Saturday, December 29, 2012

Kate’s Top Ten Worst Moments of 2012


Our third annual recap of Kate's worst moments of the year is here.  Last year it was difficult to narrow it down to only 10. This year, it was an even greater challenge. Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions. There were so many dirty deeds they could fill an encyclopedia, but we've attempted our Cliff Note's version here. Enjoy! 

10. Around the World in 80 Days, or How to Be a Truly Terrible Parent. 


Lots of Kate's blogs this year about parenting were real head scratchers, but this one, Lessons Learned from the Gosselin Globe, was so bad it rightly earned the title "Globe Gate." When one of the kids peeled back the equator on their globe (surely a crime worthy of 100 lashes as we soon realized), Kate was "disgusted" and went after her resident scapegoat, Joel, allowing the rest of the pack to gain up on him like wolves, too. Turns out, it was one of the girls who did it (naturally, Kate won't say which girl, but was happy to single out Joel). The real kicker was she never let the rest of the kids know that. So everyone still thinks it's innocent Joel! Free Joel! Ugh, she deserved every bit of the Hitler parody video we made about the incident. Lessons learned? Kate's a grade-A bitch. Class dismissed.

9. One of these things is not like the other, one of these things does not belong! Cher, Madonna, Sting, KATE. 




Sweet and generous Em Tanner, a designer from Tennessee, has grifted Kate untold amounts of merchandise through the years, especially when the children were toddlers. (Remember those shirts numbered 1-8? Those were Em's.) When a sheeple this year alerted Kate that Em was calling one of her calendars "Kate's Calendar," Kate threw a fit. Mind you, not Kate Gosselin's Calendar, not Kate Plus 8's Calendar. Just Kate's calendar! (No where on the calendar's sale page did Em even mention the Gosselins or the show.) We must have missed when Kate copyrighted the name Kate. Kate Middleton might have something to say about that one. Kate's immature rampage about the incident on Twitter (why not just call Em privately, or contact a lawyer?), prompted Em to tweet back surprise at why she was being "badmouthed so randomly," as well as this well-deserved doosey, "I'm so sorry you lost your way, I really am." Shockingly, Kate later actually admitted that she started it, and that she didn't mean to cause a war. Em Tanner: 1, Kate the Great: 0.

8. Dance With the Devil




Poor Tony Dovolani can't get through an interview these days without someone asking him, notwithstanding all the incredible divas he has been paired with over the past decade, how in the world he put up with Kate Gosselin. I guess no one has been satisfied with his answers yet, LOL. It was no different on Anderson Cooper last spring when Tony told the CNN reporter "there was a lot of therapy involved" after being partnered with Kate. Ha! What was clearly just a joke was as serious as the Cuban Missile Crisis to Kate (if she knows what that is), who decided to pen an entire diatribe responding to the comment, oddly, on Coupon Cabin instead of her own web site's blog! Huh? Is DWTS offering coupons for tap shoes now? Why was that even there? we all wanted to know. Anyway, Kate told Tony it was a shame his remembrance of their time was only negative (he never said that, Kate) and challenged Anderson to go on Dancing With the Stars, where she would be watching front row. He wouldn't lower himself. The best part of all? Not a word in response to this craziness from Anderson or Tony. It was like she was talking to a brick wall. Baw-haha! Coupon Cabin later swiffered that post and all the others when they fired her. Oops, shoulda put it on your own blog for posterity. She's bananas. 


7. Running on crazy
Kate had spent a lot of effort trying to convince us the kids just love, love running, but her "Catfish" facade of a life was never more apparent when she dragged the kids up to Connecticut to run a race with her and several other schoolchildren (who, unlike the Gosselins, had been working very hard together to prepare for the event). One of the girls was even crying as Steve encouraged her along. We also learned a lot about her serious lack of boundaries when she let one of the kids sit on the lap of a fan, and stranger. Run, crazy, run, but leave the kids out of it.


6. Ah yes, divorce. From the Latin word for to rip out a man's genitals through his wallet.




This year marked the third anniversary of Jon and Kate's divorce, but you would think it only happened three days ago the way Kate couldn't stop ragging on Jon this year. There were many sour moments where she threw the children's beloved father under the bus, including when she claimed that she relieved him of child support obligations out of the goodness of her heart (she didn't count on anyone knowing that's not possible under Pennsylvania law once an order has been put in place), told everyone that the kids preferred to be with her over the Christmas holidays, and even just let her sheeple believe that Jon couldn't pay his utility bills when she announced that his power was off (even though news reports revealed thousands were without power also in his area). One of the worst was when she told a sympathetic Dr. Drew that Jon was "trying" to be a good dad. The....f&%$ ??? Of course nothing can top her infamous mediocre comment from the year before, but she sure tried. Meanwhile over at Jon's, a few discreetly tweeted photos reveal happy, calm, relaxed kids. Good to know.

5. If Timmy had a pit bull, he wouldn't have been in the well in the first place.


This fall, Jon's girlfriend posted a few sweet photos of the sextuplets with her adorable pit bull, and however misguided, it set Kate off into yet another unnecessary public twitter war. Why, because the children have never looked more at peace? Figures. She retweeted several negative articles about pit bulls and implied that her request the children not be around the dog was ignored. Liz snapped right back that Kate rolled her window up in Liz's face. Forget dogs, where are the cats?! Meeow! Kate's accusations were so over the top, she drew criticism from Animal Planet's Pitbulls and Parolees for spreading misinformation about the "nanny dog" breed and contributing to their unjustified reputation. What takes the bone is that Kate owns a German Shepherd herself, also listed on many "dangerous breeds" dog lists! Woof.

4. "Gaping maw of a fame hole."

Kate's tweeted too many embarrassing photos of the kids this year, but one of the creepiest was a revealing photo of Mady's legs in Kate's hooker heels. The fact that Kate failed to realize that no matter how innocent her intentions were, a good parent has to think about others who may be using the photos for less-than innocent purposes, spoke to exactly how screwed up her noggin is. We weren't the only ones. This one attracted backlash from around the web, including from popular Mommyish bloggers. As Eve Vawter put it, "Kate Gosselin didn’t need to post it, but I suppose it can also be argued that Kate Gosselin uses any excuse to exploit any of her eight children for attention and publicity, whether good or bad, to feed her gaping maw of a fame hole."  Kate learned absolutely nothing from Bill Blankinship's arrest and subsequent conviction this year. #ParentingFail

3. Stop Child Abuse.

The truth is, numerous non-fans have quietly speculated for years there might be child abuse going on in the Gosselin home, and even an ex-staffer tried to come forward in 2009 about some disturbing things they saw and gave a story to the tabloids anonymously, but without proof, it's been just that, quiet speculation. However photog Robert Hoffman was finally able to prove it this year after discovering some old computer files of Kate's that contained her journals and publishing them in a book. Among many disturbing entries, Kate writes that she whipped Collin into his crib and pulled him by the hair. The information Robert uncovered in his research also suggests that Kate is bipolar, and was physically and sexually abused as a child. For those of us with backgrounds in this area, it sure made a lot of sense. Hoffman's book was perhaps the most chilling moment not just of this year, but since this family first came across our radar.

2. Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic.


We feel like a white squall hit us after this one. WTF! Okay, so, the year kicked off to a hysterical start with Kate trying to organize a fan cruise to the Caribbean this summer during the height of hurricane season, and with the twins, like she were actually a real celeb. The whole thing was so vague and unaffordable, not to mention exploitive, it had white flags of doom written all over it from the very start. It got all the weirder when it became clear that Cindy, a cruise rep running the show, well, basically was a trust fund baby idiot who hadn't the first clue what she was doing. She enlisted the help of some of the creepiest sheeple to "vet" potential cruise goers, something even our most seasoned cruise-goers here had never seen done in their entire vacationing lives (I guess they were afraid a non-fan would sign up and, I don't know, maybe report back here??? The horror!). Only, the vetting was actually scaring the beJesus out of legitimate fans who just wanted to have a nice time with their families. Cindy would also send out mass emails to anyone interested and forget to BCC, thereby exposing everyone's real names and e-mails to each other, and she would talk publicly about her clients, a huge no-no.  As we oh-so-accurately predicted, Kate cancelled the whole thing and jumped ship in May just before final payments were due, muttering something about not enough people had signed up, and promising to try to meet up and treat cruise goers to a lunch before they embarked. Think that ever happened? Take a guess. This whole thing was so bizarre you would think hands down it should make number one on our list, right? Think again. She did something even worse.

Before we get to number one, once again this year there were so many bad deeds they couldn't possibly all fit into ten, nor could they all fit into the runner's up list either! (We practically need a runner's up list to the runner's up list) But here are a few that didn't make the top 10.

  • Kate's year saw her picking more Twitter battles than if she were to suit up in Troy. When Kate called out the Dance Moms, saying they were "horrible" and she would never "ever" do that to her own kids, star Melissa Ziegler couldn't believe the hypocrisy. Yeah, neither could we. Ziegler tweeted back that she's from the same part of PA as Kate and has always supported her and her show. We're guessing this was her last turn with Kate. Kate also picked another bizarre and unnecessary Twitter war with a reporter at the Red Cross Gala this year. This one went on for pages before she finally gave up. Bloody hell. 
  • Kate never stopped accepting gifts from fans and even encouraged it, even in the wake of terrible tragedies like Hurricane Sandy and the shootings in Newtown. Her selfishness and sense of entitlement is astounding, and is being passed right on down to the kids.
  • Kate tried to pretend she was still fighting traffic during the president debates, but Bravo's Andy Cohen actually called her out for the lying compulsive liar that she is and told us all he saw her watching The Real Housewives, actually. That was classic. And typical. Voting records revealed Kate never bothered to change her polling place when she moved, what was it, four years ago?
  • Kate's made many inappropriate comments about body weight and exercise over the years, encouraging unhealthy preoccupations with appearance in her young impressionable fans, but the worst was when she tweeted a fan "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels." Ugh. 
  • Hide the bunny. Kate's manic posts on Easter were just odd, and creepy. 
  •  We couldn't believe our ears when we heard Kate talking about periods and bra shopping with the twins. We used to joke that's what would be exploited next, only Kate was for real. We wish there were room for this one in the top 10. 

And now, the long awaited worst moment of the year....
1. Coupon Crapin




It was a really tough call this year between whether the cruise cancellation or the Coupon Cabin firing was Kate's worst moment of the year. Ultimately, Coupon Cabin just barely edged out the cruise, due to one generous CEO named Scott. Instead of just quietly letting her go, Scott decided to put it all out there in a brief but succinct letter. In it, he laid out exactly why he could no longer have her on his team, from her lack of authenticity, to her utter inability to fit in with everyone else, to her entourage, to her polarizing posts. The letter so aptly described the joke of a celebrity we've all for so long tried to explain she is, it was sort of our own personal vindication. Or if you like, "We told you so, suckers!" To this day, it's fun to speculate what in the world she did this time that would prompt Scott to fire off such a scathing Dear John. The world may never know. Here it is again:


A Letter from CouponCabin CEO Scott Kluth



To all our Kate blog readers:
Some nine-plus years ago, I started CouponCabin with the thought of creating a single website that had all the best coupons… no gimmicks, no fluff, just a site that was easy to use and that had great deals. Along the way, we’ve helped our users collectively save hundreds of millions of dollars.
A series of recent events have made it clear to me that Kate Gosselin and her contributions do not align with the authenticity which we set out to build almost a decade ago, and that Ms. Gosselin is simply not a good fit with the wonderful team and culture at CouponCabin.
It’s with this that I am writing to inform you of our decision to discontinue Ms. Gosselin’s feature blog on CouponCabin.com. Ms. Gosselin’s contributions garnered both positive attention and criticism, but as always, I respect and appreciate your candid opinions, which often encourage us not to lose sight of our mission — to help YOU save money.
We wish Kate, her family and her support staff all the best.


Scott Kluth
Founder and CEO of CouponCabin.com
And now for our annual "best of" of the year. This year we couldn't just name one. We found three that deserved the spot.

3. Tony finally wins Dancing With the Stars! May his prize be no one ever asks him about Kate again.




2. No more child exploitation. Rep. Murt's bill, inspired by disturbing information he heard from us and others about working conditions on the Gosselins' set, was signed into law.


1. YOU! Yes, You. And you, and you, and you. The people on this blog have always been close, but what's been really cool about this year is to watch this blog really progress into a true community. Comments on posts increased dramatically this year (some posts had over 1,000 after only a few days!) as it became more of a porch gathering every day and sometimes late into the night. We threw a few virtual parties and had a blast, screened some fantastic quality reality T.V. like The Farmer's Wife and The Dust Bowl, and we even invented our own drink. We hit 8 million hits this year and surpassed 9 million just this week. So bottoms up, here's a round of Rumspringas on us. Happy New Year, everyone.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

A bad year. For Kate anyway.

Much like last year when Kate made some "worst of" lists, on one of them even being compared to Gadhafi, she's popping up again on 2012 lists.

Time Magazine put her in their "bad year" category opposite Kate Middleton in the good year column, blasting Kate for being fired from Coupon Cabin. Ha.

Click to enlarge.

Merry Christmas from the Realitytvkids.com staff!

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Discovery pulls 'American Guns' from line-up

The Discovery Channel announced yesterday that they've cancelled their successful reality series about a Colorado family that restores firearms. They also won't be showing any reruns. Other shows have delayed or pulled episodes, including TLC's new special "Best Funeral Ever," which was pushed back to January. Actually growing a heart, or just concerned about bad PR? Sadly, probably the latter.


In other news, it was heartwarming to see the Red Cross blankets providing their intended comfort to those who need it. Several people were spotted wrapped in the blankets attending a memorial service on Sunday in Newtown.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

The Spirit of Giving


This is a time of year that is about love, family, friends and most of all giving. Discuss holiday plans, recipes, gifts (the tangible and intangible) and more here.

Meanwhile, just in time for the season, Netflix and Amazon.com have released for streaming a raw and intense documentary about giving, Craigslist Joe.


In December 2011, 29-year-old Joe Garner decided to see if he could live solely off the generosity of others all month long. He empties his wallet and takes to Craigslist. The dozens and dozens of heartwarming (and often funny!) encounters Joe has with people from Craigslist moves him, and viewers, to tears. In particular, he is once invited to stay with an Iraqi family in Seattle. They tell him about their experiences, good and bad, as immigrants in the U.S. And in New York, he meets an eccentric woman named Fran with cancer. Joe quickly realizes Fran has a severe hoarding problem. Without judgement, he spends a few hours at her place clearing one small area for her to sit, bringing joy and peace to Fran. Will Joe find a place to rest his head and food to eat every day? The answer may surprise you. 

A Zach Galifianakis produced film (yes, that crazy guy from The Hangover!) Craigslist Joe is the ultimate 31-day grifting plan--and yet this grifting had a greater purpose. To see if most people really are generous, open, and good at heart. Perhaps the most moving moment of all is when Joe's mother talks about the experience. She says she wasn't going to worry about her son out there. She was confident her boy would find plenty of good people to help him. We were rooting throughout the film for Joe to prove his mom right. Thank you, Joe and Zach.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

1940's House: Part 2

The pursuit of happiness in hard times 


Many of the great moments of 1940s House involved watching the Hymers experience the hardships of life in the 1940s while still finding a way to create fun and joy during long days of rations, bomb raids and frightening news of war. The Hymers truly took the experience to heart, and the lessons they learned that continued even after the experience were inspiring.

For fun during "wartime," they took a "holiday at home," by going on a picnic nearby and visiting a local cave. Holidays at home were encouraged by the British government, because traveling far was too dangerous, expensive, and would clog the roads the military needed.

After it was over, Ben and Thomas, the children, talked about creating fun without the T.V. or Playstation, such as creating their own board game or building a treehouse. Granny Lynn writes more handwritten letters, and started shopping more locally. She said she had managed to cut her grocery bill in half. Grandpa Michael restored an old car. Kirstie, a single mom whose husband left her, grew much more independent as a result of the experience. Today's hard economic times are not nearly as bad as what Great Britain endured in the 1940s, but the same lessons of creating lemons out of lemonade still apply.

Part 2 is available on Youtube and for purchase on Amazon.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

1940's House: Part 1

"The war years were times of problems, but I think it gave many of us a chance to discover depths which we didn't know we had, talents which we didn't know we had before ... Pretty good sex we were. We managed beautifully." ~Marguerite Patton

The House series that aired on PBS and the BBC were some of the most educational and riveting programs we've ever seen. And they were all made in the dreaded reality T.V. format. One of the best was Britain's 1940s House. The Hymers, hand picked from many hopeful candidates, were so dedicated to the authenticity of the project, there seemed to be no better choice to cast.

In particular, single mom Kirstie Hymer, along with her two sweet sons, fully embraced every aspect of the project, even going hungry when the rations ran low. Their commitment to making the most of the experience and gaining an appreciation for what their country went through during World War II is inspiring.

Kirstie, age 29: This single mom who was just a teenager when her first child was born had one priority: her boys. Her heart and head in the right place throughout the project, she made sure Ben and Thomas got to the bomb shelter first, even getting fined for turning on a light doing so, gave up her rations so they wouldn't go hungry, and was horrified and ashamed to find out other children at school had been giving them food. "I can't have people thinking you're not getting enough food!" she bemoans, and then bakes a cake for them. Oh, and she even finds time to give blood and volunteer at a local daycare. Meanwhile, she discovers a talent for baking. (Margurite Patton, a ration book recipe guru during the war and fascinating in her own right, helps Kirstie with authenticity.)

Ben, age 10: At his tender age, Ben takes on the role of man of the house while his grandfather is away on business. The self-appointed family "Fuel Warden," he guards the family's expenditure of resources so carefully (he even paints a water line in the bathtub) his Granny heckles him with a sign that says "Fuel Warden Stinks."

Thomas, age 7: After shedding a few tears at having to leave his home, carefree Thomas quickly grows to love living 1940's style, pitching in, helping with the bomb shelter and offering to take a bath with his brother to save water, and always making everyone smile. His cheerfulness in the face of such adversity is a reminder how resilient children can be.

This beautiful portrait of a family from modern times who somehow found a way to pull together during wartime just like the families of yesteryear had to, is definitely worth screening together. Enjoy!

Part 1 is available on Youtube and Amazon.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Kate runs Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon





Kate Gosselin

#8, Half Marathon

PointTimeTime of DayPace
START00:00:004:34:10 pm--
5K00:28:525:03:01 pm09:18
10K00:58:235:32:32 pm09:30
10M01:36:156:10:24 pm10:01
FINISH02:10:106:44:19 pm10:55
Avg. Pace09:56

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Catfish: The movie


Nev is in love. With a woman he has never met. At least not in real life. The 24-year-old New Yorker's sweet, sincere online romance with Megan, a musician from Michigan, is the most important thing that ever happened to him in his young life. So important, he starts making a documentary about it. His friendships with her talented younger sister Abby, and her beautiful mother Angela, are equally deep and fulfilling. But when the curtain is drawn back, Nev and his filmmaker friend and brother are in for something so shocking, Nev wants to quit making his film.

Catfish is a fascinating psychological study of people so desperate to escape their sad reality they will toy with modern technology, and other people's emotions, to do it. Who are they? Why do they do it? How do they do it? And are they to be pitied, or vilified? How similar is Angela's fantasy life to Kate's fantasy life on Twitter? A must see film. (Check out the trailer here.)

Catfish is available in a variety of forms. It airs on MTV early Sunday Dec. 2 at midnight, as well as at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Check local listenings. It is also available on Netflix and streaming on Amazon for $1.99. In addition, 20/20's story on the film, which includes Angela's only interview (also a must see), is available for free on ABCgo.