Douglas Healey/Getty ImagesToday's Jon & Kate Plus 8 news may be all about Jon Gosselin, but Kate Gosselin had her diva day on Saturday.
The TLC star was slated to participate in the Stars Stripes & Skates charity ice skating event, benefiting the Heritage Foundation of 9/11, in the Danbury Arena in Danbury, Conn. While she managed to still attend the event, Gosselin's arrival was not without several major snafus.
"Before she got there, it was very diva-esque," stage manager Kari Hoffman tells E! News exclusively.
Not only was there drama over Jill Zarin also being in attendance—Bravo was shooting Real Housewives of New York City in the venue—but Gosselin dissed the star skaters, a volunteer and Hairspray star Nikki Blonsky.
Initially, Gosselin planned to attend the event in its entirety and then shake up the afterparty. However, when TLC got wind that Jill Zarin and Luann DeLesseps would be there shooting Real Housewives of New York City, Gosselin nearly had to withdraw from the festivities.
"She wasn't allowed to be a certain distance from the Bravo cameras because her TLC people almost didn't let her come to the event," event founder and producer Tara Modlin tells E! News. "She wasn't allowed to be in the same place, she wasn't allowed to be in the same camera shot. I had to remind them that it was about the kids and not about reality TV."
Zarin, who braved strapping on a set of blades and donning a skimpy skating dress, took the time to introduce herself to Gosselin near the entrance to the stage, where prying cameras were nowhere to be found. However, Gosselin's omnipresent bodyguard Steve Neild wasn't having it.
"It completely threw her off guard and Steve stepped in between them, attempting to keep them apart," Hoffman, who was assigned to keeping Kate happy, says.
The Real Housewife wasn't the only person Neild wanted to keep from his client.
Blonsky, who was serving as host for the evening, made a quick run to the restroom just as the lights were dimming in the arena. As she ran out, Gosselin was waiting in the wings for her introduction.
"Nikki finally comes out of the bathroom and we're trying to get her to the stage, but the security guard blocks her from getting to the stage!" Hoffman says. "He didn't bodycheck her, but he definitely nudged her out of the way."
(That's too bad—Blonsky has been known to defend herself.)
Physically getting Gosselin to the show wasn't an easy feat, either.
While she sweetly waived any sort of appearance fee, the octomom insisted that the Heritage Foundation foot the bill for a car service to shuttle her and Neild from Washington, D.C., to Danbury, a trek of more than five hours.
Such a request would inevitably ring up quite a cab fare for the small nonprofit, so one of the skater's mothers offered her services—and that of her shiny 2010 SUV—to pick them up and bring them to the event.
"When she pulled up to the hotel in Washington, Kate's bodyguard came up to the car and said she wasn't getting in," an insider tells E! News.
Neild told the generous mother that Gosselin, who had been informed of the transportation provided in advance, required a stretch limo with a divider. Only after the skating mother left to make the lengthy journey alone did the Gosselin camp set up their own chariot.
But that wasn't the end of it.
"It was really difficult to find a place to get her into the building because she wanted a side entrance, no crowd, no parking garage, and she needed to be dropped off right next to the entrance," Hoffman recalls. "It took three security guards and two others to get her to her dressing room."
Gosselin wasn't exactly friendly to the A-list skaters, either.
"She didn't even look at anybody," Johnny Weir tells E! News of meeting the reality star and posing with her on the red carpet.
After all that, Gosselin's actual participation in the show wound up lasting less than a minute.
Near the beginning of the show, she stepped out to a crowd chanting her name and introduced Derrick Delmore. And that was it.
"She did her little speech in the beginning of the show and left," Weir says. "Kate Gosselin was playing the diva act…I was disappointed to meet her and I was so disappointed she was involved in the show. It was such a waste."
(Originally published Sept. 29, 2009, at 3:42 p.m. PT.)
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