I'll bet this lawsuit is pissing Ty Pennington off!

[Nikki Stone1]

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2078990,00.html

TV makeover fails to paper over cracks


American family in court as home improvement causes rift with 'adopted' siblings

Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Monday May 14, 2007
The Guardian

It was reality TV gold, a true-story American Dream uniting a black and a white family in a shared struggle to overcome loss. At least, that was the pitch. But like many dreams, it soured. Instead, the story of the bereft Higgins siblings and the magnanimous Leomitis family has followed another classic American storyline, that of the court room drama.

In 2005 a caring family took in five young siblings, orphaned by the recent deaths of their parents. The Higgins and the Leomitis families both attended their local church in Downey, near Los Angeles. The children had grown up together. But how to squeeze in the five newcomers alongside the couple's own three children? Enter ABC television's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

"These kids had nowhere to go and we knew as a family we couldn't let the streets swallow them up," Phil and Loki Leomitis wrote when they applied to appear on the prime-time show. "They had nothing, no money to bury their parents, no money to live. To make a long story short, our goal as a family is to give these kids a chance in life."

But weeks after the TV builders had left, having turned the suburban three-bed, two-bath home into a nine-bedroom, six-bathroom mansion, two of the children had moved out. Within months, all five had left. Two years later, the dispute between the families and the TV show's producers is set to be played out in a Los Angeles court. The lawsuit filed by the Higgins siblings against the Leomitis family and ABC alleges that the host family engaged in an "orchestrated campaign to degrade and insult" the Higgins siblings, using "race-based remarks", and causing them to leave. "Defendants Leomitis made these remarks to insult and offend plaintiffs and convey the message that African Americans are dirty and smelly," the lawsuit alleges.

The Higgins family is now staying with various friends, a far cry from the home life they say they envisaged when they agreed to take part in the show. "I believed a house would be built for my brothers and sister and I to permanently live in," Charles Higgins said in court papers. "It was my understanding we would win the home with the Leomitises."....

[Nikki Stone1]

1. 76 views and no responses

Hmmm

[melody]

2. This story has been around forever

The people involved don't have a leg to stand on. That's probably why there's been
views, but no responses. It's old news.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

3. Ty should be charged with possession of Permanent Bad Hair.

:rofl:

[soothsayer]

4. It's a weird hairline. Not enuff forehead (a three head maybe?)