'Big Brother' contestant sues CBS
By JOHN POWELL -- Jam! ShowbizFormer "Big Brother 2" contestant Krista Stegall is suing CBS over last season's highly publicized "knife incident".
Richard Burgess of Louisiana's Daily Advertiser newspaper reports that Stegall, a single mother and current Lafayette radio personality, is seeking "unspecified damages" from CBS Broadcasting in the law suit.
In the filing, Stegall claims that Justin Sebik -- the male contestant who held a knife to her throat during a night of reported heavy drinking in the "Big Brother 2" house, asking her if she would be upset if he killed her -- should never have been permitted to participate in the show due to his alleged past arrests on assault charges.
Stegall also claims that CBS did not provide proper psychological counseling to help her deal with the incident.
"By failing to do a proper background, check they placed all of the house guests, including Krista, in danger," Stegall's attorney, Clayton Burgess, told The Daily Advertiser.
A spokesperson for CBS Broadcasting told JAM! Showbiz the lawsuit has "no merit" and that the studio is prepared to defend against it in a "vigorous" manner.
For his actions, Sebik was removed from the "Big Brother 2" game. "Big Brother" producer Arnold Shapiro issued a statement following the banishment, saying "Justin's behavior crossed the line of tolerable and acceptable behavior, and was a blatant violation of the house rules we established. As much as we like Justin, we really had no choice but to expel him from the house."
A short time after the incident, Sebik, a bartender from New Jersey, told "Big Brother" host Julie Chen in an interview that he and Stegall were just joking around.
"If there's anyone that can perceive that as an act of violence or as a threat then you're an idiot, all right, and I don't know what the hell you're watching and I don't know what kind of glasses you're looking through," he said.
When Stegall was eventually voted out of the game in August of last year, she told "Early Show" host Hattie Kauffman that she has no memory of the incident that prompted "Big Brother 2" producers to remove Sebik from the show in July.
"When Julie asked me about this, I had no recollection of what she was talking about because we were basically joking around," Krista said. "They (the producers) blew that completely out of proportion. Justin is just a fun guy. I really don't have the memory of the knife. Maybe my eyes were closed at the time, but I never viewed him as a threat. So it wasn't part of my strategy. I just didn't remember it," Stegall said to Kauffman.
In the "Big Brother" show, contestants must remain in a house on the CBS Studio in California for three months without contact with the outside world.
The "Big Brother" house is outfitted with 38 cameras and 62 microphones, which record the lives of the 12 contestants 24 hours a day for three months. The goings-on are broadcast on TV as well as on the Internet.
Each week the contestants vote one of their own out until just two are left. The final surviving House Guests are then subjected to a final vote. During that vote, the banished House Guests return to pick the winner.
This year's edition of the show debuts on Wednesday, July 10 at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. An episode will then be broadcast each Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday for the next three months.
Here's the link... http://www.canoe.ca/JamBigBrother3/jul3_bigbrother_can.html
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