Brad Pitt Stars in Holmes in New Orleans
Mike Holmes & Make It Right Bring Hope With Concrete, Wood, Glass
Apr 4, 2009
Viewers will probably tune in to watch Brad Pitt for an hour but the true star of Holmes in New Orleans is Gloria Guy.
The Lovely Guy
Guy is a 68-year-old grandmother and New Orleans resident whose home was destroyed and washed away during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. As the floodwaters rose, the 4'11" woman climbed onto a neighbour's roof and waited nearly 10 hours to be rescued.
Holmes To The Rescue
Mike Holmes and his 10-person Canadian crew offered their services to Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation (which strives to restore housing in the Lower Ninth Ward) and built the first prototype, high-tech, low-cost house for Guy. The Lower Ninth Ward was the area worst hit when the levees broke.
Holmes in New Orleans chronicles the contractor's journey to build Guy a sustainable "green" home on stilts that can withstand flooding and a hurricane's 200 mph winds - all within 90 days. Meanwhile Guy is living in Atlanta looking after her six grandkids, remembering her deceased children and counting down the days till she can return home.
Toil & Trouble In The Lower Ninth Ward
The Lower Ninth Ward is nothing more than a graveyard of broken down houses, shattered trees, garbage, and mud when Holmes arrives in the summer of 2008. There's no grocery store, no playgrounds, and no businesses nearby. It's as if the Hurricane just hit.
Holmes and Pitt in the first of many vignettes, talk shop: "People suffered a great injustice here...and it was manmade," Pitt says, referring to levees that broke as well as the destruction of the wetlands that used to absorb the impact of previous storms.
Dressed in his trademark overalls and looking as if he's auditioning for The Village People, Holmes attacks the project with the passion that regular viewers of Holmes on Homes are familiar with.
Hurricanes, Heat & Heaven In A Home
As machines get mired in mud, Hurricane Hazel delays the construction, and the crew starts to suffer from extreme heat, Damon Bennett, the foreman says, "We do the impossible a lot of times. We can't do it here." But the crew does the impossible.
Next door, a Mrs. LeBlanc rocks endlessly on her porch commenting while the foundation is made, the frame and the roof go up and the house begins to take shape. "When you're good, goodness follows you," she says pointing to the large blue wooden home. "That's her [Gloria Guy's] blessing," she says.
A Three-Year-Wait
Finally, on August 29, 2008 (as yet another hurricane threatens the Big Easy), the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the house is finished, walls painted, carpet laid down, appliances installed.
"This house is strong. I can feel it," Pitt says. Holmes says he's ready to give the house over to Gloria.
And when Guy enters praising Jesus over and over it's the sweetest moment.
Holmes in New Orleans, Global Television's two-part special airs Tues. April 7 at 9 p.m. ET/PT and concludes on Wed. April 8 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Then HGTV presents a six-hour, six-week series beginning Thurs. April 9.
 |
