{"id":46886,"date":"2006-02-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/missing-extreme-makeover-has-tragic-consequences\/"},"modified":"2006-02-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-02-27T00:00:00","slug":"missing-extreme-makeover-has-tragic-consequences","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/missing-extreme-makeover-has-tragic-consequences\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing Extreme Makeover Has Tragic Consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A lawsuit filed against the producers of the hit TV show <em>Extreme Makeover<\/em> begins with the line, &quot;Deleese Williams is considered ugly.&quot; The remaining 31 pages of the complaint tell the story of a Texas wife and mother who was promised a series of cosmetic surgeries that would &quot;transform her life and destiny.&quot; That dream was shattered, however, when one of the dental surgeons reported that Williams&#39;s recovery time would be longer than expected. She was pulled from the show the night before her surgeries were scheduled to begin, and sent back to Texas the next day.<\/p>\n\n<p>According to the lawsuit, Williams sobbed uncontrollably when she was given the news. &quot;How can I go back as ugly as I left?&quot; she said, &quot;I was supposed to come home pretty.&quot; Wesley Cordova, an attorney for Williams, claims that her suffering continues: &quot;Deleese is so hurt and humiliated she won&#39;t leave the house now. She grocery shops at midnight.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>The lawsuit also claims that Williams&#39;s family has been severely impacted. The producers coached them to focus on nothing accept Deleese&#39;s physical flaws, and even pushed them to verbally express their opinions on taped interviews&mdash;which Deleese later saw. The lawsuit claims, &quot;Now that she returned in the same condition in which she left, there were no secrets, no hidden feelings, no rewards.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Finally, Cordova alleges that the emotional stress of the entire situation had a tragic impact on Deleese&#39;s sister, Kellie. &quot;Kellie could not live with the fact that she had said horrible things that hurt her sister,&quot; said Cordova. &quot;She fell to pieces. Four months later, she ended her life with an overdose of pills, alcohol, and cocaine.&quot; The lawsuit concludes: &quot;The family is shredded. There is a human cost to this.&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[308],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[452],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3428,3475,3797,3861,3960,4091,4175,4923,4963,5171,5199,5292],"tax_ctp_topics":[396],"class_list":["post-46886","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-appearance","tax_ctp_tags-beauty","tax_ctp_tags-discouragement","tax_ctp_tags-emptiness","tax_ctp_tags-family","tax_ctp_tags-grandparents-day","tax_ctp_tags-human-body","tax_ctp_tags-self-image","tax_ctp_tags-shame","tax_ctp_tags-tongue","tax_ctp_tags-truth","tax_ctp_tags-words"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - 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