Dancing With the Stars judge Bruno Tonioli has even harsher words for Kate Gosselin.
"Kate is pretty dreadful," he said Wednesday on Lopez Tonight. "She's crap — but in a nice way. She is entertaining. People like disaster movies. We've got our own disaster movie there everyday. 2012 is nothing compared to the catastrophe she produces."
But he praised Gosselin, 35, for being "a tough cookie. She gets it in the face, she comes back and she tries to get better."
Sadly, he added, "it doesn't really work."
(He isn't hard on all the contestants, however. Though he initially thought Pamela Anderson was "going to be terrible," he said she "actually comes out and delivers a performance full of content and she works very, very hard, and she is good at it.")
Gosselin, who has survived two DWTS rounds so far despite disastrous dance routines, says in Thursday's USA Today that she doesn't think the judges have been fair. "But it's their option to say what they're going to say," she says.
The mother of eight says she is extra appreciative of her fans. "The fact that people really support me and want the kids and I to do well … is flattering," she says. "I never understood the importance of fans until we struggled and went through tough times."
The new Us Weekly (on newsstands now) reports that Gosselin has been standoffish on the Los Angeles DWTS set, even demanding that staffers contact her through her bodyguard.
"She acts like a major celebrity," a production source tells Us Weekly. It's a joke with the cast, like, 'Oh, look out — the bodyguard is watching!'"
She also hasn't bothered getting to know any of the other contestants either. Says an insider, "When she is getting her hair done, she is on her BlackBerry the whole time… [she] is not making herself likable."
Still, pro dancer Derek Hough defends Gosselin.
"If anyone is allowed to be stressed, it's Kate," he tells Us. "She is so out of her element. She can act any way she wants, in my book."
