Kelsey Grammer has partnered with an established reality show production company through which he will presumably produce reality shows. According to his estranged wife Camille, it was Kelsey’s idea for her to go on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. She’s said that Kelsey did it to distract her while he lived with his mistress in New York, but maybe he had a business motivation too. The question is whether Kelsey will create some kind of reality show for himself and his fiance in an attempt to earn back the public’s good will after so publicly wronging Camille. Here’s the report from US Weekly:

Apparently Kelsey Grammer didn’t feel his cameos on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills were enough.

The 55-year-old actor — who famously ended his 13-year marriage to Camille Grammer (née Donatacci) while she was filming the hit Bravo show — has partnered up with reality TV veteran Stella Bulochnikov-Stolper to form G3 Productions.

According to Variety, the two have embarked on a joint venture with Zodiak USA to develop reality series concepts and formats that can be sold and distributed around the world.

Bulochnikov-Stolper, a former VH1 programming exec who also masterminded Paris Hilton’s My New BFF, is currently working with Grammer on the Starz drama Boss.

“I knew that Kelsey loved this space and would love to pop some big shows,” Bulochnikov-Stolper says. “The idea that he would lend his name and brain and star power to working on some formats was so exciting to me, and then to have a partner like Zodiak to produce them and sell them all over the world — that’s really going to produce some fireworks.”

[From US Weekly]

US Weekly titles this “Kelsey Grammer Wants His Own Reality Show,” but in the original article they source on Variety there’s no mention of a Kelsey-centric show. It seems like a likely next move. I could easily see him creating a reality show for himself and that Kayte character he took up with behind his wife’s back. It could be a stupid move but Kelsey is an excellent actor and he could convince people that he’s a decent guy despite all the evidence otherwise. I’m sure he’ll hide his high heels and lingerie.

Kelsey is still trying to rush his divorce, probably because that 29 year-old stewardess he’s engaged to is from England and needs a visa. (Although he denies this.) Camille is pushing back through her lawyers and is fighting Kelsey’s move to “bifurcate” the divorce, which means he wants to be legally free to marry someone else right away and will deal with all the property settlement issues later. In court papers detailed by Radar Online, Camille’s lawyer lists their assets at over $120 million, including “a substantial estate which includes multiple real estate properties and their corresponding furnishings, numerous pieces of valuable art, many investment, brokerage, and bank accounts, over twenty-five vehicles.” Who needs 25 cars and houses all over the world? They may have earned over a hundred million together, but I’m surprised they’re in the black because that’s some Nicolas Cage level f*ckery.

Kelsey is shown on the NY set of I Don’t Know How She Does It on 1/20/11. Credit: WENN.com He’s shown out with Kayte and their cute dog on 1/21/11. Credit: Fame.

Kathy Hilton (Paris’ mom), her sisters Kyle Richards and Kim Richards

We saw Kyle Richards light into her sister on Thursday’s shocking and uncomfortable-to-watch episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Kyle called Kim an alcoholic, repeatedly called her “insane” and told her that she would cut off all support that she and her husband, Mauricio, were giving her. Kyle also got way too personal and brought up their deceased mom. “Mom had to die worrying about you and stressing about you and leave this shit on my shoulders, after everything I’ve done for you.” The thing is, Kyle pursued Kim to continue an argument with her after Kim tried to leave Taylor’s party. Kyle made sure the driver didn’t let Kim leave, and went down there with the sole purpose of berating her sister. It was mean and bullying, no matter how much of an addict Kim is or what the backstory is between them. When you have a fight with family you step away from the situation and come back when you are ready to make up. That strategy makes for better family relations, but not better reality TV I guess.

Now Kyle has issued a statement on that fight, but despite some inaccurate headlines about it she never apologized for what she said to her sister. She just said it shouldn’t have happened that way:

It shouldn’t have gone so far – or become so ugly.

So says Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards of her nasty blowout that left her on the serious skids with sister Kim in the season finale.

“The events that transpired that evening were quite unfortunate and should never have occurred on or off camera,” the reality star, 42, said in a statement released Friday by Bravo. “There are a lot of elements to the story that viewers didn’t see.”

She adds: “This has been difficult for our entire family as we both said and did things that we regret. My sister and I love each other very much we want to move forward and put this behind us.”

In the clash in a limo, Kyle called her older sister, 46, an alcoholic and threatened to revoke any aid – apparently financial – that she and her husband provide. Kyle also said she’d stop covering for Kim amid allegations of alcohol.

Kim and Kyle will discuss the matter further in a reunion special hosted by Andy Cohen on Jan. 27 at 9 p.m. on Bravo.

[From People]

I might not be as informed about this fight as some of you as I watch this show on iTunes and don’t have access to the after-show commentary. Kyle has a new blog entry up about the fight and what went on, and it’s pretty much the same sentiment from her – we don’t know went on with their family or behind the scenes and there’s a lot more to this story. Never does she apologize and she focuses more on how she feels. Here are some segments:

The tension between Kim and me was never about her not “having my back” in New York. There is so much more to it than that. I didn’t want to come out and say what it was that was really bothering me because this is a private family matter. It would have saved me a lot of criticism, believe me, but it’s not just my story to tell. It’s Kim’s story too.

After this horrible argument between Kim and I, we didn’t speak for a long time. My heart was broken and I suffered an incredible amount of anxiety and panic attacks. Next to losing my mother, this was the most difficult time of my life. It is so difficult for me to even write about it now.

The details of what happened with Kim after that night, is her story to tell. I will not go into that here. I do want to say that I have learned a lot about my sister and myself during the taping of this show. I have been able to look at our relationship from an outsider’s point of view. I’ve realized that my pain and worrying about her comes off as anger. It was not helping Kim or our relationship. I love my sister and only want the best for her. Kim knows that.

[Kyle's blog on BravoTV.com]

What is the story – that Kim supported her whole family by giving up her childhood to Disney and then went a little batty because of it? I don’t foresee any backstory that could explain why Kyle attacked her like that. Kim is a scared little thing, and she’s probably very frustrating to deal with but that doesn’t excuse the way Kyle treated her.

Oh and as for the other women, Kyle says she feels bad for Camille “being an unwilling participant in a divorce has to be profoundly painful,” and that it’s too bad that Cedric and Lisa had a falling out but “I had a feeling things would turn out this way and warned Lisa.” Are you kidding me? Kyle was seen fawning all over Cedric at that party for Lisa’s daughter. Kyle is a duplicitous person and now I do believe Camille that Kyle was taunting her by asking if anyone would be interested in her without Kelsey. It doesn’t excuse the way Camille behaved afterwards, but I believe her.

In lighter RHOBH news, check out this comparison on TMZ between Adrienne and Taylor and the Wayans brothers in White Chicks. I love Adrienne but this was too funny. She also has these strange bits of glittery string in her hair. What is up with that? At Gawker they say she has pom poms in it.

Look at Kyle in this ridiculous peacock dress. She so thinks she’s the sh*t.

Credit: WENN.com

Let’s just get this out of the way right now – Michelle Duggar is not pregnant, but she did take a pregnancy test on the opening episode this season of 19 Kids & Counting, her reality show on TLC. I guess that means she’s still actively trying to get pregnant, or at least not taking any precautions against pregnancy. Michelle went through a medical crisis last year and nearly died when she went into premature labor with her 19th child. Despite their setbacks and the size of their family, Michelle and her husband Jim-Bob have made it clear that they will have as many children as “God” wants them to have, as if he didn’t give them free will. They plan to grow their child army as large as they possibly can with little regard to Michelle’s health or the health of her babies. On 19 Kids & Counting, Michelle wants to go sky diving with her 18 year old daughter, but takes a pregnancy test first to make sure that she’s not endangering a potential fetus with her reckless behavior. I don’t know where to start with that one:

The season premiere of TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting is this Monday, and would you believe, mom-to-19 Michelle Duggar is talking pregnancy in the very first episode of the new season! See, Jessa Duggar is turning 18, and to celebrate her birthday, she’s going skydiving with her mom, but only if Michelle can confirm she is currently not pregnant.

We just chatted exclusively with Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar about the results of that pregnancy test, the skydiving adventure featured in the exclusive season-premiere sneak peek featured above, plus what Duggar family adventures are coming for season five and which of the Duggar kids are about to go to college!

Just so we’re clear, Michelle was not pregnant, so her skydiving date with Jessa was a go! As Michelle recounts the events of the season premiere, “Every since she was little, there was nothing challenging that Jessa would not do, but when everybody was jumping out of the airplane the first time that everybody got to experience it two years previous, Jessa wasn’t old enough to jump. So when she turned 18, I said, ‘Jessa what would you like to do for your birthday?’ and she said, ‘I want to jump out of a plane,’ and I said, ‘Really, that is so neat, because I really wanted to do it too, and I was pregnant at the time, so as long as I’m not pregnant now, I will do it with you!’ “

[From E! Online]

The E! article has more from Jim-Bob and Michelle about how their kids are doing, and what their career aspirations are. One of their daughters is training to be a doula, and two of their sons are EMTs. They say that a few of their kids may get a college level education through a Christian home schooling program called College Plus! Supposedly they offer accredited degrees from home.

The Duggars also live debt free and say “We try to cut corners, and we live debt free.. We do spend about $3,000 a month on food, so that’s a big expense, and as they’re getting older, there’s more expenses for educational opportunities, but we have seen God provide every step of the way for our family.” I’m sure TLC provides a lot of that too. The Duggars do pay personal income taxes from what I can find, but they’ve been able to declare their home a “church” and do not pay property taxes or taxes on any home goods. It saves them some money but it’s not like they’re not paying taxes. It’s not like the public is supporting their huge family, unless you count the fact that we’ve helped make them famous.

The last we heard of singer Toni Braxton she was declaring bankruptcy for the second time, having racked up between $10 to $50 million in debt all over the country. Toni had no idea how much she owed exactly, but knew it was at least 8 figures and included unpaid parking tickets, medical bills, IRS leins, and charges to Neiman Marcus. Now Toni has to make some money to continue to live foolishly. She’s set to star in a reality show with her sisters, who are also singers. The show will premiere on the WE Network next year, along with a new reality show starring Joan and Melissa Rivers. Now the Rivers reality show could be mildly interesting, particularly since Joan has really gone off the rails lately. I wonder if they’ll air footage in which she compares various people to Hitler or if they’ll edit those parts out.

Braxton, the Grammy-winning singer of “Un-Break My Heart” and “You’re Makin’ Me High,” will appear in “Braxton Family Values” on the WE network starting in April. Braxton’s sisters – Traci, Towanda, Trina and Tamar – are all aspiring singers…

The dynamic of four women trying to follow the 43-year-old Braxton into show business – with varying levels of success – appealed to WE executives. The network’s research indicated that programs about families, often with a humorous touch, is a niche worth exploring.

On Jan. 25, WE is debuting a series about Joan Rivers and daughter, Melissa, along with “A Stand Up Mother,” about comedian Tammy Pescatelli trying to balance family and career.

“Our goal is to put on families that are big personalities, who are interesting, entertaining, full of drama and conflict and you can’t wait to tune in next week,” Kim Martin, the network’s president and general manager, said recently.

WE believes family members who are emotionally invested in one another will make for situations that ring truer than reality fare where strangers are forced together in contrived circumstances, said John Miller, the network’s programming chief.

“Our goal is not to look at family viewing,” Martin said. “Our goal is to show families, because women define themselves by the relationships in their lives.”

Viewers relate to the family in “Downsized,” particularly the boy who sold his baseball mitt to raise money, Martin said. The show’s audience was about twice the size of what WE had previously aired on Saturday nights, she said.

[From AP]

All these new networks need programming, and reality shows are just about the easiest way to get built-in drama and plotlines, by filming and exaggerating what’s already happening in the lives of lesser celebrities. In Toni’s case there’s sure to be a lot of mindless shopping and throwing away parking tickets without looking at them. We’ll get to see Joan Rivers go to the plastic surgeon and make fun of various celebrities using tired old jokes that could apply to just about anyone. Maybe Oprah does have it right when she says we need to raise the bar for television, or maybe WE isn’t aiming low enough. We’ve clearly shown a preference for trashier television with famewhores who will do anything for publicity. Toni Braxton and Joan Rivers are just run of the mill has-beens, and those kind of reality shows have run their course.

Eva Longoria’s BFF Mario Lopez got a reality show (I downloaded the first episode of “Saved By The Baby” for free on iTunes and couldn’t bring myself to watch it) and now it’s not surprising to hear that Eva is about to get her own reality show. It will reportedly feature Eva’s courageous recovery from her husband’s infidelity that she went running to the press about.

Eva Longoria’s getting a new dose of reality!… [She] told pals that A&E network’s set to green-light a show based on her endlessly dramatic real life. Revealed a pal: “Eva wants to document her push to reassemble her life after a broken marriage. It will highlight her intensive charity work and show what she’s really all about!” And maybe taunt Tony with a peek at her new dating life? The show should include lotsa scenes with Eva’s mega-watt real-life pals – like Mario Lopez and Jamie Foxx. Stay tuned.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, Mike Walker's column January 10, 2011]

Does anyone want to see Eva in all her preening glory? I’m sure she has some fans from Desperate Housewives who would watch her pretend to not be an entitled diva. I’ve also heard she pampers her dog, and that could be interesting for about five minutes. No one can top Lisa VanderPump and Giggy, though.

Why do we need more reality shows with C Listers when we can see fabulous new stars that bring the drama every week? We want interesting plotlines and catfights, not boring television personalities trying to increase brand awareness so that they can earn more in their next perfume campaign.

A&E should know better. They’re the network that brought us “Kirstie Alley’s Big Life” and look how well that worked out for them.

So Tori Spelling has this new reality show coming up with her husband in which they plan other people’s weddings. It’s called “Tori & Dean: sTORIbook Weddings.” Tori supposedly scoured a huge coup by convincing popular Dancing with the Stars contestant (and former Clean House hostess) Niecy Nash to appear on her show. Niecy recently got engaged to hot electrical engineer Jay Tucker and was said to be thrilled by the prospect of getting Tori’s help and appearing on her show.

Tori Spelling… is gearing up for her Oxygen network spinoff – “Tori & Dean: sTORIbook Weddings” – and she’s booked Niecy’s May marriage as the series kickoff, the Enquirer has learned…

“Niecy put the word out through friends that she was looking for a wedding planner – and Tori jumped on the idea and called her immediately,” an insider told The Enquirer. “Niecy was thrilled. She had no idea Tori organized weddings. She embraced the idea and thought it’d be great publicity for them both.”

Tori invited Niecy and [her fiance] Jay [Tucker] over to preview her wedding planning portfolio, and they “flipped for her ideas,” said the pal.

Tori, 37, and Dean, 44, continue to stat in their reality hit “Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood” and are hoping fans will cross over to watch the new show.

“Viewers will see that Tori has a real knack for planning weddings,” the source added. “She has already done it for four of her girlfriends.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, January 3, 2011]

I think that the “great publicity for them both” is key, but if Niecy is game and is getting a bunch of free wedding swag along with it more power to her. I love Niecy and would probably watch this just to get to see her wedding. Tori bugs me though. This story reminds me of Tori’s re-commitment ceremony to Dean earlier this year, which Tori planned and was basically like a second wedding. She put out a bunch of a personal mementos for her and Dean, including a tower of shoes in lucite cubes that she called “shoe art,” and a book on June and Johnny Cash, who she called an inspiration. Tori and Dean even got married in a sandbox while their kids played at their feet. I called her to task at the time for saying that “[Johnny] and June Carter were an inspiration – a couple that were both married before and then found each other.” You know, since Tori and Dean were both married to other people when they “found each other.” They’re still together though nearly four and a half years later, and they’re launching yet another reality show. Something has to be working for them, and they’re capitalizing the hell out of it.

Niecy and her fiance are shown on 12/16/10. Tori is shown shooting scenes for a talkshow she’s doing with Jeff Lewis on 11/29/10. Credit: Fame Pictures

I’ve only seen about two episodes of Jersey Shore and will be the first to admit that I don’t get it. No judgment though, I could easily be convinced to watch this show if a friend mixed up some cocktails and sat down with me to mock it. I do follow these drunken kids in the celebrity press, and am surprised to hear that of all the tools Pauly D is the one who scored a spinoff show. You would expect that one of the more popular castmembers would be headlining their own show – like Snooki, The Situation, J-Woww or even a show about Sammi and Ronnie’s relationship. Instead, it’s Pauly D, and US Weekly reports that everyone except Sammi, Ronnie and Vinny were also negotiating with MTV for their own show. My theory is that Pauly D was the cheapest and most accommodating. Here’s US Weekly’s report:

The 30-year-old Jersey Shore star has been named the first cast member to land his own MTV series, beating out costars Snooki, The Situation and JWoww (who were all in spinoff negotiations).

“At the heart of Jersey Shore is the unique and genuine cast and Pauly D. truly embodies both qualities,” Chris Linn, Executive Vice President of Programming and Head of Production for MTV, tells UsMagazine.com in a statement.

DJ Pauly D (real name: Paul Delvecchio) recently closed the series option deal after filming a pilot with 495 Productions in September.

“He’s distinguished himself onscreen as the fun-loving, well-coiffed and dependable guy you can’t help but want to hang out with,” Linn says of the reality star. “We know viewers are curious about his life away from the shore and we look forward to exploring new possibilities around that.”

Before his spinoff hits the air, Delvecchio will appear alongside Snooki and the gang when Season 3 of Jersey Shore premieres January 3 on MTV.

[From US Weekly]

I think that MTV assumes that no matter who they center a spinoff around, it will be popular. They may see these kids as interchangeable anyway, and might as well go with the one who is the cheapest with the lowest sense of entitlement. I’m reminded of a comment that a Jersey Shore producer Sally Ann Salsano made to the NY Times over the summer. Of the castmembers getting big heads, she said “Here’s what I always say: I won’t stand for it. They all live in their mom’s basement and I know it. Last season I had to buy them cigarettes and Diet Cokes. They’re the same kids they’ve always been. Sure, they have a bit more money. They have more clothes with rhinestones on them than they did last year.”

Radar has details of Pauly D’s spinoff, and it will supposedly focus on “his life as a DJ on the road with his buddies.” They’ve already shot a bunch of footage, according to Radar. The show will have the ridiculous name of “Pauly’s World.” That’s too funny and makes me think of Wally World, which was probably the intention.

Mild spoilers for Jersey Shore Season 3 (as seen in trailer)
The new season of Jersey Shore is coming out in January, and features a new orange pint-sized friend of Snooki’s named Deena. In the trailer (below) Deena strips for The Situation, Ronnie (?) takes a tumble while trying to pole dance (that made me laugh) and also gets a proctology exam, J-Woww breaks up with her boyfriend, Sammi and J-Woww get in a punching match, and Snooki gets arrested. (We know all about that.) I definitely could be convinced to watch this.

Radar Online used to run a lot of flattering fluff pieces on Kate Gosselin, but it looks like they’re getting better information from Jon lately, because this new article will piss Kate the hell off. They claim that Kate lied when she told both Entertainment Tonight and The Today Show that in no way were two of her six year-old sextuplets expelled from their private school in Pennsylvania and were instead being homeschooled because “the pressure was getting to them” and “they needed some breathing time.” She also claimed that her children were having “anger issues” that were “normal” during a divorce and that she “mutually agreed” with school officials that the two who were having trouble, Colin and Alexis, would be tutored at home with the “goal to get them back into school.” All of that is a pack of lies according to Radar, which claims that the school wrote Kate a letter telling her that Colin and Alexis were no longer welcome there after two incidents in which an adult was hurt. They’re also said to have bullied other students.

Kate Gosselin lied when she denied her children Alexis and Collin were expelled from school, and RadarOnline.com has learned exclusively that the situation is far worse than what has been previously reported.

One of the expelled Gosselin kids physically harmed an adult at the school TWO TIMES, creating a situation that caused school administrators to believe they had no choice but to remove that child from school, RadarOnline.com is reporting exclusively.

The nature and extent of the adult’s injuries are not known, but the situation was severe enough that it contributed heavily to the school’s decision to expel the children. RadarOnline.com has also learned that both of Gosselin children were abusive to other children in the school, creating an untenable situation.

In a defensive move, Kate went on camera with Entertainment Tonight in late November and denied reports that her children Alexis and Collin, both 6, were expelled.

But RadarOnline.com has not only confirmed that Kate lied — the children were infact expelled — but we’ve also uncovered the sad truth that the Pennsylvania private school said both children were physically abusive to classmates.

On TV Kate was asked: “Let’s set the record straight. Kids. Two of them rumored to be kicked out of school. Is that true?”

She answered: “No. Two of my children are being tutored at home.”

That lie has deepened the rift between Kate and ex-husband Jon.

“Both Jon and Kate were sent a letter from the head of school explaining that despite their best efforts, staff had reached a point at which they had to request the children enroll in another program,” a source close to the school told RadarOnline.com.

“It’s clear Kate did not tell the truth.”

Kate’s denial of their problems has left many people close to the school perplexed at the very least.

“Both Alexis and Colin received three full weeks of intensive special treatment to focus their behavior,” revealed the source.

“While the teacher was able to achieve some success, it became apparent to the school that the pair needed intensive assistance to help them with their social, emotional and academic needs.

“The demand on the children’s classroom teachers — and the impact on other kids — was just too great.”

[From Radar Online]

The article goes on to say that Colin and Alexis “can’t just be tutored, at home: these kids need to be integrated with other children.

“Jon and his girlfriend Ellen take them to public parks to play with other kids and they tell them to go and make friends, because it’s clear they need to develop their social skills.”

Obviously Jon is Radar’s source and he’s pushing his agenda. Plenty of kids do fine when they’re homeschooled and while I send my kid to public school I don’t think there’s anything wrong with homeschooling or home tutoring. Plus these kids have siblings so they’re obviously getting social time with other kids their age. One thing they don’t seem to be getting is consistent loving discipline, though. I can see Kate smacking and yelling at them (as she’s been photographed doing) but that just teaches the kids that smacking and yelling is how you deal with conflict. No wonder they’re having problems and lashing out when they have a mom like Kate.

Kate Gosselin and her poor kids were the very special guests on Sarah Palin’s Alaska last night. (Unlike Sister Wives, TLC has actually put SP’s Alaska on iTunes, so props to them for that.) As we’ve heard from the leaked previews, the show has Kate Gosselin at her finest. Kate and her kids and the outdoorsy Palin family all went on a camping trip in a national forest only reachable by plane. The details we were privy to did not do justice to what an intolerant, entitled bitch Kate Gosselin was. She complained the whole time while her kids seemed to be enjoying themselves, leaving before they had a chance to camp out as planned. This show made Sarah Palin seem somewhat normal, albeit affected and annoying, especially in comparison to Kate and her complete inability to focus on anything beyond her immediate needs, particularly her kids.

First we saw Kate and Sarah bond over their shared media issues and how they’ve both been the target of the media. When they went to “bear class,” things started to go south. Kate was negative, pessimistic and bored during their bear awareness class, which included an education section followed by some target shooting. Kate couldn’t be bothered with any of it, and that was the case when it came to camping out. Everything was set up ahead of time and ready for her, including a fire, but she stood grumbling under the tarmac instead of joining in with her kids and the Palins, who were having a great time. Entertainment Weekly has a very good recap. Some of EW’s recap is below, with more at the source:

As Sarah’s father said later of Kate, “She bitched from the moment she got off the plane.” The morning of the camp-out, it began to rain. “I’ve never camped for real,” said Kate, gazing at the damp camp site that had been chosen. “You really like this?” she asked Palin. Sarah maintained high spirits in direct proportion to Kate’s plummeting spirits. “We’ll stoke the fire and stoke some fun!” Palin crowed, bustling around with Piper, daughter Willow, and many of the Gosselin children gathering sticks and chunks of wood.

Kate, however, left her brood to the care of Sarah and Palin’s dad. (Husband Todd, wise man that he is, very noticeably went off to fish somewhere where he would not be able to hear Kate’s lamentations.) Kate jammed her hands in her poncho pockets, parked herself under a small open canopy that had been built for minimal rain protection, and started to complain.

“I’m worried about my toes; they’re freezing,” she said.

“I’ve been bitten [by bugs] about 200 times — it’s horrible,” she moaned.

“I’m miserable, but somebody‘s gotta be,” she said nonsensically.

“This is cruel and unusual punishment,” she whined.

When Palin and her daughters helped all the little Gosselins make s’mores over the camp fire, Kate declined to join them. Instead, seeing some gooey marshmallow land on a few sleeves, she went into a temper-tantrum fury.

“This is ridiculous!” she shrieked. “I just don’t get it! There are no paper towels! I’m freezing to the bone, I have 19 layers on, my hands are frigid!”

Kate issued an ultimatum: “I held it together as long as I could, and I’m done now.”

And she told the kids they were not going to camp out overnight as planned; they were heading back home. Their little faces fell. They hesitated and expressed little chirps of protest, saying they wanted to stay.

Kate was cruelly decisive: “Okay, goodbye. You’re now a Palin, not a Gosselin,” she said. Faced with a camp-out versus a loss of identity, the wee ones followed their mom onto a waiting plane to escape Alaska. Cut to an appalled-seeming Piper, who no longer looked as though she was a fan of Kate’s. Palin and her family remained, and spent the night in tents.
Palin said she regretted only that the Gosselin children missed out on the camp-out, a “good experience they never would have forgotten.”

I honestly cannot imagine what goes through Kate Gosselin’s head these days. Why does she voluntarily place herself in situations in which she knows she’ll end up in a foul mood, and then not even try, even if only for the selfish reason of improving her media image, to be minimally pleasant? Since every one of Kate’s complaints was made directly to the camera, no one can even claim that the producers of Sarah Palin’s Alaska somehow edited the footage to make Gosselin look bad.

She did that all on her own.

[From Entertainment Weekly]

I was actually starting to feel sorry for miserable Kate until she made a really nasty and unnecessary remark to Sarah’s youngest daughter Piper. She confronted the nine year old girl and asked “Is this what you guys do here? This is fun for you? It’s very interesting.”

Other price quotes from Kate include:
“It kills me that people, like, willingly do this. [camp outdoors] I can’t get over it. I mean, that is so shocking to me.”

“We are not camping people, I’ll scream it from mountaintops. This is ridiculous. Why would you pretend to be homeless? I don’t get it, I just don’t get the concept.

“There’s no paper towels, like how do you make sandwiches for eight kids on your arm? I don’t see a table, I don’t see utensils, I don’t see hand cleansing materials.

“This is not ideal conditions. I am freezing to the bone, I have 19 layers on. My hands are frigid. I held it together as long as I could and I’m done now.”

Kate’s kids didn’t seem to mind sleeping out in the woods, in fact several of them told her they wanted to stay. That didn’t happen of course. It’s all about Kate and how comfortable and catered to she is. It doesn’t matter if her kids are having fun making s’mores and camping, she can’t be bothered. I’m surprised she didn’t bring her bodyguard with her.

If you’ve ever seen Teen Mom, you know that it in no way glorifies teen parenthood. Those young moms and dads are struggling, and despite the rumors that MTV pays them around $60,000 a season, (which MTV refuses to comment on) many of them are shown relying on government assistance to get by. The young women on the show, as much as their lives are put under the microscope, do get famous in their way. The money they earn from appearances and from the show probably does help them to make a much better life than they could afford just barely out of high school or dropping out. According to Popeater’s Rob Schuter, teen girls are becoming pregnant just to audition for MTV shows “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom.” I really hope this is speculation and isn’t true at all, but it sounds likely:

Now that ‘Teen Mom’ cast members like Amber Portwood are in their twenties, MTV is looking for a new crop of teenage girls to keep its monster hits ‘Teen Mom’ and ’16 and Pregnant’ alive, and [surprise!] industry insiders tell me young ladies are so eager to be on reality TV that they are actually getting pregnant just to score an audition. OK, not much of a surprise. Simply take a spin around the various Internet forums filled with young girls inquiring about what’s required to score a role.

“This is yet another example of the desperation of fame,” Matt Titus, a relationship expert from TheLoveConsultants.com, tells me. “The sad state of reality television has created a lowbrow vehicle for untainted train wreck personalities to display their private lives. Getting pregnant to be famous is like eating as many cockroaches as possible in a one minute period.”

(Didn’t they do that on ‘Survivor’?)

Casting any reality show right is essential to whether it is a hit or not. Networks spend top dollar auditioning throughout the country to make sure they get the right mix. However, what makes ‘Teen Mom’ and ’16 and Pregnant’ both so difficult to cast is that, thankfully, the “talent pool” of potential stars that are both pregnant and teenagers is relatively small.

Mommy expert Beth Feldman, creator of RoleMommy.com, says it would be “horrifying” if teens are actually getting pregnant for a TV show. “Becoming a parent is a responsibility that no one should take lightly, and for a teenager to think that a pregnancy could lead to instant fame and fortune is absurd. Parenting is a lifetime commitment and teens have there own lives ahead of them. Let them grow up before they take the responsibility of caring for another human being.”

[From Popeater]

If this is true, it’s not like MTV is going to pull the plug on these shows to discourage any girls from becoming moms before they’re ready. Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant are a big ratings draw for the network that once was known for showcasing music. We have women pulling each other’s hair out, pooping in public and getting extreme plastic surgery in a bid to be famous. What’s bringing another life into the world and being completely unprepared to raise a child compared to all that? That said, it’s not like teen pregnancy wasn’t a problem before MTV came around.

Teen Mom 2 is currently filming, with teens featured in the last season of 16 and Pregnant.