MCML Layout help

[Nmarconi]

Hi, my name is Nate - I am a .Net programmer by trade and a HTPC Enthusiest (medio -> popcorn hour -> xbmc -> WMC 7). I recently added a ceton card and am loving it. I am not a fan of the Recorded TV section and am writing an add-in to replace it (Mostly i want an "New" flag and a Plex-style On Deck). I know about Recorded TV HD - but i want something a bit different and figured it would be a good learning experience anyway. The back-end libraries/DB are all set. Working on the MCML now, and wow it is maddening. The layout options just do not make sense to me. I hate that everything seems to size to children. Does anyone out there have a solid grasp on MCML layouts that can offer some help? Here is an example of a problem i am having. The UI is a Metro style UI. I wrote a list UI control. It works great. However, i want the selected item to have a colorfill background. No problem. But i want the selection bar to fill the entirety of the horizontal space given to it from the parent (Form Layout). Is this possible? It doesnt seem to be - i cant get it to work. The color fill will only ever extend as far as the text. I am tempted to just go XBMC skin style and code everything to a 1080p resolution rather than using percentages. See the image below for the basic idea.

[sccrgoalie1]

Can't you just make the text object min size whatever size the parent is?