Lots of people have TV shows that are guilty pleasures. It could be Jackass, The Price Is Right, Hallmark Christmas movies, or any of those bajillion reality TV shows that show up on Lifetime, The Discovery Channel, TLC, etc.
One reality TV show that was on for several years was Dance Moms. Debuting in 2011, it revolved around the training and careers of children involved in dance and show business under the very strict, no-nonsense tutelage of dance studio owner Abby Lee Miller. The show also focused on the oftentimes toxic relationships between Miller, the dancers, and the kids’ bickering mothers. The show was primarily filmed at the Abby Lee Dance Company (ALDC) studios. The show followed the girls on the ALDC Junior Elite Competition Team as they learned their routines and competed at dance competitions all across the country. The show was chock full of drama and infighting, frequently caused by, if not with Miller herself.
Dance Moms ran for 8 seasons. While waiting for the 9th season to start, Lifetime said they were severing ties with Miller due to complaints of racially-based actions and comments she had made. This was not the first time Miller has been in trouble – she had also been in prison for nearly a year, in 2017, due to bankruptcy fraud charges.
Miller was diagnosed with Burkitt’s Lymphoma in 2018 (the final season of Dance Moms was set around her cancer battle). She endured several rounds of chemotherapy and underwent two surgeries on her spine. Initially paralyzed from the cancer on her spine, Miller eventually was able to walk short distances with a walker. However, she was and is still considered a paraplegic and mainly uses an electric wheelchair for mobility.
In early 2020, Miller was a Florida resident. However, when the COVID pandemic hit in March 2020, she was in Santa Monica, CA and her oncologist advised that she not travel. She took up residence at a Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton in Santa Monica, California, from that time until October 2020 (as per a February 2021 interview with Entertainment Tonight, she couldn’t afford 24-hour care, so she was living in the hotel so “she could call the front desk for help when she needed it”).
Anyway, at one point during her stay, she voiced concerns about the accessibility of her room. She was then moved from her originally assigned room to a different one, which was located down a long hallway and therefore, she claimed, more difficult to access. Miller suspected the hotel staff had given her this more inconveniently-placed room in retaliation for her initial complaints about accessibility of her original room.
Miller said that one of the wheels of her wheelchair got caught under the sliding bathroom door of this new room, in August 2020. Unable to free herself, the 300-pound door fell directly onto her left shoulder and struck her in the head.
Miller said she screamed for help for “6 to 12 minutes” until the hotel staff heard her. Two hotel staff members lifted the door off her, emergency services were called and she was taken to St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica to treat her injuries. She says the injuries from the incident still affect her and she’s been in physical therapy for them, ever since.
That sounds like a sad and unfortunate event, however Miller said that besides that, the staff refused to help her in general:
- She claimed the hotel’s laundry room was not wheelchair accessible.
- Miller also said she wasn’t able to access the hotel’s pool or pool area because she was physically unable to open the door.
- She also accused housekeeping of leaving their carts in the hallway, which would block her path of travel.
- Miller also claimed hotel staff purposely placed her handicapped accessible toilet seat on top of the toilet lid because she wouldn’t be able to reach it there.
So with all of that, Miller is suing the Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton hotel chain for negligence, emotional distress, unlawful discrimination, discrimination against individuals with disabilities, and false imprisonment. She’s seeking at least $8.5 million in damages.
As a matter of note, Miller had another unfortunate accident involving her wheelchair a couple of years ago. In the summer of 2019, she fell out of it while at the American Airlines gate at Pittsburgh International Airport. At the time, she wrote on her Instagram (later deleted but parroted on Twitter), “Let’s just say my transfer from the Isle (sic) Chair to my own chair didn’t go so well! The move should’ve happened on the bridge like usual and not in front of a hundred ppl waiting to board, I shouldn’t have had to ask for someone to call the paramedics and maybe the @americanair Gate Mgr should’ve at the very least asked if I was ok?” She began law proceedings against the airline in June, 2021.
I’ll keep an eye out to see how her lawsuit against Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton lawsuit goes.
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