Editing Rob Lowe (section)

==Philanthropy==
Lowe was the first male spokesman for the 2000 [[Lee National Denim Day]] fundraiser, which raises money for [[breast cancer]] research and education. His grandmother and great-grandmother both suffered from breast cancer, and his mother died of the disease in late 2003.<ref>{{cite news|last=Merriam|first=Kan|title=Millions Join Breast Cancer Crusade Americans to Rally in Denim On Lee National Denim Day(R) October 6th|url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Millions+Join+Breast+Cancer+Crusade+Americans+to+Rally+in+Denim+On...-a065655132|access-date=December 29, 2012|date=October 2, 2000|archive-date=May 11, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150511100012/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Millions+Join+Breast+Cancer+Crusade+Americans+to+Rally+in+Denim+On...-a065655132|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=How to Cope With Breast Cancer|url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0009/15/lkl.00.html|access-date=December 29, 2012|publisher=[[CNN]]|date=September 15, 2000|archive-date=October 25, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025130546/http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0009/15/lkl.00.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Lowe is a founder of the Homeowner's Defense Fund, a Santa Barbara County non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to local control of land-use planning and transparency in government. The average price of tract homes in Santa Barbara in early 2006 was US$1,100,000, which motivated some to propose denser housing on existing lots. While in favor of increasing housing density, Lowe sought to build a {{convert|14260|sqft|m2|adj=on}} mansion for himself on an empty lot in [[Montecito, California]].<ref>[http://applications.sbcountyplanning.org/boards/pc/mpc_documents_archive.cfm?DocID=793 Santa Barbara County Planning and Development] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811152208/http://applications.sbcountyplanning.org/boards/pc/mpc_documents_archive.cfm?DocID=793 |date=August 11, 2011 }}. Retrieved January 19, 2011.</ref> His protest over the appearance of the address of the empty lot in the ''[[Santa Barbara News-Press]]'' precipitated a mass resignation of senior employees at that newspaper on July 6, 2006.<ref>{{cite news|last=Rainey|first=James|title=5 Editors, Columnist Quit in Santa Barbara|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jul-07-na-newspress7-story.html|access-date=December 29, 2012|newspaper=LA Times|date=July 7, 2006|archive-date=January 17, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117100109/http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jul/07/nation/na-newspress7|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Roderick|first=Kevin|title=Dueling versions in Santa Barbara|url=http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2006/07/dueling_stories_in_santa.php|access-date=December 29, 2012|work=LA Observed|date=July 13, 2006|archive-date=January 30, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130130155953/http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2006/07/dueling_stories_in_santa.php|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="AJR">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070302012237/http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4226 ''American Journalism Review''], December 2005/January 2006, (archived in [[WebCite]] on June 4, 2007)</ref>