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JOE CHEAPSKATE: It appears as if the faux rich dude at the center of Fox's upcoming reality show Joe Millionaire (debuting Monday) does indeed have money troubles. According to Court TV's The Smoking Gun, Evan Marriott — a 28-year-old construction worker who poses as a guy who just inherited $50 million on Millionaire — was recently nabbed by California Highway Patrol officers for toll evasion on a California highway. Marriott pleaded guilty and paid a $104 fine in connection with the Sept. 25 incident.

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The Virginian-Pilot has revealed the identity of the single bachelor who will appear in FOX's upcoming "Joe Millionaire" series. The mysterious "Joe" is actually 28-year-old Evan Marriott (see photos below) -- a heavy-equipment operator, sometime male model and former military school cadet from Virginia Beach -- and, alas, merely a thousandaire.

Born at Virginia Beach General Hospital, Marriott was raised in the city's comfortable Chelsea neighborhood. In the seventh grade he was enrolled in the Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., near Danville. He graduated in 1992. Over the next seven years, Marriott split his time between construction jobs in Virginia Beach and modeling gigs in Paris, where he spent several months, and New York, where he worked with famed fashion photographer Bruce Weber. Invited by New York contacts to pursue modeling in California, Marriott moved to the Los Angeles area in January 1999. He's worked mostly in construction since, his father said.

While his upbringing wasn't quite the log-cabin story Fox would have its viewers believe, it wasn't that of a rich kid, either: The Marriotts live in a house that's modest by the standards of its neighborhood. His father is vice president of Norfolk's Old Dominion Trust Co. His mother manages a Laskin Road linens boutique. Hank Marriott said they're a long way from millionaires, and as far as he knows, Evan's not one, either. `There's nothing fancy about us,'' he said.

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