Jon Minus Kate

I have been a faithful follower of the program 'Jon and Kate Plus Eight' since its inception. It began as a one time program on The Learning Channel(TLC) called 'Living with Sextuplets and Twins" (Or something similar). It was a hit so they turned it into a "reality show"

Let me tell you about Reality Shows....they are nothing close to reality. They are miked, well lit, produced, managed, directed and scripted (though they swear not to be). These shows became popular after "The Real World" on MTV. If real life were anything close to what a reality show is, we would all be pretty, we would always know exactly what to say and it would always be witty, humorous of it not, the drama we evoked would top the charts of all melt downs.

Back to Jon and Kate....As their lives progressed on TV, they became more and more 'popular' but more and more miserable. People love to have that glimpse into the world of others. Its what makes us snoop in medicine cabinets when we use the bathroom of our friends. Admit it....you do it and don't say you don't. (President Clinton admitted to snooping in his friends medicine cabinets). It is in our DNA to snoop. It's what makes us slow down at horrendous car wrecks and listen to those horrible news stories where there was blood and guts and serial killers. We want to see the gory details. I do and I am not ashamed to admit it. I am a human being and I come complete with all the factory installed flaws. People loved watching this young, pretty couple while they tried to raise these 8 chidren.

As the years have progressed, things have changed so very drastically for this family. As fame began to invade their world, so did all the wonderful foibles that come along with it. Paparazzi, pesky 'fans' camping out, driving by, approaching them in public settings and tons and tons of magazines and tabloids with horrible headlines saying all kinds of things that we have no idea if it is true or not. We have watched Kate go from being this dorky, plain jane looking young woman to this very svelte, fashionable and quite lovely woman.

The human body is not meant to carry 6 seperate human beings....that experience was saved for dogs, hamsters,rats,rabbits and other animals....how ever now that fertility drugs have made it on the scene, we are seeing an epidemic of multiple births. It blows my mind how these women's bodies can stretch out to hold all these little people. They showed Kate's tummy in one episode and she had to roll over for us to get the whole view...and it wasn't pretty. It was scary. All covered in vasoline then wrapped in saran wrap to help ease the pain of her stretching skin. Now having skin being stretched out that far has its consequences and boy oh boy did it ever. Kate showed all America what happened to her belly as a result of carrying those 6 babies and it wasn't pretty. She undid her jeans, pulled down the top of her industrial strength control top support underpants (nothing that huge and ugly can be called 'panties') and out it came....and kept coming and coming. Her tummy just kept coming out of her pants, as if it were alive. It looked like, and please Kate I mean no disrespect, like a huge pile of bread dough..or the butt (yes I said it) of a very saggy, old woman who had serious celulite...Jon called it 'Droopy dog jowels'. Kate just laughted,nervously...

It turned out to be one of the smartest things she did because somewhere in our country, a plastic surgeons wife was watching and took pity on poor cat and her droopy dog jowel tummy. She talked to her husband and convinced him to give her a tummy tuck pro bono...one in a long line of freebies this woman was to receive as her life progressed. Not only did she get the free tummy tuck, but the doctors wife befriended her and brought her home with her to recouperate. I wonder if I paid some TV station to let me to on air and lift up my shirt, show them my fat belly if someone would take pity on me and give me some cosmetic surgery...If they did...man I would make a bee line to that station buck assed naked.

Kate went to a very "foo fooey" salon and got a complete make over and that was the beginning of the haircut from hell. It is angular, asymetrical and just plain strange looking....but she pulls it off. She had long beautiful blonde hair when Jon first met her...as time went by, the hair got shorter and shorter. All men love long hair...face it..they do. If you have short hair and your man is telling you he likes it..he is lying. All men fantasize about having a women with a luxurious long flowing mane of glorious Farrah Fawcett-like hair. It's just in their genes (and their jeans)

I'm not going to go into any more details of their show. If you want to know more, just turn it on and watch it. What I am writing about is the current situation with their marriage. It is ending. After 10 years they are calling it quits. The rate of divorce for people with multiple births is off the charts. I can only imagine, no...I can't. I don't have one child because I didn't want that responsiblity. OK, the real reason I didn't have one is because I hate kids....period...end of sentence. But off of me, back to Jon and Kate...they have had a very private beginning, a public middle and now a very publicallyinvaded ending. Rumors, front page pictures in tabloids, paparazzi invading their every waking, breathing, sleeping moment, "fans" accosting them everywhere....it isn't good. We are just at the mercy of the media, who I believe had alot to do with their demise. Granted, Kate is a total controlling, anal retentative, very verbal, flaw finding, nit picking, emasculating, ball busting, in your face BITCH.... Jon on the other hand is a laid back, calm, cool, collected, plays it very close to the chest kinda dude. They are not prone to throwing temper tantrums in public. They hold their emotions in check. I think that is a skill that we could all learn a lesson from. (when I say "We" I mean me)

Jon and Kate are an example of what is happening in our world today. Too much, too fast, too soon. A train wreck with too many witnesses. Too much information big time. We know too much about things we have no need of knowing. I miss the old days of the 6 O'clock news being our only window into the world and its events. There was no internet, no 'reality shows', and the papparazzi knew its place. We weren't allowed into the bedrooms of our government leaders, our political figures, our Hollywood icons. There was a mystery in the air about famous people and it was nice NOT knowing what they looked like without make up. I don't think we need to know what is going on in the private lives of people, no matter who they are or how famous they are. Everyone deserves some privacy. I know, some of you will say,"They signed up for this when they decided to become famous." I disagree. They signed up to perform for their careers. They entertainment us by sharing their gifts with us. Isn't that enough? Why do we pay for magazines that instead of having brilliant journalism, they have their 'reporters'going through the garbage cans of the rich and famous to find "the rest of the story". They take pictures of them without make up on and in their most unflattering moments so we can see "The truth". How would we feel if the tables were turned and after our long day of work, we will still required to perform our jobs? We wouldn't like it one single bit.

Do we really want to take the mask of the Lone Ranger? Do we really want to peek under the cape of the Phantom of the Opera? We live dull lives and we look to these people to make us laugh or cry, to feel things. We turn to them for entertainment because they take us out of our every day, boring,hum drum lives and transport us to places we would have never been able to go had it not been for them. Watching what has happened to Jon and Kate Gosselin has really made me sad...reality sucks sometimes....even if it is fake