fajrdrako | Simon Lee...

Remember Simon Lee? He was one of the judges on the CBC reality show How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?.

maaseru and I saw him in Toronto when we went there to see two episodes of the show. We watched him through all the aired episodes of Maria, but he was missing from the last couple because he'd been arrested for imprisoning someone in his hotel room. An odd story. He claimed he was innocent, and was supposed to appear in court in Toronto in August.

August went by, and I heard no more. I was curious. I'd had a positive impression of Lee - the kind of impression that made me believe in his innocence, or want to. I had the sense of wondering what was happening to a friend who is in trouble. Having heard no more news of what happened to him after he was fired from The Sound of Music, I did a brief web search today.

I discovered how many interesting people there are in the world named Simon Lee. A photographer, and athlete, an Australian judge, a philosopher, a kind of guitar... And I found numerous articles on Lee's original arrest, usually the same two or three Canadian Press articles from the end of July and the beginning of August. Even his Wikipedia entry has not been updated since the summer, and talks mostly about his arrest, hardly mentioning his career.

There was also a noticeable absence of any current works or projects or musicals featuring his name in the credits. Looks as if he hasn't been working since Maria. The website for The Sound of Music hasn't removed his bio - an oversight? - but lists no work from him after 2007.

Eventually I found this item. Seems Lee's court appearance has been put off to June 29 of next year, for reasons not stated, though the 'horrendous toll on him' mentioned by the lawyer might imply health issues. Perhaps he was fired from the show because they thought he couldn't do it, not because they didn't want him to?

I hope I will be able to learn what happens next June.