  Reality TV trainer Jillian Michaels. (WENN.COM photo) |
LOS ANGELES -- Sometimes there's a price for doing business in the United States and it's spelled l-a-w-s-u-i-t.
In one of his first forays into the American market, in a column that appeared this month in The Los Angeles Times, Canadian fitness writer James Fell was threatened with a lawsuit by reality TV trainer Jillian Michaels.
Fell, a hard-hitting, humorous columnist for Chatelaine and Impact magazines and a fitness blogger for AOL Canada, has a modus operandi of "debunking" fitness myths. He is pro-consumer and his constant creed is that slow and steady wins the weight wars. Fair enough.
So, in the L.A. Times column, he took on Michaels, the popular trainer on the megahit reality TV show The Biggest Loser.
Fell criticized -- and quoted others in agreement -- about her training techniques on the show, calling her "an actress playing the role of fitness trainer..." There was also the matter of a "kettle bell" training DVD Michaels is selling in Canada and the U.S. that Fell says promises a highly unrealistic five pounds a week weight loss if you heft the bells around like she says.
But Jillian Michaels is a big gun in L.A., where the show is filmed, television studios are loath to lose ratings and Americans are enamoured of stories of rapid weight loss, no matter how improbable.
So, outrageous indignation from Michaels and her fans were directed at Fell -- including threats of a defamation and libel lawsuit because Michaels says the article incorrectly stated what kinds of fitness certification Michaels has.
Would there be merit in a lawsuit?
According to Art Buono at lawyers.com, not really. "Michaels has some heavy lifting ahead to prove a defamation lawsuit," he says. Buono also points out that Michaels herself has become a "lawsuit magnet for promoting diet pills and other supplements."
A good friend, who is a lawyer, chuckles about why celebrities especially like to cry, "I'll sue you!"
"It's a defence mechanism. They have to say something. If they say it with a lawyer by their side, all the better. If there's no merit in the suit, so what? At least they get a word in."
Fell, 42, who lives in Calgary, tells QMI Agency he had no idea his column would cause such a crazed reaction and admits being perplexed by the thundering of American litigiousness.
"I'm really surprised by the reaction. I'm not the first person to do this. The show and Jillian Michaels have been criticized for the techniques used by many people for years. The reason why it exploded was the venue.
"The fact that I'm a Canadian, an 'outsider' if you will, didn't help."
Indeed, this is Hollywood and The Times is the newspaper of record.
And that's precisely why, says Fell, he and others need to keep speaking up.
"I am flabbergasted by the load of bull---- that can come out of the fitness industry. Who is protecting the consumer? We need to ram the brutal truth of what it really takes to get in shape. It's good diet and exercise and it's that simple."
So, how is he going to rile things up this week?
Fell reveals the next Times column -- tentatively scheduled to come out tomorrow -- is on Proposition 19, the initiative that would make marijuana legal in California. Reefer lovers and their supporters are expected to collectively roll into the voting booths and pass it during next month's state elections.
While marijuana is widely extolled as a peace-loving, healthy alternative to other medications, Fell is going to warn the city of an unspeakable side-effect: Bigger bums.
"There's proven science behind that munchy attack thing. People who are big into smoking weed need to be warned that it will affect your ability to lose weight."
Let's see who goes to pot over this one.
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