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Clay Narey. David Allen/Daily Bulletin
The guy with no shirt on who asked out reporter Courtney Friel while both were live on the KTLA air last week is a new Inland Empire celebrity. Columnist David Allen got hold of Clay Narey, 30, and learned he's a recently divorced former Marine with a Purple Heart. The approach to Friel while she was covering the Etiwanda Fire in his Rancho Cucamonga neighborhood was all in fun.
From the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin column:
“I thought my friends and I would find it funny, and it would be a stupid thing. Which it was,” Narey told me Monday. “It just blew up insane, dude, you know what I mean?”
As for his TV moment, he said much of the online commentary has been kinder than he’d have thought. Wish fulfillment, he said, might be one reason.“Everybody wishes they could just go talk to every pretty girl they see, you know? They wish they had the courage,” Narey said. “There’s that thing Shakespeare said, ‘Cowards die many times before their deaths, but the brave die only once.’”
Shirtless Bro is quoting the Bard? Clearly clotheslessness does not make the man.
Friel has been having some Twitter fun with the whole thing after first seeming surprised anyone noticed. She even nominated herself to go on David Letterman. Friel, by the way, is married to CBS News correspondent Carter Evans.
Photog Eddie and I (who I worked w/yesterday at fire) cannot believe the #ShirtlessBro moment has gotten so much play. #SlowNewsDay?
— Courtney Friel (@courtneyfriel) May 1, 2014For this viral moment- wish I wasn't wearing my photog's XL windbreaker, pebbles/bambam hair, face caked w/ash + dripping mascara!
— Courtney Friel (@courtneyfriel) May 1, 2014Hey @Letterman: Maybe I can tell #ShirtlessBro what I really wanted to say to him in your Top 10?
— Courtney Friel (@courtneyfriel) May 1, 2014Going "Viral" gave me a long night of snake dreams!! I'd say it's a sign of some of these things: http://t.co/8aZ50UO23E
— Courtney Friel (@courtneyfriel) May 2, 2014#ShirtlessBro just reached out to me on Twitter. He is not married after all. Here he is: @ClayNarey
— Courtney Friel (@courtneyfriel) May 3, 2014Previously on LA Observed:
Shirtless man discovers TV reporters are hot, asks for a date
