Made in Canada reality TV "scandal"

Simon Lee, a judge on CBC Television's reality show “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?”, was arrested by Toronto police on criminal charges over the weekend. The arrest arose from a “domestic dispute”. Toronto police have confirmed that the charges are assault and forcible confinement. Lee, a world renowned conductor and musical director, was part of a four-member judging panel casting an actress in the lead role of Maria for an upcoming Toronto production of The Sound of Music. Lee was absent from the last two show episodes, airing Sunday (featuring the final three “Marias”) and Monday (when the winner was announced).

Lee’s arrest followed a weekend incident in which a man (who claimed the musical director struck him and blocked his exit from a Hazelton Hotel room) climbed out a hotel window and crashed down onto the patio during the midmorning brunch rush in the trendy Yorkville area. A Hazelton spokeswoman confirmed an incident occurred at approximately 10:30 a.m. and that police were notified.

According to diners whose patio brunch was disturbed by the incident, a screaming match initially erupted between two men in a room above that was clearly audible to them on the ground floor below. A computer bag was then dropped to the road. Following that, a man climbed out the window, over the balcony ledge and scaled down to the next level balcony before jumping on to one of the restaurant tables. Finally, the man stormed off only to return shirtless about 10 minutes later, yelling at the restaurant patrons that he had forgot something. Police, summoned to the scene,(according to some reports by a 911 call placed by a third man present in the hotel room at the time of the incident), questioned the 24 year old man in the back of a cruiser before taking (a well dressed) Lee into custody.

Lee spent Sunday behind bars, was granted bail on Monday and made a brief appearance at the show’s wrap party that night. Jeff Keay, CBC’s head of media relations, confirmed that Lee missed the final two telecasts of the series due to his arrest, but declined to comment further. Lee appeared in a Toronto courtroom yesterday and is due back in court on Aug. 27.

Simon Lee was personally selected by show's creator Andrew Lloyd Webber to sit on the CBC’s Maria panel. In addition to Lee, the judging panel also included John Barrowman, the openly gay star of stage and screen.

The CBC reality show, a Summer ratings success, was based on the original BBC model used to cast the lead in the London West End revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, as well as "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and "Oliver!". NBC has also used the same premise to cast the leads in a Broadway production of "Grease".

UPDATE:

A statement released on Thursday July 31 by Brown Lloyd James, a London public relations firm, on behalf of Lloyd Webber's The Really Useful Group Ltd., indicates that Lee has been fired as musical supervisor of the upcoming Toronto production of The Sound of Music.

The statement reads as follows:

"Simon is a very talented person who is extremely important to us. However, on this occasion we felt it was necessary to seek the termination of his engagement on The Sound of Music in Toronto. The alleged events are subject to legal proceedings and, therefore, we can't comment further."