Life & Style To Produce 1 Issue Without the Gosselins
The press release reads like an Onion headline, “Life & Style Weekly will be ignoring Jon and Kate Gosselin, announcing a completely GOSSELIN-FREE issue, on newsstands now.” What a weirdly evocative gimmick, sort of like the Megan Fox-ban day. With so much being said about the TLC stars and their marriage, affairs, and subsequent seasons of their show (who is suing whom, will Gosselin ever stop wearing Ed Hardy shirts, etc.), this fundamental family has become white noise in of pop culture. But producing a Gosselin-free issue of any tabloid magazine – while at the same time announcing it in bold letters on the front of the magazine – a little contradictory? You can’t produce a Gosselin-free issue without trumpeting it as such?
Wouldn’t this just serve to strengthen the case that Jon and Kate and whatever affect this divorce will have on their children, is actually of some importance? Because you don’t create a samizdat from material that’s actually of no value. And even though the magazine claims that it’s doing so for their readers, who “94% were fed up with Jon and Kate’s antics and ready for a rest from the outspoken reality stars,” there was never a “ban” in writing about Angelina versus Jen, or Britney Spears’ screwing up her children.
It’s not so much that America has reached its cultural threshold for Jon and Kate, because that happened long ago. Magazines and tabloids have just stopped finding ways to make money off of them, and this one last tactic “Take away the golden goose and see if anyone cares” will decide whether Jon or Kate can ramp their craziness up a notch and get people interested again. God forbid they become just another mundane, boring divorce story (involving 8 children).
Oh, and if you haven’t noticed…the cover of the Gosselin-free issue features Kim Kardashian announcing that she’s with child, and with whom America is not sick of yet.
