KATE GOSSELIN: HOW SHE FOOLED THE WORLD - THE RISE AND FALL OF A REALITY TV QUEEN (17 page)

The Gosselins have been on the cover of
Good Housekeeping
magazine and were featured last week on
The
Oprah Winfrey Show
, a barometer of mass popularity if ever there was one. Their success has driven year-to-year, double-digit growth for the once-foundering Maryland-based operation - lifting TLC this year into the Top 10 basic cable channels.

Thinking this would be great, positive publicity,
Julie May passed the article along on March 16, 2009, to “Marc I,” the Burns Entertainment & Sports Marketing, Inc. representative who was working on the Hershey and Kraft deals. She told him she thought he might be interested in getting some viewership stats.

But things didn’t work out the way Julie May and Kate had hoped.
On the morning of March 19, 2009, Marc sent Julie an email informing her that Hershey and Kraft were probably going to pass on working with the Gosselins. Marc told Julie that “the recent round of news regarding Jon and Kate has caused the client to put this on hold, and it may no longer happen.” He said they were concerned that the story would “dominate their media tour and take away from the S’mores messages.” What this really meant was that Hershey and Kraft were smart enough to distance themselves from the Gosselin train wreck that was happening with the messy divorce and all the bad press.

That afternoon,
Julie May gave Kate the bad news, saying that it was very frustrating. After hearing that the deal was dead, Kate forwarded the email to Jon and said: “Lost another $100,000...read below... wonderful!”

One piece of the “recent round of news” about Jon and Kate that portrayed them in a bad light was from a March 2009 article entitled, “Show Biz: Jon + Kate + 8 = $$$.” Written by Jessica Remo and published in
Philadelphia
magazine, the article painted a very unflattering picture of the Gosselins, Kate in particular. Even more disturbing than the critical picture of Kate and the entire Gosselin drama was what the author had to say about the possible outcome for the children. This is what she wrote:

If Jon and Kate Gosselin have sold their children’s privacy, we the viewers are the guilty buyers, even as we find it harder and harder to see the pair as the guileless, relatable-to, in-over-their-heads parents we once knew and adored. Looking ahead, the Gosselins’ challenges are still real and many, though different: How will they teach their kids to be humble, and that normal people don’t get to run the bases at Phillies games? That everything isn’t free and yours when you want it? That fame is, by and large, capricious and fleeting? Only time will tell how their eight will deal with having grown up in a home studio, in front of cameras and fans, as the world watched.

“As their friend, as somebody who loves the kids, I was always the one saying [to Jon and Kate], ‘Okay, be careful.’ Because they’re not just a commodity, they’re people,” says one of the kids’ former babysitters. “And someday will come and … you know? Nothing comes free. Everything, everything, has a price. And because I love them, I don’t want them to pay a price that’s too dear.”

Despite losing out on some endorsement deals, plenty of other companies continued to be interested in using the Gosselins to promote their products. In this next case, the product happened to be a new album by s
inger/songwriter Kenny Loggins.

On May 15, 2009, Julie May received
an email from “Maria K,” vice president of media relations at Walt Disney Records, who was aware that the Gosselin children had been dancing to Loggins’ song, “Footloose,” on an episode of
Jon & Kate Plus 8
, and that Jon had mentioned he loved Kenny and wished he could meet him one day. Maria said she was working with Loggins on a new album, called “All Join In,” which was due out that summer. She also said he had a concert near Lancaster, PA, scheduled for July 17, and they would be open to arranging a meeting with the Gosselins “to be incorporated into the show somehow.”

Julie May forwarded that email to Kate asking for her thoughts about a possible meet-and-greet with Loggins.
Now, the chance to meet Kenny Loggins in and of itself would have been a thrill for most normal people, but Kate Gosselin isn’t most people, and she certainly doesn’t want to be treated as normal. Always thinking she is more important than she is, Kate had the nerve to request that Kenny Loggins give them a private outdoor concert at their home. She did say, however, that “We will go to the concert if that is only option though...”

THE TERRIBLE TABLOID EXPLOITATION RUMOR

On May 21, 2009,
Laurie Goldberg of Discovery sent Julie May an email informing Julie that
U
S
Weekly
planned to publish a possibly damaging story about Jon and Kate exploiting their children. In Laurie Goldberg’s email, which had the subject line “Terrible rumor I am hearing,” she told Julie May she wanted to give her a heads up about the
U
S
Weekly
cover piece tentatively titled “What About the Kids?” She said it had a big shot of the family as the main image and it alleged that Jon and Kate are terrible, exploitative parents who could legally be sued.

Julie May forwarded Kate the email
, telling her that
U
S
Weekly
was “stooping to new lows,” and saying it was “Unbelievable.” Kate didn’t seem terribly concerned about the charges. In her reply, she said she wondered whether
U
S
Weekly
was trolling “gwop” (Gosselins Without Pity website) for their topics, and made a comment about being tired of
U
S
Weekly
. She then said that all
U
S
Weekly
was doing was increasing their ratings at that point, and ended with a “Thank you US weekly!” It is interesting that Kate didn’t say one word about being incensed that they were being portrayed inaccurately.

Kate couldn’t blame all the bad press on just the tabloids. An article in
Vanity Fair
magazine entitled “The Unreal Rise of Jon and Kate Gosselin,” (Google it) written by Nancy Jo Sales, a
Vanity Fair
contributing editor, was published on October 19, 2009, just a few months after I started writing and reporting for
U
S
Weekly
. Jon and Kate Gosselin’s marriage had been publicly unraveling for several months by that time, and Kate’s star was on the rise. The Discovery/TLC/Kate-concocted smear campaign against John had reached full force. In the article, the author’s observations provided an objective, eyewitness look at the demanding, annoyed and annoying, self-absorbed celebrity that is Kate Gosselin. The following are excerpts from that article.

“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, senior vice president of communications at the Learning Channel, 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 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.”

... 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!”

That article not only shined a light on Kate’s obnoxious, entitled, rude self, it revealed a very interesting, but little-known fact. The author mentioned that Laurie Goldberg expressed concerned about Kate wanting to dine at Nobu after she had wailed about being emotionally spent on the
Today
show. Goldberg didn’t think it would look good for Kate to be seen enjoying herself at a hot spot.

So
why was Laurie Goldberg, Executive VP of Public Relations for Discovery and TLC, even present for that interview? The fact is, while under contract with Discovery, whenever Kate went anywhere in public, to speak or to make a television appearance, she was not alone. Yes, we already know that her shadow and bodyguard, Steve Neild, was always at her side, but someone else was in the room with Kate and Steve. That someone was Laurie Goldberg, Kate’s personal public relations expert.

We never got to see her, but
Laurie Goldberg or someone like her was always there, and her influence was powerful. She was the person who told Kate what to say and how to answer questions and how to spin things. She pretty much controlled the message coming out of Kate’s mouth, and she performed that duty for years.

KATE LOVES HER FANS

At
Thanksgiving of 2010, I was camped outside of Kate’s front gate, working, when a lovely Mennonite woman drove up with a beautifully adorned gift bag for Kate. As a reporter, I needed to know what was inside, so I asked. The nice woman reluctantly showed me the contents. I could see she was disgusted by my presence, being the “paparazzi” and all, as she called me, but she was still gracious enough to remove the gift to show me what she had brought for Kate. The woman had hand-carved and painted three beautiful rectangular blocks of wood for Kate to put on a mantel, table or shelf. Each block had a single word. “Faith”. “Family”. “Friends”.

The
woman was from Hebron, KY, but she was visiting family members in nearby Ephrata, PA, so she drove out of her way to bring the gift to Kate. She rang the buzzer on the intercom for a few minutes, but got no response. Kate was at home, and there’s a camera on the intercom box, so it’s very possible that Kate saw the woman dressed in conservative Mennonite clothing, but chose not to respond, as was her right. The woman left the bag inside the front gate for Kate to pick up the next time she came down the driveway.