That TLC reality show staple, “19 Kids and Counting,” is back with new episodes starting tonight. Radar has a preview where they all go to Niagara Falls, and it makes me want to bring my kid to the Falls. I used to go to college less than an hour from there and was constantly visiting the Falls. We would go out all night and then drive to the Falls in the morning like a pilgrimage or something, but I digress. We’re talking about The Duggars, who are using this presumably drama free journey to Niagara Falls as a plot point for their reality show. In the clip on Radar, most of the kids and their dad walked down the walkway on the American side to see the Falls close up, but Michelle stayed up top because she didn’t want to mess up her perfect AquaJet 90s hair.

I’ve watched a few episodes and it seems like the most boring reality show ever. I mean, they come across like great parents when they have the energy to pay attention to a specific kid. The kids don’t really fight and they’re all Jesus-y. It’s like Ned Flanders had a litter. They had that scary issue with a premature baby, but obviously that didn’t stop them from wanting to continue populating the world with as many Duggars as possible. Duggars don’t care.

So with Kate Gosselin imploding and the polygamist Sister Wives kids freaking out, what do the Duggars have to offer? They’re surprisingly well adjusted and high functioning for a huge reality show family. I’m hoping everything goes fine for them and especially for their kids, but why are they seemingly immune to the insidious effects of fame? Whenever I see that show it’s like the entire family is operating on another planet, where everything is fine and they don’t seem to let a single thing bother them. That makes it boring, especially when you’re forced to listen to Michelle’s droning baby voice. The concept of the Duggars is interesting and fuels a lot of debate about religion and overpopulation, but in practice they’re just so vanilla. It’s like the highlight of the year is having a new kid come into the family. Take that away and they’re just a record setting homeschooling family where everything is okely dokely.

Last night was the premiere of the third season of “Sister Wives.” The big plot this opening episode is that the newest, youngest (and dumbest, really she’s a dimwit) wife, Robyn, is pregnant. On last night’s show, Robyn made the big announcement to family, having of course conspiratorially told her husband Kody first. The first other wife that Robyn decided to tell was Kody’s first wife, Meri, who has been unable to bear additional kids for Kody after having her daughter Mariah, 15. Meri’s infertility has been brought up several times over the past two seasons and all the wives know that she wants kids and can’t have any more. For that reason Robyn told her “alone” before the rest of the family (with a camera crew there, natch), telling Meri that she wanted to make sure she was ok with it. Meri said she was.

Robyn: I know that this has been sort of a thing for you.

Meri: I mean it definitely has in the past. Not that I haven’t been upset that Janelle and Christine were pregnant, just kind of sad that I couldn’t be. It’s something I’ve always wanted more of. I don’t feel that with you… I’m really excited for you.

Later, Robyn went on to explain why this was significant to all the wives, since it reminded them that she was screwing Kody too. It was dumb and obvious, but that’s Robyn.

Robyn: A baby is a physical manifestation that there is an intimate relationship between a husband and one of his wives. A wife in a plural family will put the idea of her husband having an intimate relationship with another wife sometimes completely out of her head. And then when she’s told that her sister wife is pregnant, it’s like there’s no way of not putting that out of her head anymore.

It turned out that it wasn’t the other wives Robyn had to worry about, it was the teens. (The Browns have 13 children that range in age from 1 to 16; Robyn has three of her own children.) Christine’s daughter Aspyn, 15, and Janelle’s daughter Maddie, 15, seemed to take it hard and wouldn’t look at Robyn at all when she made the announcement at a family dinner. Then Meri’s 15 year-old daughter Mariah went up to the bathroom and started crying. Mariah told Meri she was upset for her because she couldn’t have any other kids. When Robyn went up to see what was the matter with Mariah, I thought it was insensitive and she should have left her alone. Instead she said “You feeling your momma’s pain?” and gave her a hug. Some may find that sweet, but it seemed patronizing to me.

Robyn narrated later “It’s still a little bit difficult to me to know that someone is having a hard time with something that’s so wonderful to me.”

Janelle was pretty quiet during the announcement, but she later claimed that she wasn’t upset because of the pregnancy announcement, and it it was because things have been sucking for her in Vegas. “There’s been a lot of changes for me, culturally, with the move. [From Utah to Vegas] My world is upside down.”

Janelle had a great job back in Utah, and she explained that “I’m no longer working, we are living with finite resources at this point. I’ve always identified with my career.” Everyone’s resources are “finite,” but these people must be doing pretty well to rent four sweet houses like that.

Meanwhile their kids were suffering, with Janelle’s son Hunter, 14, being depressed and hanging around the house. Then when they were about to have “church” time at home, their daughter Mykelti, 14, said she didn’t want to go because God wouldn’t want cameras there filming their personal worship time. Kody got pissed “I’m glad you are willing to express God’s opinion, but I disagree with you.” I got the impression that he would have chewed her out if the cameras weren’t there, but he was nice enough.

They visited a Presbyterian church to ask if their kids to go to have “fellowship” there with other teens, even though they’re Mormon, and Christine objected that it didn’t feel right to her because it wasn’t their church. The pastor was really nice to them about it though.

Then they had a family discussion with the oldest kids to see if they wanted to go to that Presbyterian youth group. No one could agree, basically. Christine and Janelle said it didn’t matter which faith their kids explored and that the socialization was the important part. Robyn, Kody and Christine said they should stick with their LDS/Mormon faith. (Kody explained that they didn’t try out a Mormon youth group first because they had a lot of discrimination there for being polygamists.) Madison told everyone that she didn’t want to be Mormon and would go to any other youth group. Robyn got worked up and told them that they could make that decision when they’re adults. She started crying about it.

They later had a pool party for the teenager’s friends. We kind of covered that earlier. Poor Hunter stayed up in his room the whole time, but he went over to Christine’s house at one point to visit with his little one year-old half sister Truely. That cheered him up.

My take on this whole Sister Wives situation is that we’re no longer looking at a polygamist family working together, we’re looking at a reality show family in which the relationships and the children have been permanently affected by the fame and coverage that goes along with that. This 14 year-old kid is sitting up in his room after being uprooted from his hometown and his friends. He surely doesn’t want to be filmed on top of that and he has no say in that! It’s sad for the kids first of all, and it’s sad for the wives in a way. I really like the original three wives, Christine, Meri and Janelle. They had a nice balance worked out between them before the move. Robyn screwed everything up, but so did the cameras. This isn’t a Kate Plus 8 situation because these kids knew life before the cameras came. It’s clear that they really miss it too.

Screencaps via Pacific Coast News

Did you miss the Sister Wives? I’d totally forgotten about them, but I can’t tell you how excited I am for their return! They’ve moved to Vegas from Utah and they’re starting to get all famewhorey and bicker-y. (Is that a word?) Things are really looking reality show predictable for this giant blended family of crazy polygamists! Yay, did I use enough exclamation points there?!

Anyway Radar has a clip of the new season, coming out Sunday, and it looks awesome. Meri gained weight and is trying to hide it with giant feathered hair. Janelle looks really tired and over it. Christine is super worried about something. The youngest and newest piece, Robyn, is pregnant and we get to see her announce it and make the other wives even more jealous. (Although that may save that drama for another episode.) In this episode they throw a pool party that’s co-ed and they freak out a little because they’re supposedly religious and “conservative.” Then they try to explain that to parents of their kids’ friends, with the Vegas mom showcasing her giant boob job in a tiny Spiderman T-Shirt.

The Sister Wives are back and in this exclusive clip from the third season premiere, obtained by RadarOnline.com, the kids are allowed to have a coed pool party!

The polygamist family headed by Kody Brown and his four wives are unconventional, but struggle to find ways for their kids to interact with other children from outside their family.

“We’re a pretty conservative family so the fact that we were having a co-ed pool party was a little on the fringe for me, so we were keeping an eye on the kids,” Kody admitted.

The family has moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, after their emotional departure from Utah, and are having a difficult time adjusting to the move so the party is a time for Kody and his four wives to get to know their kids’ friends and their parents.

One couple who chatted with Kody and his wives joked that Logan, the only boy at the party with the girls was “with a harem.”

Kody quickly shot that comparison down though: “That’s not a harem, careful!”

Tune into the third season of the highly anticipated show to watch as the family adjusts to their new home, a new baby, and the pressure that comes from their controversial lifestyle.

[From Radar Online]

I’ll be watching this, waiting for the cracks in their relationships to turn into fissures and waiting for the inevitable Botox, fake nails and fake bake that these women will get as they emulate the other Vegas moms. It’s wrong but it’s expected and it will happen. I hope Meri gets out soon, and I’d love to see Janelle tell Kody to stuff it. Christine and Robyn can share his goofy conditional love.

Courtney Stodden’s evil stage mom announced that her now 17 year-old daughter and her 17 year-old daughter’s creepy pervy 51 year-old character actor husband, Doug Hutchison, just signed a deal with a production company for a reality show in which they’re ” going to be very, very open about their lives.” Wasn’t that always the end game with this stunt? Like isn’t a reality show what they were aiming for all along? The thing is, they only signed a deal with a production company, does that mean that whatever monstrosity they produce that exploits this still-not-yet-legal teen’s awkward sexuality will NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY? Someone has to buy this and put it on a network with very low rock-bottom non existent standards, right? (Did I use enough adjectives there to convey my disgust?) This is just the first step, isn’t it?

Teen bride Courtney Stodden has signed a deal with a production company to produce her reality show Radaronline.com has exclusively learned.

The 17-year-old and her Green Mile actor husband Doug Hutchison have signed a deal with Roy Bank, the president of Merv Griffin Entertainment.

“We are so excited to be working with Roy Bank, a great professional in this business,” Courtney and Doug exclusively told Radaronline.com.

“We are proud that we were able to find the perfect producer for our reality show and are thrilled to be working with this prestigious production company.”

Bank was the executive producer of reality show hits like Mark Burnett Productions’ Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?

“The reason we went with Roy is because we feel that he is the man who will be able to place Courtney’s show in front of the best network for her,” Krista Stodden, Courtney’s momager, told Radaronline.com.

The reality show will give viewers a look into the newlywed’s unconventional lifestyle and promises to be no holds barred.

“They are going to be very, very open about their lives,” Courtney’s mom said. “They want everybody to see their life. Nothing is off limits.”

Courtney Stodden will be answering questions live on RadarOnline.com’s Facebook page Thursday, September 22 at 2pm East Coast/11am west Coast

[From Radar Online]

I’m just putting this out there, and I’m not volunteering to organize it or anything since my moral compass is permanently broken, but if any network picks this up they can prepare for outrage and a boycott. People are up in arms about Chaz Bono dancing for God’s sake, I hope that some of these religious conservative groups have a problem with showcasing a girl who was married off at 16 to a 51 year-old man. I mean we know that some of them definitely don’t have a problem with that, but there have to be a few that do. Maybe they’re willing to overlook it since Courtney is Christian and was a virgin supposedly until she got married.

Here’s a blurry video that Courtney posted of herself lip syncing to Usher. She tweeted. “I find myself sweetly reminiscing this afternoon; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGnGBhJNpz0 A glistening jewel has floated straight out of my treasure-chest. ”

Some other selected tweets of Courtney’s:
Displaying my provocative physique around the house as it’s dazzlingly saturated in soft-ticklish boa-feathers… Mmm… MEOW! ;-x

Lickin a sucker as I boisterously bounce UP & down on the bed while drenched in a soak ‘n wet white mini-T & pink panties; Feelin Dangerous!

Dripping with dazzling diamonds — Bikini Style — as I get ready to crawl into the pool for a morning dip… Meow!

If she’s really capable of tweeting like that, and I doubt she is, she could have earned a reality show on her Twitter account alone and wouldn’t have had to go through the trouble of marrying a dude older than her dad.

This story makes me sad. Apparently Taylor Armstrong got paid $125,000 for those photos of her bruised face that were shown on Entertainment Tonight. Taylor’s interview with ET airs tonight and I’m interested in what she has to say. Given all we know about her I doubt it’s going to be particularly insightful. I know that sounds so bitchy to say given the terrible circumstances, but it’s hard to avoid saying it. To clarify: Taylor was the victim of some horrific abuse at the hands of her late husband, and it’s definitely her story to tell however she needs to tell it. We know Taylor is a piece of work, but that’s not stopping us from 1. feeling deeply for her for what she went through and 2. believing her side of the story, which is backed up with some powerful evidence. Only Russell’s lawyers want us to believe that evidence was faked. We know Russell abused at least two of his exes, according to reports they filed and restraining orders they took out against him at the time. But Russell, who committed suicide last month, has a lawyer who claims that Taylor got that black eye from either “plastic surgery” or a “football” to the face. That’s despicable to say.

Taylor Armstrong has sunk to a new low, according to her late husband’s lawyer — who claims the black eye photos she recently sold for 6 figures to E.T. are nothing but a shameless hoax.

The lawyer, Ronald Richards, tells TMZ … the injuries depicted in the pictures were not inflicted by Russell.

According to Ronald, the injuries in the photos are either from plastic surgery … or a recent incident involving a football to the face — but not from domestic violence.

Richards tells TMZ, “If Mr. Armstrong was the cause of those injuries he would have been arrested and prosecuted.” Richards also notes … Taylor never filed a police report.

Sources close to Taylor insist the pics are legit — claiming Taylor never reported any injuries because she was under enormous pressure to keep up appearances for the show.

As one source puts it — the black eye pics are just the tip of the iceberg … the rest make Rihanna’s battered face “look like child’s play.”

[From TMZ]

Check out the abuse photos. (I’m not posting them here again.) If she had plastic surgery, she would have had bruises around both eyes and not just around one eye. Plus, how would a football cause that much damage? The fact that the attorney had two different explanations and then says “well my client would have been arrested if he did this” sounds like he’s grasping at straws. I guess Russell hired a lawyer as shifty as he was.

I still haven’t been keeping up with “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” Those of you who are still watching can tell me if it’s been worth it, but I doubt it. The show is too sad now that we know that Russell killed himself.

Taylor is shown with Kennedy in April and with Russell in October of last year. Credit: PRPhotos

Michaele and Tareq Salahi

There was a lot of ruckus last week over the stories that White House party crasher and Real Housewives of D.C. castmember Michaele Salahi had left her husband to take up with guitarist for Journey, Neal Schon, while he was on tour. At first Michaele’s husband, Tareq, tried to claim that his wife was kidnapped. Tareq reported Micheale missing to the FBI and cried to the local news about it. Then he realized that she had just left his sorry ass, so he leaked a bunch of stories to TMZ claiming that their sick dog died of a broken heart when she left. It was pathetic, and he even filmed the dog’s funeral and burial and gave (sold maybe) the video and photos of it to TMZ. Tareq filed for divorce and we got to see Michaele and Tareq’s prenup, in which Michaele forfeits her rights to any money if she commits adultery.

Tareq did an interview with E! that aired last night telling his side of the story. He thought everything was fine in his marriage until his wife disappeared, and then he said he received an e-mail at the main address for his winery from Schon containing an attached photo of Schon’s pen1s. Really. Tareq showed a printout of it on E! and everything, but they blurred most of it out. Tareq called Michaele a “groupie slut” and warned her that Schon, who is also married, has been married five times, and whose wife of a whole two months got cheated on too*, is bad news and will cheat on her too. He’s probably right.

Meanwhile Michaele and Neal have a new interview with The Daily Beast describing how they got together after a separation of nearly 15 years from their first romance. The highlights are:

In my book, Cirque du Salahi, the 46-year-old Michaele first revealed she has suffered from multiple sclerosis for nearly 20 years and the disease was the deciding factor when choosing her husband. She had been dating both Neal and Tareq in the late ’90s (for the record, she dated Neal first) and there came a time she had to make a life decision.

“I chose Tareq over Neal because I thought life would be less stressful living on a vineyard in Virginia. Life on the road with a rock band … well, I thought I might not have been able to keep up.” Yet during research for the book last year, in private talks away from her husband, Michaele made it clear she still had deep feelings for Neal.

So how did they ultimately come together just 10 days after they saw each other backstage at a Journey concert in Bristow, Va.? The couple now admits they had been communicating via text “for a while” over a device a friend had sneaked to Michaele so the controlling Tareq wouldn’t find out she had a pipeline to the outside world. (Repeated e-mails and calls to Tareq Salahi for comment for this story have gone unanswered.)

“Neal was like, ‘Are we going to do this forever?’ And I said, ‘No, we’re not,’” Michaele said of the moment she realized it was time to make another life decision. “I began to see he really loved me. I had to begin to feel it completely–in my soul.” That was when she knew she would leave her husband.

Neal sent complimentary tickets and backstage passes to the Salahis to come to the Labor Day weekend concert being held just 20 miles east of their home in Linden, Va. The ever-sociable Tareq showed up backstage with a video camera, Michaele, and Michaele’s friend Irina. He urged the women to surround Neal and kiss him, “Ahhh. There you go … hugs and kisses for Neal!!! Rock on, Journey!” Tareq is heard cooing in the background. (Tareq would later supply that video and other materials to the gossip website TMZ in an effort to humiliate his wife.)

Tareq had no way of knowing exactly what had happened just moments earlier in Schon’s dressing room. But if he did have an inkling of his wife’s behavior that night, he chose to put on a happy public face.

“What happened was … she takes off her wedding ring, OK, right in front of Tareq—takes it off,” Neal told The Daily Beast, sounding astonished. “And then she proceeds to come into my dressing room where I’m sitting down. I have tennis shoes on and she’s, like, nine feet tall over me.”

Neal’s voice took on a joyful tone as he told the story, and I could hear Michaele giggling in the background. He continued: “And she looks down at me like she’s standing on stilts and says, “I love YOU. And, that’s never gonna change. And when that happened I said, ‘Get over here! This has taken 15 years!’”

In retelling their story on the phone these not-too-young lovers sounded like teenagers who had just gotten the keys to Dad’s car. They were finally together and nothing else mattered.

The night of the concert, Sept. 4, Neal urged Michaele to get on the tour bus with him. “I was pretty close to doing it,” Michaele said. “But then I thought, No, that’s not who I am. That would be public humiliation for Tareq.” She explained to Neal that she had obligations and things to wrap up over the next few weeks but she told him that night: “We will be together. I promise.” She went home with her husband that night.

Nine days later, Michaele says she realized she couldn’t stay. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but I realized I was hurting myself.” And, according to Michaele, “Tareq was too controlling.” Neal jumped in to elaborate. “He says, ‘Don’t go out of the house, you can’t have any money, I took all the money, you don’t have a telephone, you can’t drive’—plus, there are cameras in every room!” (After spending considerable research time in the Salahi house in mid-2010, I can confirm it contains a sophisticated surveillance system.)

Last Tuesday, Tareq left home to go to the family’s nearby Oasis Vineyard to ready things for an upcoming bankruptcy auction that was held this past weekend. He did not know that Michaele and Neal had been texting back and forth:

“Michaele come, I don’t want to wait anymore,” Schon wrote. Michaele agreed, and told The Daily Beast, “I was going crazy. Because when you want to be with someone that bad, you start to go crazy. He sent someone to come get me. I got on a plane by myself and I just went. I just walked away from everything.”

[From The Daily Beast]

So Michaele chose Tareq back in 90s because of her illness, but she meant to chose the Journey guy, who has been married five times. She would have burned through that guy in a year or two if she would have picked him back then instead of Tareq. How many groupies has he been with? It’s probably into the dozens at least.

And of course Michaele wants a reality show with Neal and hopes to be a singer. The Chicago Sun Times reports that she’s working with Neal to “both shepherd her singing ‘talent’ and participate in a TV show that apparently is being pitched to a couple of independent production companies.”

Props to all of you who mentioned Journey songs in our last story on this, particularly that Schon had welcomed Michaele with “Open Arms,” that they shouldn’t “Stop Believin’” in their crusty love, and that she was no longer acting “Faithfully” to Tareq.

*The Daily Beast reports that Schon’s marriage in Paris two months ago might not have been legally binding. Still, Schon had been with his latest partner for two years.

Check out this guy’s bad face lift.

photo credit: WENN

Last night was the big finale for Kate Plus 8. There was plenty of footage of the kids growing up, of Kate and Jon, of all the family trips they went on, and of Kate and Jon’s acrimonious relationship. It seemed like TLC, and Kate, were working hard to try and justify the fact that they’d filmed this family for the past six years and downplay that the act of filming them had irreparably changed them, particularly the children. It was all about how the kids had benefited from all the trips and experiences, and how they now had the best home videos that they got to share with the world. There weren’t any huge meltdowns like Kate had in the previous episode on the RV. Some of the most telling stuff came from Kate herself, who has consistently tried to portray herself as this normal working mother despite the fact that she’s either turned into a self-obsessed touchy narcissist, or doing the show just helped bring out that aspect of her personality. Here’s my favorite quote from Kate in this finale episode.

I couldn’t even stand myself in season two. I think that people think that I’m like mommy dearest, like this horrendous person. Am I rosy and peachy and splendid all the time? I think everyone in this room could say ‘no.’ Sometimes, over two days of shooting for one episode and I have three crabby mommy moments. Well, guaranteed you’re going to see them all in a twenty two minute show. So of course that makes me look like I’m crabby mommy all the time.

We’ve seen her screaming at her children over minor issues, we’ve seen her spend hours whining and refusing to join in activities because she feels uncomfortable, and we’ve seen her berate other people, and her ex Jon, for similarly minor issues. She is a control freak and a mean person. This isn’t an issue of film editing.

Oh and I have to mention this comment that her friend made about Kate now and how she used to be different when she first became a mother. “I see her [now], and it’s more TV. ‘What am I wearing, how skinny can I get?’ I always say to her ‘you’re not Angelina Jolie.‘”

Kate has a new interview with E! News, and she told them that she probably would have split up with Jon even if they never did the reality show. She said “Jon and I… would probably still not be together… it would be lack of finances and struggles to make ends meet that would have ripped us apart.” It’s all about the money for her.

In the finale she discussed her relationship with Jon at length. She said “I can think back to the past with no malice, no hate, because that person [Jon] doesn’t exist anymore.” She claimed that she wouldn’t change her past with Jon, because that would mean she wouldn’t have her kids, which was nice.

As for what’s next for Kate, she said “I refuse to pull [my kids] out of their house, I refuse to pull them out of their [private] school, so I better figure something out to keep them there, and it’s scary. Probably the future holds TV for me… Is this the last time you’ll see my kids on TV? Probably not. I know that there’s a lot of people out there who genuinely really care how each of my kids turns out.” More than she does.

At the end of the show they showed a preview of the upcoming season of Extreme Couponing. Make room for the new!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tonight is the finale of Kate Plus 8 and we would be dancing around to Wizard of Oz tunes if it weren’t for Kate’s eight kids, who now have to directly deal with the wrath that is their piece of work, germaphobe mom instead of having a camera crew act as human shields. I’ve set my DVR to record tonight’s finale and will be dutifully reporting the worst parts. Kate’s nastiness on the last second-to-last episode got lambasted by Anderson Cooper, and The Soup also did a great job of mocking Kate over the weekend. It just makes me wonder what producers saved for us in the final episode. You know they have been covering for her for years and probably have a ton of footage they’ve saved of her acting awful.

So Kate talked to Matt Lauer on the Today Show this morning. (NBC and TLC are both owned by the same company.) She made a bunch of the same bullsh*t comments we’ve heard from her to date about how she’s been providing for her kids, but she took it a little further this time and we got to see how entitled she is and how she considers good parenting to be the same as making money. It didn’t come as a surprise I guess, but I still found it revealing.

On the end of her show
It was not a surprise… obviously ratings and everything else. So I braced myself and here we are.

On if she will get back to a “normal life” Matt said that “living in front of cameras is not normal”
There is some relief, but there is sadness because it’s the end of an era. I feel sad for my kids because of all of the opportunities that they’re now questioning what’s going to happen. I feel sad for fans because they’re devastated. They’re saying you know ‘you’re the neighbor moving far away and we won’t see you again.’

On how this is her career now
There’s also fear because this has been maybe not my career, it has been the start, essentially of my career and my job and the way I’ve been providing for my kids for six years so it is a little scary.

On Jon saying he’s relieved that the show is ending, she calls him “mediocre”
It’s a situation where Jon may be accepting of mediocre for his kids and working a regular job and I want the best for my kids and the best opportunities, not unlike every parent.

I think that to be a good parent is to work as hard as you can and give them the best opportunities in life. This has provided that.

It sounds as if you are keeping the door open to continue to work in television.
I think at this point the best opportunity for all of us would be me continuing in TV as a way to provide for my kids…

On if she would put her kids on reality TV again
If the right thing came along, I’m sure we are all in agreeance [sic] on it. I’m sure you will see my kids again at some point.

On the fight with the nanny
That trip was so much even more stressful than you saw… there was so much more unplanned drama. That was a situation where many people have had family vacations you just don’t see it on camera… I’ve apologized.

At the end of the interview, Kate thanked TLC and the head of Discovery Communications. Then she plugged her new website, KatePlusMy8.com It’s not ready yet, though. How much do you want to bet that she majorly pissed off her web designer and they’re deliberating holding up the website launch?

Look, Kate said it all when she said that being a good parent is working hard to provide for her kids. Kate’s idea of good parenting is not being there for her kids, it’s not understanding what’s going on with them, relating to them or working with them to make sure they’re healthy, well adjusted little people, it’s making money, being rich and ignoring them except to bark out orders. She’ll continue to do that as long as she’s enabled. Here’s hoping she doesn’t get that gig with The Talk.

Update: Here’s Kate outside The Wendy Williams show today. (Credit: Fame)

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.

Kate Gosselin somehow scored the cover of People Magazine, yet again, to sell her lie of a “single mother, working for my kids” schtick that’s as hackneyed and easy to see through as Lindsay Lohan’s “I just want to focus on my work” mantra. This just goes to show how totally out of touch People Magazine is. Last year, this nasty bitch got at least four People covers. (That I can find.) You would think she would have sealed her fate with the American public by showing her true, petty colors on Dancing with The Stars, but she’s still in the good graces of someone at People and I hope they pay for it with pitifully low sales this week. Maybe they figure the cute kids will make up for Kate’s face.

Kate Gosselin’s long-time TLC show Kate Plus 8 has been canceled, and she’s the first to admit that the transition from reality star to regular mom isn’t going to be an easy one.

“I’m freaking out. Big time,” she tells PEOPLE in the new issue.

Her kids, twins Cara and Mady, and sextuplets Alexis, Hannah, Aaden, Collin, Leah and Joel “weren’t ready,” to leave the show, which has been airing since 2005, she adds. “Nobody was. I’ve never quit a job in my life without having something else lined up. I don’t know what’s next.”

But Gosselin, 36, whose messy divorce from husband Jon played out in the tabloids – and on TV – in 2009, vows to work hard to keep the lifestyle she’s provided for her kids.

“I told them I will work my fingers to the bone to make sure that they can stay here and go to their school,” she says. “There are no guarantees in life for anyone, but they know that I’m giving it my best shot.”

The final episode of Kate Plus 8 airs Sept. 12 on TLC.

[From People]

Kate has no idea what it means to work her “fingers to the bone.” She’s been making “ends meet” by wagging her fingers, barking orders at people and spending more time on personal grooming than she’s ever bothered to spend with her kids. I have no sympathy for this wench whatsoever. She made a reported $500,000 on Dancing With The Stars. Her take last year was estimated to be around $1 million, but was probably much higher since she was reported to make $250,000 an episode for Kate Plus 8 and there were 17 episodes this season. With some careful planning, that money could last for years. Instead she’s been living the high life, acting like a spoiled teenager, and is now “scared” that her money won’t last. She should have thought of that a long time ago.