Lawyer asks judge to reveal Osteens' wealth

So you know how Lakewood Church pastors Joel and Victoria Osteen have taken a vow of poverty, right? Yeah, yeah, we're kidding — but if you're anything like Houstonist, you've wondered at one time or another exactly how much the Osteens are worth. (Go ahead, admit it.) Turns out we're not the only ones: Reginald McKamie, the attorney for Continental flight attendant Sharon Brown, asked a judge yesterday to make the Osteens' net worth public in the event of a judgment against Victoria Osteen. This all has to do, of course, with the lawsuit that Brown filed against Victoria Osteen relating to the infamous December 2005 incident in which Mrs. Osteen was reportedly kicked off a Continental plane after freaking out because someone had spilled liquid on her first-class seat.

In case you've forgotten, Victoria Osteen reportedly went ballistic while preparing for a flight to Vail on Dec. 19, 2005. She complained about the liquid on her seat, then (according to a fellow passenger) "violently ran toward the cockpit, scaring everyone around her. ... A bunch of flight attendants ran up and had to restrain her. She was banging on the door [of the cockpit]." During that melee, Brown claims Mrs. Osteen pushed her and elbowed her in the left breast; Osteen — first by herself, then through high-powered lawyer Rusty Hardin — maintains that nothing really happened. And the move to publicize the Osteens' wealth is just another attempt to keep the incident in the news, Hardin told KTRK: "It has been nothing but about money and publicity," he said. "[Brown has] gotten her 15 minutes of fame — or 15 seconds, but she's gotten more than 15 seconds — and she's seeking money she's never going to get." But the money is the key, McKamie replied: "If money is the only thing that will get Victoria Osteen's attention so that she doesn't do this to anybody else, then that's what we need to do."

Osteen, via Hardin, still insists the incident didn't happen as reported: In court yesterday, Hardin told the judge that the Osteens left the plans voluntarily after the incident (or non-incident, depending on whom you ask) and were not kicked off — though witnesses on the plane and the FBI said exactly the opposite. A trial date hasn't been set for the suit, but we're sure the trial — if one occurs — will be fun to watch.