Dancing with a Lawsuit

Surprisingly despite Carole Baskins week to week low scores, she made it to the third week of Dancing with the Stars before her elimination on Monday night. Her elimination is the least of her problems; however, she is now being sued by missing husband Don Lewis’ three daughters Gale, Lynda, Donna, and his former assistant Anne McQueen.

Lewis’ family and former assistant’s litigation surged after Baskin failed to shut down comments from interviewers and Dancing with the Stars personal that joked about and alluded to his mysterious 1997 disappearance. Baskin herself even joked that she would “really kill it next week,” referring to one of the weeks on the competition series.

The lawsuit against Baskin is for defamation and apparently various violations of a previous claim set by Lewis’ family in 1998.  Lewis’ family attorney Jon Phillips also spoke out on the ad the family ran during the premiere of season 29 of Dancing with the Stars that demanded answers and justice in Lewis’ disappearance. Phillips’ stated that “Carole Baskin goes on YouTube, Facebook and does blogs every single day getting out her narrative. It’s landed her on a major TV show, Dancing with the Stars. She was the featured person in all the commercials and last to dance.” Phillips’ compared this to Lewis’ family and assistant who get little to no media attention about their father’s death.

Phillips’ also suggested that Baskin’s celebrity status was all thanks to Joe Exotic accusing her of Lewis’ death on the Netflix original Tiger King. Baskin, too, made a statement on the ad that aired just before her dance, saying, “I have not seen the ad. I am not at all surprised, it’s just been a huge publicity stunt on their part so what more could they possibly do than that?”

Although Baskin commented on the commercial, she and her lawyers cannot comment on the pending litigation at this time.