from Lorton, Va., filed a $2 million lawsuit in U.S. District Court last week against the show's producers over the back injuries he says he suffered from Sajak's moment of unbridled enthusiasm.

"I stick out my hand thinking he's going to shake it," Wright recalled. "Instead he jumps onto me, with his legs and arms. ... All I remember thinking was: 'This is Pat Sajak. Don't drop Pat Sajak.' "

Wright, 5-feet-7-inches tall and 153 pounds, said he nearly buckled under Sajak's full-weight embrace. Having won nearly a year's salary by solving three word puzzles and receiving a warm embrace from letter-turner Vanna White, Wright said he began to feel sharp pains minutes after the show wrapped.

The father of two and computer-circuit designer says he has had back surgery and months of pain and rehabilitation, which he wants the producers of "Wheel of Fortune," Sony Pictures Entertainment, to pay for.

"They say I signed a release ... but that was for things like if you hurt yourself spinning the wheel," Wright said. "It doesn't cover the host jumping on a contestant. If it did, Pat Sajak could pretty much do whatever he wants to you."

A spokesperson for Sony Pictures Entertainment declined Friday to comment on behalf of the show. Sajak also declined through a spokesperson to comment.

Gregory Lattimer, Wright's attorney, said his client first approached the company about providing a five- to six-figure medical settlement when a neurosurgeon told Wright in January 2001 that he needed surgery for herniated-disc damage. But Sony was "adamant" that it wasn't responsible for Wright's injuries.

"They just kind of blew me off," Wright said of Sony's legal offices. "I wondered if Pat was even aware that I had been injured. "