Remember when Conan hired a zombie to be his personal assistant on The Tonight Show? Well, he’s keeping the bit going - and mocking Twilight in the process, which is always fun. Enter the brooding vampire, the hot werewolf, and … the sexy mummy?
Tag Archive for 'reality TV'
When crazypants Kate Major, who left her job at Star magazine to date reality “star” and father of eight Jon Gosselin, I thought she was completely making up her story that Jon offered to hire her as his personal assistant. However, it seems I owe Ms. Major an apology: in a lawsuit against Gosselin by TLC, the network that aired Jon and Kate Plus Eight and claims he violated his contract with them, one piece of evidence is a handwritten employment agreement between the two. In the document, Gosselin says he will pay Major the same amount of money she was making at her previous job to be his assistant. According to today’s New York Daily News:
The secret contract, dated July 28, 2009, reads: “I, Jon Gosselin, will employ Kate Major as a personal assistant,” pledging to give her “some but not all future accounts.”
Gosselin also wrote that “she will receive a percentage of accounts for payment based upon involvement.”
Major also promised in the newly revealed document, to “run any media inquiries past Jon Gosselin before doing any on-air or print work.” She likewise pledged to give Jon approval over questions and to exclude questions he nixed.
Major has been subpoenaed to testify in the case. This is getting good. I wonder if TLC will summon Michael Lohan as well?
Taylor, the peroxide-haired “senior assistant” who seemed to hate her boss Rachel Zoe, has been fired. There was no reason offered by either Rachel or Taylor (who Ashley likes to refer to as “the awesomely bitchy one”). Along with Rachel and fellow assistant Brad, Taylor was one of the stars of The Rachel Zoe Project on Bravo, which just finished airing its second season. Today, Taylor emailed all her contacts the following note:
After four amazing years at Rachel Zoe Corporation, I’m saddened and exhilarated at the same time to announce my departure. After much thought and consideration, I have decided to take the challenging leap to go off and style on my own.
After the jump, let’s revisit some of Taylor’s finest (and most disgruntled) moments.
Looking for a place to live is a tedious process - hours of combing through Craigslist just to try and find a place you can afford that’s not in the worst possible neighborhood or with a roommate who collects those weird cat clocks. Well, one guy decided to make his ad stand out and advertise for himself in the process. Trace Lenhoff, the new intern on Bravo’s house-flipping show Flipping Out, is looking for a roommate to share his Hollywood penthouse with. Though he doesn’t mention his name in the ad, he includes a photo of himself and links to his Facebook page, which has references to the show. You can see the ad here, should you be interested in paying $1,100 a month and are a nonsmoker.
Here’s Trace in all his fearing-the-Jeff-Lewis glory:
Have you ever sent out millions of resumes without getting a single interview? It can be so frustrating. And while you sit there wondering what you could have said differently or how you could have presented yourself in a better way, it turns out that there’s one great, quick way to get a job without even applying: just be famous already.
Kim Kardashian, best known for parlaying a sex tape into a reality TV career, has been ‘hired’ as the Contributing Beauty Editor for OK! magazine. It turns out that your own reality show and a slew of famewhoring relatives makes you a much better candidate for the job than any editoral experience, beauty knowhow, or writing ability. That said, she does wear makeup, so she must know about it. Oh, and she has an endorsement deal for her own perfume! I hope she’ll stick to her high journalistic standards and not plug her product in her articles.
Also, OK’s cover story this week is their exclusive coverage of Kim’s sister’s wedding. Coincidence? Or synergy? You decide.
Even if you never watched any of TLC’s “let’s give shows to people who have big families” block of reality TV (I’m a fan of the Duggars, personally), you know who Jon and Kate Gosselin are. The parents of twins and sextuplets have a hugely popular show, Jon & Kate Plus 8, on the cable network but joined the roster of regular tabloid subjects now that they’re divorcing. Now, dad Jon has turned into a massive tool, ODing on self-tanner, hanging out with Lindsay Lohan’s estranged dad, and dating a series of women. One of those women, Kate Major, quit her job at Star magazine (where she was assigned to write a story about Jon) to be with Gosselin - only to get dumped. What’s a jobless, spurned girl to do? Sell her story, of course. She recently appeared on CBS’ Early Show:
Major says she had a steamy, 12-day affair with Jon. On “The Early Show” Friday, she said she quit her job to pursue a personal assistant role and relationship with Jon that he offered.
Major said when Jon remarked publicly that he couldn’t be with anyone, she thought he was breaking off the relationship for the show and his kids. But, Major said, she didn’t bargain on Jon going back to his 22-year-old girlfriend, Hailey Glassman.
Not only would I not quit my job to date some dude with eight kids and an embarrassing earring, I would not quit my job to become his personal assistant! Maybe that’s some kind of code I don’t get or something, but the whole thing sounds totally fucked up.
There’s video of Kate Major in all her crazy glory after the jump.
When last season of American Idol added fourth judge Kara DioGuardi, many speculated that Kara’s addition was a potential test to see if she could replace Paula Abdul in case Paula decided to leave the show (because a woman can only replace another woman, obviously). Now, Paula’s embroiled in difficult contract negotiations that leave her status on the show uncertain. Her manager has complained to the press that Paula is being lowballed - she makes far less than fellow judge Simon Cowell and host Ryan Seacrest, and she’s holding out for more money.
As an avid Idol fan, I could go two ways with this. One is that Ryan and Simon both provide more value to the show than she does - Simon’s also a producer and helped create the show, and while it seems like hosting a reality show is easy, compare Ryan with a lesser TV host and you’ll see how talented he is at moving the show along and smoothing transitions. Ryan’s the only host, but Paula is one of three - or four - judges. Besides, her commentary is often rambling or irrelevant - do we really care that you like someone’s personality or outfit when they can’t freaking sing? Part of me thinks she should be grateful to Idol for resurrecting her career and making her a pop culture icon. After all, would she have had her reality show, jewelry line, endorsement deals, or other side gigs if she hadn’t made her Idol-fueled comeback? I doubt it.
On the other hand, there’s the Randy Jackson factor.
The first season of SoapNet’s Southern Belles: Louisville is over as quickly as it started, but the few episodes managed to pack in plenty of drama. The show’s resident personal assistant, Hadley (who worked for an unnamed film producer) made two big life changes - she got together with her longtime best friend Russ, who recently admitted his crush on her, and she realized that her assistant job was going nowhere and she wanted to quit.
In the premiere, Hadley said that she was “taking a break” from a PhD program and was doing the assisting job while she figured out her next move. Does this mean she’s going to head back to academia, or will she end up doing something entirely different? My guess is that if the series does well enough to get a second season, she’ll be “working” by filming the show.
Unless spoiled rich girl Shea gets her own assistant next season, I don’t know what excuse I have to watch the show now that Hadley has quit her job. You know, because I only watch TV shows and movies that have assistant characters in them, obviously.
Update: B., the blogger behind STFU Parents, contacted STA and wanted to add the following new information to this post:
One thing that’s always bugged me about reality TV is how people are able to leave their jobs for a month or six weeks or however long the show takes to tape. Sure, maybe some of them have lots of accumulated unused vacation time or are self-employed or something, but that is part of the reason reality TV is so chock full of aspiring actors or unemployed people.
Well, last night, some of my “how do you get your job to let you do this?” questions were finally answered on - of all places - The Bachelorette. Ed, one of the guys left in the running to win Canadian singleton Jillian’s (pictured at right) heart and a viewer favorite, got an angry call from his boss while taping the show in Whistler, British Columbia. The boss told Ed that he either had to come back immediately or be fired. Thus the perfect storyline for the show: love or money?
Here’s part of MSNBC’s recap of the show:
As I reported last July and again this April, “Team Griffin” member and Kathy Griffin’s assistant Jessica Zajicek quit both her job and Kathy’s Emmy-winning Bravo show, My Life on the D-List. Though there’s been a lot of speculation about why Jessica left, ranging from the innocuous “she wanted to do something else” to the potentially-scandalous “she hated Kathy’s guts and couldn’t take it anymore,” Jessica has not offered up any official comment on the matter.
Monday night, the new season of My Life on the D-List debuted, and Kathy addressed Jessica’s absence with a very quick and brusque “Jessica has decided not to return and is pursuing other interests.” For now, former second assistant Tiffany Rinehart is working alone, and there has also been no mention of whether she’ll seek a new assistant to fill her old role. Perhaps Team Griffin has felt the effects of the bad economy and has had to cut back on hiring?
Either way, there’s no smoke, so for the time being there’s no fire. That said, if Jessica ever wants to give me an exclusive interview about the real reasons she quit her assistant job, I am all ears.