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| Jessica hands Tessa HER bathtub baby ducky. |
Smiles.
This is certainly a well groomed and polished-casual
camera-ready young woman, down to the tendrils framing her face and
the scarf framing her lower face. How fortunate she happened to have
pulled herself together this telegencially. So little in common
with those surrounding her - in age or attire.
the scarf framing her lower face. How fortunate she happened to have
pulled herself together this telegencially. So little in common
with those surrounding her - in age or attire.
I watched Jessica hand two little yellow ducky bathtub toys for a baby's bath to Scott and Tessa after their sd. One for Scott. One for Tessa. Scott gave Jessica a side hug while Jessica smiled at Tessa and I thought - ooooo, that must be awkward. Look at Tessa - she's obviously tense.
I also - even at first glance - didn't even know it was Jessica because she looked nothing like herself! Hair and general face shape but body and profile and hands weren't the same, nor was the chin/mouth. I thought it was a brunette fan approx same age and similar coloring!
But reading what others see, I see I was mistaken. That is Jessica Dube right there.
After this awkward Scott, Jessica, bathtub ducky gift, Tessa moment, Jessica and Scott MADE OUT per usual - in front of fans.
Then Jessica went back to her seat and Scott and Tessa went to get their scores.
I'm not sure if you're saying the bathtub-toy giver was Jessica or not?
ReplyDeleteThe girl in the stands dressed in same trench coat is definitely not Jessica Dube. So is that the same girl that handed out the rubber duckies and side-hugged Scott? Or was Jessica dressed exactly like that other fan?
No, it's not Jessica. Many fans decided it was, and that was enough to for these fans to take it and run with it.
ReplyDeleteThis season run-up has been an interesting exercise in how easily fans run with something - they WANT to run with something. For a bunch of skating fans, they are disinterested in skating-based stuff and way more interested in seeing massive soap opera stuff going on off ice impacting on ice. They're not too picky either - a fragment of information or a mistaken i.d. and - they're off! That's why we must all agree it would be simply IMPOSSIBLE to sham fans with a bunch of photo bombing efforts - fans are way too discerning.
For one instance, according to many fans, the ice dance team of Elena/Nikita (not enough of a follower to risk spelling their last names) have seen their chemistry and skating skills bite the dust because Elena has taken up with their coach and it's tearing Nikita to pieces. How do people know this?
Just start saying it - it becomes true. Just like them dating in the first place was something people said - and it became true. A whole storyline going on on message boards with no necessary correlation in reality.
I must give props to Jessica for her recent remarks on the last two (really three) years of training with Bryce - that ON ICE, in training, they did not think the same way. Not due to off ice issues - off ice they were very compatible - or a non-existent triangle.
Haha. Good snark.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that many fans will believe almost anything they see in photos or video, even when they're dead wrong about what they're being shown or looking at. Want to convince someone you're dating somebody else, even when it's not true? Throw up some photos on facebook of the two of you posing together. That's all it takes.
The message boards kill me. Some brand new poster got on FSU the other day and claimed to have all this dirt on Elena and Nikita, and everyone bought it hook, line, and sinker without even questioning who this new poster was or why she popped up out of nowhere. Same with the Jessica/Bryce off-ice stories. Fans want to believe drama existed where it didn't (some love triangle story), so they can blame bad on-ice performances on that off-ice drama. Sorry. Props to Jessica for finally coming out and said, "yeah, mine and Bryce's problems were all on-ice issues revolving around training and what direction we wanted to go in competitively."
^Many fans will also ignore, disregard or not acknowledge things that contradict what they've chosen to believe, and they'll jump on something picayune.
ReplyDeleteYep, Jessica said she and Bryce didn't fit "on the ice in practice." Which is true. This caused a ton of strain as far back as before they won the World bronze. They stayed together not simply because they were successful, but because of how well they clicked off the ice and of course because she trusted him - with good reason. He was always skating for two out there.
With fans, in addition to the tendency to take just about anything and run, piggybacking is very common. Someone drops into a message board with a bit of "insider" info, all of a sudden more than one well known poster hops on board claiming to have witnessed this very thing themselves - why, just last month in Halifax. And everyone's like - oh really? NOBODY goes "Why didn't you mention this before until a stranger dropped by to prime the pump?"
Sale/Pelletier is a case in point. Why is it that the most ardent proponent of the Tessa/David P. bullshit - a person who takes to twitter, this blog and every message board on the planet - had no idea S&P were even separated, even when they'd been separated for a year? But the Tessa/David P thing gets pushed as part of fan war jockeying and to her it becomes a fact and a righteous cause.
Social media, public appearances, press releases, general fan gossip are not good resources for learning what's going on. Fans can be led in the least likely direction more readily than they'll ever be led to the truth. Fans also lie their heads off just to stick it to other fans or to fans of skaters they don't like. That's just how it works.
And many prefer the scenario that allows them to believe the skaters' private lives are being enacted in public for them to observe. There is a terrible tendency to believe skaters (and other public figures) have no awareness at all, that the fandom construct in the great out there is not a consideration for the skaters or part of their reality when they consider what they want public - because that takes away the fun of voyeurism. Skaters want and most do take CONTROL, pre-emptively. Fan behavior hasn't really changed in years. Very few take control in as transparent and dumb ass way as Scott and Tessa, but control is definitely what they've taken.
Does anyone have the link to Jessica Dube's facebook?
ReplyDeleteI'm in no way denying that fans run with things they think they see, and I was guilty myself of not looking closely enough as to whether it was Jess. But I just wanted to point out that not everyone who assumed it was her did so because they think they have front-row seats to the skaters' private lives. I thought it was her because if the stuff put forward on this blog is true, which in general I'm inclined to believe it is, it seemed within the bounds of possiblity that they could set something like this up. I guess in retrospect it may have been too OTT even for them. But it seemed awkward in either the tense triangle or scripted context. Instead it was a fan interaction and not all that awkward, once seen in THAT context. I get that some types of fans bug you and I understand why, but some of us just find it difficult to navigate all the question marks.
ReplyDelete"it seemed within the bounds of possiblity that they could set something like this up. I guess in retrospect it may have been too OTT"
ReplyDeleteI personally don't blame you for thinking this was within the realm of possibility.
IMO, if you look at what has been done in previous years/competitions, this was not too OTT for them. This person wasn't Jessica, but I do expect this kind of thing from these people. Honestly, so far I don't think they have shown that they're aware of what OTT means.
I get the points by both of you - but it does underscore how people look at the facebook photos and how fans also don't register the many elements in place when Jessica is presented on camera vis a vis Scott - they only look at the headline.
ReplyDeleteIf they only see that, they'll be suckered every time because this crowd is as transparent as it gets. Look two inches to the side and they're busted. But -- most fans don't.
Never have we seen a Jessica with this demeanor around either Scott or Tessa in public - in fact we don't see Jessica interacting with Tessa in public, nor on facebook. So while OTT is not unusual for them, once again - CONTEXT. And we actually seldom see her interacting directly with Scott - even on facebook. It's always aimed to the camera.
OTT is in character for Team Virtue Moir, no question. But the specifics of this encounter, above, are unprecedented for Jessica/Scott stuff.
Jessica and Scott's interactions always have a specific context. They are two dimensional (photographs) or - if on video - buffered within an inch of their lives by Scott's family and friends to create the impression of interaction while in fact he's not dealing with her at all (Rick Mercer for one, the Kiss'N'Cry hug for another).
There's actually a considerable difference in the body language of the facebook photos and their credibility, and what's going on with the young woman above and Scott and Tessa. They have nothing in common. NEVER have we seen interaction like this, not even in all of the WTT KissNCry video.
Were this Jessica, every single thing going on in the video clip would be a first. But people just don't look past the message they're intended to receive. They don't contextualize, and they don't see if the details support the message they're sold.
In fact, if someone does believe the facebook photos, they'd recognize that this dynamic above does not exist in the facebook photos, not between Scott and Jessica and never between Jessica and Scott/Tessa both (or Jessica and Tessa in public ever).
But people just don't really take it in.
That's why I believe most fans prefer the clear, familiar storyboard dynamics of fiction when it comes to looking at their favorite skaters. They respond to those cues when it comes to figure skaters, disregarding obvious real life clues they'd apply if they thought these skaters existed in real life.
Skaters do exist in real life, obviously, but many fans (not all, definitely) have somewhat self-servingly placed them in a unique, fan-imagined category of famous enough to have message boards dedicated to them, fan fiction written, and all that, but not famous enough to have a strategy to protect themselves from fans.
Rather, they're happy to enact their private lives in public and go out of their way to do so. That's how fans see it - it's a fic-driven read.
Many people register a first impression and don't look again. So they see no disparity between how this young woman carries herself and interacts with VM and how Jessica has done it in the few times on camera she's been in the vicinity of both of them. Jessica doesn't even carry herself this way in photographs.
OTT is not unusual for them but an unbuffered interaction between just the two of them and Jessica in public is unprecedented.
In the Kiss'NCry after the Olympics setting up a public "hug" between Jessica and Scott, Scott was surrounded by an entourage that included Tessa's father, who practically walked into them, Scott's coaches, his best friends, his parents, Debbi Wilkes, and fellow skaters (and Jessica had Bryce behind the scenes).
ReplyDeleteJessica's arm was gripped by Debbie Mac as she was led to Scott, Scott looked at Debbie, and Jessica didn't "hug" like a gf, but like someone setting herself up for lift-off - she anchored her arms around his neck and just hung off him.
People edit that stuff out and just see "Jessica hugging Scott."
She doesn't interact with Scott like this young woman. So the above is way too OTT for them in the specifics.The specifics are a flag.
Sure, it's possible that some sort of Jessica encounter at the short-dance could be set up. But this type of unmoderated meet-up, with the young woman able to handle it on her own, with affectionate byplay with Tessa included - has never happened.
Don't just look at the foreground. Look at the context.
The situation in the screen caps above interests me on its own, actually. For a few reasons. The one I'll specify being - this young woman is prepared to be on camera. Every detail is straight out of the "what to wear when you're on camera" guidebook, including hair and make-up. The people around her are all skating ladies, but she's not. She's different in age and how she's dressed. She does not handle herself like a fan. She handles herself like a peer or some type of professional.
Interaction accomplished, back she goes to her seat - no gawking like the skating ladies around her.
The whole thing is framed awfully neatly. But the intent is just a guess, obviously.
Someone on FanForum said that Tessa was spotted with a possible boyfriend or maybe it was just one of her brothers?
ReplyDeleteLooked like security to me if he's the guy in the photo this fan posted later.
ReplyDeletehttp://twitter.com/CrystalMacIntos - guys this is just embarrassing. I already reported this person.
ReplyDeleteHahaha, some fans go again. She was sitting next to him! He must be her boyfriend! There's no other possibility that exists which can explain the fact that she's SITTING IN A CHAIR NEXT TO HIM ZOMG. LOL.
ReplyDeleteI had a feeling Skate Canada International was going to bring on this kind of ridiculousness. Too many fans hoping/wanting to see something they can gossip about and then run with, and too big of a stage full of fans not to provide that for them.
^She's not doing anything reportable really.
ReplyDeleteAs to the topic - the first photo I saw was in a corridor and he looked like a big security type. The second photo was in the stands with what looked like conscious placement of Scott a bit away from Tessa, Tessa's mom on her left and guy (who does resemble Semple quite a bit - he's got a distinctive nose) on her right.
That's not an accident, especially if they are not going OTT with Jessica stuff this time.
Oh - fan above me - you beat me to it.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I wouldn't write off VM intending fans to take it and run with it. In fact I'd bet on it, particularly with Scott seated quite a bit away, and her mother anchored on her other side (VM like buffers - it might be their idea of propriety).
99% of the sham is proximity anyway.
They always do back door stuff, always, if they feel blocked in one direction. If this sham is one thing, it is TENACIOUS, and they are absolutely obsessed with doing this stuff at Canadian competitions.
This is how they did it when the story was put out that Tessa was dating Fedor. Lots of fan reports of seeing Fedor sitting next to Kate Virtue and Tessa. OMG! That of course means Tessa is dating the dude next to her and her Mom!
ReplyDelete*rolleyes*
I agree with the blogger, it's a very deliberate placement, especially with Scott a few seats away.
What I think people should be concentrating on is the rubber-ducky moment and what was being said...
True, and when people are actually dating it's not "studied' in this manner. You don't see Charlie White figuring out how to conspicuously place himself in proximity to Tanith when he's in public - it's just normal.
ReplyDeleteThis guy might be like the guy at Leanne's wedding - he's there, they're acquainted, he's a good stop gap if they don't want to draw to much attention to bullshit by doing overt Jessica stuff. Here they've covered all the bases - the families are buffering both Tessa, Scott, it's the pairs comp so people are noting Scott and due to that, Tessa's seating arrangement stands out.
Temple has a big time travel schedule though - they may need to pull in that guy Tessa posed with at Leanne's wedding for the rest of the Canadian season photo ops.
I agree re the bathtub rubber ducky(s) but many people only pay attention to what they're already invested in believing. They're dug in, and write off anything else.
Alma Moirs reputation is spreading on the Net.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.datalounge.com/cgi-bin/iowa/ajax.html#page:showThread,10981049,2
Well, on datalounge you've often got people beating the same drum - there's been someone there before who likes to say Tessa has the brains, Scott is hiding his head in the sand about the intent to flush out gays. They sort of use the best known people in SC as characters in the message they want to deliver in their post.
ReplyDeleteI think Alma did herself no favors with the interview about Kurt Browning, Brian Boitano, and "gay image" - but that WAS ten years ago. It's an indicator of the insular, parochial bigotry around figure skating - attitudes that led to the way things remain today, but it would be nice to think some of these people have evolved. Although William Thompson's current hiring practices makes that seem like wishful thinking.
It would be nice of some of these people pro-actively changed their tune NOW.
The anti-bullying message done recently by BOTB in response to Jamie Hubley's suicide was well-intentioned, but avoided the "G" word. Some of the messaging ends up implying - stop bullying people! Just because they're figure skaters doesn't mean they're gay!
Which is not helpful. That's what I get from the emphasis that figure skating is "masculine", too.
Bryce Davison recently copped to the words everyone wasn't using - he said we all know the words we're not saying.
Until you say the words, any pro-tolerance campaign is going to be useless.
Skate Canada thinks gay = figure skating is bad for its economics and thinks that parents want the reassurance. None of this is solved by reiterating "it's not gay it's not gay it's not gay!" in all the many ways Skate Canada stupidly tries to deliver that message. You figure out how to make figure skating seem fun, inclusive, non-elitest and feel-good, for audience and participants alike. So much of television today is inclusive and figure skating could easily fit right into the Glee, Modern Family, AI, DWTs wheelhouse - we're like that! This looks familiar, right? Fun, smart, super talented young people of every type!
Skatebuzz's weirdly lit, drearily scored and oddly cut, very sterile video pieces don't cut it. All I get from their videos is someone is insecure and has a fascination with professional video equipment actually filming skaters. Look again - it's so very cool.
Finally, the boards look pretty naked this season at SC. Just minor sponsors, white space, and SC.
As they need sponsors, and as William Thompson hired Barb MacDonald in a climate where a Barb MacDonald is the LAST person anyone with common sense, a sensitivity chip and professional smarts would ever hire, I am very curious to see exactly who they get to come on board. They have to get someone, and if that sponsor comes with a lot of baggage, oh well.
And never mind that the person who put SC in the position of potentially having a toxic sponsor is William Thompson. If it weren't for his hiring and budget decisions since 2006-2007, Skate Canada wouldn't have to lie down with dogs, get up with fleas, then turn around and make deals with the devil.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/more-sports/skate-canada-searches-for-sponsors/article2219130/
ReplyDeleteOh please, spare us, Bill:
"Many sponsors jumped onto the Vancouver Olympic bandwagon, Thompson said, but after the event was over, there was “clearly a drop in sponsorship generally for sports and they are all struggling.”
A weak economy that followed didn’t help, he said. "
Yeah, Hilton just ran away from the USFSA, didn't it?
And Skate Canada totally planned it like this - hold the Olympics in Vancouver and do well in figure skating, but for sure all the major sponsors would run like rats from a sinking ship not immediately afterwards (that was Homesense) but a year afterwards (that was BMO). BMO didn't abandon SC because of the economy - it's been behind SC for fifteen years.
The US is not a skating country but it has sponsors because it has a marketing and sponsorship INFRASTRUCTURE and it knows how to manage its organization.
SC doesn't have that infrastructure, only talking heads, so when it lost the sponsors it was flatfooted with no mechanism in place to get a new one. It might get one by NEXT YEAR? Two years afterwards.
Please - sponsorship has not affected all sports. Don't hide behind the economy and all sports - that's an insult to THEIR marketing and sponsorship programs that have succeeded.
http://twitter.com/#!/SemplySkiing - the guy's twitter...I read he was sitting next to Jessica & Scott's cousin during the FD.
ReplyDeleteHow do Jessica and Scott have the same cousin?
ReplyDeleteI think the poster above meant Jessica -- Scott's cousin -- Dude.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Scott has a cousin named Jessica.
ReplyDeleteHis Aunt Carol is attending. Perhaps one of her daughters is also there, and sat next to Semple for the free.
That's what I (Anon @ 1:12) was trying to say. Jessica in one seat, Scott's cousin in the next, whoever this Semple dude is in the third.
ReplyDeleteYeah, sorry about that. I meant that the seating arrangement was Jessica, Scott's cousin (whatsherface again?), then that guy.
ReplyDeleteIf indeed it is Cara (Scott's cousin) that is seated in between Jessica and Mr. Semple (skier dude) during the FD...she will need a couple of drinks tonight, lol...
ReplyDeleteCara is such a wonderful cousin, always looking out for Scott's SO and now Tessa's too.
ReplyDeleteAwwww.
Lol. There's something so conspicuously self-conscious about the way they do these things.
"Look everyone! Cara with the SO's" (They can't be trusted on their own, and this gives the public Moir-family stamp of approval.)
*rolleyes*
Oh - thanks for the clarification. I was not getting that at all.
ReplyDeleteConspicuous and self-conscious doesn't even begin to describe how they do things, and the nuances they try to incorporate in order to cover certain bases and also to work both sides of the street just enhance it. The Cara thing is just conclusion-by-association - Jessica sits with Cara, who is practically Scott - Cara is Scott's wingman when shamming is afoot, she's also the designated wrangler when Scott's not around. Ergo, by sitting next to Cara, it is established Jessica is attending as Scott's "gf". So why not just slap the "guy" next to Cara's other side.
It's interesting to speculate WHY wing-people are insisted upon. Scott must find Jessica just wonderful company.
is there anyway the new bf is a way to phase Jessica's part out?
ReplyDelete^Here's what I think is likelier:
ReplyDeleteI think they couldn't do the usual Moirs + Jessica overkill this year since too much attention has been paid to the shenanagans in the stands from previous comps - and in addition there is possibly a question that it is unethical for Skate Canada to use its resources to basically hoax the paying and viewing public. In the past, Skate Canada has actually put personnel on this Jessica/Scott hoax.
Since it was scaled back but they still wanted people to understand Scott and Tessa are NOT a couple, yet Scott and Tessa don't precisely fall over themselves acting distant, they enlisted a this-event-only reinforcement in Ryan Semple, so if you missed Jessica, you DID see Ryan and if he's not a bf, you might conclude at the least that Tessa is playing the field, out there dating around.
I still think it's hilarious to have Cara minding both of them. In the world of sham code, that makes no sense.
Boy, they are desperate to hide the truth. That post-SD gift exchange was certainly entertaining though, as far as what was said.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't the addition of Ryan Semple to the mix kind of throw a wrench into your tidy little theory? Are we really supposed to believe that they've now recruited a skier to act as Tessa's boyfriend?
ReplyDelete^You can't possibly take that stuff at Skate Canada seriously, can you?
ReplyDeleteOC, not signed in.
I think Tessa & Ryan are legit. His friend replied to him on Twitter congratulating Tessa.
ReplyDeleteUm yeah, I do take "that stuff" at Skate Canada seriously. As the other anon said, I think that Tessa and Ryan are legit as well. I also took a look at his Twitter and saw the reply.
ReplyDeleteYea I am very interested in your take on this Ryan Semple relationship I honestly don'e see how he could be "recruited" to be part of this scheme. And if you really do have proof this is the time to reveal it.
ReplyDeleteHahaha. Some fans are so gullible its just sad. You think its that hard to be asked to come sit next to people and take in a competition when you probably know and befriended them from other Olympic events in Canada? Or that its that difficult for a friend to send a quick set-up shout out on twitter? You think this is a logistically impossible thing to do or something? Sometimes I think the V/M camp must sit around and think "this is way too easy, some fans are so easy to dupe."
ReplyDelete^ That's what I'm thinking - it's almost embarrassing in retrospect how much overkill Team Virtue Moir does when fans bend over backwards to hoax themselves.
ReplyDeleteFan vanity strikes again. Fans want to believe people's private lives are conducted IN PUBLIC - on twitter, on fb, scrutinized by every camera in the building at a fan competition - and the skaters themselves are completely guileless and taking no control. They're unaware!!! They didn't plan for it!
I'm also going to slot in a reminder here that I'm aware when a single poster comes in and posts as if they're several. I don't go looking for it but when likeminded show up out of the blue harping on the same thing in the same way - it's a tip off.
listen here... this is me you dummys. this isnt jessica dube, its me and sorry if i like to look decent. geez. what did you show up in sweats??? swear to god. if you spend your time making comments and analyzing if its jess or me you should probs get a new hobby.You are just jealous that you didnt get to meet him. and i met him twice. so get over it. GET A LIFE. i was there visiting with my famjam. and to prove its me, my scarf is tna. check it out. fact. FRIGGEN FACT.hahah lol. im not mean im just laughing at the comments here....
ReplyDeleteWas the caption about this girl being polished just sarcastic in terms of there aren't a lot of young people that go to these events or did you think there was anything significant about her appearance?
ReplyDeleteYes it's excellent and very informative. It’s my first time that I visit here. I found a lot of informative stuff in your article. Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteInline skates & Ice hockey bag