KATE GOSSELIN: HOW SHE FOOLED THE WORLD - THE RISE AND FALL OF A REALITY TV QUEEN (86 page)

“RETARDED”

Some people believe we have gone overboard in trying to be politically correct. While this may be true, it is still always best to avoid speaking words that could hurt someone’s feelings. It is probably pretty safe to say that using the word “retarded” in a derogatory manner is not acceptable and is thought to be particularly insensitive. Was Kate’s use of this word in her following journal entry, then, just an uncharacteristic slip, or is it a word that she throws around without consideration?

January 2007

Kate was talking about making an appointment with the doctor but she wasn’t happy with them so she referred to them as a retarded practice.

Kate has also used the word “retarded” to describe people who get on her nerves or annoy her in some way. She did this in an email mentioned earlier.

In April of 2012, Kate accepted a paid speaking job at Camp Barnabas, which is a Christian camp that provides life-changing opportunities to people with special needs. Her cavalier and insensitive use of the word “retarded” calls into question her motivation for taking this job. Was her heart truly in the right place, understanding the particular challenges of special needs individuals, or was she just interested in padding her wallet? Her words and actions make everything she does suspect.

Someone who has known Kate for most of her life, who wishes to remain anonymous, said this about Kate:

“If you don’t look like her, Kate considers you a second-class citizen.”

In 2010, Pennsylvania State Representative Thomas Murt formally complained to then State Attorney General Tom Corbett and officials in the Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) that the Gosselin children lacked the proper work permits to appear on television in Pennsylvania, and couldn’t do so until they turned seven. This came about in response to rising concern and criticism that the Gosselin children were being exploited and working illegally. The L&I conducted an investigation into the matter, and their findings are summarized in the following Associated Press article.

Pennsylvania opts for no legal action against ‘Jon & Kate Plus 8’ producers over child-labor issue.

Published: Wednesday, April 14, 2010, 3:46 PM

The Associated Press/file

HORSHAM – Child-labor permits should have been obtained for the children appearing on the TLC television show “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” but the state will not take legal action against the producers, Pennsylvania regulators have concluded.

No action will be taken provided a portion of the proceeds from the now-canceled reality show is put into a trust fund for Jon and Kate Gosselin’s children and child-labor permits are obtained for future filming, the state Department of Labor and Industry said in a five-page letter obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. The letter was signed by a government attorney and sent to Figure 8 Films and Discovery Talent Services last month.

It’s important to not that we did an investigation and we made sure the children were not in any danger or endangered as a result of the work they were doing,” said Labor and Industry press secretary Troy Thompson.

The agency ruled that the children were employed under the state’s Child Labor Law because of the direction they sometimes received, because of their continued participation in the series and because the Gosselins and others were paid for the show.

It said that at least 15 percent of the gross proceeds, due to the children, must be placed in trust funds until they reach the age of 18 or unless needed for their safety, education, welfare or health.
Laurie Goldberg, a spokeswoman for Discovery Talent Services and TLC, said Wednesday the trust was established in November
and that the amount placed in trust exceeds the 15 percent level. Thompson said the new stipulations must be met or labor regulators may prosecute in the future. The letter said that
Figure 8 Films, TLC, Discovery Talent Services, the Gosselins and other affiliated parties all deny there were violations of the child-labor law or that permits were required.

Laurie Goldberg said Discovery Talent Services and TLC have complied with state labor regulations and continue to do so.
She said they agreed to get the permits even though they maintain they are not required under state law
. “These allegations are either completely inaccurate or a distorted representation for maximum attention,” she said.

After the ruling came down, Laurie Goldberg, spokeswoman for Discovery/TLC, continued to argue the company line that they were not required to get work permits for the children; this, despite the fact that the agency had determined and ruled that the children were, indeed, working.

Although they were found to be in violation of Pennsylvania Child Labor Law, Discovery/TLC and Figure 8 Films got off scot-free, with no fines imposed. That gave the appearance that the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania didn’t want to ruffle any feathers or jeopardize future filming projects. Film and television industry projects bring in big bucks to states; therefore, many states work very hard to
provide tax breaks and other incentives to attract production companies. It certainly wouldn’t look very inviting if Pennsylvania had decided to take legal action against Discovery.

There is a question about whether it had ever occurred to anyone that the kids needed permits to film
Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht
. Discovery/TLC continued to hide behind their excuse that they were filming “reality.” Kate pleaded ignorance and said she “didn’t know they needed them” in the first place.

It is important to understand that Kate Gosselin was not only controlling, but was in total control of anything and everything having to do with the family business. She did the talking and the negotiating and the deciding. She gave the orders, and Jon went along and did what he was told – or else. So when it came time to sign the family’s first big contract with Discovery, Kate was in her glory. Contrary to Kate’s statements that she didn’t know she needed to obtain work permits, and that nobody ever told her to get them, and she “thought Discovery would take care of them…,” the bottom line is that Discovery did, in fact, tell Kate and Jon that they were responsible for obtaining any necessary permits and/or licenses. Discovery went so far as to build specific wording into the contract with the Gosselins – which Kate signed.

I have all of the Gosselin family contracts. The exact wording regarding the work permits, from the contract dated October 4, 2006, is: “Family has obtained and will maintain at all times during the service term (and any extension thereof) any and all work permits, immigration clearances necessary to enable family to perform services hereunder.” It is wording that was designed to protect Discovery in case any legal issues arose from the Gosselin sweatshop, which was about to open for business

Kate Gosselin decided to thumb her nose at the legal system and forgo fulfilling her obligation to the Network to obtain work permits for the kids, as contracted, because she was arrogant, and she wanted to give the illusion that her children weren’t working at all, and were “just going about their daily lives, doing what they would normally do in a day.”

Discovery, of course, knew better. They knew the kids would be working. They knew that “reality” television required more than reality. When they installed permanent studio lighting in the Gosselin’s house for filming, it was one of many telltale signs that the house had become a fully functional television studio. There would be schedules; direction; takes and retakes; lines to be read; and coaching, prodding and trickery to get the kids to do what the producers wanted. There would be product placement and cameo appearances, and a host of manufactured storylines. Yes, Discovery knew the kids would be working and that they would need permits to do so. Their crack legal team would surely have researched Pennsylvania’s child labor laws, including age restrictions on filming, so it worked out well that they could place the responsibility for the permits elsewhere.

In addition to addressing the work permits, the L&I ruling specified that a trust fund had to be established for the kids. Kate had never set aside any money AT ALL for the children to get from seven seasons of giving up their childhoods and being forced to work. She was legally forced to do so when the Murt investigation began, but she did it very reluctantly. The trust fund was set up just two months before the Murt hearing. I have a statement from the trust fund account. Here is some basic information about it, including the name of the account:

“THE CHILDREN’S HOUSEHOLD” at Kate’s P.O. Box in Sinking Spring, PA.

LPL Financial

Brown Funds

Gosselin Childrens IRREV Trust – Conception Date: February 17, 2010

Read that carefully. Conception Date: February 17, 2010.
So it would appear that one hundred and sixteen (116) episodes of
Jon & Kate Plus Ei8ht
were filmed with absolutely zero money being put aside for the children. Only twenty-seven (27) episodes of
Kate Plus Ei8ht
were filmed after February 17, 2010.

Now look more carefully at this part of the
L&I ruling:

“…at least 15 percent of the gross proceeds, due to the children, must be placed in trust funds until they reach the age of 18 or
unless needed for their safety, education, welfare or health.”

Guess who gets to decide on the “need” to withdraw the kids’ money for “safety, education, welfare or health” necessities. That would be Kate Gosselin, and there is no system in place to question her as to why she’s removing the children’s money. Just her word. It is like the fox guarding the hen house.

The only reason Kate Gosselin has her wealth today is because she was paid handsomely for allowing her eight children to be filmed and exploited for our entertainment. She couldn’t, and can’t, earn a living from TV herself because she has no talent and is supremely unmarketable. Her spinoff solo show,
Twist of Kate
, never even made it out of the testing stages. A TLC employee told me off the record that “It was a total failure from the get-go because she is terribly boring and annoying and nobody wanted to see just Kate Gosselin. They want to see the kids.”

And yet those kids have almost nothing to show, financially, for their years of work. Even though Kate was forced to set up a trust fund, the sad truth is that, if only 15% was put aside for the kids, it means that out of every $1,000 dollars the kids earned from filming, Kate got $850, while each Gosselin child got $18.75…even less if Kate decided to take any of it to fulfill their “needs.”

Kate got $850 per $1,000.

Each Gosselin child possibly got $18.75. If they were lucky.

When Kate signed on to do
Dancing With The Stars
(DWTS for short), there was a lot of talk in the media and on the blogs about Kate being away from her children for extended periods of time while practicing and flying back and forth to Los Angeles to film the show.

Kate nipped that talk right in the bud and declared in television interviews that she would only be away from the kids for three days a week
at the most
. She would rehearse at home, with the kids there to support her, and then she would leave on Sunday night to fly to Los Angeles and return home on a late flight after the Tuesday filming. Three days. Not a bad gig for a single working mother of eight, who would be banking about $300,000-$500,000 for the short-term job.

While the plan sounded good on paper, it never even came close to happening the way Kate spelled it out. I was at the Gosselin house all day, every day during the DWTS period, and I kept close tabs and detailed notes on Kate’s comings and goings. It wasn’t pretty if you were one of the Gosselin kids hoping to spend time with your mother, that’s for sure.

The Sunday to Tuesday trips quickly turned into Saturday to Wednesday excursions, and sometimes the flight back home from Los Angeles would skip Pennsylvania all together and take Kate straight to New York City for rehearsing, or for stylist to the stars Ted Gibson to spend an entire day working on her hair for several thousand dollars. It seemed evident to me that Kate was looking for any excuse she could find to not be with her kids.

The saddest part was the obligatory photo op in the front yard, in front of the paps, where Kate would appear to be playing with and spending quality time with her children. I say photo op because the fun romps in the front yard, in front of the cameras, where the pictures turned up in every tabloid and entertainment website, lasted about three or four minutes – which was just about long enough for Kate to pat the kids on the head like dogs and have photos taken to show the world that she was, indeed, home with them like she promised she would be. Those photos, like Kate, lied.