Jon Gosselin has responded to the fact that one of the longterm editors of his kids’ reality show, “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” was arrested last month and charged with 10 counts of “sex exploit of minor (3rd) 14-1.” According to Radar, that means the film editor “possessed material that contained a visual representation of a minor engaging in sexual activity.”

TLC was quick to issue a statement that the man was a subcontractor through another company, that he was never in contact with the Gosselin children, and that he’s been fired. Jon Gosselin tells Star [via Radar] that he’s met this man a few times, though, and that he’s considering legal action against TLC. I don’t blame him. This is despicable. Plus TLC had Jon up against a legal wall when he tried to get out of his contract and do media appearances, and now he’s got a legitimate reason to sue them. Jon told Star that the alleged pedophile had access to all the raw footage of his children that was filmed, including potty training, showers, etc. He’s in contact with authorities to see if any unaired private footage was potentially distributed by this creep. As a mom, Jon’s response makes a lot of sense to me and sounds completely reasonable and even restrained. Here’s more:

As RadarOnline.com previously reported, William Blankinship was arrested on October 21 on 10 counts of sexually exploiting a minor, and now the reality show dad told Star in an exclusive interview that he is sickened by the news.

“My first thought when I heard this was, ‘Oh my God!’” Jon said. “I’m sure everyone working on the show is shocked and never expected something like this.”

The father of eight, who met Blankinship several times, said he is distressed about the access the film editor had to raw footage of the kids he shares custody of with their mother, Kate Gosselin.

“I have contacted an attorney and I’m trying to gather all the information from the authorities in North Carolina to see if there is any evidence he has footage of our family or if he has distributed it.”

Gosselin said he has not discussed his concerns with his ex-wife, but plans to contact her about the situation. “I will write her an email because I feel this is going to explode, because it is so bad,” Jon told Star.

For now though, Jon said he is primarily concerned about footage Blankinship might have seen. “Of course we filmed potty training…Any parent would be freaked out by this, because the cameraman definitely shot the kids getting ready for bed, being showered and being changed.”

For more exclusive details from Star magazine’s exclusive interview with Jon Gosselin pick up the latest issue of Star — on newsstands Thursday.

[From Radar]

It’s so telling that Jon is the one speaking out about this, not Kate. I’m not saying that Kate necessarily doesn’t give a crap, just that she’s not going to say anything about it because she’s prepping her kids for a long career in show business. She has a lifestyle to support and getting worried about some creep ogling at her kids is not on her agenda.

Jon Gosselin is shown on 6/16/10. Kate Gosselin is shown on 3/4/10. Credit: WENN and Pacific Coast News

Remember when Jon Gosselin was going to Cannes with the 22 year-old daughter of his wife’s plastic surgeon and was hanging out on Christian Audigier’s yacht? Remember when Jon was in Sundance with another 20-something rich girlfriend, making out in public, snatching up freebies and requesting security to accompany him wherever he went? Remember when he was BFFs with Michael Lohan and was pitching his own reality show through his spokesperson? Remember when he called himself the “most photographed person on the planet?” I could go on for several paragraphs with more examples, but I’ll spare you.

Well fame didn’t work out for Jon, so he got another girlfriend after that string of co-eds and ended up getting a real job installing solar panels. Then in May he announced that he was doing his last interview, because he valued his privacy. Only he went back on that of course, recording a recent video for RumorFix in which he’s telling his ex wife that she needs to return to a “simple life” like him. This is response to her ridiculous People Magazine cover saying she’s scared about her future now that her kids’ reality show is over. That’s an admirable sentiment from Jon, but he used to act just as entitled and money-grubbing as Kate and would have been all over his own reality show if he’d had a chance.

Former reality star Jon Gosselin is giving his ex-wife, Kate Gosselin, some tough love and he’s using RumorFix as his exclusive vehicle.

Jon, who doesn’t speak to the former star of Kate Plus 8, has some surprisingly stinging words for America’s most famous mom: “Reality TV is not a career. Get back to a normal life — a simple life. Provide for your family.”

Jon, who says he has given up TV and is enjoying working as a computer support engineer, is responding to People’s cover story where Kate claims, “I’m really scared,” after her TLC reality show was cancelled after six years.

Although Kate says she is “freaking out” about her financial future, Jon is optimistic. “Things will work out the way they should work out. Obviously there are families out there that have several kids – people work normal jobs and things work out. Everything is possible,” he tells RumorFix.

And what if the Dancing with the Stars alum has to unload her huge farm home in Pennsylvania? Jon has absolutely no sympathy, “I don’t have a farm on 24 acres and the kids seem to have a great time at my house.”

Jon tells us he sees the kids “a lot,” but says a court order requires that he not be more specific. He also insists that he continues to pay child support.

Jon adds that he likes his life now that he’s out of the limelight. “I go to work every day and provide for my family,” he tells us. “I spend time with my kids – spend time on the weekends. I spend time with the girlfriend I’ve had for over a year now. And enjoy a normal lifestyle.”

[From RumorFix]

Well I agree with him and he does seem like he’s changed. He’s not perfect and I’ve seen him acting like a jerk to his kids in the last few episodes of the show, but he’s surely better than Kate is with them. At least the dude is trying now, even if it wasn’t the noble choice that he’s trying to make it out as. He didn’t have any other options, so he went back to work and does interviews occasionally. Who would have thought at the beginning of his cheating scandal, and with all the messy madness that ensued, that he would come out the better party and the better parent?

I love this picture, from July ’09. Credit: Bauergriffinonline.

This photo is from October ’09, credit: INFPhoto.

For those who are still raging over the Casey Anthony “not guilty” verdict that was delivered last month by a Floridian jury, a slight bit of catharsis (albeit no further justice) can be had in the news that Anthony has been voted to the top of a “Top 10 Most Hated People” poll. Of course this news will do nothing to settle the unrest aimed at the Anthony jurors, who fortunately have been spared the same dubious honor. C’mon, they were really only doing their jobs. Anyway and because I don’t want to freshly stir that pot, let’s get on with the rest of the list, shall we?

What do Casey Anthony, Spencer Pratt and Jon Gosselin have in common? A new poll suggests they’re the most hated people in America!

These public figures top findings by Nielsen subsidiary E-Poll Market Research, the New York Post reports. Joining them are famous names such as O.J. Simpson, Paris Hilton and ‘Octomom’ Nadya Suleman, all making way on the following top 10 list:

1. Casey Anthony
2. Spencer Pratt
3. Octomom
4. O.J. Simpson
5. Jon Gosselin
6. Levi Johnston
7. Jesse James
8. Paris Hilton
9. Heidi Fleiss
10. Howard Stern

“A lot of the folks on this list are people who are constantly in the news and have nonredeeming qualities,” Mary Ann Farrell, Senior Vice President of Research at E-Poll, says.

[From Hollywood Life]

Okay, I completely understand why Anthony and Simpson are on this list because they’re basically cut out of the same legally-scandalous grain. Also truly reprehensible are Spencer Pratt (and his extremely expensive crystals) and Nadya “Octomom” Suleman because she’s a drain on the taxpayers and acts like such an entitled bitch concerning her own womb. People don’t like Levi Johnston because he’s a reprehensible, deadbeat famewhore and Jesse James because he cheated on and humiliated Sandra Bullock. Naturally, Paris Hilton’s entrance on this list is rather self-explanatory. As to Howard Stern, he loves to be hated, so he’ll probably feel like he accomplished something today. However, do people still care at all about Jon Gosselin or Heidi Fleiss? Their inclusion makes me wonder whether or not the company presented people with a list and asked them to pick which ones they hated the most instead of asking people to name their own suggestions. Pollsters can be so shady like that.

Photos courtesy of WENN

Poor dumbass Jon Gosselin. He got badgered and yelled at by his domineering wife then hit back by passive aggressively sleeping with every 20-something dumb enough to fall for his puppy dog act. Then when he got a divorce and no one wanted him on TV he tried to say that his kids shouldn’t star on their reality show, either. It would have been a noble thing to do if it seemed like he was doing it for the right reasons and not out of spitte. He went through strings of girlfriends (a teacher, a nanny, his wife’s plastic surgeon’s daughter, and a tabloid reporter to name a few), took them to Cannes and to Sundance, and wore John Hardy t-shirts like they were or ever would be, in style. Now he’s been forced to get a real job to make ends meet despite calling himself the most photographed person on the planet and declaring that it was impossible for him to work a “normal job“ with “no responsibilities.”

So you’ll understand why I think it’s hysterical that Jon did his “last interview” with In Touch, all about how he is finally a productive member of society and values his “privacy.” You know he would do a reality show with his new girlfriend in a heartbeat.

How have things been since you left the sportlight?
I really don’t miss anything about the reality TV life, to be honest. It just wasn’t for me. I learned a lot from it, and now I’m working really, really hard to secure a great future for my family as a normal person.

Does that mean you’re working a typical 9-to-5?
I usually get up at 5:30 am and work until the sun goes down.

What do you do?
My company installs solar farms. I went to school for industrial technology, so it’s right up my alley and I love it. It’s nice to have a private life again and not have everyone know every little detail of my life.

But your kids are still on TV. Do you worry about them?
My concerns for them are the same as any parent’s. I hope they grow up and learn normal things. I hope I instill enough parental advice in them that they do make the right decisions. I feel it’s best that I do what my own parents have done and raise them as normal children…

Has divorce changed you?
It’s changed me for the better. I know who I am now. I was very young when I got married, and then certain things happened, and I’m a much stronger person than I was. I’m much more independent.

Do you and Kate have a good relationship these days?
I can’t discuss that. I really can’t.

Have you kept up with her career?
That’s her life. I don’t really have anything to say about it. And as soon as I left TV, I stopped watching everything.

You’ve been involved with your girlfriend, Ellen, for over a year. How is she different from Kate?
I think it’s reassuring to find someone who doesn’t want the spotlight and is able to ignore gossip and rumors. I think we complement each other very well.

More on Ellen
I’m very happy and in love! We don’t argue over anything. She loves my kids and is always there to help me. We have open lines of communication. We tell each other everything…

Would you ever consider going back to TV?
I don’t have plans to go back to TB in the future. I really, really enjoy my job and my privacy. I’m doing the best I can, getting along with people I work with and I’ve made great new friends. I’ve basically just kind of reinvented my life all over again. I just want to give this new life of mine a huge shot and I want to stick with it. I really want to say that this is my last interview.

[From In Touch, print edition, May 23, 2011]

Remember when Jon called Hailey Glassman his soulmate and then turned around and “borrowed” $90,000 from her without paying it back, ultimately trashing the apartment they shared and trying to blame it on her? I’m surprised this latest relationship hasn’t flamed out similarly. Anyone would would consider dating this fool after how well his M.O. has been documented deserves exactly what they get. That’s without even considering that he’s unattractive, although he has lost weight thanks to his new job. He probably still smokes like a chimney too. What a catch.

Park photo credit: Antonio Gabriel, In Touch Weekly. Jon Gosselin is also shown on 6/16/10 and 11/29/10. Credit: Fame and WENN

A couple of days ago, Jon Gosselin was photographed “hard at work” installing solar panels on a building for his new job in construction, having quit the office job he was so proud of because it involved “too much travel.” I contemplated running that story, but then figured that Jon Gosselin would get plenty of other jobs over the next year. Well now Jon supposedly wants Kate back, probably because she was so good at helping him make minor everyday decisions that he finds perplexing on his own. Plus there’s the whole issue of Jon’s standard of living decreasing dramatically now that he’s on his own and completely unable to hold down a basic job or manage his money. Popeater has this story, along with the news that Kate supposedly is on board with this idea, because she misses the life she had with Jon before she was forced to become a “single mom” pulling in hundreds of thousands for the few times she bothers to interact with her kids.

“They both realize how much they miss each other,” a friend of the couple’s tells me. “Neither one of them have been really happy since their ugly split and would love to turn back time to the point where they were both in love before fame took over.”

Jon recently traded his Ed Hardy shirts for a hardhat and scored a job with Green Pointe Energy, a Pennsylvania-based renewable energy company. The former reality star and computer techie spends his days installing solar panels and doing other good-for-the-planet deeds.

“Jon is in a great place,” a friend of the father of eight told me last month. “He is happy and knows what a fool he made of himself after his split from Kate…”

So after the ups and downs of 2010, the couple have found peace again, especially now that the cameras have gone away. As everything has started to return to normal so have Jon and Kate with Jon now working in green construction and Kate turning to being a full-time mom again.

“After the split the both of them were out of control. Kate thought she was going to be dating Brad Pitt, and Jon was sure he was going to be a superstar. Neither one of them found what they were looking for when they were single and have both come to the conclusion that maybe they are right for each other.”

Plus, it wouldn’t hurt ratings on next season’s show! Just saying …

[From Popeater, Rob Shuter's column]

This story is probably from Jon’s camp, because he didn’t get enough press for those very staged photos of him smoking on the job. It makes me wonder if he’s still with the last coed he hooked up with, that Ellen chick who had an advice column online. She still has a photo of herself with Jon on her website, but it’s pretty far down the page. I would bet that she kicked him to the curb and that Jon is considering going back to Kate in order to quit having to worry about paying his bills. Plus it might absolve him of the $10k a month child support payment he’s surely unable to make. I could see Kate acting on camera like she’s taking him back without really letting him do more than live above the garage again while her lover/bodyguard stays in the house. If welcoming Jon back breathes new life into her rapidly fading reality show she’ll probably consider it. She’ll do anything to increase her long over 15 minutes.

Kate Gosselin is shown on 12/1/10. Jon is shown on 11/29/10. Credit: Fame

We saw firsthand during Kate Gosselin’s guest stint on Sarah Palin’s Alaska just how much of a priority her children are for her. Kate ignored the kids and bitched and moaned about how miserable she was, threatening that they would be “Palins, not Gosselins” if they chose to stay behind and enjoy the camping trip that was planned for them. The Palins did plenty of fun activities with the six year-old sextuplets and ten year-old twins, making ‘smores, collecting rocks from the river, and teaching them about wildlife. Kate would have none of it, and didn’t interact with her kids at all.

Dad Jon was initially the villain in this split, as he was taking up with any 20-something coed that would have him. Now that he’s settled down and Kate has shown her true colors it’s clear that he’s the better parent. His kids seem to agree too, and reportedly want to stay with Jon in his two bedroom apartment. It sounds like Jon is leaking these stories to the tabloids for sympathy, and we know he can be a passive aggressive manipulator, but his methods are small potatoes compared to Kate’s distortions and lies.

It’s pretty telling when 10-year-old twins Cara and Mady and 6-year-old sextuplets Joel, Collin, Aaden, Hannah, Leah, and Alexis would rather sleep on pull-out couches and portable cots in Jon’s two-bedroom apartment in Reading, Pa., than spend another night with Kate in their $1.1 million mansion in nearby Wernesville.

So, why are the kids so miserable in their mansion? According to [Life & Style] Kate regularly leaves the kids behind while she goes for pampering treatments in New York City. “Her hair and her looks are her top priorities,” another source tells the magazine. Besides chasing fame, she’s also been caught on camera spanking the kids in the past. “The kids are afraid of Kate,” confirms the source.

Meanwhile, after going wild immediately following his split from Kate in 2009, Jon has finally cleaned up his act and settled into a regular 9-to-5 job working with computers. It’s not glamorous but it pays the rent. And it affords him the luxury of doing fun, bonding activities with his children. “He’s very hands-on,” reveals another source. “He’s taken them on nature walks, plays games and builds things with them. he also helps them with schoolwork and practices reading and writing with them. That’s why being with Jon is so much nicer.”

But back in September, Kate said on Live! With Regis and Kelly that her kids can’t stand being at Jon’s place because it doesn’t feel like home. “I basically wait for the phone call from how many of them want to come home,” she said. Considering she lied to Today about Collin and Alexis being expelled from school, we find her claim hard to believe also.

[From Hollybaby, details from Life & Style]

Hollybaby has a point – Kate lied about her kids being expelled and she probably lies about a ton of other sh*t too, particularly the fact that she claims to be single, but is boning the married bodyguard. I bet she lied when she claimed that she was still with Jon when he started cheating. She probably kicked his ass to the apartment in the garage so she could sleep with the bodyguard in the house. Then when Jon stepped out on her she kept wearing her wedding ring and played the pity card with the media.

So the kids are better off with their dad and his girlfriend, who actually seem to pay attention to them and look out for them while their mom is focused on herself 24/7.

Would you take advice from a woman who willingly hooked up with Jon Gosselin? Like not someone who just slept with him when she was blacked out drunk, although that would be damning (and disappointing) enough, but someone who was with him for months and plans to marry him? Jon Gosselin’s current girlfriend, 24 year-old Ellen Ross, wants you to do just that and has started a blog where she doles out life strategies to people who ask her for help. This story is in the Enquirer, and sounds straight from Jon and Ellen, who probably wants some publicity for her website.

Reality TV dad Jon Gosselin’s galpal Ellen Ross has started her own advice column, dishing out advice on everything from how to manage pets – she has three Chihuahuas, a rat and a fish – to getting over a breakup.

Despite the fact that her main claim to fame is she’s dating a jobless and divorced father of eight, Ellen, 24, believes she has what it takes to dole out pearls of wisdom on her blog, ellenross.blogspot.com. In October, the Enquirer reported exclusively that Jon and the 5-foot-5 brunette… are already making wedding plans.

“Jon says he’s more in love with Ellen than he ever was with Kate,” divulged the source.

The two share an apartment in Reading, PA and stay at his ex wife Kate’s home when Jon has custody of the children.

Sources say Jon, 33, expects to provide for his new bride with proceeds from the tell-all memoir he’s writing.

And that’s probably a good thing.

Ellen says: “I am not looking for any money, fame or profit from this at all.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, November 22, 2010]

I checked Ellen’s blog and it’s well written and can actually be helpful. She doesn’t have a self righteous tone, and some of her advice is good and thoughtful. She loves dogs and seems to know quite a bit about pets, and she has useful ideas for people’s personal problems. There’s something to be said about someone who starts an advice column, though. I think Lainey summed it up best in a story on Katherine Heigl where she called her “one of those ‘You Should’ kind of friends. You should do this, you should do that, I would do this, I would do that, she knows everything.”

This just makes it seem like Jon loves bossy women who take over and do everything for him so he doesn’t have to think. Kate Gosselin bugs the crap out of me and she definitely henpecked Jon, but he needed some serious ass kicking to get anything done. It looks like he’s getting his ass kicked by someone who truly enjoys telling him what to do. If only she could figure out the best way to help his poor kids.

Header via The Hollywood Gossip

Kate Gosselin is reportedly worried that her boyfriend, the silver-haired bodyguard whom she’s been rumored to be boning for some time, might be going back to his long-suffering wife. According to the National Enquirer, Kate’s bodyguard Steve Neild is taking a trip to Europe with his wife, after she insisted that he take time off for their 20th anniversary. Neild hasn’t been wearing his wedding ring and eyewitness accounts have Kate and Steve looking way too couple-y for an employer and employee. The Enquirer reports that Neild’s wife gave him an ultimatum after hearing the rumors about him and Kate:

Steve… was so busy with Kate, 35, he rarely saw his wife Gina, who lives in Potomac, MD, three hours from Kate’s place in Wernersville, PA.

And Gina’s wifely antennae went up after Kate and Steve took at least seven trips together this summer – including a vacation to Bald Head Island, N.C., where they were spotted taking sunset strolls on the beach.

Most recently Kate and Steve spent four days at the Casa Dorada resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, without her kids. Kate used the opportunity to show off her tight new bikini body, and she and Steve again looked like a cozy couple as they strolled around the resort.

“Gina trusts Steve, but she’s more than aware of all the rumors about him and Kate, and she gave him no choice,” said the source.

“Gina told Steve that they had to get away for their 20th anniversary, or it might be their last!”

A source close to Steve’s family in New Zealand confirmed that he and Gina were vacationing in Italy and that his parents were baby sitting their kids.

Since Steve headed to Europe, Kate has been down in the dumps, another insider told The Enquirer.

“Kate’s telling everyone how lonely she is, all the while denying she ever had a romantic relationship with Steve,” the insider divulged.

“But Steve’s wife obviously has her suspicions.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, October 4, 2010]

What’s more is that Kate’s ex Jon Gosselin is supposedly set to marry the latest girlfriend who has somehow put up with his crap for several months. Jon “plans to wed his steady girlfriend Ellen Ross next spring,” according to The Enquirer, and he even wants more kids with her. Of course he does.

In related news, Kate Plus 8 isn’t being canceled, as In Touch claims. Kate’s rep told GossipCop that it’s not true that the show won’t go on. In Touch reported that “ex-hubby Jon wouldn’t re-sign a contract allowing his children to be filmed, telling friends the kids hated be on camera 24 hours a day and that Kate “fears that her fame is coming to an end.” The part about the show going off the air is “not true,” according to Kate’s rep, although I would bet the “fears her fame is over” part isn’t far off the mark.

There are a couple juicy Kate Gosselin stories in this week’s tabloids. It’s hard to believe that Kate still rates gossiping about, but there’s plenty of negative dirt on her so you can see the appeal. First off, The National Enquirer has a story that Kate doesn’t pay attention to her kids at all except when the cameras are around. She’s said to be obsessed with making money and marketing herself, to the point that she only plays with her children when they’re being filmed or photographed. Kate makes a whopping $250k an episode so she can probably afford to give it a rest and let loose with her kids. It’s too bad that the stick up her butt is pretty much permanent. Here’s part of the Enquirer’s story:

Kate Gosselin is so obsessed with making money that she’s suffering a major meltdown and her kids are turning against her, sources tell the Enquirer.

The overwhelmed single mom leaves her children mostly in the hands of nannies, and now they prefer to spend time with their dad Jon, insiders say…

“When she’s not with the kids, she’s hustling for work. She knows that she’s not spending enough time with them, but she needs to earn the money to support them all.

“She cries to friends, ‘What am I supposed to do? If I slow down, this could all go away, and we’ll be out on the street!”

Her ex-husband Jon currently does not have a job, and Kate can’t count on any financial help from him.

With Kate so focused on cash, the family’s estate in Wernersville, PA is more like a corporate office than a family home, added another source.

“Everything is for show. You’re not there unless you or someone is being paid…

“Kate always said the kids love filming, and they do – because it forces her to interact with them.”

Even worse, the children… are starting to feel as if Kate loves them only when cameras are around, said the source.

“Kate will take the kids out to play, but she stays only long enough for photographers to get pictures of her with them. Then she goes back to work in her home office and the nannies take over,” the insider revealed.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, September 6, 2010]

I don’t like this woman, but the story sounds straight from Jon. It even goes on to claim that the kids like him and his girlfriend better and call the girlfriend “mom.” If Kate had a 9-5 job she would be away from the house during that time. If she relies on nannies to watch the kids all the time and late into the night that’s one thing, but if she does it so she can work during the day I don’t see the problem. I don’t agree with her choice of career, namely putting her kids on television, but that’s different from bashing her for using nannies so she can work. However, she should be spending time with them when the cameras aren’t around, and if she’s not doing that then this criticism is dead on.

Star has another big story about Jon Gosselin’s “tell all” and how it’s going to expose Kate. We’ve already heard that he’s writing a book, but according to PopEater it’s going to be a parenting-type book that of course has no publishers yet interested.

Star claims that Jon will tell all, though, and that he’s going to reveal Kate’s secrets. According to Star, Kate was probably already sleeping with her married bodyguard back when she was living with Jon and they were not yet separated. I wouldn’t put it past Jon to rewrite history in an attempt to make himself look like the wronged party, but it could have happened this way. We know they’re boning now. Here are the highlights from Star. (These are paraphrased except where there are quotes.)

- Bodyguard Steve Nield was staying in the basement when Jon was still living in the house. “Although Kate had a habit of sleeping late, leaving Jon to wake and feed the kids, ‘She suddenly started going down there to ‘work out’ in the mornings.’” TLC staff eventually made Steve leave.

- Kate belittled Jon. “She’d scream at him and call him names in front of their family and friends… Kate is really aggressive… a few times he could tell she was about to get physical and he’d… walk away.”

- Kate begged Jon to take her back for the show. “He has tons of texts and voicemails from Kate telling him she loved him and they should stay together for the show. Even after all the women he’s been with, Jon believes he could have gone back to Kate as recently as this spring.”

Jon doesn’t have much that we don’t already know, and he’s trying to drum up interest in whatever book he can write that will sell. If he does paint Kate as a controlling meanie who doesn’t love her kids he’ll be able to earn a little money at least. It seems like these people’s 15 minutes are just about up, especially Jon’s. Maybe that’s why Kate is freaking out and trying so hard to get paid while she can.

Radar has new photos of Kate and Jon out with their kids – separately. These photos are from 4/22 and 3/4. Credit: Fame

In Touch Weekly just sent us this photo (above) of a shirtless Jon Gosselin. They enclosed this story – “Jon Gosselin loses his beer belly”. Now, I seriously don’t doubt that Jon has lost some weight, because he was looking totally tubby for a few years. But is it just me, or is most of the “weight loss” just Jon sucking in his gut for the camera?

When Jon Gosselin took to the beach in Ocean City, N.J., on July 8, he looked like a new man. Donning dark shades and a plaid bathing suit, the dad of eight looked toned, tanned and healthier than ever while strolling the beach with his bikini-clad girlfriend, Ellen Ross. And there was one thing noticeably missing — his beer belly!

“Jon’s made time for himself,” says a friend of the reality star, who adds that Jon’s kids were his main motivation to get in shape. “Jon’s own dad never took care of himself and died at an early age, so Jon is doing whatever he can to ensure he’ll be around for his kids as long as possible.”

After his acrimonious split with Kate last year, Jon’s life took a nosedive. He stopped going to the gym and eating Kate’s healthy, home cooked meals, and plummeted into a wild bachelor lifestyle, which included lots of bar-hopping, heavy drinking and smoking.

He soon left the family’s television show, Jon & Kate Plus 8, and acquired a reputation for constantly partying with a revolving door of young women. But now, Jon’s friend says the tide has finally turned, and the family man is getting his life back on track. Says the pal, “He feels better and looks better than ever.”

[From In Touch Weekly]

Well good for him for getting serious about his health. It makes me a little sick to think of him as some kind of bachelor-about-town with a “wild bachelor lifestyle.” I mean, didn’t he just sort of nail whatever random famewhore broad that said yes (Kate Major, Hailey Glassman), and does that really constitute “a revolving door of young women”? Ugh. Thinking about Jon’s Tootsie roll peen makes me want to vomit.

Header: EXCLUSIVE In Touch Weekly photo, courtesy of ITW online.