Brian Belo
Big Brother winner Brian Belo has finally reached a settlement with ITV and Lime Pictures after taking legal action against the makers of the hit TV scripted reality show The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE).
Via The Daily Mirror
Belo, himself an Essex boy, claimed that the makers of the structured reality soap had adapted and reproduced part of a format he had originally developed with Sassy Films and Massive TV.
The trio said they took the idea to Lime Pictures in March and July 2009 and sent a tape and treatment to ITV in November 2009. The show launched on ITV2 in 2010.
They also highlighted a series of emails that they believe demonstrated ownership of the format.
A key part of ITV’s defence was that the concept developed by Belo, Sassy and Massive – called Totally Essex – was not a “dramality” show like The Only Way is Essex, but a “fly on the wall documentary”.
[Thanks Lisa]
Lime Pictures and ITV did not expect this. They underestimated Brian Belo.
They thought.. ‘this is a black man from Essex, he is an air head, wears blue contact lenses and relaxes his hair. Yeah we can get away with this’.
WRONG! HA!
Now pay the man his reported £1million settlement and be gone thieves.
Congratulations Brian.
Categories: UK News
MAD NEWS UK 
Good for you Brian.
I’m happy for him and glad it has finally been settled.
He is a weird man with those contact lenses. But good on him for taking them on and winning.
Don’t forget the relaxed hair too!
I’m with ‘Quote’ and ‘London Diva’
i really dont wanna see a programme about how he lives….. glad he got his money.. wont hold my breathe on how he spends it tho…
Good for him for challenging them. Large corporations always think they can get away with stealing an idea. It happens far too often
well done Brian….and watch out to the rest of the big Corps who take advantage of people of colour.
we are still waiting for myone , he is lucky they settled out of court, cant seem to get them to do justice in my case here is the write up on part 1 oh by the way i was gagged
http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/2215003.0/
thiefs ITV should be sent down like Rafth Harris
Loooool I love your ending!! Yes, Brian! They won’t underestimate you again. I quite like Totally Essex at least it doesn’t pretend to be ‘reality’
Only 1million. Brain, your creation is going to go around the world. 1million should be up front and that’s cheap. A decent share of the royalties anything else is day light robbery. What your’s is a percentage of its gross profits. Advertising rides on the back of your creation. So no I don’t agree that he should be content with that, it’s a pittance in reality, forgive lol. But seriously these, simply these have defrauded of future earnings, simply put MILLIONS. How long do royalties go on for, EXACTLY. THAT SHOULD BE THE REPRESENTATION OF HIS WORTH.