Big Brother winner Brian Belo plans to sue the makers of ITV2 hit show The Only Way Is Essex, after claiming they stole the idea for the programme from him.
According varius reports Brian plans to take on production company Lime, and is allegedly suing his former manager for lost earnings of up to £100,000. Brian appeared in the original pilot for TOWIE – then called Totally Essex – but was cut before the series was bought up by ITV. A pal of Brian’s commented to The Sun,
"He spent two years working on an idea for an Essex version of The Hills. His manager Adam is based in Liverpool and pitched the pilot to Lime Productions, who are based in the city. They snapped it up and ITV loved the show but Brian was pushed out. First he wasn’t cast but thought he might be involved in producing but he was cut out of that.”
A spokes person for Lime Productions has commented to say, “We have not received any formal complaint from Brian Belo. The format and content of the programme was created and developed by a team at Lime Pictures.”
We’ll be keeping an eye on this story, it’s all rather intriguing