I get a lot of promotional e-mail that I usually ignore. It’s often for things like a kind of haircare product that a reality star allegedly uses or a brand of expensive jeans that several celebrities were seen wearing. When I got an e-mail detailing some products seen at Tori Spelling’s daughter Stella’s second birthday I thought it was just another one of those promotional e-mails where a company touts the fact that a celebrity chose to use their merchandise. (Often because the stuff was gifted to them.) Then I saw the photos of Stella’s party at Entertainment Tonight and decided to go back to the original e-mail. Tori and Dean didn’t just happen to use a particular product that they either picked out or had comped – they had her entire party sponsored. Check out the photos and read this press release and tell me this isn’t a sponsorship. However, the PR Firm that sent me this message wrote in a follow up that “We’re uncomfortable saying the party was sponsored by BornFree as it is inaccurate.”
This Saturday, Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott celebrated their daughter Stella’s 2nd birthday with a celebratory combination of Barbies, bright pink and BornFree products at their LA home. Infant and toddler partygoers were treated to an all pinked-out party replete with a several foot-high Barbie cake, BornFree Trainer Cups and the latest BornFree Twist’nPop Straw Cups.
BornFree is the world’s leading Bisphenol-A-free (BPA-free) baby brand and is adored by celebrities including Halle Berry, Heidi Klum, Naomi Watts, and Matthew McConaughey among others. Its safe materials range in infant and toddler products from baby bottles and cups to pacifiers and sterilizers.
[Received via e-mail]
A couple days ago, I received another e-mail from a PR company with a photo of Dean McDermott clutching another product while his son, Liam, gave him a thumbs up sign. That photo is below, and the e-mail accompanying read, in part “It was father/son bonding at the Muscle Milk Fitness Retreat on Saturday for Dean McDermott and his adorable son Liam. After eating too much birthday cake at daughter Stella’s 1st [sic] birthday party, Dean stopped by the Muscle Milk Fitness Retreat to burn off those extra calories and to get in a quick workout to kick off his special Father’s Day weekend.”
Ok, so in that instance Dean may have legitimately visited a gifting event and then he gamely posed for a photo with the product afterwards. That’s fine, and a lot of celebrities do that in order to get free stuff and services. The e-mail for the Muscle Milk came from a gmail address and the other was from a PR firm, so maybe those two recent product placement incidents for Tori and Dean aren’t related.
Is it ok to accept a sponsorship product placement for your two year-old daughter’s birthday party, though? I’m positive that’s what’s happening here because the damn cups are laid out prominently in every photo, including giant signs with their logo on them. The party’s color scheme even matches the cups.
We had a nice party for my son’s second birthday with friends and a cake and I remember it was the first time he really seemed to process everything and understand that it was his birthday. He wouldn’t have realized if the party was sponsored as what mattered to him was that his friends were there and he had a good time. Does Stella look like she’s having a good time? Hopefully these pictures were taken before the guests arrived and the kids started playing. They really make it look like Tori and Dean were more concerned with making a buck than making their daughter’s day special, though. Maybe I’m just being too skeptical. There’s something awesome yet scary about that giant Barbie birthday cake.
Have these people no shame? And yes, it’s a rhetorical question.
How vile. Particularly since it’s not like they can’t afford to throw their daughter a birthday on their own.
Did anyone even show up at the party? I think a lot of celebs get this kind of sponsorshit. Not surprised Tori would do this. The barbie cake is creepy.
Say what you will about Candy, but at least at her daughter’s birthday parties, she and Aaron paid for the stuff, and didn’t whore the kids out!
I am so glad when I was a child, my mother had good taste in things, and didn’t ever get me a fug cake like that one!
And finally, Tori wears the worst outfits, and her implants are god awful.
That is all. I think!?
What are they, strapped for cash? There’s something truly disgusting about this. And you’re right, the daughter doesn’t look like she’s having fun. She doesn’t even look happy. But can you blame her? She as to live with Tori Spelling 24 hours a day.
Thank God the little darling took after her father in looks, here’s praying not in charachter. It’s wrong to judge people by looks, but goddamn, look at Tori’s face! it looks like a science experiment where they tried to clone a Centaur using Tori’s DNA and that of a horse! I think we can safely say that the experiment failed and we are just not ready to clone a mixed breed of humans and animals.
Seriously, I don’t understand why she doesn’t eat something!?! She looks ridiculous.
I think if you start with this now the kids will start to think that having major event in their life is to be sponsored.
I’m just going to say that I am glad the kids look more like Dean.
They do this sort of thing ALL THE TIME. The baby shower for the first kid was hosted by Tupperware of all things. That little girl does not look happy. I think if I were two years old those cakes would scare the crap out of me!
I think it isn’t so much they do not have the money to pay, I think it is simply that they do not want to pay. They want things, and they want them all for free. Screw the rest of us poor schmucks that have to pay for what we have!
oh so sponsored. they must be busted. at least barbie is a cake here & not a pinata.
doesn’t tori seem desperate? something about her sad, pleading eyes seems so desperate. for approval and for cold, hard cash.
her life must be exhausting. constantly out there hustling, reminding people that she is still alive.
Another company I will just cross of my list…
I was gonna say thank God the kid doesn’t look like Tori but a few people have already beaten me to it! I seem to remember them pimping out the kid’s nursery when she was born.
Tori and Dean do this all time on their show. There are often convenient camera cutaways to the logo’s of products. I guess something’s gotta help pay for Dean’s “motorcycle racing” aka. “his excuse for being an unemployed sex crazed douche who ignores his wife and children.” Say what you want about Tori, but at least she’s working to provide for her family.
yes, that cake is scary and how in the hell do you cut a slice of it without having Creepy Barbie fall towards you with her hands out-stretched?
@ Bee – LOVE your assessment of Dean! Too funny!
And the winner of the Pimping Out Your Kids award goes to…
Seriously, this is so disgusting. They’re basically using their kids to make money, get free stuff, get media attention, etc. It’s so sad and desperate.
I have no intention of defending this cheating, superficial couple… but I remember those Barbie cakes being very popular in the 90’s. They were at most grocery store bakeries and girls’ birthday parties for the first half of the decade.
This is revolting and I feel sorry for their children, who look miserable.
Why are they serving all of that candy at a birthday party for a 2 year old? Small children should not be given candy, especially gum balls and hard candy that can catch in their throats and choke them. Idiots.
Seriously! That face! She is so freakin’ horsey looking! And I do NOT mean that as affront to all those poor horses out there!
Wish this fugly bitch would just go away!
I also believe that Tori is some kind of experiment. Her face looks more like giant frog than a human. Did something happen to her in her childhood?
Gosh, I hope this wasn’t her REAL party. Looks more like a commercial for Pepto Bismol.
I’ll play Devil’s advocate this time. I like going to a child’s party where useful things like sippy cups are given as party favors instead of a bunch of cheap plastic toys that end up in the trash a day later.
Filling the sippys with candy makes it fun for the kids and it is a b-day party where cake, candy and ice cream are supposed to be. This is one of those special occassions where you let your kids indulge. It is when they get these treats on a reg. basis that there is a problem. The gum balls may have been given to kids old enough to have them as fillers for the twist-n-pop straw cups.
Born Free probably supplied the party favors for free and that was the end of their involvement which is why they do not consider it a sponsorship. It happens every day with celebrities and Tori did not let Born Free take center stage at the party.
Too.much.pink.
They could sponsor my daughter’s birthday, anytime!!
Quite obviously it is sponsorship. Even the display at the party is commercial and not at all something pretty and happy that a mother would set out for her two-year-old daughter and her little friends. These people have no shame, but how far will they go? Dean needs to get a job. Can’t he find any kind of work anywhere?
Oh man, my 3 yr old would love this party. Candy and pink, her two favorite things!
Is this any different from Will, Jada and Jaden making a buck? I don’t think so. But no one tears them apart.
It’s just another team approach to making ends meet in Hollywood.
Nowadays, advertisers have to embed their products into the show. I’m sure these sponsors were happy to pay to have their products on Tori and Dean, “Home Sweet Hollywood.” It’s a tv show, so the product placement doesn’t bother me.
Tori’s father, Aaron Spelling was VERY ugly. Funny looking too. Candy has very wide set eyes that make her look like a pug. Tori got the worst of both parents. It’s really too bad.
What cracks me up is how Dean is always telling her how beautiful and sexy she is, when his ex-wife assures us that when he first met her, he joked with his then-wife about hoe UGLY she was and how it might be good for his career to befriend her.
Here’s what I know about extramarital affairs. A man like Dean who’s been married for years with a couple kids doesn’t have sex often. Maybe once a week, often less when the kids are young. Enter Tori, the mistress who has sex with him like a hundred times in 2 weeks. Dean thinks “I’ve found my soulmate! A woman as horny as I! We will bone 3 times a day FOREVER!”
Joke’s on you, hey pal? If you watch the show, you too will roll you’re eyes at Dean’s near constant references to how horny he is. I’ll bet his kids will be mortified when they get older.
I hate these two. I even hate the ‘guncles.’ Mehran seems like a nice guy, but what’s he doing with Tori? So I can’t trust his judgment either.
Hope Tori is unable to have a 3rd.
Uggh, too much damn pink, it makes me nauseated, it’s too pepto bismol, I don’t like that color much. I feel bad for the kid, she doesn’t even look happy in alot of pics taken with Tori and I doubt I’m exaggerating. I doubt she even liked her own party.
Tori looks exactly like when the Wynans brothers dressed up as white girls for their movie. Man she is fugly and eat something. Her gross hideous boob job on her skeletor body. Ewwwwww!
Is there a bigger tool out there than Dean??? He is soooooo creepy!
I won’t be using BORN FREE bottles or pacifiers for my babies after seeing this shameless promotion!!
That girl is sooooo cute….thank god! the fugly genes skip a generation
In the first pic Tori looks like Madam decked out in a blond wig. I will now have nightmares…
Leticia: “her life must be exhausting. constantly out there hustling, reminding people that she is still alive.”
Well said. I think Tori and Dean are two very desperate people who will do anything for attention and money, which they obviously equate with acceptance and happiness.
Seriously, can we have a break on Tori Spelling and her sick quest to grab attention and headlines just one day? It’s just too much to take every day.
A moriTORIum if you will?
She looks JUST like a my little pony in the header pic
http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/target-my-little-pony-so-soft-baby-pony-make-me-better-with-sneezy-sniffles
“glad the kids look more like Dean”
Too funny – I was just about to post that the daughter looks like Dean, poor thing. Then again, it’s likely next to impossible to ‘win’ with that genetic pool.
I have no doubt she wanted to make Stella’s birthday an event that she would enjoy. That’s one plus side, she seems to genuinely enjoy all those Martha Stewart-y type things.
And if you’re really surprised a company sponsered the event then you have obviously not seen any of the other events she’s thrown. There’s constant palcement at every one of her parties. Even on the show there’s product placement to the extreme (how many times did Tori and Dean say “Ikea Kitchens”?). I won’t fault them. It’s an easy buck. I’m sure any of us would gladly accept $10, 25, 50,000 to slap a company logo on a cup.
It just comes across as desperate. I would not buy that product now after seeing that.
Why doesn’t someone interview them and ask them why they pimp out their kids? What would they say?
Poor Dean. We can all tell that you really want to be cool, but even without the product placement and the wifey who won’t f*ck you, you still would not be remotely cool.
Also– is that her BREAST?
good god, tori is BUTT UG.
@bellaluna Dean is a capital L Loser. His obsession with motorcyle racin’ is just his excuse for continuing to leach off of Tori. I think he saw dollar signs when he met her. And he’s continued to use her for his non-existent career.As the villianous Jill Zarin (what a psycho) would say, Tori needs to “cut him out like cancer.”
Damn Tori is so ugly!! goodness gracious
I just can’t stop looking at the picture
she looks so bad
If I could have my kids’ parties sponsored by a good company like Born Free, I sure would! Who cares if they don’t pay for it all? I am guessing many many celebrities have the same thing going on.
I like Tori on the show, even if I do agree that she is WAY too thin. I hope she gets herself on track and gains some weight.
But, seriously, I have better things to do than hate on a woman I have never met.
yall all just need to stop and stop being jelious she is a great mom and does what she has to do for her kids, yall all knowif yall had the money yall would be doing the same for your kids. Every parent wishes they could throw a party like that for your babies, i love her ideas and will always be suporting her along the way!