On Monday’s episode of The Celebrity Apprentice, the teams were asked to design an “interactive-themed environment” to showcase the amenities of the Trump National Doral in Miami. After Kenya Moore was switched to Team Vortex (to even up the numbers), Kate Gosselin stepped up for the second time to assume the project manager position for Team Vortex and was pitted again Ian Ziering for Team Infinity. Kate’s team initially faltered when the decision was made to send Kenya and Vivica shopping for items to decorate the space. After taking an extended period of time to bring back the materials, the pair feuded when Vivica decided to make one last stop (a fact that Kenya was only too happy to use against her). In the end, Ian’s ability to integrate luxury with incredibly interactive displays, gave his team a resounding victory (and Infinity’s fourth win in a row). In the ensuing boardroom, despite Vivica and Kenya openly fighting in front of Mr. Trump, he chose to send home the project manager. Earlier this week, I caught up with Kate to find out what really happened.
Murtz Jaffer: Hey how are you?
Kate Gosselin: Good how are you?
MJ: Good, good. I’m talking to the queen of reality TV so I’m excited!
KG: [Laughs] Is that what you call me?
MJ: Yes, yes they call me the King of Reality and you have always been the Queen… I didn’t realize you have done that many shows.
KG: Oh, well yeah and I mean in terms of length of time… I think that my show goes back to the beginning days of reality TV.
MJ: I have to say that I wish we were doing this interview in-person and not on the phone as I won’t get to see any of your great facial reactions that you did in the boardroom. Your eye-rolling was classic. Were you aware of how great your reactions would be on TV?
KG: That’s a comment that is just like coming out across the board from everywhere! I was always aware that I’m a very facially-expressive person. I think that on my show, a lot of facial expressions are called for. That said, I think that it’s just so funny in the boardroom, where I’m just sitting there… glued to a camera where you catch more of them I guess. I don’t even know that I was aware that I made so many facial expressions. You know in my show, I’m always picking up a kid or opening the fridge. They are not always going to catch every single facial expression but yes, people are telling me that they can read exactly what I am thinking.
MJ: I mean I have covered reality for a very long time and I’m used to seeing different facial reactions but yours were like… I mean I have never seen facial reactions happen so frequently. I’m sure the show is edited, but it seemed like you were doing the eye roll like every two minutes.
KG: Not even just the eye rolling! The frown too! I mean it is funny. I do think that you could put the TV on mute and still know what I’m thinking or saying. But that’s so funny that you say that because everyone is saying “oh, I’m going to miss you and I’m really going to miss your facial expressions!” [Laughs].
MJ: Hopefully we will get a chance to talk in-person at the finale because I’m expecting just so many facial reactions. I’m not even going to ask any questions. It will just be like a muted interview!
KG: Oh, that will be a first! Like you ask a question and I’ll just react with my face… interesting.
MJ: Exactly I love it! That’s totally how we are going to do it. That’s a great idea! Kate, when the first team switch happened, do you feel like the split wasn’t fair (with Ian and Leeza both ended up on Team Infinity) or do you think that it was just bad luck that Vortex has now lost four straight tasks?
KG: To be honest when the teams re-split, I was actually happy with my team. You are throwing in some men and I always work better with men since they are not catty. They are straight forward and kind of get the job done. So I was actually really happy with the split. At that point it was adding Geraldo (I think that Geraldo is a wealth of knowledge), he’s wise and he has been there and done that. He has kind of owned his own world at some point. So I was really happy to be split on a team with him. I love Shawn. Shawn and I remain friends and will be forever. She is a hard worker, very smart, savvy, and she’s young! She’s so young and so ahead of her time. It was the same case with the other guys on our team. I was happy to be with them. They just wanted to win and they were there to work. And Vivica too, she was also a hard worker. At that time I hadn’t seen too much drama out of her and although she tended to be her actress self (I don’t know that she’s done any reality TV before)… My guess at the beginning of this was that the actors would be actors on-camera, the reality people would be what they know as ‘reality.’ That kind of came true (especially with Vivica). I mean she did seem on-camera like she was acting a lot and so that concerned me early on because it was like ‘is she here to work?’ I did learn that she is a hard worker and that she’ll get the job done. She was fine. I was actually happy about the team split. I don’t know that I spent time worrying about who was on the other team and if they were going to beat us… so probably yeah bad luck.
MJ: I want to talk about your relationship with Vivica. You guys were at each other’s throats a couple of weeks ago when you clashed over the mobile boutique for Ivanka Trump shoes, but it seemed like you were united against Kenya. What was your relationship like with Vivica when you were filming and what is it like now?
KG: I don’t have a problem with Vivica at all. I didn’t have a problem with her then. I think that I just was naïve to all the times that she threw me under the bus (saying that I shopped for too long or that I did this or did that). After about three weeks of her saying that “Kate should be fired, Kate should be fired, Kate should be fired…” by the When it got to the point where she was saying that I should be fired because my hairdresser (that I hired for free and did what I was asked to do) took too long, I just realized that the long and short of it was just that I was a threat to Vivica and she wanted me gone. To be honest, though, I don’t have a problem with her and the show is over. I hold no ill will toward any of the cast members. I’m not that kind of a person. I don’t worry about it.
MJ: Will you ever invite Vivica over to babysit for you?
KG: No. I don’t know that any of the cast has volunteered to babysit. Actually Shawn said she would come. She has been a nanny and she is great. She has actually offered but I don’t know that any of them would be able to survive 8 kids. I mean if you asking like ‘would Vivica survive in my house?,’ I don’t know a whole lot of people who would survive in my house. I survive. I don’t know how Vivica feels about me or what her lasting impression of me is. I don’t know. I mean I have kept in contact with a few people but I don’t know that I spent time worrying about it. I really don’t. You have to understand when I tell you that I don’t hold ill will towards people. I realize it’s a rare quality but I just don’t. I’m too busy in my life to spend time snivelling over who doesn’t like me and who does like me. I don’t care. [Laughs]
MJ: Does Mr. Trump not like blondes? First it was Jamie. Then it was Shawn. Now it is you. Should Brandi be worried?
KG: No I don’t think anything has to do with the color of hair.
MJ: It’s just a weird coincidence.
KG: Yeah, I hadn’t even thought about it. I don’t know. I hadn’t thought of it actually.
MJ: Do you think that Mr. Trump makes decisions on who stays and who goes based on who he feels would be more entertaining to keep around for the TV show?
KG: I don’t know. I have read a lot about that. A lot of people are surmising there. Drama always does well in the ratings and TV stays on because of ratings so I don’t really know what goes into his decisions. I don’t know. Maybe?
MJ: With regard to the Trump National Doral task, can you talk about the impact Kenya made when she joined the team?
KG: When Kenya was assigned to our team, I didn’t spend time worrying about it. I think that I just react to life where I kind of am just able to deal with stuff as it comes my way and make the best of it. I didn’t spend time worrying about her, but I do know that Kenya claims to know design and said that she knows about luxury and taste and whatever, whatever. That’s all fine and good except that when we were looking for a project manager, Kenya said she didn’t want it and so again the time for her to speak up would have been when we were assigning the project manager. After I became the PM, I thought ‘okay Kenya you know design’ (and I don’t doubt that she does) so I sent her shopping with Vivica. I mean my only other option was Geraldo and I don’t know many men who like to shop for luxurious things.
I made the best decision that I could at the time and given that we had a rule that we can only break into two groups at any given time, two people shopped and two people stayed back. Done.
MJ: That was totally my next question. Kenya kept saying that she didn’t understand why she wasn’t allowed to stay on-site because she knew the concept of luxury so well and continued to take shots at you not knowing what luxury is. If she was such an expert, why do you think she didn’t take on the project manager responsibility again?
KG: That’s the question that remains unanswered. If Kenya was the expert on luxury, everyone has been saying ‘well then why didn’t she offer to be project manager?’ That’s the question of the day because the truth is if she was the expert, she should have had it. She stated that she did not want it so I stepped up.
MJ: And by the same token Shawn was fired for not doing the same thing right?
KG: What?
MJ: In the sense that Shawn didn’t step up to become the project manager and Trump fired her because of it?
KG: I had been project manager previously and I won, so I wasn’t concerned that I would be fired because I had never offered to be project manager… I had been and I won. I mean I just did the quick math and at that point Vivica had just been the project manager on our team, Geraldo was just before that, and Kenya had come from the other team where she had just been project manager. When everyone went around the room and everyone was saying they didn’t want it, I did the quick math and realized that my project managering had been the furthest back (if that makes sense). That’s why it kind of came around to me again. I felt like if nobody else wanted it, I should take it.
MJ: When Kenya and Vivica went shopping, how long did it take them to come back?
KG: They never came back. They did not come back that day at all. The time ran out.
MJ: After you were fired, you said that you didn’t see it coming at all. Who did you think would be fired?
KG: Well remember that I had been in the boardroom every single week that we lost. I was called back every week. At this point I kind of knew the way things went and once everybody else left and you discussed whatever and the person picks two people (and of cause I always landed there), you could sort of start to draw the clues on where all the fingers were pointing and this time all the fingers were pointing to Kenya… 100 percent. I remember thinking like ‘okay can we just get this done because I have to get up early for tomorrow’s task’ and at some point when the drama kicked up, it suddenly did like a 180 and it quickly somehow (randomly) landed on me. I did think it would be Kenya because essentially I probably got 250 texts from her throughout the day and they weren’t texts about like ‘hey should I buy the yellow fabric or the green fabric?’ They were ‘hey Vivica is this and Vivica is that…’ It was like tattling and that literally slowed me down because I was there alone trying to build the set. Geraldo had a Jewish holiday to observe and he left. I was the only actual person in the manufacturing place setting all of this up (after Geraldo did all the graphics and pictures and things for us). I mean that really slowed me down, it actually literally slowed me down. I don’t know. It is a boardroom on TV and Mr. Trump is in charge and so that’s what happened.
MJ: What was it like working with Geraldo, as he seems to be a very polarizing figure this season?
KG: I think Geraldo and I shared that polarizing figure sort of a situation and I think we sized each other up in that first task we had together (which was the wedding dress task). He tried to treat me all standoffish and all that and I’m a lot like that too. We realized by the end of the day that we are very similar in nature. We say it the way it is, we are pretty blunt, we are pretty defensive and when people come at us strongly, we are pretty like whoa! The truth is that at the end of the day, he looked at me and he said ‘you know Kate Gosselin, the picture I had in my mind of you is completely different then you actually are in real life.’ I said ‘well thank you Geraldo, I’ll take that as a compliment’ and he said ‘no really Kate, I’m not really a fan of all that reality stuff but you know I think you are the real deal.’ So I took that as a compliment and we were friends ever since. I quickly was able to figure him out and a lot of people brush him off and label him and I fall into that same category. People do it to me without getting to know me and giving me a fair chance.
MJ: You and Shawn both did Dancing With The Stars, did you have a connection with her because of that and which show is tougher?
KG: We had a connection, Shawn and I (and not because of Dancing With The Stars). I mean there were a bunch of us oddly on this season of The Celebrity Apprentice that have done Dancing With The Stars. I connected quickly with Shawn because I am a huge Olympic gymnastic watcher and admirer. My teens Cara and Madelyn are huge fans of her. I know one of my daughters read her biography a few years ago and did a book report on it, so she can speak to everything that ever was about Shawn. And they were honored to meet her. I think the thing that struck me with Shawn is that she is very underestimated. I mean she is tiny. She is young. You would think ‘oh, she is only 20 whatever she doesn’t know a thing…’ If you listen, you can learn a lot from Shawn. I mean she had to grow up early. Those gymnasts and Olympic athletes in general aren’t a joke. They are hard workers and beyond that, she is as smart as a whip and respectable. She’s kind and yet commands attention. I’ll remain friends with her for the rest of my life. She is a very, very remarkable young lady and she is just older and wiser than her years by a million.
MJ: You have done a lot of reality TV with Kate Plus 8, Dancing With The Stars and now The Celebrity Apprentice. What’s the appeal of reality TV?
KG: I mean I can’t group my show or Dancing With The Stars or The Celebrity Apprentice all together. On my show, I’m living my life at home and the appeal for that is that you know I’m making dinner and making a paycheck at the same time. It’s kind of time management, I’m doing a lot of multiple things at once. I think with Dancing With The Stars… I know I can’t dance and it was a challenge. At that time I just wanted to show my kids that you can take on something that you are deathly afraid of and do your best. Are you going to win? No. Probably not. Not every time but you know just to try something new and to not be afraid. I did my best. I’ll never be a dancer and man, at the time I was so mad that my body and my brain were at odds with other. I couldn’t stand it! It will bug me til the day I die. But I think with The Celebrity Apprentice, I was excited to do it because it was a challenge that I felt more suited for and I felt very comfortable in. It intrigued me to be honest and I was able to learn a lot from a lot of business savvy people who know a lot more than I do. I just kind of wanted to see if my long and treacherous days that never end at home was too much to do and if the short timelines and pressure at home would apply in the business world as well and they did. It transferred over and I think that was the thing for me. I wanted to prove to myself that the pressure of having 8 kids at home transferred over into the business world. I felt extremely comfortable and excited on three hours of sleep to get up everyday for the next task right until the very end.
MJ: Can you tell me more about your charity and what’s next for you?
KG: Yes Camp Barnabas is a summer camp for kids who are mentally and physically disabled as well as kids with terminal illnesses. They get to go to camp and feel like a normal kid. The camp is suitable for all of them, and all of their medical needs are taken care of. They get to be normal. I have had a lot of tweets and emails from kids who have gone to Camp Barnabas for years and they are just so grateful. Their medical needs are expensive and camp is probably… it is, it is the icing on the cake for parents that can’t necessarily afford it.
So in the end, I think I was able to raise $47,000 on The Celebrity Apprentice to send kids to camp. They have actually invited my kids and I to go to their camp this summer (which we are looking forward to and hoping to do). So that was a good feeling. At the end the day, I mean you can’t go wrong there. As for what is next, we are filming Kate Plus 8 again. I am having fun doing that and we will see what’s next after that. I’m pretty much open to anything that’s comfortable and good and upright and you know, I’m just paying my bills.
MJ: Well I got to tell you it was great talking to you I have been trying to interview you for a very long time, so I feel like our paths have finally crossed, so I can’t wait to hopefully meet you at the finale.
KG: I’ll be there, so if you are there we could do the facial expression interview perhaps.
MJ: You’ll notice me right away. I’ll be wearing a purple hat you can’t miss me.
KG: Do you always wear a purple hat ?
MJ: In every interview that I have ever done…
KG: Okay you be there in that purple hat.
MJ: Thank you so much have a great day! Thanks a lot.
KG: Okay you too bye, bye.
