This is the deep question facing us today, as insane Flipping Out star Jeff Lewis and Ugly Betty actress Ashley Jensen (the Scottish chick) tangle in a war of words, threats, and lawsuits. Each is on a show that is among television's campiest, so when these two players go to war, does it produce an ironic overload, or will the anecdote collapse inward on itself like a souffle?

According to the documents filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Jensen and [her husband Terence] Beesley live next door to a house Lewis is currently renovating in the tony Los Feliz section of the city. The couple took issue earlier this year when they realized a deck Lewis had constructed on the fixer-upper home had encroached on their pricey property. [...]

After all parties were alerted to the violation, Jensen and her hubby claim that Lewis offered them $10,000 to buy an easement and simply let the deck stand. However, after consulting with other real estate experts, the couple say they were informed that the property Lewis had encroached upon was actually worth $100,000—10 times the amount of his lowball sum.

Clearly unhappy with the new figure, Lewis, the papers claim, paid a late-night visit to his neighbors' home and countered with a $30,000 offer, as well as a threat to make their lives miserable and generally talk nonstop smack about them on the new season of his show.

Apparently it wasn't the best business tactic.

As a result of Jensen and Beesley's lawsuit, which also named Lewis' business partner and reality-show costar Ryan Brown, earlier this week the court issued a temporary restraining order against Lewis, ordering him to stay 50 feet away from Jensen's home and not harass, assault or trespass on the property.

Perhaps things would have gone more smoothly if an inattentive Lewis hadn't mistaken a visiting America Ferrera for his housekeeper Zoila, barking, "Zoila, PLEASE get me a drink that's 70 percent bourbon, 20 percent punch, 10 percent I'm gonna kick this Ugly Betty broad's ass all the way down Hillhurst if she won't give in. You want your gays to keep watching your show? Then don't mess with the guy who nets Bravo consistent highs in HH and total viewers!"

• Jeff Lewis Flips Out on Ugly Betty Star [E!]

Will it be enough to stave off Leachman's elimination for one more week? We'll find out soon, though to judge from the audience reaction shots afterward, Leachman has already won over two disparate admirers: House Bunny star Anna Faris and Flipping Out's Jeff Lewis. And, as the old saying says, "Where the comediennes and OCD martini olive counters go, so goes the nation."

• Dancing With The Stars [ABC]

• Flipping Out [Bravo]

"When I got into it, I told the production company and the network to show all sides of me," he says over lunch at a Los Feliz restaurant the day after the second episode aired. "After all, I'm human. I have bad days, I have meltdowns, just like everybody else."

What he didn't expect was the way he felt once he saw himself in the unflattering mirror of his television.

"You can have people tell you how you are, but until you see yourself on a 40-inch plasma TV, you really can't know," says Lewis, 37, who grew up in Orange County.

And so he decided he had to change. [...]

Times were bad, both financially and personally. The cameras captured every tantrum.

"It brings back a period of my life that I'd rather not re-live," Lewis says. "And it's alwayson reruns. Zoila has it on her TV constantly. I walk by her room and hear myself screaming."

The way he has been portrayed, two episodes into the six-episode run, is not an exaggeration. "I really was, at that time, I was a monster," Lewis says.

"If nothing else, I've been able to watch myself and change."

He has apologized to his assistants - several times over.

"Last night, I watched the show with Jenni. And there came a point that I had my hands over my face. The part where I said, 'You wouldn't have a house if it wasn't' for me, you wouldn't eat if it wasn't for me.' And I apologized again."

We must admit to being more than a little disappointed by Lewis's outwardly healthy strategy for dealing with the harm he inflicted during those dark, TV-friendly days; hugs, apologies, and healed wounds would really interfere with the successful production of the second season we already find ourselves craving. Still, despite his above indications that he's trying to change his ways, we can hold out hope that Lewis is just experiencing a Paula Abdul-style psychological break, and that Evil Jeff will soon be calling up the LA Times to deny all the vicious lies being spread by his weak, conciliatory alter ego, and promising that "next time around, I'm going to bury one of my incompetent assistants underneath the gleaming hardwood floorboards of a four-bed/three-bath fixer in Beachwood Canyon."

• TV's 'Flipping Out' star began flipping in O.C. [OC Register]
• Previously: Bravo To Introduce Yet Another 'Successful Crazy Person' Reality Show Tonight [Defamer]