The One Where Ross Got Mistaken for a Banker
- Published
When the London Stock Exchange announced their next chief executive, many people on Twitter had to do a double take and asked if it was really him.
David Schwimmer will take up his new role on 1 August. People on Twitter had just one question - is it the David Schwimmer of Friends fame who has had a sudden career change and found himself a lucrative job in the City?
Well, it is a case of namesake confusion. It is the experienced banker, not the guy who played Ross Geller in the US sitcom Friends, who got the job.
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The other David Schwimmer spent 20 years at investment bank Goldman Sachs. He will replace Xavier Rolet, who quit last November following a boardroom row.
Twitter didn't waste any time to reacting the stock exchange announcement and was immediately flooded with Friends in-jokes and gifs. Even from business journalists.
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One mistaken person claimed he almost had a heart attack after seeing Schwimmer trending on Twitter, external. To his relief, it turned out the news was "just about a London stockbroker."
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Toni H asked the pertinent question.
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As Michael Finnie put it: "Imagine being in charge of the London Stock Exchange and still not being *The* David Schwimmer, external."
Meanwhile, historian and television presenter Guy Walters went searching for Friends co-stars' namesakes on social media sites including LinkedIn.
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And Bloomberg journalist Lionel Laurent perhaps feels it is not his day (his month, or even his year).
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Similarly, other Twitter accounts who happen to share a name with well-known or notorious figures have had their share of attention, positive and negative.
While John Lewis, not the department store chain, ended up with a series of personalised gifts after dealing with customers' complaints, Joe Hart the comedian took a lot of criticism aimed at the England goalkeeper.
And Steve Bannon and George Papadopoulous have each spent a lot of time on Twitter saying they did not work for Donald Trump after people who shared their names made headlines over their roles with the US president's team.
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