KATE GOSSELIN: HOW SHE FOOLED THE WORLD - THE RISE AND FALL OF A REALITY TV QUEEN (23 page)

GHOST WRITER

If anyone reading here actually
thinks Kate Gosselin created her own loving, nurturing, inspiring, well-written blog on the TLC website, what you read next may come as an unpleasant surprise to you. This is an excerpt from Julie May’s notes to Discovery while she was renegotiating the Gosselin contract:


      
For the blog, Ed Sabin said that TLC would have a ghost writer prepare it.

Some of Kate’s fans on Twitter actually questioned whether Kate was writing her own material. She assured them in tweets that she would never allow anyone to choose her words, on “twitter or otherwise”.

xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 Some of your crazy AntiFans say it isn’t you twittering but a TLC intern. What do you say? Should I be ready to LOL? ;-)

It’s totally me. I wouldn’t ever allow TLC to assign someone to ‘be me’ and if that was the case, I wouldn’t be verified.

xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 is this actually kate tweeting her self? JW :LX

yes. What would you like to know? :) (I’d never ever allow anyone else to choose my words – twitter or otherwise :)

xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 she says thanks so much!! :)) I told her its really you who tweets (she thinks you hire sum1 to do it!) lol I hope not!!!!

tell her NO ONE gets to speak for me! I don't know who I'd trust to 'be me'! Lol

Someone needs to break the news to these poor, deluded fans that Kate will most certainly allow others to put words in her mouth as long as she is getting the credit and being paid for pretending to do the work.

Not only were TLC and Discovery making things up and passing them off as Kate’s,
Sometimes they were not really even making them up. They were stealing them from online websites –
familydoctor.org
and
familiesonlinemagazine.com
. It makes you wonder when and if Kate was ever even involved in “Kate’s tips.” I have the documents where notes were made and sent back and forth to Kate. There are underlined parts of the text that are the notes from the TV executives who put this together for Kate. Does this count as “realist reality”
?

Finding out about this kind of pokes holes in Kate’s answer to the following question on Twitter:

xxxxx @Kateplusmy8 I have a family recipe, but you’re not going to publish them on your blog as your own are you?

sounds sarcastic… I’m not into plagiarism, no… But thanks for asking..

FIRST-HAND OBSERVATIONS

These are excerpts from my reporting for
U
S
Weekly
.

Jon and Kate Gosselin PA Reporting

August 2009

Kate told the Today show that Jon & Kate plus 8 is the most real reality show you’ll ever see. I’ve been watching tapings etc. for two weeks now and I can assure you that it’s the most fake, scripted, sad thing I’ve ever seen. Kate acts like a devoted parent while the cameras are rolling but the moment the cameras stop, she completely ignores the kids and at times seems bothered by their wanting attention. The nannies and babysitter are expected to immediately corral the kids in between takes so Kate can do her own thing.

Jon and Kate Gosselin PA Reporting

September 2009

I went to the dance supply store in Reading today to back report the TLC filming yesterday. I’ve been going in there for years getting my daughter’s dance supplies so I know the owner well enough to ask questions. She signed a confidentiality agreement for TLC which said she couldn’t talk to anybody about anything that she saw, but she told me off the record that “Kate was very polite and courteous while the crew was filming, but as soon as they stopped, she lost her smile and became very bossy to the camera guys, telling them which angles to shoot her from and when to and not to shoot the kids. She yelled at the kids to behave several times when the cameras were off but laughed off their behavior when they were taping. Seemed to treat the kids like props rather than little people. She talks to them with disdain, like they’re a burden to her. The kids didn’t seem to mind though. They looked very happy and the nanny was there to take care of them. She would take them to the bathroom and be there to control them for Kate. I lost some business yesterday because the TLC crew wouldn’t let any of my customers inside the store. At least four people were turned away while they were here for over an hour and I had to explain to them over the phone what was happening. It was fun though. It was nice to see the kids. They tried on shoes and leotards and bought some clothing for gymnastics and ballet.

Jon and Kate Gosselin PA Reporting

September 2009

Paps told me that Kate drove to the Toyota dealership this morning to drop her car off to have some work done. The employees chased the paps off the property so they didn’t have many details to give me. Luke the bodyguard picked her up and drove her back home.

No outside activity at the house for the rest of the morning into early afternoon.

2:30 pm - The TLC crew is there again filming. Kate and the sextuplets and the crew walked down the driveway and out of the gate and walked in the street down the road to a neighbor’s house where a tractor and hay wagon was waiting to load them up and take them for a ride. The walk was a little over a quarter mile and it seemed very dangerous to me to have them walking in the right lane of traffic on their winding country road. Luke the bodyguard was there today keeping the paparazzi under control and watching over them as they made their journey. The main nanny was along for the walk as well. With the cameras rolling the entire way,
Kate was just the perfect mother. She was laughing and talking to the kids and smiling and having a great time. In stark contrast to how she acts when she’s not being filmed. Her normal behavior is to ignore everyone including the kids except when she’s telling them what to do like a drill sergeant.

After the ten minute walk, they got to the neighbor’s house and loaded everyone onto the wagon filled with hay bails. It was a traditional hayride and the kids loved it. A woman in a car is slowly following them down the road taking pictures on her cell phone. She stops on the road in front of the house where they’re loading and yells “You’re beautiful Kate!” Luke the bodyguard moves her on so the tractor and wagon can back out of the yard onto the road. Two paparazzi are taking photos and video as they move.

A short five minute ride on the road and they enter the Spring Creek Farms – Organic milk and fresh hamburgers. Luke the bodyguard points to the ‘no trespassing’ signs and says “I know I don’t even have to say it, right?” Kate yells “run Luke run” and Luke goes up the road after them.

The property is HUGE and they drive up a country hill into the field beyond our view. We drove around the outside of the property and could see them briefly from about a half-mile away in the field with cows nearby. Couldn’t see what exactly they were doing though.

After two long hours, the wagon came back down the hill and drove the half-mile back up to the Gosselin house. It’s a very big hill so they didn’t make them walk back up. The wagon backed into the Gosselin driveway and slowly unloaded the kids and adults. Mady and Cara were home from school now and they were at the gate to great them. Mady had a brief conversation with Kate and then they all walked up the driveway to the house.

The one thing that struck me about this trip was how absolutely wonderful Kate behaves when the cameras are rolling. She smiles all the time and talks lovingly to the kids and is animated with her gestures and is just the polar opposite of the Kate I see when the cameras aren’t there.

The media left when they went inside to get ready for dinner. They usually stay inside once they’re home.

Jon and Kate Gosselin PA Reporting

August 2010

Kate has blogged about being sad when the kids all go to school full time, really playing up the “I’ll miss my kids so much” angle, when in reality she feels burdened by having to deal with the kids for only a few hours a day and she can’t wait until next week when they’re gone all day and she has the house to herself. “She’s such a phony and it makes me sick to think that she’s happy to get rid of her kids.”

“Kate walks around acting exhausted like she actually takes care of eight kids. She’s just a supervisor and observes and oversees her nannies and ‘helpers’ doing all the work.” “If the world could only see how little this woman does around her own house, her popularity would end. She has no idea what it takes to raise a family. All she’s concerned with is making herself famous.”

NOT JUST JON & KATE PLUS EI8HT WAS FAKE

It appears that everywhere Kate went in the early days, her manager had everyone on board to build the fake “Kate Gosselin is a Supermom” brand. This even included Rachel Ray.

In May of 2009, Kate made an appearance on the Rachel Ray television show to spread her magic to a huge new audience. It was a great brand builder set up by Julie Carson May, and it was a great platform for Kate to show the world her abilities as a “Supermom.”

Rachel herself used that word: “Supermom.” She also called Kate “Kate The Great” and “Double New York Times Best Seller.” Rachel even went so far as to call Kate “super smart” after Kate demonstrated her superior supermom skills by making ice cream in a Ziploc bag. It was awesome…even though most people had seen this done 20 years ago. But maybe Rachel Ray had never seen the old ice cream in a bag phenomenon and she was just overcome with excitement when she told Kate, “You are super smart.”

In addition to teaching viewers how to magically create their own ice cream in a Ziploc bag, Kate also showed them her crafting ability by using a TV dinner plastic tray, some glue and a popsicle stick to make a little boat for the kids to play with, or for the kids to build at home.

Kate Gosselin IS super smart! Or is she?

In looking at Kate’s Healthtex itinerary for her four-day appearance trip to New York City, the details of her May 6th visit (pre-recorded; the show actually aired on May 12) to the Rachel Ray studios paint a slightly different picture of Kate as a “Supermom” who is “super smart.”

Kate’s talking points were written out for her in advance, so all she had to do was memorize them and parrot them back as her own, but this part of the Healthtex itinerary was a bit more interesting:

It says that in addition to Kate and Rachel doing the interview, they will h
ead to the kitchen to make some fun crafts for kids. On the next page are three ideas that the producers presented to Kate. They said they would discuss with Kate later which ideas she likes so they can have the materials on set for the show.

At 11:00 AM, Kate had a “Producer briefing and show run through,” at which time they told her what to say and gave her a choice of three craft ideas to pass off as her own. Here are the three ideas the producers gave Kate. Do any of these look familiar?