What’s behind Jon Gosselin’s bromance with Christian Audigier?
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So, we finally got the lowdown on the Jon Gosselin/Christian Audigier connection. If you’ll recall, the reality show father of eight (minus the reverse-mulleted Kate) was recently spotted in St. Tropez in the company of affable tattoo-wear impresario Christian Audigier. Rumors immediately began to swirl that the Keystone State’s most famous family man was planning to launch a line of kids’ clothes with Audigier.
‘One hundred percent untrue,’ said an Audigier representative, who told us the company’s quite happy with its Ed Hardy kids clothing line, thank you very much.
So why then did Audigier fly Gosselin to the south of France for some face time? In the rep’s words: ‘They have common interests.’ In ours: It’s a kind of blossoming bromance.
Apparently the relationship began back when Audigier’s people, doing what they do best, sent some kids clothes and a few pieces for the parents (trucker hats, T-shirts and the like) to the family in hopes that the clothes might appear in an episode of TLC’s ‘Jon & Kate Plus 8.’
The rep told us that in the aftermath of the Gosselins’ split, Jon’s people (he’s got ‘people,’ people!) contacted the maker of the Los Angeles based Ed Hardy, Christian Audigier and Smet lines asking for some free clothes -- for himself!
Uncharacteristically, the company demurred, reasoning that fan of the brand Jon Gosselin was already wearing their tattoo-festooned, screen-printed, foil-embellished wares. But one thing led to another, and a short time later, Gosselin himself was patched through to Audigier’s cellphone and the two commenced to chatting about their mutual love of motorcycles.
From that conversation came the idea of a possible collaboration -- Audigier’s flack was a bit noncommital on this point -- perhaps a reality show about motorcycles or a line of motorcycle-themed clothing. Knowing Audigier, who had a film crew following him around as far back as late 2004, when I first interviewed him about the launch of the Ed Hardy line, it will be a reality show about launching a motorcycle-themed clothing line.
Audigier agreed to fly Gosselin and someone named ‘Hailey’ -- described to them as his ‘stylist’ and whom we can only guess is one and the same as current gal pal Hailey Glassman -- to visit him in St. Tropez last week to talk it through.
‘Christian thinks he’s a nice guy, and they both love motorcycles, so they hit it off,’ the representative said. ‘That’s all there is to report. There isn’t anything beyond that at this time.’
In the meantime, we’re trying to digest the most recent rumors -- that Jon Gosselin popped the question to Glassman on that very same trip to St. Tropez. If that turns out to be true, can you imagine a better made-for-reality-TV tableaux than Audigier as best man and the bride-to-be in an Ed Hardy wedding gown?
We hate to admit it, but even we’d tune in for that.
-- Adam Tschorn
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Top photo: Ed Hardy’s Christian Audigier. Credit:Jens Kalaene / EPA