Jon and Kate Plus 8, Official Thread--Part 7

[TanyaLovesPooh]

Nope! good point -- makes this even more interesting

I didn't remember anything she said that was about TLC or filming but I haven't read everything that she has stated either. Her credibility is certainly in question as is Jon's at this point.

 

[redrosesix]

I took the weekend off and had to read 8 pages to catch up! You all have been busy.

I'm skipping the Stephanie Whatsit discussion because I don't find her credible, and the rights and wrongs of Jon versus Kate -- because they both annoy me -- but you all enjoy that debate.

What I am really interested in is the legal aspects. The timing of TLC's breach of contract suit against the Gosselin company (if I am reading correctly), and in Jon's defence (or is it a countersuit?), and in the content. It seems a PR disaster in the making to go after the father of the Gosselin children, and they are going after Kate's assets too in filing against the Gosselin company. They are going after money that could be used to support the Gosselin children.

I think that they stopped filming because in the contract fine print it said that either parent had the right to stop the filming of the kids on demand. When Jon called a halt (regardless of his motives) TLC had to honor that, even though Kate wants to go ahead.

Filing suit now to continue filming the children, after Jon has said he has reservations seems bad judgement. Also interest in the show is waning, why not just go ahead with Kate's project? And why with all this other stuff thrown in? TLC could probably have got Jon on the morals clause way back in Feb/March, and he has been chattering to the media for a while, with or without pay and with or without permission. He is also talking specifically about compensation and hours.

My guess is that it is a preemptive strike and cold-blooded attempt by TLC to threaten and gag Jon, pure and simple, because they knew his attorney has figured out the possible breach of PA Child Labor Law by TLC and the Gosselin parents -- and is going to use it. TLC is running scared and probably for good reason.

Kate consistently, and Jon until recently when TLC lost control of him, have been very careful to say that the kids are not working "just playing". They have also been very vague about the amount of time the children are filmed. Moreover, they have been implying that because the children are not being paid they are not working. Hmmm. There is a word for being forced to work without pay.

Sorry, but I completely disagree with those who think that what TLC is doing is in and respect the same as home videos. Those children are filmed by professionals, given lines "Coming up on Jon and Kate", interviewed by the camera crew, made to sit still for shots . . .

If TLC did not pull special work permits for J and K & 8 I think they are on very thin ice. I also wonder if those permits would have been approved by the Department of Labor given the hours involved.

I also wonder about the extent and length of the Good Housekeeping photo shoot (presumably authorized and approved by TLC). Sounds like work to me from the article above. Did Good Housekeeping have a permit too?

Jon breaking the confidentiality agreement could get TLC into a whole lot of retroactive trouble. In his lawyer's statement it is clear that he is going for the "whistleblower" and "I'm just a naive idiot" protection for Jon. I'm not sure that will be enough.

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

FYI: The PA Child Labor Laws. http://www.dli.state.pa.us/landi/CWP/view.asp?a=185&Q=58124

The relevant section pertaining to entertainment.

"Section 7.1. (a) The Department of Labor and Industry is hereby authorized to issue special permits for the employment of minors seven and under eighteen years of age in theatrical productions, musical recitals or concerts, entertainment acts, modeling, radio, television, motion picture making, or in other similar forms or media of entertainment in Pennsylvania where the performance of such minor is not hazardous to his safety or well-being, except as follows:

(1) No such minor shall be permitted to perform after the hour of eleven-thirty in the evening.
(2) No such minor shall be permitted to perform in any place or establishment where alcoholic beverages are sold or dispensed.

(3) No such minor shall be permitted to perform in a boxing, sparring or wrestling match or exhibition or in an acrobatic or other act, performance or exhibition hazardous to his safety or well-being.

(4) No such minor shall appear in more than two performances in any one day nor in more than eight performances in any one week.

(a.1) In addition to any permit authorized by subsection (a), the department shall be authorized to issue special permits for the temporary employment of minors as part of the performing cast in the production of a motion picture, if the department determines that adequate provision has been made for the educational instruction, supervision, health and welfare of the minor. Unless the department determines that more restrictive conditions are necessary, special permits authorized by this subsection shall authorize minors to work as part of the performing cast for forty-four hours in any one week and eight hours in any one day. Time spent on the set or on location while on call shall be excluded from any calculation of the maximum number of hours authorized by this subsection if the department determines that adequate provision has been made for the child's education, supervision and welfare during such intervals. The department may restrict the number of hours which may be spent on call by the minor. The department may waive, in whole or in part, restrictions contained in this act and in any other act, on the time of day or night allowed for engaging in the employment authorized by this subsection, if the department determines that such waiver is necessary to preserve the artistic integrity of the motion picture and further determines that such waiver will not impair the educational instruction, supervision, health and welfare of the minor. Special permits authorized by this subsection shall be valid for a period of time not to exceed six months. An issued permit shall state that no minor, allowed under the permit to be temporarily employed, may be allowed on a set during, or may otherwise watch, the filming or rehearsal for filming of any sexual act. Nothing in this section shall be construed to supersede or repeal in part 18 Pa.C.S. §5903 (relating to obscene and other sexual materials) or 6312 (relating to sexual abuse of children).

((a.1) amended Dec. 21, 1998, P.L. 1908, No. 192)

(a.2) A special permit shall not be required under this section for a minor who participates in a nonprofit, educational, theatrical production if there is informed, written consent of a parent or guardian; if the participation is for a period of no more than fourteen consecutive days; if the participation is not during school hours; and if the minor receives no direct or indirect remuneration. All other existing limitations of this section shall remain applicable.

Great post Walden!

Looks like despite the fact that PA does not have a specific code to deal with kids in reality shows, children are pretty well protected. And it is the Dept. of Labor that retains the right to determine what are considered excess hours ie. it wouldn't be up to TLC.

I'll go back to this again later, but just from my first read I have a few questions/comments:
* it's possible that the show complied with the regulations before they went to 40 shows per season, but I don't see how they could not exceed the maximum number of hours now, even for a movie, especially the amount of time that the kids were required to be "on call"
* the only type of production that doesn't require a special permit is a non-profit theatrical production, which this is not.
* in all of the parts of Section 7.1, there is no different treatment for minors who are not being paid

TLC is without the proverbial paddle, IMO.

 

[walden]

That sounds good to me -- I think you Americans should start lobbying Paul Peterson and the other groups to make some statements right now, before filming resumes.

ETA: Re your wish for a GAL, I pulled this of the A Minor Consideration website:
Motion to Dismiss First Amended Petition is Denied

THE COURT HAVING TAKEN THE MATTER UNDER SUBMISSION ON 8/20/09 NOW RULES:

Motion to Dismiss First Amended Petition is Denied. Probate Code Section 1510(a) permits “a relative or other person on behalf of minor” to file a Petition for Appointment of Guardian. There is no statutory requirement such a petitioner must be an “interested person” or enjoy any type of relationship with the minor or minors named in the petition. As the paramount concern in guardianships is the best interests of children, the legislature has not restricted the class of individuals who may petition seeking to protect those interests. In issuing this ruling the Court does not evaluate the underlying merits of the petition.

Any determination will occur as part of the orderly procedural process accorded all guardianship petitions.

As provided by Probate Code Section 1513(a) the Court now invites the Department of Social Services to conduct an investigation and file with the court a report and recommendation concerning the proposed guardianship of the estates of the named minors. Such report is to be filed with the court on or before October 29, 2009.

The August 31, 2009 hearing date currently scheduled on this matter is continued to be heard at 1: 30 pm in Department L73 on October 29, 2009.

So I guess even you could get a GAL appointed Walden

Sorry, I realize I'm resurrecting this from from pages back:

Re lobbying and not to bash advocacy organizations: Paul Petersen is a very concerned citizen and active advocate for children, but I think his organization is fairly small and not always accurate in information outside CA. The other organization (Childwatch?) that has spoken out is also small, and I do wish the spokesperson there would get a proofreader, because the poor writing detracts from the message! (Not that my writing is always grammatical correct and my spelling is often suspect. I've just noticed that after 30 years residence in the USA I'm reverting to British spelling here on the DIS. It must be reading posts from all you Canadians!)

Anyway, I think primary change has to happen at the state or, preferably, Federal level. And yes, I have written my representatives in Congress on the issue.

Oh, and you raised my hopes on the GAL until I looked up the PA code rather than relying on A Minor Consideration. http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/231/chapter8012/s12.4.html


Rule 12.4. Appointment of a guardian ad litem or a trustee ad litem.
(a) On petition of the accountant or any party in interest, or upon its own motion, the Court may appoint (1) a guardian ad litem to represent a minor or an incompetent not represented by a guardian or (2) a trustee ad litem to represent an absentee, a presumed decedent, or unborn or unascertained persons not already represented by a fiduciary, unless the Court considers that the interests of such persons are adequately represented.

I don't think I'd qualify as a "party of interest" in the Gosselin case. Aw, shucks!

Thanks for all the research!

 

[redrosesix]

I've been thinking (a little bit during this busy Monday!) about the balloon boy (I kind of missed all that drama and have only gotten bits and pieces of it) and J&K. Ironically (if I understand the situation), the kid who was supposed to be in the balloon is the one who "spilled the beans" and gave away that it was a hoax on LKL right?? I wonder what the Gosselin kids have spilled that's laying on TLC's cutting room floor....I mean, my kids say some of the darnest things. That would be a cute show if TLC was looking for a "special" to do and get more episodes for the rest of this season.

Alright...time to get back to work!

OMG -- I was watching LKL waiting for MJ's doctor when it happened, and I nearly choked when the kid said "we were doing it for the show, right? The father looked like he did choke, or was going to run off set.

I'd like to see the day that the kids decided not to film and instead go swimming -- it would be hilarious to see 8 little kids going on strike and leaving the adults wondering what to do about it.

 

[MAKmom]

So Stephanie is the person you choose to believe, the one who is selling her story to rags? Ok.

What I want to know is who released her from her non-disclosure agreement with TLC?

Jon is selling his story to the rags too. Unless Jon does something to stop her I am believing there is some truth in what she says. Jon has money & a big time lawyer how hard is it to file some papers to scare this woman if she is lying.

If this was pillow talk I don't think the non-disclosure with TLC can be enforced. This is another David Letterman case. Employer sleeping with employee. Jon admits she was also on his personal payroll.

 

[madge]

interesting tie-in to the balloon boy:

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/en...n-boy-jon-kate-plus-8-children-as-props-.html

 

[OhMari]

I've been thinking (a little bit during this busy Monday!) about the balloon boy (I kind of missed all that drama and have only gotten bits and pieces of it) and J&K. Ironically (if I understand the situation), the kid who was supposed to be in the balloon is the one who "spilled the beans" and gave away that it was a hoax on LKL right?? I wonder what the Gosselin kids have spilled that's laying on TLC's cutting room floor....I mean, my kids say some of the darnest things. That would be a cute show if TLC was looking for a "special" to do and get more episodes for the rest of this season.

Alright...time to get back to work!

I think the closest secret we ever saw, is when the tups had their 5th birthday, and one of the girls hugged Jon, and said she missed him. We had it figured out that they were seperated, but TLC was still trying to keep everyone from knowing that Jon and Kate were seperated.

 

[C.Ann]

Things are way too quiet from the J&K camp lately.. Someone will be dropping a big bomb soon.. Too many days without being the main focus of the media world..

Anyone know when any of the court dates are scheduled for?

 

[MAKmom]

Things are way too quiet from the J&K camp lately.. Someone will be dropping a big bomb soon.. Too many days without being the main focus of the media world..

Anyone know when any of the court dates are scheduled for?

I think Oct 26.

 

[MAKmom]

interesting tie-in to the balloon boy:

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/en...n-boy-jon-kate-plus-8-children-as-props-.html

I think the balloon boy is in a league of its own I'm pissed they had me close to tears thinking that child had fallen out of the balloon.

 

[redrosesix]

Things are way too quiet from the J&K camp lately.. Someone will be dropping a big bomb soon.. Too many days without being the main focus of the media world..

Anyone know when any of the court dates are scheduled for?

Oct. 22nd was supposed to be the divorce hearing -- I don't know if it was moved again.

Oct. 26th for the (public) hearing re Kate's petition and Jon's counter-claim

 

[momrek06]

I think the balloon boy is in a league of its own I'm pissed they had me close to tears thinking that child had fallen out of the balloon.

Me too!
I only turned on the tv when the TOP of the balloon was landing. I had no idea what was going on. Next thing Wolf B. is exclaiming that the bottom has fallen off and that the boy may have been in the bottom (basket). Oh my, I was so sad. Thinking of the family, what they must be going through. No names were mentioned at this point...just that Wolf stated the family said there was a basket...

Then the little boy is found and was HIDING in the attic. Well we were all thrilled for this poor family, the pain they must have been going through.

THEN...."we did it for the show."

 

[walden]

Great post Walden!

Looks like despite the fact that PA does not have a specific code to deal with kids in reality shows, children are pretty well protected. And it is the Dept. of Labor that retains the right to determine what are considered excess hours ie. it wouldn't be up to TLC.

I'll go back to this again later, but just from my first read I have a few questions/comments:
* it's possible that the show complied with the regulations before they went to 40 shows per season, but I don't see how they could not exceed the maximum number of hours now, even for a movie, especially the amount of time that the kids were required to be "on call"
* the only type of production that doesn't require a special permit is a non-profit theatrical production, which this is not.
* in all of the parts of Section 7.1, there is no different treatment for minors who are not being paid

TLC is without the proverbial paddle, IMO.

Thanks for the compliment on my post!

However, I'm not very optimistic regarding TLC being without a paddle, although you are picking up on the exact same points that I noted.

The PA Child Labor Law only covers minors from the age of 7 to 18. Mady and Cara would fall under this for the last 2 years but not before. They have not been filmed as much recently. I think TLC are vulnerable for the last "season" though, because when does a home become a "set?" And how many hours did they film?

The sextuplets are not covered at all by the PA law. They are not covered because PA does not accept that children under 7 can "work." Legislation always lags way behind fact, and is always filed after some horrid case comes to court. I think the Gosselins may well be that case in PA.

I'm sure TLC saw the loop holes in the PA child labor law in advance and exploited them royally. The first few shows were "documentaries." Define "work." The 'tups are "playing," we were within limits with the twins, even if we didn't pull permits . . . And especially: "We have been filming for 4 years and no-one told us we shouldn't" etc.

Deniability.

I'm sure many lawyers are salivating at this one. I have a feeling that some may take the case pro bono just for the publicity. Jon may be in luck there, but kids other than the Gosselins may be the real beneficiaries if it does set precedent in court.

The Gosselin kids have been dragged through the mud, are being dragged through the mud, and will be dragged through the mud, and one hopes will survive.

Now, before people pile on and attack me for arguing for legislation against the (God-given) rights of parents . . .

I cannot imagine any decent parent not supporting Federal Child Labor Laws similar to the Coogan Law (if not more far reaching in terms of compensation) in all aspects of entertainment. After all, what are the labor laws for? To protect minors from being over-worked, to ensure that work does not interfere with education, to ensure well-being through a social worker on set to support the parent in setting reasonable limits, and to ensure that some part of the compensation goes into trust for the child.

What is to object to in that?

IMO a decent parent would be there with bells on. They would not fight reasonable legislation nor try to circumvent it. Just saying.

 

[kidshop]

I didn't remember anything she said that was about TLC or filming but I haven't read everything that she has stated either. Her credibility is certainly in question as is Jon's at this point.

I'm suspicious that's all. Stephanie's mom said all this stuff a month ago and it didn't 'take'. And I think it came through the mother then b/c Stephanie would have been under the disclosure agreement. I'm sure anyone who is allowed around the family has to sign one, which is why we don't hear from other babysitters, their lawn people etc.

Now, Steph can talk, but only about Jon it seems. She also says the kids loved filming and it wasn't harmful......hmmm. I think TLC freed her, but only to incriminate Jon, and while I haven't checked this out personally, I have heard in one of her video interviews she admits to meeting Kate and Jon prior to her babysitting stint this summer. Which would mean Kate lied about not meeting her before and having to check on the kids the day the police were called.

I'm all about conspiracy theory these days! None of this blew up until Jon stopped filming.

 

[DMRick]

I'm not going to comment on all the permit stuff you posted, because I think we went in that direction two threads ago, and decided they weren't breaking the law..but then, what do we know LOL. Who knows if they got permits, if they were supposed to get permits. There are prob enough what if's and what fors, that it would take a labor lawyer to really figure it out.

However, are you saying they filed suit to continue filming the children? I thought they filed suit because Jon broke the contract, and he has interviewed without permission and wants to sign up for other shows?

I didn't read the actual paper work..jut no interest in trying to figure out the legalities, from what I glanced at, I figured they had sharp lawyers to do that and once it goes to court, I'll find out who was right..but I didn't see, from my glance that they were sueing him because he won't allow filming of the kids.

Filing suit now to continue filming the children, after Jon has said he has reservations seems bad judgement. Also interest in the show is waning, why not just go ahead with Kate's project? And why with all this other stuff thrown in? TLC could probably have got Jon on the morals clause way back in Feb/March, and he has been chattering to the media for a while, with or without pay and with or without permission. He is also talking specifically about compensation and hours. .

 

[walden]

I'm not going to comment on all the permit stuff you posted, because I think we went in that direction two threads ago, and decided they weren't breaking the law..but then, what do we know LOL. Who knows if they got permits, if they were supposed to get permits. There are prob enough what if's and what fors, that it would take a labor lawyer to really figure it out.

However, are you saying they filed suit to continue filming the children? I thought they filed suit because Jon broke the contract, and he has interviewed without permission and wants to sign up for other shows?

I didn't read the actual paper work..jut no interest in trying to figure out the legalities, from what I glanced at, I figured they had sharp lawyers to do that and once it goes to court, I'll find out who was right..but I didn't see, from my glance that they were sueing him because he won't allow filming of the kids.

With respect, I don't think it matters what this thread *decided* two threads ago. We are now looking at a whole different ball game with the new lawsuits. I thnk we can discuss it and some of us like perusing the paperwork and researching legislation.

Yes, it will definitely take labor lawyers to figure it out. I think the case, if it goes to court, will set legal precedents. Fascinating, but really sad for the children.

 

[newtodis]

Did anyone watch the Law and Order on Friday night? I DVR'd it and watched it over the weekend. I thought it was pretty good and a lot of things that we'd said here were said by the actors. Just interesting that's all.

I can't believe how slow this thread is today! Last week it was pages a day, now this week it's a few posts a day!

 

[newtodis]

As their parents continue to make tabloid headlines — Jon faces contempt charges for taking money out of a joint account, while Kate has just lost the reality show franchise that made her famous — the eight children of Jon and Kate Gosselin are starting to feel the effects of all the stress.

In a new article posted on Vanity Fair.com, Kate reveals her brood has been "acting out" lately — but she is hopeful it's a phase that will pass as the kids adjust to their life with divorced parents.

"I'm trying to give them the grace to see, if they’re acting out of line, I'm trying to look deeper into why that is," she says in the article. "Why the kids are acting out. Cause it’s all inter-related. I mean, they don’t see it, but it’s all interconnected."

Referring to Jon, she says, "They miss him. They say they miss him. I imagine they say the same thing when I'm away."

Not only are the kids hurting without both their parents together, Kate recently said that the demise of their hit show “Jon & Kate Plus 8” — which came after Jon objected to his children being filmed once TLC announced plans to relaunch the show as simply “Kate Plus 8” — has caused plenty of heartache at home.

Last week on the TODAY show, Kate said, "Over the weekend I told [the kids] that we're not filming at this point. And actually, times eight, there was wailing and sobbing. They love our crew, they love the interaction, they love the events. There is nothing harmful about it. They are angry."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33385031/ns/entertainment-celebrities/

 

[newtodis]

The Unreal Rise of Jon and Kate Gosselin
How did two average parents from rural Pennsylvania with an outsize brood rise to such dizzying heights of stardom and tabloid infamy? The author peers behind the curtain of the biggest celebrity story of the year.
By Nancy Jo Sales WEB EXCLUSIVE October 19, 2009
‘Nobu, Nobu, I want Nobu!” Kate Gosselin wants to go to Nobu. She’s got a night away from her eight kids—also her co-stars on the hit reality series Jon & Kate Plus Eight—and a reporter is offering to take her out on the town. “I want sushi!” Kate says, leaning back in an armchair in her suite at the Essex House hotel overlooking Central Park, checking her BlackBerry, popping gum.

But Laurie Goldberg, vice president of communications at TLC, which airs Jon & Kate, doesn’t think Nobu’s such a great idea. Kate cried on the Today show this morning, answering questions about why she’s still wearing her wedding ring (“for them,” she said of her children, sniffling), and this afternoon she told People, “I am so emotionally spent” (from her husband’s behavior, which has included philandering with the daughter of the plastic surgeon who gave Kate her tummy tuck), and so it might not look good for her to be out enjoying herself at a hot spot.

“You’re like a prisoner,” Kate says of her newfound fame, annoyed.

Kate, who in the first season of Jon & Kate, two years ago, appeared on-screen as a dowdy, sweatpants-wearing mama hen, is now looking very much the celebrity—from her tanned, trained body to her curiously asymmetrical blond hairdo, now so iconic as to be the model for a popular Halloween wig.

Her phone rings. “Oh, it’s Kelly”—Ripa, of Live with Regis and Kelly—Kate says, holding up a French-manicured finger, signaling for us all to be silent. She’s going on the show tomorrow morning. She and Kelly gab. “Hiya!”

It’s early August, and Kate, who is 34, has come to New York to do battle—media battle. She and her estranged husband, Jon, are churning around at the center of a multi-media tsunami focused on their split and impending divorce. They are the subject of gossipy talk-show talk—a frequent “Hot Topic” on The View—and the target of thousands of disapproving blogs (GosselinsWithoutPity being the most insane).

Since March, they have appeared on the cover of the major celebrity weeklies more than 50 times—more than any other celebrity, including Brad and Angelina. And most of this frenzy of coverage has not been at all flattering to Kate, her image, or her fledgling “brand,” which already includes books, DVDs, product endorsements, speaking engagements, and plans for a children’s-clothing line and a talk show of her own.

“I’m running a business—hello?” Kate says. Kate is at war.

And right now, she is under siege. It’s Jon vs. Kate out in medialand, and the media is squarely on Team Jon. “In news focus groups,” says Richard Spencer, editor of In Touch Weekly, which has put Jon and Kate on its cover 15 times, “it was amazing to me that readers were actually on Jon’s side. ‘Well, you know what, she’s been awful to him. I don’t blame him for having an affair.’”

“Mom to Monster,” cried the cover of Us in May, followed by “Caught Hitting Her Daughter” on the cover of In Touch, with shots of Kate roughly spanking one of her six adorable five-year-olds. And then there was “Did Kate Cheat First?” on the cover of Star in May. That was the story that broke the rumor of an affair between Kate and her bodyguard, Steve Neild—an allegation Kate has called “disgusting and unthinkable.” A spokesman for Neild deems the rumors without “any merit whatsoever.”

Neild, a dashing, salt-and-pepper-haired former counter-terrorism cop from New Zealand (also married), is in the hotel room with us now. He used to protect a software mogul. “That was interesting,” he says. “Bit of a nerd.” Neild travels with Kate; he accompanied her on the book tours for her best-selling Multiple Bles8ings: Surviving to Thriving with Twins and Sextuplets and Eight Little Faces.

Neild doesn’t think going to Nobu is such a good idea, either. “I think it’s too risky,” he tells Kate, who just shrugs, blandly conceding, resembling not at all the self-described control freak who bossed and bullied Jon through the first four seasons of their reality show (once barking at him in a store, “Come!” “You yelled at me like I’m a frickkin’ dog,” Jon whined). The couple announced their split on-air in June, to the highest ratings of any episode of a basic-cable reality series ever, with 10.6 million viewers.

“I think the toy store would be O.K.,” says Neild, after I suggest a shopping trip to F.A.O. Schwarz. Goldberg agrees. It’s an image that’ll play well in the media: Kate buying toys for the kids while Jon is on the cover of Star this week for an alleged tryst with one of the tabloid’s own reporters, Kate Major (“Jon and the Other Kate!”).

A swarm of paparazzi is predicted to follow the excursion. Since March, when In Touch and Star simultaneously broke the news that the reality of the quaint, Christian Gosselins might be somewhat different from that seen on TV (“Jon’s Talking Divorce!” In Touch announced), Kate says they have hounded her “every single single single single single single single day of my life. I hate it. I hate it so much.”

I say you can almost feel sympathy for the celebrities who lose their tempers around photographers. “Who says I didn’t lose it—or may not?” Kate asks archly.

“I’m waiting for the call,” Goldberg says, laughing.

“I’m actually there to keep the paparazzi safe,” Neild jokes.

“Shut up,” Kate tells them sharply, frowning. “Now that’s where I draw the line.”

How did Kate Gosselin become a reality superstar? What perfect storm made “Jon and Kate” this year’s tabloid obsession? “It surprised the hell out of me,” says TMZ’s Harvey Levin. “Watching a woman push a wagonful of kids up the street is just not interesting to me. But then when it started to unravel, it became interesting in a different way.”

“It became a show that was completely suited to a multi-platform world,” says Ginia Bellafante, TV critic at The New York Times. “You can’t just watch Jon & Kate on television and understand it anymore. You have to participate in it on all these different levels—tabloids, news shows, talk shows, the blogosphere. Jon & Kate became unintentionally brilliant because it demanded so much other consumption to find out what was ‘real.’”

From its inception, the show was like a petri dish of American culture. It began with multiple mania. Eileen O’Neill, president of TLC—herself a twin—was looking for stories about multiples when, in 2006, she approached Bill Hayes, head of the North Carolina–based Figure 8 Films, which had specialized in programming about unusual families and medical miracles (18 Kids and Counting; Dwarf Family: Meet the Fooses).

Figure 8 found Jon and Kate—a laid-back, laid-off I.T. specialist and an uptight pediatric nurse with a set of twins, age five, and sextuplets, age two—in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, near Harrisburg. Kate was the daughter of an evangelical pastor and Jon the son of a pediatric dentist; they had both grown up in Pennsylvania, she in Reading and he in Huntingdon. Jon’s mother was of Korean descent, adding bi-raciality to the couple’s appeal in the dawning age of Obama. (The show is apparently very popular among Asians.)

They met at a picnic in 1997 and married when Jon was 22 and Kate 24. He wore a leather jacket back then; she, a former cheerleader, wore scrunchies. When they found she was unable to conceive due to polycystic ovary syndrome, they turned to fertility treatments, resulting in the birth of their twins, Mady and Cara, in 2000.

In 2003, another round of fertility fuel produced Alexis, Hannah, Aaden, Collin, Leah, and Joel. Flouting doctors’ advice, Kate refused selective reduction because it was counter to her religious beliefs. (The Gosselins’ devout Christianity made them popular with conservatives—many of whom promptly dropped them when their marriage hit the skids.)

When Figure 8 came calling, Jon and Kate were struggling to make ends meet. “Life was so stinking difficult,” says Kate, who in 2005 demanded Medicaid continue paying for her expensive baby nurse. She challenged the ruling denying her aid, the news of which prompted an outpouring of angry letters into papers across Pennsylvania. Even before she was on TV, Kate was controversial, seen as a diva.

Needing money, the Gosselins agreed to subject their family to a reality crew. Figure 8 did a one-hour special on them, which aired on the Discovery Health Channel in 2006. Their weekly show debuted on TLC the following year. Speculation about their compensation per episode has ranged from $25,000 to $75,000—“I wish!” Kate exclaims, refusing to give the actual number. To date, they have filmed more than 100 shows.

Jon never wanted to do it, but Kate was the boss. According to Figure 8’s Bill Hayes, “you could see the friction [in their relationship] from the start.” And that made for good television. Jon & Kate quickly became the top-rated show on TLC, with an audience of between five and six million viewers. “We had a show that was rising in interest,” says Eileen O’Neill, “based on the unfiltered, sometimes cantankerous relationship of this couple with these eight beautiful children.” Often the production team would goad Jon and Kate into discussing their disagreements during their weekly couch sessions.

Kate yelled at Jon; she ordered him around, made fun of him. “She just, like, snaps,” Jon groused on-air. He now says he felt “abused.” Once, as Jon served the mounds of pancakes Kate was making for the kids, she quipped, “I’m the cook, he’s the waitress.” “Waiter,” Jon corrected her in his desultory fashion.

And this was another aspect of the show that seemed to whip up Zeitgeist-ian winds: in an era of confusion about gender roles in marriage—not to mention an era obsessed with mommy culture—Kate was unapologetically wearing the pants.

“I think part of the intrigue was that Kate was behaving in a way you don’t expect mothers to behave,” says Janice Min, the former editor of Us, who put Jon and Kate on the cover an unprecedented seven times in a row. “And yet part of the sick appeal is, I think, every single person who’s married can admit there’s a little bit of Kate Gosselin lurking in them.”

In the show’s fourth season, in 2008, Jon seemed to experience what Gail Collins has cleverly identified as the “feminine ‘problem that has no name’ that Betty Friedan wrote about in 1963.” He had been working again, this time as an I.T. analyst in the governor of Pennsylvania’s office in Harrisburg, but then he quit.

“He said he ‘just wanted to be Jon,’” Kate says disdainfully. But that had become impossible. “I remember Jon and I having a conversation some time in 2007,” Kate says, “to the effect of ‘We’re in this, and we can never go back,’ and I kind of secretly had a little grip of fear.” When they renewed their vows, in Hawaii, in the spring of 2008, she says, it was the first time they were “paparazzi’d.”

“I think Jon lost his identity,” says someone who works for the show. “He was like, Look, I don’t like this fame. I hate this. And Kate was like, It’s funny, I hated the fame and now I’m liking it. She was the star. Jon acknowledged on the show that she was the one who had the writing, the books, the career. This is a classic story of people growing apart.”

A reality star was born. She got a tummy tuck and a trainer and a new hairdo, which she traveled 90 miles, each way, to have styled. He got hair plugs.

They also had a new house, a $1.3 million, 6,200-square-foot, five-bedroom, seven-bathroom McMansion on 36 acres in Berks County, Pennsylvania, a rural area with a lot of affluence. Jon stayed home with the kids while Kate, increasingly in demand, traveled for her book tours and speaking engagements. It was some time last year, according to a source close to Jon, that Jon began to suspect that Kate and Neild, her bodyguard, were having a romantic relationship.

“I speculate, but I don’t know,” Jon said on Good Morning America in early September—by which time he and Kate were openly duking it out across the airwaves. “When they were traveling together, I felt jealous. Here I’m Mr. Mom. And then there’s some other guy traveling with my wife.”

Kate denies the affair, saying she is “beyond angry” at Jon’s allegations.

“Jon believes it’s true,” says the source. “People have told him things where she and Neild have stayed in the same hotel room. She’s always with him. He doesn’t act like her bodyguard, he acts like her man.” Kate calls this “absolutely untrue.” Neild’s spokesman maintains that his relationship with Kate is “of the highest professional standard.”

Last October, says the source, Kate sat Jon down at the kitchen table and said she had “grown out of him, she was done with him, and she no longer wanted to be with him. She said, ‘I don’t even know why I married you in the first place.’” A spokesman for Kate says she has “chosen to take the high road and not get into those details.”

Nonetheless, Kate has insisted—on Today and elsewhere—that it was Jon who ended the marriage. Jon has maintained—in In Touch and other places—that Kate did. The source who knows Jon says that Jon tried to keep it together, asking Kate to go to counseling with him; but the only counseling she would agree to was Dr. Phil (they had been on his show once for parenting tips). At a private session in L.A., according to the source, the media shrink counseled them to stay together “to keep their brand intact. Jon was like, Are you crazy? I’m here to save my marriage and you’re talking about my brand?” Kate has confirmed the meeting took place, but will not discuss the details. Dr. Phil declined to comment.

Throughout the fall, Jon was living in a guest room above the garage. And then in January, says his friend, lonely and unhappy, he started going out to bars. In March, while Jon was visiting his mother in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, he showed up at a beer bash thrown by Juniata College seniors; they took pictures and put them in the college paper. “Playing beer pong and all those fun things,” Kate says.

“You have to understand,” says Kate, “that was not the first night he was out. It had been a couple of months. He had been staying out till two a.m. I knew it was just a matter of time” before somebody in the media caught on.

And someone did. “It was the beginning of this incredible phenomenon known as Jon and Kate Gosselin,” says Candace Trunzo, editor of Star. After the Juniata College pictures hit the Internet, Trunzo sent a reporter out to Pennsylvania, where the reporting, she says, was like fish in a barrel. “Everybody wanted to talk about them. They had become a real-life soap opera. The show was never as interesting as the two of them in real life.” Star has put Jon and Kate on its cover 15 times since March.

“They were doomed to be exposed,” Trunzo says, “because they put themselves out there in the first place. And now they’re addicted to the limelight.”

Fifteen paparazzi chase Kate Gosselin to F.A.O. Schwarz. As she steps out of the doors of the Essex House hotel and onto the sidewalk on Central Park South, they come dashing out of parked cars, flying over the wall of Central Park, running toward her.

The cameras go chick-chick-chick-chick. Kate climbs into an awaiting, chauffeur-driven S.U.V. (it’s only a four-block drive). Why Kate? I ask one of the photographers. “It’s a story, ya know?” he says, snapping away.

“I can tell you why probably Princess Diana died,” Kate says in the car. “Those flashes are blinding!” We take off.

The paparazzi follow—on bikes, in cars, weaving in and out of traffic, turning back and pointing their cameras at Kate. One photographer is driving his Zipcar backward down the street—backward, down Central Park South. Other drivers are honking, shouting. “What are you, nuts?”

“They’re all sort of bald and fattish, aren’t they?” says Kate. “They have a look.” She leans out the window and yells to one of the bike riders, “Hurry up!” She laughs her whooping laugh.

She talks about how they followed her and the kids on their beach vacation to Bald Head, North Carolina—that was the trip where Kate showed off her new tummy tuck in an orange bikini and wound up on the cover of nearly every celebrity weekly.

“That was the most revealing moment for me,” says Janice Min, “when Kate came out in a bikini not once but three times for a quote-unquote spontaneous moment of play with her kids.” It was also the week after Star’s cover had been: “Jon and Kate’s Kids Beg, ‘Daddy Don’t Go!’”

Kate says that since the onset of “the bad behavior” (she means Jon’s), there have been paparazzi camped outside her house in Pennsylvania, “anywhere from 4 to 17 of them.” They follow her around town as she runs errands. They go to her kids’ school. “I always tell [the children], ‘Turn your back and don’t look at them, don’t speak to them,’” says Kate. “I don’t even let them use the word. I mean, no five-year-old should be using the word ‘paparazzi.’”

Another element of the Jon-and-Kate story that can’t be discounted is the financial woes of print media in the Great Recession. Jon and Kate were bad behavior from heaven to tabloids beset by budget concerns and battling a waning interest in actual celebrities, who are often more in control of their image. “Brad and Angelina try to be discreet,” says Richard Spencer of In Touch, “whereas Jon and Kate, they serve it daily to you on a platter.” The Jon-and-Kate story is also cheap to produce; the price of paparazzi shots of the family runs significantly lower than pictures of the latest Kardashian wedding.

In Touch sold close to a million copies with Jon’s cover exclusive “I’m Tired of Being Blamed.” Sales of Us went from around 600,000 to more than a million with many of its Jon-and-Kate covers, according to Min. Star won’t give out figures, but Candace Trunzo says, “It was one of our biggest stories of the year.”

The Jon-and-Kate mania was also assisted by a number of willing inside sources. While the tabloids all claim not to pay for stories, it is generally thought that they do—and money may be an attractive incentive to some potential sources in a bad economy.

“The ones claiming we are exploiting our children,” Kate says—here referring to the tabloids and other media that have criticized her for putting her kids on television—“are the ones exploiting our children!”

In May, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry began conducting an investigation into whether Jon & Kate Plus Eight is abiding by child-labor laws. TLC released a statement saying that “for an extended period of time, we have been engaged in cooperative discussions and supplied all requested information.”

As the S.U.V. pulls up to F.A.O. Schwarz, the paparazzi arrive in a crush at the car door. Chick-chick-chick-chick-chick. Kate climbs out, assisted by Neild, who escorts her into the store, warning the paparazzi not to follow her.

“That’s the mother that had eight kids!” a shopper squeals. It’s a weekday, and the store is filled with tourists, men in khaki shorts and women with scrunchies. Suddenly everyone is pulling out a digital camera. “It’s Kate Gosselin!”

Neild asks a security guard to call for backup.

Everyone wants to take a picture with Kate. She stops obligingly, here and there, posing with the same elated smile for every picture—it’s the same smile she’ll wear in her People cover next week: “Kate Strikes Back!”

A personal shopper, an older lady in a floral-print dress, is summoned to help Kate select toys for her brood. Kate sails along beside her, ignoring all the gawkers. The personal shopper shows her some hacky sacks: “Boys like these.” “I’ll take your word for it,” Kate sniffs, moving past them. The personal shopper shows her some action figures: “This is the hottest stuff for boys.” “I’d rather die,” says Kate. “Moving right along!”

“You look fabulous, Kate!” a woman shouts. “Kate, we love you. Stay strong!” says another.

Kate accidentally steps on a little boy’s foot with her three-inch heels; he yelps. “Oooooh, sorry about that,” she says, moving right along.

She finally decides on some lunch boxes; CAT digger trucks; crafts for girls. Everything is rung up and put in two gigantic bags. A young British paparazzo is clandestinely snapping the transaction, his camera hidden under a stuffed animal. I ask him what he sees in Kate. “She’s a massive story at the moment,” he whispers. When I relay this comment to Kate, she scoffs, “At the moment?”

Within hours, the pictures of the shopping trip are all over the Internet. Even Perez Hilton weighs in, posting a picture of Kate and her TLC publicist Laurie Goldberg, over which he writes, “Keep It Together!” And scrawls across Goldberg, “Go PR!”

Between the time I see Kate in New York in August and the next time I see her, in September, something happens. She starts to win.

Jon doesn’t do himself any favors, media-wise. “He’s gone rogue,” says Goldberg. “I can’t control him.” Jon has moved to New York, to an apartment on the Upper West Side (he shares custody with Kate and stays with the kids in Pennsylvania a few days a week), and he seems to be going through a second adolescence modeled on many viewings of Entourage.

He has taken to wearing cubic-zirconia earrings. He is snapped partying in Vegas. He is flown to the South of France to hang out on the yacht of Christian Audigier, the fashion designer behind the Ed Hardy brand (which Jon is briefly in talks about promoting). He appears on an episode of American Chopper. He is seen hanging out with Kevin Federline—yes, K-Fed—and Michael Lohan, the father of Lindsay, with whom he is discussing doing a reality show, The Divorced Dads Club.

“Oh, he’s headed for Buttafuocco territory,” says Harvey Levin.

Jon seems to be convinced that he is a celebrity—a real celebrity. “At our V.M.A. party,” says Richard Spencer, “he told one of our guests, ‘Ya know, I’m so cool with my fame right now, I can just go up to Diddy and be like, What’s up, Sean?’”

“He would never make a comment like that,” said Mike Heller, Jon’s manager. “He doesn’t look at himself as a celeb. He looks at himself as a guy the world knows but only because he had a show.”

But what Jon does that really gets him screwed in medialand is to screw the babysitter—allegedly.

Jon has reportedly already had dalliances with a number of women—a Pennsylvania teacher, Deanna Hummel, 24 (who denied it); the Star reporter, Kate Major, 26 (who resigned after the tryst, calling it a conflict of interest); and the daughter of Kate’s plastic surgeon, Hailey Glassman, 22, with whom Jon has said he is in love and whom he has reportedly asked to marry him. “He’s a horny dude!” says Candace Trunzo.

And yet, amazingly, America’s media consumers still felt sorry for him. Kate had been that objectionable in their eyes. “But now the tide has started to turn,” says Richard Spencer.

In September, the babysitter in question, Stephanie Santoro, 23, told her story to In Touch (“Nanny Admits Affair with Jon!”). “I was scared one of the kids was going to pop their heads out” of the windows while she and Jon were in the backyard cavorting in the hot tub, said Santoro, “but he told me to relax.”

Jon could not be reached for comment.

In late September, TLC officially subtracted him from the equation, renaming the series Kate Plus Eight.

Kate is all smiles when she waltzes into Sarabeth’s Kitchen on Central Park South one day in September. She’s coming from her second taping of The View—she’s been co-co-hosting—and she is psyched, even giddy. “It comes to me very easily when I’m doing TV,” she says. “It’s not an issue. I laugh that people are like, ‘Oh, that must be so hard.’ To me it’s so very easy! I say to myself, No, no, you can do this. I felt like I was walking in on their turf. They were all lined up in their chairs in the makeup room. Well, it took about 39 seconds for them to see I’m not there to take over or anything. I definitely bonded with Sherri. She has gone through a divorce and she took me under her wing. Barbara was wonderful!”

“It was a huge honor,” Kate says. “I don’t feel really worthy, but if they’re asking me, hey man, I’m doin’ it!”

On The View, Kate talked—as she has recently on Today, and Larry King Live, and Live with Regis and Kelly—about one of her “meltdown moments,” when she cried and felt she couldn’t cope. “I don’t know why that came as a surprise to people,” she says. “I don’t cry often and I don’t allow myself to cry often. Crying to me is a waste of energy and a waste of time.” But talking about crying can be very humanizing. And it seems to have worked well for her.

The New York Post’s “Page Six” reported that Kate even cried at a taping for the new talk show she may be co-hosting; produced by Telepictures and modeled on The View, it’s to be a chat show about working moms, with panelists including former Early Show anchor Rene Syler and Food Network host Paula Deen. Kate “broke down in tears over the pressure of her divorce on her eight kids,” said the gossip column.

We get to talking about that, about the pressure on her children—not just from the divorce, but the intense media attention upon them and their parents. Kate admits they have been “acting out” lately. “I’m trying to give them the grace to see, if they’re acting out of line, I’m trying to look deeper into why that is,” she says. “Why the kids are acting out. Cause it’s all inter-related. I mean, they don’t see it, but it’s all interconnected.”

“They miss him,” she says, meaning Jon. “They say they miss him. I imagine they say the same thing when I’m away … ”

The TLC publicist who is with us that day, Joanna Brahim, looks apoplectic. Kids acting out, being upset about their parents’ divorce—this isn’t part of the Kate Plus Eight story line. “We should probably stop there,” she says, after a minute.

And stop there I planned to do. But Jon and Kate kept coming. And coming.

On October 1, Jon appeared on Larry King Live, giving Kate a mighty shove in their on-air sumo match by deciding to appear as a responsible parent. He wore a suit (and his cubic-zirconia earrings) and said he wanted his children off their reality program. “It’s not healthy for my kids to be on the show,” he said. “It’s detrimental to them.” This revelation came to him, Jon said, as “an epiphany”—it’s unclear whether this was before or after TLC dropped his name from the series.

Jon said that he had filed a lawsuit seeking to shut down production of the show, and his lawyer, Mark Heller, said that the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry investigation would reveal that “they never got a permit for the kids to act.” Jon also said that he and Kate had made about a million dollars in the past year. He said he believed Kate wanted to continue the series to “financially benefit herself.” Kate refuses to comment on financial matters.

A few days later, on October 5, Kate was back on the Today show, crying again. Crying poor. Jon had defied a court-ordered arbitrator and withdrawn $230,000 from a joint account of theirs, she claimed—supposedly their only liquid assets—leaving her only $1,000. (Jon and his attorney denied her allegations, though on October 13 a family court in Norristown, Pennsylvania, ordered him to return to his wife $180,000 he had drained from the account.) “You’ve left your children and their mother unable to pay for the roof over their heads.… I need that money to provide for them,” Kate said, weeping. Regarding the show being temporarily put on hold, pending Jon’s complaint, she said, “Over the weekend I told [the kids] that we’re not filming at this point. And actually, times eight, there was wailing and sobbing. They love our crew, they love the interaction, they love the events. There is nothing harmful about it. They are angry.”

On October 16, TLC sued Jon for breach of contract, and for allegedly being paid to appear on other shows and for making “unauthorized disclosures.”

In the second week of October, Jon and Kate were on the cover of nearly every tabloid again. “Revenge! Inside Their Nasty Divorce,” said Us. In the third week, the cover of In Touch showed a picture of Jon pulling his daughter by the ponytail, with the headline “Jon: A Danger to His Kids?”

Will this ever end? “Sadly, I think the only thing we can be sure of now,” says Janice Min, “is 10, 15 years down the road, the E! True Hollywood Story: The Gosselin Kids.”

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/features/2009/10/jon-and-kate-gosselin-200910

 

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Sorry that post is so long - it looks like a VERY interesting article though! I'm hoping to have time to read it tonight!!!

ETA: I read it and really like the article! Very telling IMO! I'm ready to head home but am excited to see what y'all think! It's long but worth the read for sure!