FEBRUARY 25, 2011
gambling on
first-time
directors
inside the studios’
high-risk game
Inside
Kardashian
Inc.
The Kardashian/
Jenner clan
(clockwise from
top left): Kourtney,
Khloe, Kris, Kim,
Kylie and Kendall
hulu honcho
in hot water
the aftermath of a
memo gone wrong
how mom and
manager Kris Jenner
turned reality fame into
a $65 million payday
last year through
inventive, curious and
often controversial ways
Kris at home with daughters
(from left) Khloe, Kylie,
Kim, Kendall and Kourtney.
“The haters that say
really ugly things are just
disgusting,” Kris says. “They
think because they’re sitting
on a couch in Oklahoma,
they can get away with it.
They’re such cowards.”
one mom,
six kids,
a reality empire
The Kardashians made more in
2010 than Angelina Jolie,
Tom Cruise & Sandra Bullock
combined. How ‘momager’
KriS Jenner leveraged a
reality franchise to change
the economics of celebrity
written By LesLie
Bruce
judith newman
PhotograPhed By andrew southam
and
Since their arrival on e! in 2007, thankS to Such
no-boundaries behavior, the tightknit family has ably defied
the laws of 15-minute reality TV fame while building a wildly
profitable empire. As the cameras keep rolling on the eightmember clan’s topsy-turvy domestic life, the Kardashians
have cashed in, making more money last year than what
Angelina Jolie, Sandra Bullock and Tom Cruise are estimated
to have earned combined: a staggering $65 million (a source
“We’ll take kim in a bikini and
put her on a beach toWel.
So you Would be laying on a
kardaShian at the pool.”
—kriS Jenner, on the deal With the mirage in laS vegaS
high-rated entertainment and a steady paycheck (the family
splits a six-figure payment for each episode), but their larger
purpose is to serve as a marketing platform for Kardashian
Inc. “These shows are a 30-minute commercial,” admits
Khloe, co-star of the first spinoff, Khloe & Kourtney Take
Miami, which focused on the opening of a Florida outpost of
their clothing store, Dash.
Not that E! is exactly being taken advantage of. The
Kardashian enterprise is the cable network’s most lucrative
franchise ever. Before the 2007 launch of Keeping Up With
the Kardashians, E! was the 13th-highest-rated cable network
with women 18-49 on Sundays (all three shows now rotate on
the same night). Now, it is No. 1 on the night. The Season 4
finale drew 4.8 million viewers, making it the most-watched
broadcast in E!’s history.
2006 Kim
50 | The hollywood RepoRTeR | 02.25.11
2009 The sophomore season of Kourt-
Kardashian
Superstar
is released
and becomes
adult video
distributor
Vivid Entertainment’s
best-selling
DVD of the
past 10 years.
dashian on E!, appearing on the doomed
series Filthy Rich: Cattle Drive which followed celebrity kids sent to live on a farm.
1993 Bruce and Kris began producing
“Super Fit With Bruce Jenner,”
infomercials selling a line of portable
stair-climbing equipment.
“It has changed the face of E!” says Lisa Berger, the network’s executive vp original programming. “We were a place
to report on celebrity; we weren’t a place to break and make
celebrity, which is now the whole idea of the E! brand.”
These days, the Kardashians are ubiquitous. Their book,
Kardashian Konfidential, has been on the New York Times bestseller list since December (275,000 copies have shipped). Kim’s
eponymous fragrance was Sephora’s top seller last year, and a
new fragrance, Unbreakable by Khloe and Lamar, launched
Feb. 12. In the summer, the sisters will unveil a new lifestyle
collection with in-store shops at Sears. (The Sears deal is one
of their most lucrative projects to date, along with QuickTrim
diet supplements and Kim’s eponymous fragrance.)
Says Berger: “Kris has been smart about aligning herself with
businesses that are successful, and we haven’t said no. There’s
no reason to. Growing her business grows our business.”
Then there are the skin care and clothing lines, sneakers,
swimwear, liquor, lipstick, three Dash clothing stores. In
January, Silly Bandz introduced the Kardashian Glam Pack:
rubber band bracelets of the girls’ silhouettes, lips and stilettos (leading Matt Lauer to awkwardly ask about the curvy
shapes on Today: “They’re shaped like your bodies, right? Is
this your … those are your arms, I assume.”)
This year, Kardashian Khaos, the first “celebrity destination” store at the Mirage in Las Vegas, will debut, housing
every product the family endorses, including some new ones
created specifically for the resort. “We’ll take Kim in a bikini
and put her on a beach towel,” Kris says. “So you would be
laying on a Kardashian at the pool.” The hotel itself will be a
Kardashian shrine: The room keys will bear their image, the
minibars in each of the 4,338 rooms will house Kardashianbranded water and Kim’s fragrance; and oh, Kim and the girls
will be vamping on a dozen of the new slot machines.
All this despite having no exceptional talent — other than
looks, exhibitionism and an inability to self-censor. (Only two
Kardashian kids received college degrees: Kourtney from the
University of Arizona and Robert from USC.) Perhaps, like
so many other reality stars, that is their appeal. When fame
looks this easy, the line between the public and the person on
TV doesn’t seem so daunting.
“We’re in 300 countries worldwide. Three hundred!” Kris
exclaims. At press time, only 194 countries were recognized
by the U.S. government.
The branding mastermind behind this success is Kris, a
former airline stewardess and self-proclaimed “momager”
who pushed her kids into the national limelight. She grew up
in a middle-class home in La Jolla, Calif., with a single mom
(who ran a children’s clothing store) and, for most of her life,
“People couldn’t
believe we chose to do
the cover of Playboy,”
Playboy
Kris (at home) says of
Kim’s December 2007
issue. “I thought it
was a great business
decision; it was something to be proud of. It
became controversial,
which then made it
more iconic. I was like,
bring it on!”
2005 Kourtney becomes the first Kar-
Beyond
15 Minutes
Kardashian Inc.
has far outlived
the typical reality
star shelf life,
continuing to spawn
new offshoots
close to the family confirms the figure). As manager, Kris Jenner personally takes 10 percent.
And in perhaps the most Platonic exploitation of the
celebrity-industrial complex, they didn’t do it by picking
up paychecks from a network or studio alone. Deploying
sibling after sibling, the household, led by Kris, has crafted
a wholly modern business model for making money. It’s one
that emphasizes accesibility over harnesses three commercial
components: fan interaction via social media (the family has
a collective 13 million Twitter followers); best-selling products and brand endorsements; and, of course, that hypersuccessful reality franchise (Season 5 of E!’s Keeping Up With
the Kardashians averaged 3.5 million viewers a week).
In a year when men and women in the entertainment
industry with business backgrounds couldn’t turn a profit,
Kris Jenner could — even if critics ponder what, if any,
redeeming value her family brings.
“Look at Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg,” says Kris’
longtime pal Scott Sassa, president of Hearst Entertainment
and Syndication. “Two guys that didn’t finish college ended
up billionaires. Sometimes just raw energy and intelligence
wins out.”
What’s game-changing in the Hollywood ecosystem is
that it’s their brand extensions that comprise the heart of
the family’s enterprise. The television shows might provide
Styling By jill roth. hair By clyde haygood uSing treSeMMe for MargaretMaldonado.coM. Makeup By joyce Bonelli. additional hair & Makeup By roB Scheppy. on kriS:
Stella Mccartney jacket and Shirt; lna leggingS; chanel ShoeS; cartier watch; loren jewelS jewelry. on khloe: porcelain dreSS; erickSon BeaMon Bracelet. on kylie:
aqua dreSS; elegantly waSted Belt; cartier BraceletS. on kiM: wren jacket; love january tank; jBrand jeanS; cc Skype earringS and ring. on kendall: vena cava for
aqua dreSS; cc Skype earringS. on kourtney: ronald aBdala dreSS; chriStian louBoutin ShoeS; penny preville earringS; cartier Bracelet. BottoM, l-r: courteSy of
SuBject; e! entertainMent televiSion; ed geller/gloBe photoS; vivid entertainMent; e! entertainMent televiSion/photofeSt; e! entertainMent televiSion (3).
S
Sitting croSS-legged on her black-Sheeted bed
amid stacks of papers and photos, Kris Jenner — matriarch
of reality TV’s juggernaut family — is trying to explain the
unexplainable: Why the Kardashians? Why are her children’s
squabbles and shopping habits and waxing appointments a
national fascination? Why was daughter Kim, best known until
four years ago for making a sex tape, the fourth-most-Googled
person in 2010 (behind Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Selena
Gomez)? And why, despite the eye-rolls of half of America,
does the other half worship at the altar of a family that
unabashedly embraces, celebrates and monetizes that postmillennium cliché of being famous only for being famous?
“We’re just this big family with a lot of drama and a lot of
issues, and there’s someone here for everyone to relate to,” says
the 55-year-old mother of six (Kourtney, 31, Kim, 30, Khloe,
26, Robert, 23, Kendall, 15, and Kylie, 13), wife to Olympic gold
medalist Bruce Jenner, and, most crucial, hands-on manager
of them all. “I think if you’ve ever been embarrassed by your
family — like your mother’s a kook or your father’s too strict
— the show gives you hope. I’ve had so many people come over
to me and say, ‘I remember the episode where you were crying over blah, blah, blah, and it helped me so much and I got
through my dad’s death because of you.’ ”
And then there are those who watch the family’s three
series on E! (with a fourth going into production this year) for
the there-but-for the-grace-of-God voyeurism: Thank God my
mom doesn’t want to know the size of my boyfriend’s penis! Hey,
at least my dad isn’t walked over by every single member of his
family and my mom doesn’t engage me in a postpartum discussion about personal lubricant. When asked about that last particular discussion, Jenner looks genuinely puzzled. “Really?
Who hasn’t had to use lube?”
Of course, this is a mother who has hanging in the bedroom
of her immense home in Hidden Hills, Calif., a photo of her
three eldest girls, over which one of them has scrawled in
what looks like hot pink lipstick, “Hookers R Us.” But if the
Kardashians have no filters, they have no pretenses, either.
This is a great part of their charm.
2005 Kim’s first foray into the spotlight
is as Paris Hilton’s sidekick (together in
2006). She becomes bigger after dating
MTV star Nick Lachey.
2011 The third offshoot in the reality
franchise, Kourtney & Kim Take New
York, attracts more than 3 million
viewers for its Jan. 23 premiere.
ney & Khloe Take Miami, which debuts in
August 2009 as the mothership show’s
first spinoff, averages 2.7 million viewers.
2007 Keeping Up With the Kardashians
premieres. During its fifth season, it
averaged 3.5 million viewers. Season 6
begins taping this year.
2010 The Spin Crowd, which follows
publicist and Kardashian BFF Jonathan
Cheban, gives Kim her first EP credit and
draws 1.6 million-plus viewers in Season 1.
www.thr.com | The hollywood RepoRTeR
| 51
Inside the Kardashian Inc. Empire
has played the role of wife to two public figures: first husband
Robert Kardashian, the late lawyer best known for representing O.J. Simpson, and current spouse Jenner, 61. She was
also, according to a former pal, socially ambitious and would
strategically trail the footsteps of such types as the Hilton
clan — with whom she was friends and certainly has leapfrogged in terms of power.
Kardashian spotted Kris Houghton at a golf tournament
in La Costa, Calif., when she was 23 and was immediately
smitten — he was a lawyer in his 30s whose family, says
Robert’s first cousin Cici Bussey, “was like the Armenian
version of the Rockefellers.” His father had the largest
meat-packing company in Southern California; they had a
mansion, Rolls-Royces, a tennis court. Kris was not a party
girl, and in no way a Bohemian, says Bussey; she and Kardashian shared the desire to start a large family. They were
married in 1978, and Kourtney was born 9 months and 23
days after the wedding.
“We got a call from ryan
seacrest asking if We had met
With the kardashian sisters.
i said, ‘honest to god, i’m not
sure there’s a shoW there.”
— lisa berger, executive vp original programming at e!
“Kris was close to Robert’s mother, Helen, who was the
matriarch of the family,” Bussey adds. “In those days, Armenian women were there to run the household, and that’s what
the mother did. But she was a very smart woman, and she
and Robert’s father were savvy business people, and Kris
always listened to them closely. “
But by 1990, she and Kardashian divorced. It was mostly
amicable, but the 1994 Nicole Brown Simpson killing and
O.J. Simpson’s murder trial the following year caused a rift
between the couple: Kris was one of Nicole’s best friends, and
Kardashian had famously renewed his lawyer’s license so he
could join O.J.’s defense team. (“Robert believed O.J. was
innocent … at first,” Bussey says.)
In 1991, Kris married Bruce Jenner, whom she met on a
blind date. He was doing a few public appearances, a little
52 | The hollywood RepoRTeR | 02.25.11
motivational speaking and playing a
whole lot of golf. Early in her second
marriage, Kris — who never attended
college — recognized the potential in
her husband and began overseeing his
speaking engagements and management deals.
“My mother has just always been this
‘Let’s make water into wine’ person,”
Khloe says. “She knows how to take
one small talent or ability and grow it
into something huge. That’s what she
did with Bruce. He would have been
happy to spend the rest of his life golfing, and that’s what she did with us.”
By 1994, she and Bruce launched a
line of stair-climbing fitness equipment
via a self-produced infomercial, “Super
Fit With Bruce Jenner,” in which they
both appeared. The ad campaign was a
success, running 2,000 times a month
in 17 countries. “I started doing television and really enjoyed it,” Kris says.
“And as my girlfriend Kathie Lee’s dad
Kylie Jenner (left),
use to say, ‘Find out what you love to
Ryan Seacrest, Kris
do in your life and then figure out a
Jenner and Kendall
Jenner at Game 7 of
way to get paid for it.’ That became my
the 2010 NBA Finals.
motto.” Eventually, the never-camera“If I work hard enough
to set my children up
shy Kris parlayed her on-air talents
for the rest of their
into a short-lived correspondent gig for
lives, then my job here
is done,” says Kris.
ABC’s daytime talk show Mike & Maty
during the mid-’90s.
Longtime business associate Jack Kirby, who produced the
couple’s informercial, says Kris had a sharp business sense
from the beginning, knowing when to draw the line and
walk away from deals. “I lovingly refer to her as the Velvet
Hammer,” he says. “A lot of time women in this business are
unfairly categorized as bitchy. Kris was a smart woman and
recognized that, so she would go on a charm offensive and
make you love her.”
While Kris might have discovered her passion for show business, the birth of her two daughters with Bruce — Kendall, in
1995, and Kylie, in 1997 — put her newfound career on hold.
But a decade later, she was ready to get back into the business. “She was divorced from Robert Kardashian, so there
was some money,” Bussey says. “But she had four children,
and Bruce had four and then together they had two more.
That’s a lot of people to support — and to support well.”
Kim made her film
debut in 2008’s
Disaster Movie
Promoting
European travel
Kim appeared on
Season 7 of
Dancing With
the Stars
Packed personalappearance
schedules
13 million-plus
Twitter followers
Five seasons of
Keeping Up With
the Kardashians
Khloe’s PETA
campaign
Khloe & Lamar
(production
begins this year)
Miscellaneous
Television
Kardashian Konfidential sold
13,000 copies in its first week
Weekly magazine
deals and photo ops
Two seasons of Kourtney
& Khloe Take Miami
Kim is the EP of E!’s
The Spin Crowd
Dash Boutique
stores in New York,
Los Angeles
and Miami
E! is airing the first season
of Kourtney & Kim
Take New York
Kim appeared
as a Charmin
spokeswoman
endorseMenTs
Kardashian
for Bebe
clothing line
Khloe endorses
U by Kotex
Ill-fated Kardashian
credit card
The Brissmor Co.
launched a Kim
Kardashian watch
Famous
Cupcakes
now, in kris’ bedroom —after a tour of the “1940s
glam” house that she’s renovating, complete with a staircase
seemingly modeled after the one in Gone With the Wind —
she addresses the moment that changed everything.
It was February 2007 when Kris’ second oldest, Kim —
then best known as socialite Paris Hilton’s perpetual sidekick — sat her mom down for a confession: She had made a
sex tape with her then-boyfriend, musician Ray J. brother of
singer Monica. The kicker? A third party had sold the tape
to adult video distributor Vivid Entertainment, and it would
be going on sale at the end of the month. The celebrity press
soon exploded with every last graphic detail of what the
tape contained.
The timing could not have been worse. Inspired by
the success of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne’s family, Kris
There are no signs of consumer burnout as the family
extends its tentacles into paid appearances, product
endorsements and every brand extension imaginable
Sears lifestyle
collection due
this summer
Kim Kardashian by
Kim Kardashian
Belle Noel
jewelry launch
QuickTrim spokeswomen
Rejuvicare
beauty products
Skechers Shape-ups
ShoeDazzle.com
co-founder and
chief stylist
Carl’s Jr. campaign for the
cranberry apple walnut
grilled chicken salad
Additional endorsements: Muscle Flex active wear collection;
Fit in Your Jeans by Friday workout DVDs; Kim as the face
of Midori liqueur; K-Dash clothing line for QVC; Kardashian
Glamour Tan sunless tanning lotion; Kim’s music video “Turn It
Up”; Kourtney’s limited-edition Belly Bandit; Kardashian
Silly Bandz; Kardashian’s for Virgins, Saints & Angels jewelry line;
Khloe & Lamar: Unbreakable unisex fragrance
www.thr.com | The hollywood RepoRTeR
| 53
how to make $300k
from one wedding
Step 1 Announce engagement. Cutdeal
with OK! Magazine worth nearly
$300,000 for the official photos and
interview.
Step 2 Promise vendors ample airtime
and promotion in exchange for free
services.
The genesis of Keeping Up With the
Kardashians was a casual meal at the Jenner home in 2006. Kris recalls the evening:
“My girlfriend Deena Katz, casting director
for Dancing With the Stars, was having
dinner and watching the craziness swirl
around and said, ‘You guys have to have
your own show.’ My friend Kathie Lee was
saying that for 35 years!’ ”
It wasn’t just idle talk on Katz’s part. She
had been at Ryan Seacrest Productions
earlier that day and heard the multihyphenate was looking for the next family reality
series and suggested Kris book a meeting.
While the dishes were practically still on the
table, she had already scheduled a sit-down
54 | The hollywood RepoRTeR | 02.25.11
with Seacrest. “I went and pitched the idea to Ryan, and he
loved it,” Kris recalls. “Right out of the gate, he said: ‘We’re
in! We’re doing this!’ He took it to E!, and they signed on.”
Seacrest and Berger, however, recall the chain of events
slightly differently. Seacrest, an exec producer on the show,
maintains he was the one who called Kris in for a meeting.
“The first time I met Kris was on a home video tape we shot of
a barbecue when we were looking to cast a family for a reality
series,” he says. “We saw the magic.”
But Berger was hesitant. “The family had been around town
with the sister idea [for a series],” Berger says. “When we got a
call from Ryan Seacrest Productions asking if we had met with
the Kardashian sisters, I said, ‘Honest to God, I’m not sure if
there’s a show there.’ ”
Eventually, Seacrest persuaded Berger to sit down not just
with the sisters but also their mother and stepfather. After she
witnessed the family’s “ball of energy” dynamic in person,
Berger decided to greenlight a pilot. “The addition of Kris and
Bruce made the show what it is,” Berger says. “What was most
noticeable was Kris’ sense of business. She wasn’t a typical
overbearing showbiz mom, but she knows how far she can push
her kids and how far she can push the show.”
Before cameras could roll, Kris called a family meeting to
The clan gathered at
Khloe’s wedding to
Laker Lamar Odom on
Sept. 27, 2009, in Los
Angeles. From left:
Bruce Jenner, Kendall
Jenner, Keeping Up
With the Kardashians exec producer
Ryan Seacrest, Kim
Kardashian, Khloe
Kardashian-Odom,
Kylie Jenner, Kris
Jenner, Kourtney Kardashian and Robert
Kardashian.
How Much Is That Kardashian Worth?
The daughters (and Jenner) get paid every time they set foot at an event
$6-$10K
BRUCE JENNER
$25K
KHLOE
$25K
KOURTNEY
$100-$250K
KIM
previous spread, far lefT: noel vasquez/geTTy images. europe: florian seefried/geTTy images; kardashian konfidenTial: sT. marTin’s press; scoTT and kourTney: alberT michael/
sTarTraksphoTo.com. reJuvicare: paul warner/geTTy images for reJuvicare. Tao: rd/erik kabik/reTna digiTal. dash: ap phoTo/Jennifer graylock. crediT card: Joseph bellanToni/
picTuregroup via ap images. famous cupcakes: krisTen noseda/corbis. disasTer movie: lion’s gaTe/courTesy of evereTT collecTion. peTa: michael Tran/filmmagic/geTTy images.
kim, khloe and kourTney: courTesy of e! enTerTainmenT. shoedazzle: michael Tran/filmmagic/geTTy images. dancing wiTh The sTars: craig sJodin/abc via geTTy images. khloe &
lamar: michael buckner/geTTy images for axe. spin crowd: courTesy of e! enTerTainmenT. kim kardashian waTch: david livingsTon/geTTy images. belle noel: fayes vision/wenn/
newscom. bebe: george napoliTano/filmmagic/geTTy images. quick Trim: michael buckner/geTTy images.
independently produced a presentation tape of a reality
show following her family and had recently begun shopping
it to different production companies.
“I thought, ‘Oh well, there goes the reality show,’ ” she
say. But you can either be a problem maker or a problem
solver. And I’m a problem solver. My job as her mom and
manager is to take care of the problem — whatever it is. I
had to cry and get upset in the privacy of my own room and
then come out and help her, because she’s my daughter.
What good is it for me to berate her?”
Claiming to have never seen the tape, Kris hired a crisis
communications expert to help navigate the scandal. “I was
way out of my league,” she says. “I would never think I knew
enough to care for a situation like that. What’s that Kenny Rogers line? ‘You got to know when to hold ’em and know when to
fold ’em.’ All I knew was that I had to make some lemonade out
of these lemons fast. Real fast.”
The fact that Vivid had to pay Kim a figure that’s been
reported at $5 million is almost beside the point. The sex
tape — one of Vivid’s best-selling DVDs in 10 years — put the
Kardashians on the map.
“My job was trying to take my kids’ 15 minutes and
turn it into 30,” Kris recalls. Shortly afterward, her
entire family would have to get comfortable
in front of the camera.
This spread, clockwise from Top: Jake holly/sTarTraksphoTo.com; asTrid sTalwiarz/geTTy images; michael buckner/geTTy images; Jason merriTT/geTTy images; T. conrad/admedia/newscom.
Step 3 Negotiate for E! to foot the
remaining bill.
has 40 million hits a month. People leave comments:
What shoes do you wear, and what lip gloss do you
use? My mom told us, ‘So why not be a brand for our
fans and give them what they want?’ Many of our
ideas [about what to endorse] come from our fans and
She shares her calendar
then our mother makes it happen.”
from one day: Feb. 9
Apparently, what fans wanted most was to smell
like a Kardashian. In August 2009, Kris and Kim
signed with Lighthouse Beauty to develop the Kim
3:30 a.m. Satellite media tour with
Kardashian fragrance. “She utilized her fans by
Khloe for T-Mobile.
asking them questions,” says Kecia Coby, brand
president of the perfume line. “Her fans picked the
7-8 a.m. Workout with Gunnar
package color, the bottle and the gifting program.”
Peterson.
It worked. The fragrance launched in February 2010
8-8:30 a.m. Return East Coast
and instantly became one of Sephora’s top-selling
business phone calls from the car.
products. (Kris has since broadened its reach to
Macy’s, Target and other mass retailers.)
8:30-9 a.m. Shower and dress.
Kim now charges as much as $25,000 to simply
9-9:30 a.m. E-mail correspondence
mention and link to a brand or company in a tweet.
from office.
It’s so effective a tool that businesses have begun
including Twitter clauses in their contracts with the
10 a.m. Meeting with Leonard
family, committing the girls to a set number of tweets
Armato about filming an upcoming
about their product.
Skechers commercial with Kim.
“I see a Twitter clause in almost every contract,”
10:30 a.m. Phoner with Seventeen
says APA’s Brian Dow, who works with the fammagazine about Kendall and Kylie.
ily on the majority of their commercial interests (WME represents the Kardashians as their
10:45 a.m. Phone interview with
talent agents). “It’s like having a photo run in a
writer for Redbook magazine article.
magazine. It’s another impression for a brand and
11 a.m. Meeting with QVC about new
another medium.”
Kris Jenner clothing line.
So how is business, Kris Jenner-style, done? Two
years ago, she met Keith Frankel, the CEO of nutrinoon Lunch with Lighthouse Beauty
tional product manufacturer Vitaquest. The pair
regarding fragrance launch for
soon entered into discussions with QuickTrim about
Khloe and Lamar’s Unbreakable for
a line of diet supplements and shakes. Before going
Valentine’s Day at the Beverly Hills
any further, Kris had Kim and Khloe test the prodHotel.
uct. Khloe lost 25 pounds. “Khloe needed to go on a
1 p.m. Phoner with Keith Frankel to
diet, and Kim wanted to lose a few pounds. Kourtney
review spring ads for QuickTrim line.
was pregnant, so she couldn’t participate,” Kris says.
Frankel brought his distribution contacts at GNC,
1:30 p.m. Meeting with Jupi and
Walmart and Walgreens. Kris brought her girls.
Sears for creative approvals for new
QuickTrim launched in October 2009 and has since
Kardashian Collection.
spawned $45 million in sales.
3 p.m. Creative meeting with Ryan
Kris recently also signed on with Kim in the new
Seacrest Productions at E! about new
deal with Skechers. The campaign, Skechers’ bigThe Kardashians, however, could never
series.
gest and most expensive to date, features both. The
have catapulted beyond the bounds of reality TV
multimillion-dollar deal was ironed out in about a
without the rise of social networking.
5 p.m. Drop by Khloe and Kourtney’s
week. Says Skechers’ Armato: “Kris gets to the point
After seeing the success Kim was having with
Kardashian Konfidential book signing
and says, ‘This is what I need for this to work for me.’
social media, Kris encouraged all the Kardashian/
at Barnes and Noble in Santa Monica.
She’s no-nonsense, direct and honest.”
Jenner kids to tirelessly tweet, blog and update
6 p.m. Finalize and approve photos
Kris has similarly taken charge of her daughters’
Facebook, “building fans one by one, and talking
for Robert’s new OP campaign.
public face time. “The first year, my goal was making
directly to the consumers,” says Leonardo Armato,
more of their personal appearances, which can be
CMO and president of Skechers, which recently
7 p.m. Dinner at home with Bruce,
very lucrative. I can book those girls every day of the
signed an endorsement deal with the Kardashians
Kendall and Kylie, Scott, Kourtney
week somewhere. So the goal was to raise the bar
(Kim’s ad aired during the Super Bowl).
and Mason.
financially and have fewer of them.”
There are testimonials and photo shoots and diet
8 p.m. Watch American Idol.
According to a high-profile talent wrangler, Kim
and makeup tips for everything they’re shilling —
commands a personal appearance fee of $100,000 to
appropriate to who they are and what they’re up to.
$250,000 per event, and can even demand up to $1
(To wit, after Kourtney and Scott had son Mason
million internationally. It’s been rumored that Kim signed a
Dash Disick, now 1, she became the spokeswoman for Belly
seven-figure deal with a Las Vegas club owner for a handful of
Bandit, a postpartum stomach cincher.)
2011 appearances. (Kris will not confirm.) “Kim sells,” a nightKim has led the way in incorporating her massive fan base
life source says. “You can have every celebrity under the sun at
(she has more than 6 million Twitter followers) into the decisiona venue across town, but if you have Kim Kardashian at your
making process surrounding their endorsements, empowering
them with a sense of ownership. Says Kim: “I have a blog that
c o n T i n u e d o n pag e 6 9
make sure her troupe was up for the challenge and
the long hours a show would entail. “They could
have all said, ‘Are you crazy?’ ” Kris says. “But every
single one of them was like: ‘We’re down. Whatever
you think, mom.’ ”
Having lived a fairly public life in the 1970s, Bruce
was the only one hesitant about cameras 24/7. (His
four children from his previous marriages rarely
appear on the show, including son Brody Jenner,
who appeared on five seasons of MTV’s The Hills.)
“If you know anything about Bruce Jenner, he
really doesn’t have a say in very much around here,”
Kris jokes. “We said: ‘Honey, we’re doing a show. Are
you in or out? If you’re out, then you need to move to
the garage because we’re filming a reality show.’ ”
As a newly appointed executive producer, Kris
admits she didn’t know the first thing about working
in reality television. She quickly made an important
decision: The family was going to let it all hang out.
It’s a credo she has stuck to. Kris and Berger credit
the family’s unabashed openness — take Kourtney’s
attempt to give Khloe an at-home Brazilian wax —
with the success of the series.
“Not only do we not have filters running through
our brains, we don’t edit ourselves,” Kris notes,
saying that even as a show EP she is hands-off during editing and postproduction. “The scene where
[Kourtney’s boyfriend] Scott [Disick] is shoving
money down the waiter’s throat, that was hard to
watch. But I said: ‘Leave it alone. Just show it. It’ll
be fine.’ I’ve said that every single time. And it’s
served me well from a business point of view.”
On Oct. 14, 2007, Keeping Up With the Kardashians premiered on E! to immediate success. Averaging more than 1 million viewers per episode in its
freshman season, the show, together with repeats,
drew an audience of more than 13 million during its
first four weeks.
“We had no idea they would connect in the way
they did with American pop culture,” Berger recalls.
Less than a month after the premiere, the family
began shooting a second season.
a day in the
life Of KRiS
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| 55
Kardashians
c o n t i n u e d f ro m page 5 5
event, those are the pictures that
are going to be everywhere.”
Kris also has a more-is-more
policy when it comes to magazine
coverage. The sisters are ubiquitous, supplanting “real” stars on
the cover of the glossy monthlies
(Kim’s controversial November
cover of W tied for the second-best
seller of 2010, her September Allure
cover was the glossy’s third-most
popular, and her June cover of
Shape marked the magazine’s
best-selling issue of the year).
For the weeklies, where they will
discuss anything from their weight
and love lives to baby-daddy issues
and breakups, the family often
demands a fee. Certain paparazzi
agencies have agreements with the
family to stage photos, sell them
and split the profits. Kourtney
and boyfriend Disick can — and
recently did — turn an afternoon
laying poolside in Cancun into a
$7,500 payday.
The sisters get in the six-figure
range —negotiated by Kris — for a
cover story, photo op and interview,
depending on the significance
of the topic. News of Kourtney’s
2009 pregnancy was sold in a
package deal for $300,000 to Life
& Style magazine. That included
multiple stories: the pregnancy
Kilar
c o n t i n u e d f ro m page 47
on releasing those titles that
already had a built-in buying
audience.” Similary, at Hulu,
Kilar has tried to use tech to
reform inefficient TV-culture
traditions.
Convinced of his vision, Kilar
often adopts a confrontational
style. He sacked most of the
original Hulu startup team and
replaced them with Amazon,
Microsoft, and Harvard biz
school cronies — “The Ocean’s
Eleven approach,” he told Fast
Company. As he sees it, Hulu
isn’t just a TV company, it’s an
anti-TV-as-it-is company. “He
was one of those people who
was going to win at all costs,” a
top Amazon veteran says. “The
intensity, the conviction — there
announcement, sex of the baby,
birth announcement, first baby
photos and body-after-baby reveal.
(Life & Style declined comment.)
When it came to Khloe’s
marriage to Los Angeles Lakers forward Odom, she did even
better. OK! Magazine received the
official photos and announcement
for just shy of $300,000. Kris also
had everything from the Lehr
& Black custom invitations to
Khloe’s 9-carat engagement ring
“donated” for the lavish affair;
Kardashians stand for? You can’t
be an expert in everything.”
Indeed, Bettencourt cites
the litigation surrounding the
Kardashian Kard, a prepaid
credit card the sisters launched in
November with financial service
company Mobile Research Card.
Under the contract, the Kardashians would have received $3 for
every card activated or sold, 25
percent of fees, a $75,000 advance
on royalties and a $37,000 signing
bonus. But when then-Connecticut Attorney General Richard
Blumenthal castigated the card
for its predatory hidden fees (of
which the family, as stated by the
contract, would receive a percentage), Kris attempted to quietly
terminate the agreement. The
card’s issuer is suing the family for
$75 million.
“It’s the sort of thing which
shows how careful you have to be,”
Bettencourt says. “It’s easy to lose
the fans’ goodwill.”
So far, though, America continues to line up for the Kardashian
buffet. The most recent spinoff,
Kourtney & Kim Take New York,
attrached more than 3 million
total viewers.
As the brood gears up for Season 6 of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kris sees no end for the
series, even teasing the possibility
of a reality series starring the little
ones, Kendall and Kylie.
“My fantasy is to have Keeping
Up With Kardashians, Season 26,”
Kris says. “Who knew it would be
this profitable? I should have had
more kids.”
Still, she knows that this
moment — no matter how long it’s
already been extended — might
not be forever. “We definitely worry
about overexposure. We never want
to get to a place where people are
thinking, ‘Enough is enough.’ ”
Additional reporting by Bryan
Alexander and Marisa Guthrie.
An employee Kilar once fired
recalls him saying, “I’m sorry, I
just don’t get what value you add.”
That’s what his Jerry Maguire
blog post is saying to his Disney,
NBCUni and Fox bosses — who
might be asking themselves the
same question about him.
The corporate insider says
Kilar isn’t out of the equation at Hulu yet, though “He’s
extremely bright and extremely
articulate. He’s charismatic,
a great salesman and a selfpromoter, but also a promoter
of his vision for the company.
The issue is what’s the next
direction for Hulu? More ads or
fewer ads, more pay or less pay
[for subscriptions]? What is the
natural evolutionary future?
Once that’s determined among
the partners and Jason, is that
something that’s consistent with
Jason’s vision? Do the visions
converge? If they do, he’ll stay on
board. If they don’t, he won’t.”
The content contracts that
make Hulu possible expire in the
summer. Will Kilar be there come
fall? One early Kilar colleague at
Amazon is philosophical: ”He can
be 100 percent right and timing is
everything. If you’re right about
something at the wrong time, you
can go down in flames. Or this
could be a brilliant, fantastic
thr
thing to do.”
just not the look we’re going for at
this moment, but thank you.’ They
said, ‘It’s not hardcore, just vibrating panties, nipple rings and vibrators.’ I was like, ‘Hell to the no!’ ”
To outsiders, Kris is both brilliant and walking a fine line. “If I
fault her for anything, it’s doing
too much too soon,” says Darren
Bettencourt, a manager for reality
stars including The Real Housewives of New York’s Jill Zarin. “If
you saturate the market, you confuse the consumer. What do the
“If you saturate the market, you
confuse the consumer — what do
the kardashIans stand for? you
can’t be an expert In everythIng.”
—darren bettencourt, manager of realIty stars
sources say she promised vendors
massive product promotion that
would come from the media circus
surrounding the wedding. In the
event that an item wasn’t gifted,
E!, it is believed, picked up the tab
(E! declined comment).
So what doeS KriS ever Say
no to? Recently, a sex toy company
hoped to sign Khloe and Odom.
“The company wanted to know why
I was turning them down,” Kris
laugh says with a laugh. “I said, ‘It’s
is I think for all of us a weird-ass
evangelical feel to the work. If
you feel crossed at any point, it
really gets your back up.”
But Kilar’s visionary stance
risks setting up a clash with the
business interests and corporate
cultures of the Hulu partners.
“Jason was and is a bold innovator and has been a little politically blind to the fact that media
companies build businesses
organically,” the insider says.
“It’s not, ‘Let’s get together and
build Facebook.’ Media companies build adjuncts and extensions of existing businesses. He
didn’t invent it in a dorm room.
He had capital, he had content.
Having said that, he built a
pretty f---ing good mousetrap.”
Within the tech world, though,
there is often an insensitivity
about more diplomatic concerns.
Credits for Campaign-o-meter: fincher: alberto e. rodriguez/getty images; granik: francois guillot/afp/getty images; nolan: neilson
barnard/getty images for wgaw; bale: stephen lovekin/getty images; wahlberg: darren mccollester/wireimage for gq magazine; adams:
kevin winter/getty images; bardem: rafa rivas/afp/getty images; franco: sonia recchia/getty images; bridges: dana edelson/nbc; sorkin:
craig barritt/getty images for wgaw; bening: heidi gutman/abc; seidler: jason merritt/getty images; queen elizabeth ii: chris jackson/wpa
pool/getty images; weinstein: pascal le segretain/getty images; kavanaugh: john sciulli/getty images; eisenberg: dana edelson/nbc; rudin:
kevin winter/getty images.
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