Merlin Olsen, who was a football player and then went on to become a sportscaster for NBC and an actor on such TV shows as Little House on the Prairie and Father Murphy, is suing NBC Studios, NBC Universal, and 20th Century Fox for exposing him to asbestos. Olsen was diagnosed with mesothelioma last year and is undergoing chemotherapy.

But the lawsuit doesn't stop there. Because he was exposed to asbestos at a job when he was around 11 years old and also exposed when he was an adult while working at a job involving drywall, Olsen is also suing Sherwin-Williams and Lennox Industries.

Hmmm, I have zero legal training (unless you count watching L.A. Law reruns as legal training), but I wonder if the fact that Olsen says that he was exposed to asbestos when he was younger will affect the lawsuit? Maybe he would have more luck suing the earlier companies rather than NBC?