Salon.com > Kate Gosselin

Little Disappointments: Adele to Raphael

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 15:00:00 +0000

We spend most of the week at Salon exploring the day’s big events and outrages, the fiery, boiling cauldron that rests on the front burner of the news.

But life’s incidental urgencies, the bummers in a minor key, often play as meaningful, if momentary, role in our days. So we’re giving our little disappointments their own Saturday column. And we hope you’ll send us your own, as well.

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Little Disappointments: Adele to Raphael

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 14:58:00 +0000

Five pop culture items we missed

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:45:00 +0000

1. Unnecessary tour of the day: "The Real Housewives" Live Tour will feature women from all of the different manifestations of Bravo's reality show as they perform ... what exactly? Do any of them have actual talents? I had hoped this was to be a musical production of some sort, with costumes by Shereé Whitfield and wigs by Kim Zolciak, but apparently it's just going to involve the women taking their reunion episodes on the road.

2. Cancellation of the day: Sorry, Kate Gosselin, your money train is at an end, as TLC has just canceled " Kate Plus 8." Don't worry, I'm sure you will find other ways to exploit your children for cash ... maybe have the younger ones try out for "Toddlers & Tiaras"?

The Discovery Channel gunman hated “Jon & Kate” too

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:50:00 +0000

Yesterday, a crazed gunman wearing explosives took control of the Discovery Channel building in Silver Spring, Md. Online, you can read his manifesto, as well as dozens of message board posts, especially here, in which he rants about Discovery's programming. Why did he single out Discovery, of all the innocuous cable channels? Who knows: He's a crazed gunman. But the reams of screeds and ALL CAPS RANTING can be summed up in one demand: Get those baby reality shows off the air!

I covered yesterday's hostage-taking, and once edited a story about a woman's addiction to TLC's baby programming, so it was fascinating to see soft-focus baby world and national crime come together in one messy, scary afternoon in Maryland. The siege ended with some shaken-up but unharmed eco-conscious employees and one dead gunman, James Jay Lee. Lee was shot by a police sniper when he reportedly raised his handgun to a hostage.

Discovery hostages planned escape as gunman was killed

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:33:00 +0000

As the three hostages at Discovery Channel's headquarters appeared ready to make a run for it, police said Thursday that a SWAT team officer quickly shot and killed the increasingly agitated gunman who had explosives strapped to himself, ending the four-hour standoff.

After several hours of negotiations, the tactical officers moved in. Authorities saw the hostages begin to move on building security cameras and heard a "pop" they believed to be a gunshot or an explosive device, Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger said. That's when an officer shot the gunman, James J. Lee, in the lobby of the building in Silver Spring, just outside the nation's capital. None of the hostages were hurt.

"For most of the time, the hostages were laying on the ground, and he didn't engage them much other than saying on the phone, 'I don't care about these people,'" Manger said.

Lee had said he hated the company's shows such as "Kate Plus 8," claiming they promoted population growth. Lee said the environmental programming did little to save the planet.

Manger said police planned to negotiate as long as necessary, but acted when officers believed the hostages were trying to escape.

Sarah Palin teams with Kate Gosselin in “Kate Plus Eight”

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:24:00 +0000

"Worst Dad in the World" nominee Jon Gosselin recently complained on Twitter that he hasn't seen his eight kids in weeks. Well, he might have to wait a bit longer -- it looks like the tykes are in Alaska with their mom, Kate Gosselin, reportedly filming an episode of "Kate Plus Eight" with Sarah Palin.

It's a tag-team of famous moms destined for colossal ratings. But the cable network that airs the show, TLC, has not confirmed the former governor's appearance. All signs indicate that it will happen, though. Yesterday Gosselin and her kids were spotted at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage, which is just 45 miles away from Palin's hometown of Wasilla. And Palin, media savvy as she is, already has TLC ties: Earlier this year it was announced that she was working on a series for the network, called "Sarah Palin's Alaska." What better way to promote her own show than by appearing on TLC's most popular program?

A source says Palin, Gosselin and the kids are going camping -- television cameras in tow, of course -- where Palin's father, a retired science teacher, and brother, a third-grade educator, will conduct a hands-on natural history lesson. It is unkown if Palin will take the kids moose hunting or show them the view of Russia from her porch.

Kate Gosselin returning to TLC with new series

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:14:00 +0000

Kate Gosselin is launching a series that will profile everyday women facing personal challenges.

"Twist of Kate" will follow the reality star and supermom as she visits the homes and workplaces of her subjects, where she will exchange insights for living. The 12-episode season will premiere in late summer, the TLC network said Thursday.

The single mother of young twins and sextuplets, Gosselin will also revisit her family life for a series of "Kate Plus 8" specials beginning in June.

Kate and her then-husband Jon starred for several seasons in the hit reality series "Jon & Kate Plus 8," which collapsed last fall as the couple's marriage fell apart.

This week, Jon Gosselin sued his ex-wife for primary custody of their eight children.

Gosselin's attorney, Anthony List, has previously accused Kate Gosselin of neglecting the children because she appears on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," a charge her attorney rejected as "patently false."

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TLC is owned by Discovery Communications, LLC.

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On the Net:

http://tlc.discovery.com

“Dancing with the Stars” recap: Pam gets smart

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:07:00 +0000

Sunday night, I celebrated the ascension of Christ at my friend's house by feasting on the lamb of God and drinking buckets of his blood before cursing his name all the way home with the worst case of hiccups I've ever had. I rode the Washington, DC metro, terrifying the few passengers who were still out and about at 11:30 with my abrupt noises and violent body convulsions. It's unsettling when you have no control of your body and feel that your very presence is causing needless anxiety, which is why I was nervous when I heard that the quickstep was part of the show tonight.

On my favorite dance show, "So You Think You Can Dance," they call the quickstep the "Kiss of Death" because it is intricate, quick and not necessarily as big a crowd pleaser as the more dramatic or romantic dances – so any couple who gets burdened with it usually ends up going home the next week. But it's storytelling night, and if 78 percent of Americans believe that whole "Christ rising from the dead" business, then it's certainly possible to get us to believe in a dance even when the steps are not accurate. Good thing, too.

Evan Lysacek

“Dancing with the Stars”: The art of the comeback

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:06:00 +0000

The age of the comeback might need to make a comeback soon. Just four years ago, you could lose your spot in the limelight, then lose your house, wife, fan base, hair, Escalade, VIP status at the Viper Room, grip on reality, decades of sobriety, kidney function, healthy ego boundaries and dignity, but even after all of that, you could still take out a line of credit on your other Escalade, hire a publicist, and make a comeback. (Hence the show "The Comeback," "Rick" Schroeder, Madonna (15 times), the incredible shrinking Demi Moore, and almost everyone else currently on the "celebrity" radar.)

But then, the "celebrity" radar is really more like a loser-detecting GPS system these days, considering how thoroughly dominated it is by dead celebrities ("Where are they now?"), the doctors of dead celebrities, ex-boyfriends of never-really-celebrities, and aspiring sea donkeys who claim they were once strangled by Tiger Woods. We don't care that much about real celebrities anymore, so why would we even notice that Kate Gosselin got some hair extensions or un-celebrity Jesse James allegedly fell for the charms of an aspiring sea donkey with tattoos on her forehead.

Jon Gosselin’s girlfriend “emotionally abused”

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:31:00 +0000

From today’s Department of Revelations That Fail to Shock Us: Jon Gosselin’s girlfriend thinks he’s kind of a dick.

In the first of a two-part interview for “The Insider” that aired Thursday night, 22-year-old Hailey Glassman wept repeatedly as she spoke of her relationship with television’s top baby-maker. "He'll call me and take his anger out on me. He has 'mantrums,’” she said. “I shouldn't have to put up with being emotionally abused. I cry and say, 'Why are you so mean to me?' He takes it out on me."

Gosselin responded by issuing a statement that “I am grateful for her emotional support and I regret any pain that my actions have caused her as she has selflessly born the pressures I have endured under the media glare. I am committed to making things right with Hailey as well as Kate and especially my children. I ask you to please give me the opportunity to prove myself."

How did the Gosselins become bigger than Brangelina?

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:21:00 +0000

If one wonders where “Balloon Boy” dad Richard Heene got the balls-out insane idea that he might win fame, fortune and international infamy by concocting a media event involving UFOs and starring his own darling 6-year-old son, one has to look no further than your nearest supermarket tabloid. When the year-end lists start rolling out in the next month or so, my bet is the biggest celebrities of the year will be the people who are famous for doing little more than being freaky in public: Nadya Suleman, better known as Octomom, Balloon Boy, and the reigning couple of parenting in public, for pay, Jon and Kate Gosselin.

Just taking it by the numbers, Vanity Fair writer Nancy Jo Sales points out that, from March to October, Jon and Kate have starred on the covers of 50 tabloids, dwarfing even Brad and Angelina. Given that the only thing that qualified the couple to be broadcast into American living rooms on a weekly basis was once having the good -- or abysmally poor -- fortune to give birth to two sets of multiples, it’s astonishing they’ve made it this far. How, Sales asks, did “two average parents from rural Pennsylvania” become “the biggest celebrity story of the year”?

Should Orly Taitz replace Paula Abdul?

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:06:00 +0000

No one can replace Paula Abdul entirely. And let's be honest: Would anyone want to? The famously incoherent "American Idol" judge became a national punch line for her train-wreck tangents and sputtering, new age nonsense: "You stood in your truth" won't be the catchphrase of any summer.

But Paula brought many things to the show -- a nurturing side, an ability to laugh at herself, a tendency to go terribly off-script, a tabloid sideshow, and a history as a performer, if one who peaked before the reign of Autotune. Now that she's leaving the ratings juggernaut, who will late-night comedians have to push around?

Orly Taitz

At its heart, "American Idol" is nothing more than a classic tale of reinvention. Each season, contestants walk into an audition room as students, wannabes or the best singer in their tiny little town -- and a few months (and several million text messages later), they're sitting at the top of the Billboard charts.

“Fat” Britney vs. “horror show” Madonna

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:29:00 +0000

Hey, have you heard? Britney Spears is "fat" again! This "angered" and offended her German fans so much that they have dubbed her "Dickney" and "Speckney." (Both allegedly mean "fat" in German, though the former could probably do double-duty as a slut-shaming term in its English translation.)

But think twice before you order Spears to remedial gym training. According to the Daily News, Madonna's "stringy," "veiny" arms are "more like a horror show than something out of a gym." "Time to quit the gym, Madge!" says writer Nicole Carter -- you are working out too much! Fellow Daily News writer wonders, "Are Kate Gosselin and Madonna workout buddies?" Because guess what? Kate's too-sculpted biceps, while not yet veiny, are on a slippery slope to mimicking the Material Girl -- "time to soften the image and drop the dumb bell now!" (Clearly, neither one learned their lesson from the first lady). Perhaps both are just trying to stave off the dread "bingo wings," also known as "dinner lady arms" that, according to the Daily Mail, are nearly impossible to remedy without hideously painful surgery -- "for most women of a certain age there's little to do except slip on a cardigan."

The triumph of the uncelebrity

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:25:00 +0000

These last few weeks may go down in history as the tipping point when ordinary people replaced celebrities at the pop cultural whipping post. First sextuplet parents and reality stars Jon and Kate Gosselin fell to pieces before our eyes, then Kate's brother, Kevin Kreider, made a teary-eyed appearance on "The Early Show" to decry the fact that his nieces and nephews were being exploited and "viewed as a commodity." On Sunday night, awkward cat lady and overnight star Susan Boyle was taken to the hospital to be treated for "exhaustion" after her loss to dance group Diversity on "Britain's Got Talent." Then early this week, reality dilettantes Heidi and Spencer Pratt quit "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here" (twice), but allegedly called the whole thing a "mental fake-out to mess with the competitors" -- see also, yet another publicity stunt the likes of which formed the two-headed monster Speidi from the molten ashes of two unexceptional humans in the first place.

Join the shame parade

Thu, 28 May 2009 10:28:00 +0000

If there remained any doubt as to the magical moneymaking properties of humiliating self-exposure, it evaporated Monday night as almost 10 million viewers tuned in to watch the wheels come off the bus of TV's most lovable octo-family, the Gosselins. The new season of "Jon & Kate Plus 8" attracted twice the viewers of last season's finale, more than any other show on TV on Memorial Day, and it's probably safe to say it wasn't the promise of birthday party fun that drew them. For weeks, star Kate Gosselin had been trolling for sympathy in the pages of People magazine and Us Weekly as soon as it came to light that her husband had not only been unfaithful, but creepily unfaithful. The shame parade paid off, if not in her marriage then in her ancillary career: TLC has booked them for 40 more episodes.