The Celebrity Truth

US television network TLC filed papers in Maryland on Friday (October 16) to sue Jon Gosselin, star of Jon & Kate Plus 8, for breaching his contract.

According to the documents, Gosselin was under an exclusive agreement with the network and has appeared on other programs for money and made unauthorized disclosures about his hit reality show.

“The network has been trying privately and patiently for months to get Jon to honor the contract he signed and to comply with his obligations relating to public appearances and statements,” TLC said in a statement.  “Those efforts have been unsuccessful.”

Gosselin’s lawyer, Mark Heller, has fired back at the network issuing a reply to Just Jared:

“Apparently, TLC has elected to initially litigate this case in the Court of Public Opinion, rather than the Circuit Court for Montgomery County Maryland because neither Jon nor I have been served with legal pleadings or informed by TLC of the instant litigation.

Remarkably, instead, I read the alleged Complaint on the internet, since it would appear that Discovery and TLC chose to pander and publicize their weak, feeble and baseless claim to the media rather than providing the Defendant with appropriate notice through the traditional judicial process.

Jon will vigorously defend against this baseless action, assuming Discovery and TLC choose to go forward with their claim by legally serving him with notice, and we are confident that through the course of litigation it will clearly be evident that Discovery and TLC exploited, manipulated and abused the Gosselin’s vulnerability and financial hardship.

We believe that the contract will be unenforceable in light of the fact that Discovery and TLC initially had Jon execute a complicated, complex and sophisticated agreement at a time when he had no legal representative. In any event, when TLC and Discovery ended the program Jon & Kate plus eight they also effectively terminated the purported contract and accordingly, any rights or obligations they perceived existed concerning Jon’s conduct or actions, rights or privileges from that point forward were also terminated.

The contract was against Public Policy because we believe Discovery and TLC violated Pennsylvania Child Labor Laws, failed to seek appropriate State and Municipal Permits, failed to pay the Gosselins fair consideration, and intentionally circumvented their responsibility to specifically designate legal and lawful compensation to the eight infant children, which is now the subject of an investigation by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry and could result in summary Criminal Proceedings.

The purported Contract was also grossly overreaching and restrictive attempting to abridge the most basic Constitutional Right that all American citizens have of Freedom of Speech. Discovery and TLC has treated Jon Gosselin like a dog by attempting to keep him on a leash and muzzle him and deny the father of eight the opportunity to earn a livelihood to support his family.

All of the aforesaid, clearly, in our opinion, renders the alleged contract as null and void, unenforceable and unconscionable.

Clearly, this litigation has heralded in the battle of ‘David’ against ‘Goliath’ and Jon Gosselin fully intends to stand firm, protect his family and defend against TLC and Discovery who have been rumored to have enjoyed over $186 million dollars in revenue for one quarter, purportedly attributed to the success of the program Jon & Kate plus eight.

This litigation is clearly a tactic that Discovery and TLC have initiated in furtherance of their hunger to jump back on the gravy train, but Jon Gosselin has decided to put the breaks on the Discovery and TLC trainwreck.”

Photo: TLC.

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