LEGAL FILE

Fat Suit: A New York City company that promotes designer clothes for women weighing more than 200 pounds has sued a television station for allegedly refusing to show a commercial because the models were called “too fat.” Walter Hudson Ventures Inc. filed a $3.5-million lawsuit against WTTG-TV, Washington’s Fox Broadcasting affiliate, in a District of Columbia Superior Court, alleging discrimination based on personal appearance. The executive vice president for Walter Hudson Ventures Inc., said she submitted a request to broadcast the advertisement in early November, and several weeks later an assistant program producer at WTTG told her company “they would not sell us time because the models in our commercial were too fat.” WTTG denied the allegations. “We review requests for time buys objectively and there were no impermissible or discriminatory factors considered in this case,” said the station’s general manager.