Hola Gary,

If it was only the noun, "María", then you'd need "Lo de María" but we have here a whole sentence with a conjugated verb. It may be confusing to see this in the lesson as we say:

Lo de que + conjugated verb

So I will slightly change the text in the lesson accordingly saying that the conjugated verb can be preceded by its subject, to make it clearer.

I hope this helped,

Gracias y un saludo,

Inma

Hola Gary

Sorry we missed this other query. Here in this sentence:

"Lo de la prohibición de las corridas de toros, ha creado controversia. 

we have "lo de" plus a noun (la prohibición). If we were using "lo de que...", as Robin mentioned previously, we would have a subordinate clause. See how a similiar sentence would work with "lo de que":

"Lo de que las autoridades hayan prohibido las corridas de toros, ha creado controversia."

You have here a whole clause after "que", and then after the comma you have the main verb "ha creado". 

In the first sentence, "Lo de la prohibición de las corridas de toros, ha creado controversia." there is no subordinate clause. There is only one main verb. 

"The ban on bullfighting (subject) has caused (erb) some controversy."

I hope this makes it clearer.

Sorry about the delay.

Saludos

Inma