Jon and Kate’s ‘8’ revolt against being filmed

Courtney Hazlett The Scoop

Jon and Kate Gosselin’s 5-year-old sextuplets and 8-year-old twins are starting to rebel against the constant taping of their lives.

“The kids staged a sit-in — a revolt,” Jon Gosselin told Life & Style on Aug. 13. “They didn’t want to work today.”

This isn’t the first time the kids haven’t wanted to “work.” On Aug. 7, after a day of filming for TLC's "Jon & Kate Plus 8," the magazine reports that the eight Gosselin kids were pressured into continuing to film beyond their wishes.

An eyewitness told the magazine that “once the kids returned home, the film crew kept yelling at them to film more outside. They seemed really tired, but the crew kept pushing them.”

A rep from TLC denied the report, saying “the assertion is utterly baseless.”

Reality show for Farrah's troubled son
Ever since Farrah Fawcett’s final days were turned into reality television for the documentary "Farrah's Story," it's become tougher to determine what's acceptable documentation of struggle. So it’s hard to know what to make of her adult son Redmond O’Neal’s new reality show plans.

The troubled son of Fawcett and Ryan O’Neal will reportedly chronicle his struggles with addiction in a new show. Filming is set to begin in four months, once O'Neal is released from the California detention center where he’s serving time for possession of narcotics and bringing narcotics into a jail facility.

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“Redmond has signed the deal that was brokered for him by his dad,” according to a source that spoke to In Touch. “Ryan will be on the show, too.”

The magazine goes on to say that Fawcett, who died of anal cancer on June 25 at age 62, is the inspiration for the show.

“Redmond wants to do this to honor his mother. He really wants to get better to honor her memory,” the source told In Touch.

The magazine goes on to say that Redmond will only receive the inheritance left to him by his mother if he remains sober.

Tears of a clown: Britney Spears’ ‘Circus’ act
Britney Spears’ “Circus” tour is in New York City, playing to sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden. A ticket came my way, and I accepted.

Elena Blednykh / AFP - Getty Images file Britney Spears performs earlier this year in "The Circus Starring Britney Spears."

I went to the show hoping for the best, that this would be the triumphant finale to her rehabbed self and image, and Spears’ routines would resemble her better videos. In other words, they’d be productions, for sure, but well-choreographed and really well-executed.

Unfortunately, I have to say: The Spears of the early 2000s would not have allowed the performance of Aug. 24, 2009 to take place.

What transpired at Madison Square Garden didn’t qualify as a performance; it was an act, poorly done. Spears’ lip synching was terribly executed — lips moved without the aid of actual lyrics, or often to a rhythm different than the one playing.

Her backup dancers earned their salaries, performing through the entire show and during the star's interminable costume changes that seemed to require time inversely proportional to the amount of clothing Spears ended up wearing.

When Spears wasn’t changing from one fabric swatch to another, her time onstage could be summed up in one word: walking. There was walking from one side of the stage to the other. There was walking from one backup dancer so she could be flung toward another. Sometimes you could find Spears walking to a cage, entering and having another person push it, so the cage could do the walking for her.

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Not only has Spears’ show changed, but so has the demographic willing to hand over hours of life, never to be returned. In 2001, I remember watching her HBO concert special with a group that included kids as young as 6, and men and women in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Reasonable amusement with a minimal side of shock was had by all. At Madison Square Garden this week, the crowd was made up mostly women in their late teens and early 20s. They seemed less interested in paying attention to Spears, and more focused on taking the perfect iPhone photo, despite challenging lighting situations. Not exactly the outcome most performers hope for when they take to the stage.

Without an impressive performance, what’s left was sex: the subtext of every song, strut and stitch of clothing. Much of Spears’ success is predicated on sex appeal: the “Baby One More Time” video certainly can’t be mistaken for a PSA about the importance of staying in school. However, the right to be on stage, watched and, yes, emulated by millions, is one that needs to be earned and re-earned as time wears on.

Spears shouldn’t be on this stage now. It only puts the spotlight on the center ring of her own circus, the one where she drove the clown car of bad influence until a court-appointed ringmaster had to come in to call the shots. Buying a ticket to this show somehow seems wrong.

Courtney Hazlett delivers the Scoop Monday through Friday on msnbc.com. Follow Scoop on Twitter: @ courtneyatmsnbc.

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