What A Maroon!

So let's get this straight. On Tuesday, TLC announced it was rejigging its No. 1 show to a Jon-free format, which will now be called "Kate Plus 8." Then yesterday, Jon Gosselin had his attorneys attempt to halt filming of the show, ordering production crews off his property, claiming the show was "detrimental" to his children.

According to Jon's new lawyer, Mark Jay Heller, "Jon realized his family was like a trainwreck, so he decided to put the brakes on the divorce and on the show … because if he didn't the family would be in a mortal accident … the victims of a trainwreck."

In an interview with "The Insider," Heller says TLC's original argreement with the Gosselins "may very well be 'null and void' and unenforceable," since TLC never secured permits (which are supposedly required by Pennsylvania's child labour law statues).

Heller also maintains that TLC "failed to designate the appropriate compensation to be allocated to the children" and "it may ultimately be determined that TLC has not provided for compensation for the eight children over the past four years," that TLC "never secured location permits" for filming on the Gosselins' property. As a result, Jon put up a big ol' sign on his front gate banning the film crew.

Talk about hypocritical. Only a few months back, his brother- and sister-in-law charged that the children were being exploited, and Jon gave a video interview to radaronline in which he gushed about how untrue this was, how wonderful the show is, how they only film for a couple hours a day, a couple days a week, the kids love it, everything is all butterflies and unicorns, blah blah blah.

Funny how the second he's dumped from the show, he's singing a different tune. Yesterday, his lawyer fired off this letter to TLC: "Effective immediately, no production crews are to enter Jon's family home for any reason. In the event that anyone enters the marital property, Jon Gosselin will notify the local authorities to effectuate police action against any trespasser."

Naturally, Heller maintains this has NOTHING to do with Jon being dumped from the show, and that never happened anyway. "People are reporting he was fired," says Heller. "He was never fired. They just changed the name. This is not a ploy – it's an approach that he thinks will help him reconcile with his wife."

As for Jon's recent, um, behaviour, Heller admits that his client has "acknowledged he’s made mistakes and shouldn't have been running around. He took advantage of his freedom after he got it. It hurt his reputation. He's taken responsibility and you don't see him running wild any more. He hasn't been out partying. He's taken a look at his himself in the mirror and he wasn't happy, it's not who he was. He never cheated on his wife. His wife is the one who ended the relationship."

TLC is not taking this sitting down, and fired back this morning with both barrels in the following statement: "We are aware of Jon Gosselin's recent statements, and remain deeply disappointed at his continued erratic behavior. He and the family were shooting as recently as last Friday, without incident, and his latest comments are grossly inaccurate, without merit and are clearly opportunistic. Despite Jon Gosselin's repeated self destructive and unprofessional actions, he remains under an exclusive contract with TLC. Direct filming of the children has been currently suspended, pending further conversations between both parents. "

In the meantime, TMZ is reporting the real reason with the fracas has to do with $$$: "Sources on both sides tell us Jon Gosselin has been asking for his exit papers from the show for several months. Production sources say they were willing to continue giving Jon a full paycheck and not put him on the show, but there was one string attached -- that he couldn't do any other show without the permission of TLC. BTW, that's a standard condition in TV-land. Production sources say Jon's lawyer was demanding that TLC let Jon do any show he wanted but TLC wouldn't budge. Production sources say Jon's lawyer then threatened to shut down production by claiming the show wasn't good for the kids, and that's just what happened. But sources connected with Jon tell us Jon had been complaining for months about his kids being on the show and that the kids themselves were complaining. These sources say Jon was blindsided when TLC released a statement that the show would be called "Kate Plus 8" and that the result would be that the kids would have to be on camera a lot more."

Jon will be sitting down with Larry King tonight to explain it all to us.