KATE GOSSELIN: HOW SHE FOOLED THE WORLD - THE RISE AND FALL OF A REALITY TV QUEEN (27 page)
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Authors: Robert Hoffman
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GOSSELIN SIX!!!
LOCATION:
INN AT READING
EVENT:
The Gosselin Sextuplets (Born at Hershey Medical Center on May 10, 2004) are celebrating their 1
st
Birthday. All Media are welcome to a press availability beginning at 10:30am.
DATE:
Saturday, May 7, 2005
TIME:
11am
LOCATION:
1040 Park Road, Wyomissing, PA 19610 USA
(800) 383-9713 (610) 372-7811
MEDIA ADVISORY RECIPENTS
(Guest List)
A reporter who attended the Gosselin sextuplet’s first birthday party said this:
“After the Gosselins first birthday party, a final comment from Kate to the media was, “We need transportation! A 15-Passenger van, with plenty of storage!”
GIFT CARDS GLADLY ACCEPTED
Kate posted this polite little note on the family’s website informing fans about what the family needs:
Thank you for inquiring about sending our kids a gift. Due to space constraints it would help us best if you would send them a Target gift card.
Thank you for your kindness to our family.
Sincerely,
The Gosselin Family
THE FLOOD GATES OPEN
These
are some brief, paraphrased excerpts from Kate’s journal that document her getting a taste of things to come, and show how she began dabbling into asking for freebies. These are the “unsolicited” freebies, as Kate likes to tell people.
July 2006
Adv Med Prod called Kate and she said it sounded like they are going to pay for their train tickets, lunch and show tickets too!!!!!!
July 2006
Kate said that Jen told them that money is involved for them and that they would be paid $1,000 for each of their 20 new episodes!!!! Kate was also told that Discovery would pay for everything whenever they went anywhere with them as an added benefit!
July 2006
Kate learned from Jen Stocks that they would be filming at the Giant grocery store and that their entire shopping trip would be donated by Giant and Kate’s lost salary for the day would also be covered!!!!!!
September 2006
Kate finds out that Discovery will be for the girl’s bedroom renovation because they’ll be filming it.
September 2006
Kate and Jen Stocks discuss episode
ideas, which will include an assortment of paid excursions including having the twins head shots taken for possible acting commercial deals. They’ll also get free Christmas shopping, beds for the kid’s rooms, Valentines Day dinner at a fancy restaurant, a trip to California, Carnival-themed birthday party for the little kids, new carpet, a Disney vacation among many other things.
Kate was excited to talk about doing a product commercial saying that would get them started because Jen told her that the Gosselin family is the total package.
September 2006
Kate discusses the big business news of the day. The head of Discovery Network talent search called Kate to discuss the financial future of her family but he called at a bad time and Kate told him she’d have to call him back later. Jen stocks had previously advised Kate to ask for $1,400 per episode in hopes of getting $1,200 but Kate rounded up to $1,500. Kate was shocked and thrilled to find out that they were offering $2,000 per episode right off the bat with no negotiation. If she only knew that if she had a manager at that time she could have probably gotten more than $10,000 per episode.
Kate was so proud of herself because after this big money offer, she responded with a simple ‘OK’. She said he paused for her reaction but she didn’t give him one. She’s very thankful to God for sending the offer. Kate finds it mind boggling that the will be paid for each episode and receive the many fringe benefits!!!!! She ended it with Lord, how great thou art!!!!!
November 2006
Kate reveals that her best friend Beth Carson told her that sometimes God provides and it is right in front of us and we don’t see it! Beth also told Kate that God provided the show and money so that Kate could quit work and stay home with the kids until they went to school. That thought very much excited Kate. She said that just thinking that she wouldn’t have to go to work is sooo amazing!
After all of that good news, Kate got a check in the mail for $800 from a lady Kate had been emailing with because of the show.
November 2006
Kate describes the beginning of the church speaking engagements and how she became addicted to the fame and money. After the spoke they were immediately bombarded with people handing them cash and checks. Someone told Kate that this is a ‘Pilot’ performance! Kate said that was good because that is where she’d like to head! She talks about wanting to book a monthly family weekend to speak at a church and said that would be her dream!
December 2006
Kate finds out that Discovery will pay for their trip to Florida but is outraged when she learns that they want to go to ‘a place called Discovery Cove’ but are not interested in paying for Disney World. How lovely! Kate writes. Kate says she wants Jen to get at least Magic Kingdom included. Period.
January 2007
This month Kate will hire a cleaning lady and feels that she will be comped by the network.
January 2007
Kate takes charge saying she made Jon talk to Jen about the beds, saying I made him tell her that if Discovery wasn’t paying for the room, then they wouldn’t be filming in it. She says push has come to shove! The birth of Kate Gosselin as we know her.
February 2007
Kate got an email about possibly going on Dr. Phil! She was excited. So much so that the first thing she thought to do was write out a list of logistics for them so that there would be accommodated well. She wanted two helpers of her choice, one stop flight etc.
March 2007
Kate discusses many events and opportunities and proudly states that she has a feeling that this would be the beginning of lots of weeks like this to come!!
April 2007
Kate’s AWESOME news of the day is that the girls are getting $12,000 each of the $13,500 tuition for their school paid by scholarship…for first grade!!!!!
May 2007
Kate and Jon got a $5,000 bonus from Discovery, an offer to stay at a resort in Park City Utah with ski lessons for the kids and spa trips for Kate.
MULTIPLE BLESSINGS
On December 10, 2007, Paul J. Datte of the law firm Cerullo, Datte & Wallbillich, P.C, who represented Kate Gosselin and Beth Carson, sent a letter to Zondervan regarding Zondervan’s proposal to publish Kate and Beth’s book,
Multiple Blessings
. The letter included specific comments about the proposal and mentioned financial arrangements, performance and merchandising rights, royalty rates on net sales, and cover price. The letter stated that the first-time authors would require an advance of $100,000. It also covered the following:
Kate and Beth will require a royalty rate of 24% of net sales for 1 to 20,000 books sold; 27% for 2.001 to 40,000 books sold; and 30% for all books sold in excess of 40,000.
Kate and Beth will require a cover price of $21.99 rather than the $19.99 price reflected in your proposal.
GOING ROGUE
This is a good example of Kate taking matters into her own hands and going outside of Discovery’s Advertising Sales department to get her own product placement/endorsement deals. This violated the terms of their agreement with Discovery. An email from Kate to Wendy Douglas of Discovery showed that Kate very much wanted to do a publicity campaign for Frigidaire. This was Kate in action, 3 months before she hired a manager to handle the dirty work for her.