Picked out of crowd, player makes music video appearance

Friday, Dec. 1, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.

His UCLA teammates continue to rib junior defender Mike Zaher about his starring role in singer JoJo's "Too Little Too Late" music video.

"Yeah, it's a nice ongoing joke," Zaher said. "Hey, if they had the opportunity, they'd have jumped in line for it, too. But as much as they mess with me, they think it's cool."

In the video, Zaher declines to take a call from JoJo on his cell phone, then he's seen with other girls. Soccer is a main theme, and he misses a crucial late goal. Then the sun breaks through a cloud for JoJo, whose real name is Joanna Noelle Levesque. The song was a Top-10 hit from her second album, "The High Road."

JoJo picked him out of a crowd for the starring role. He read some simple lines into the camera.

"They said, 'Maybe the producer will like you? Who knows?' " Zaher said. "I had no clue, whatsoever. They called the next day and said the producer loved it, this and that, and they wanted me to be the main guy. It landed in my lap."

The soccer scenes were filmed at East L.A. College's football stadium, and other scenes were shot at a home in Hollywood and at Universal Studios.

Zaher, 21, heard he typically would have made nearly $8,000 for working three days on the project. "That wouldn't have been bad," he said. But NCAA rules prohibit him from earning soccer-related income.

He did make a new friend; JoJo, who turns 16 on Dec. 20, has visited L.A. a couple of times since that May shoot.

"We're pretty good friends," Zaher said. "She's from Boston. When she's bored in L.A., she calls me. I'll pick her up and we hang out, go to the movies or a restaurant. She's young, but she's a nice girl and real talented."