I think they do it because it's so disgusting people can't imagine such lovely people would use babies as props to work fans over and fuck around with the public.
Of course they will
Whether this photo is set up to lead fans on, to bait a trap for a false assumption and then pull the rug out, or to flat out shove a prop in Jessica's arms - it's manipulation. A game, and they're using an infant for it. They're exploiting people's assumptions about what's sacred and people's assumptions about the respect the Virtues and Moirs have for themselves and others.
Just assume Team Virtue Moir are always dealing in bad faith. You'll be on solid ground.
All but one of Jessica's profiles since being restricted have been sham, and that may have been because a Muskoka profile pic was called out in advance. When Jessica's facebook wasn't restricted, she'd rotate profile pics. For sham season, up would pop sham photos. Then she'd restore the profile to something else. Since her facebook profile is all that remains open to the public, her profile picture has only been sham stuff.
Fans are meant to assume this is Charlie Moir's baby. If it's NOT Charlie's baby, it's a gotcha, nothing more. Either way, it's a chain jerk.
There's an ingrained streak of asshole in them. It's not necessary to accomplish their aims, not when all you have to do is shove Scott a few seats down from Tessa and sit a skiier who trains in Detroit to Tessa's right at the Skate Canada pairs competition with every camera aimed in their direction, every twitter thumb on blast, every blog and message board report uploaded before the arena clears - and instantly 90% of the fandom not only forgets Tessa's supposed to be dating David Pelletier, they forget to keep an eye out for Scott and Jessica.
I admire the logistical zeal of this year's Skate Canada. They killed a bunch of birds with one stone at the pairs competition:
1) Scott gets sham points by cheering on his beloved, and doesn't even have to spend time with her. His favorite kind of sham.Hell, it's the pairs competition featuring Jessica - that's time they'll never get back anyway so it makes sense to multi-task.
2) Tessa simultaneously plants the idea of Ryan Semple.
3) By piggybacking sham-on-sham, Scott and Tessa didn't have to carve out separate blocks of time for separate shamming, and got to be together while shamming.
4) The image of Scott, Moirs, Tessa, her mom + Ryan Semple can be re-contextualized as Scott/Tessa, two families and a family friend watching the other disciplines at Skate Canada. Should anyone look at these photos in the future, it's not necessarily immortalized as close-ups of Scott watching his "gf" and Tessa with her "bf". This future re-set is also enabled by Scott, Tessa and Semple departing a trois.
Bonus points for Tessa using Skate Canada to expand upon the initiative begun on Scott's fan page (where she was displayed in an actual candid with her actual passionately platonic skating partner on actual transportation). She actually watched Jessica skate, and then posed with Jessica (with a buffer, but baby steps) at the banquet.*
I think my favorite was the sham-by-association.Which is - Ryan Semple sitting on one side of Cara, Jessica on the other. Because it was Jessica with Cara, the dude HAD to be Tessa's bf, cause Scott's cousin would of course mind her cousin's skating partner's bf, since it's so important for Tessa's bf to Moir-up and all. Yet nobody blinks. It's a visual cue and fans skip the part where it's absurdist, and draw the intended conclusion. If this didn't actually happen - and it's only one fan report so far - I don't want to know.
They like logistics. Jessica goes to Ilderton to be with her amoreaux because there's nothing a long-distance couple enjoys more than to spend rare "us" time with parents, grandparents, aunts and cousins in a small town where everybody knows your business.
It takes a village to fake date Jessica, that's for sure. Even if mommy and daddy have barely cut the cord, you're not safe from being drafted for the cause.
This passion for efficiency undermines plausibility, but Team Virtue Moir isn't exactly playing to a tough crowd.
This is a crowd that doubts Tessa and Scott and their team are aware the entire arena has them on telephoto lens zoom. They're not famous - they're just figure skaters. Everybody knows everybody. We're all like family.
None of the "it's nonsense" stuff even hits most fan brains to get processed. Visual cues fire, conclusions happen, the usual fans piggyback with lies and embellishment - mission accomplished. Shamming is EASY.
Helpful brothers Charlie and Danny both procreate, so when two baby bathtub ducks are presented to Scott and Tessa after the short dance, nobody thinks - gee, why give Tessa one of the ducks - Tessa isn't even close enough to the Moirs to go to Danny's wedding - that's not much of a "congrats on your short dance" gift to Tessa!
People just swallow the contradictions and work hard to sham themselves while Tessa and Scott continue to bait and switch, push and pull and work both sides of the street.
Sticking a just-out-of-the-oven baby in Jessica Dube's arms for all to see is not necessary. We've already had the requisite side-by-side smiley sham photo with Scott in his Fred haircut. Do we need to pile on with infants? It's four years into this fucking thing - they still have it dialed to overkill?
It's fun now with Ryan Semple a potential new participant, now that Tessa's crawled out from the isolation chamber. A dual "mo-vember" shout out (Scott and Semple). Someone suddenly twittering their location along with twitpics when they never bothered before - except no need for a location tag when it's Arctic Edge.
When Aunt Joyce's blog was scathingly blasting Tanith Belbin and Evan Lysacek post after post, Tanith didn't corrupt every aspect of her life as a defensive measure. She and Evan didn't take more and grosser, inappropriate photos, didn't get competitive with fans. They stayed consistent. For those who didn't believe they were an authentic couple - it still served its purpose just fine. Nobody cared who Evan was dating - they just believed or didn't in his relationship with Tanith. And not even Aunt Joyce did the math of - well then who IS Tanith dating?
So it worked. But it takes common sense. And for all their self-flattery about unique circumstances, Team Virtue Moir seem deficient in real people, real world smarts and experience, and uninterested in acquiring any.
P.S. - Alma Moir changed her profile photo to one of her holding the baby above, so the first public photo of Quinn Moir was of the newborn being held by Jessica Dube'.
Way more sense to hand Jessica a matching duckie after her lp. Why make Tessa suck up a duckie when this past spring it was pointedly underscored she's not even close enough to be a guest at Danny Moir's wedding?
Meantime, Jessica, whom we're meant to believe practically assisted with Quinn Moir's delivery, goes duckless. It's Jessica at all the family events - births, Christmases, weddings, birthdays - not Tessa. Maybe they're implying Scott and Jessica are secretly married? She certainly rates as family. Where was her duck?
Charlie and Danny both married long-term girlfriends and are now parents; Scott's parents married and began a family when young, and Scott and Jessica have been a "thriving" "long term" "well known" couple thoroughly integrated into each others' families since around 2007 - and damn proud of it going by facebook. Considering Tessa Virtue has dated her coach's son, also gotten with a two-time divorced French-Canadian un-gold medalist pushing forty who has a toddler, and is now evidently dating a ski-slope habituee who enjoys twit pic-ing his "Mo-vember" progress from bed in "Canton, MI" - and considering Scott is now 24 - it is probably time for the media to ask Scott Moir if he and his girlfriend, Jessica Dube, have marriage plans.
Where are the normal questions? Virtue Moir have talked about their families, their childhood, favorite foods, shopping habits, school - it's definitely not all skating. On facebook and twitter they've opened the window on their intimate life- their separate intimate life, of course. They're not "keep the focus on skating" types.
A few questions about how the Scott/Jessica relationship flourishes over time, distance and different levels of success would certainly be logical. Ask what they said to each other when he won the Olympics and she didn't, how he supports her new partnership - some of the stuff Tanith gets asked and Charlie gets asked.
Why just show and not tell? Let's hear it, Scott, so we can watch on youtube forever.
The Moir family is - to say the least - eager to display how Jessica is the same to Scott as Nicole and Danny's Tessa are to Charlie and Danny. Wives. Jessica's current profile pic looks like Nicole popped out the baby and handed her to Jessica, that baby is so raw.
It's clear that right after anything of note occurs in the Moir clan the thought is immediately - let's use this to promote the Jessica and Scott hoax. It's so OTT it's like they have too much time on their hands or their lives aren't interesting enough. If you're thinking up new ways- looking for excuses - if you'd RATHER use your kid, your wedding, your holidays than rather not - then you do need to get out more.
Back to business. Why doesn't Scott put a ring on it?
What's she gonna do this Xmas - cook the turkey? How about if the Moirs/Dubes celebrate together? What's Jessica going to get as a gift? A guide to Audi repair and maintenance? Or maybe a History of Hyundai? Will she start skating with a diamond ring later this season, pose with it, but be coy about who gave it to her and what it means?
Tons of married figure skaters compete. Heck, some get pregnant right after one season concludes, keep skating practically til contractions, give birth, and are back competing before the next season is done. Bet Jessica's made of the same stuff. A skating career isn't a reason to defer questions about a wedding or settling down.
A good way to get off the "relationship' and "couple" topic that taxes Virtue Moir's patience would be to welcome questions about Jessica for real. Fans are so interested in Scott and Tessa, we're always told, that they pester every entertainment outlet that interviews Scott and Tessa, wanting to know their relationship status.Yet despite social media aggression and conspicuous family attendance at each other's competitions, Jessica's name is never mentioned to Scott's face for him to comment about - Jessica Dube, his teammate, his long-term girlfriend the well-known pairs figure skater - and it's such a great story. Especially the part about Bryce and Scott "used to be" friends. Let's get up to date on that and see if they've made peace. **
The Bryce/Scott rift isn't private - nobody knew about it til Menage a Trois - a Tellement Sport feature. It's not gossip - it was initiated by the subjects themselves, with direct participation from Jessica and Bryce. It was Moir-approved.
They brought it up because they wanted to enlighten the public about their private lives.They're the sharing kind.
Surely nobody will argue Jessica is kept on the dl to protect fan fantasies about VM. If that's your aim, you don't do icky photo shoots in swim wear. You don't have Jessica with a Moir newborn (shouldn't she be in scrubs? I feel like a prop op went begging.) as her public profile. You don't celebrate the holidays by blasting your facebook wall with 100+ red-eye photos of you and your amoreaux on "xmas" morning and "NYE".
Skating media - most media - is accustomed to making something out of nothing. Here they don't make anything out of a something that is begging for coverage. Why not? If VM won't cooperate, why doesn't the media talk about it anyhow? And why wouldn't VM cooperate considering how eager they are to shove facebook stuff at us and all the other stuff they do. If you want to hide you don't put Virtues AND Moirs AND a putative Tessa bf in the stands at Jessica Dube's first GP free skate with her new partner.
It's juicy stuff - the face slash girl and the gold medalist. It's all over social media but the entertainment /sports media doesn't touch it.
 | ||
| Figure skating media, helping Barb stage a very authentic looking "scrum" photo. Man, if these folks knew Scott/Tessa + Jessica were lying, they'd put on their Woodward/Bernstein hats and blow it wide open. We can see right here their journalistic zeal and integrity. |
Love the intense frowns of concentration on the Robert de Niros and Meryl Streeps up there. Who knew ice dance training was of such import?
If Scott spoke about Jessica with the same intent used to display photos of Jessica and Scott, relationship questions would die down fast. Surely speaking of it on the record isn't more disrespectful than the types of photos they've published.
If any relationship was asking for a profile, its own feature in People a la Charlie and Tanith, it's Scott and Jessica. Its long duration, the fan drama, their respective career trajectories.
His brothers have settled down, creating a natural topic starter. Scott's "dated" Jessica longer than Danny dated his Tessa. Interviewers have no qualms about asking Charlie White about Tanith right in front of Meryl.
I'd also like to hear Scott tell an interviewer that he's a new uncle twice over, but for him at this moment in late 2011 fatherhood is a long way off and he can't even picture it right now, but certainly looks forward to it some day.
He's a verbal guy - it's kind of odd he shows but doesn't tell. I'm sure he'd be happy to talk about it if the topic were raised with specificity - you know - names. Tessa and Scott tell great stories - I'm sure Scott has some fun stories about his life with Jessica. Let's hear Scott talk. Enough pictures.
Scott and Jessica are a legit entertainment/personality story, and it's fresh. No one's touched it in the English speaking media.
But if the bathtub ducks weren't for Scott's nieces, but another baby of baby bath and bathtub duckie age, that changes things somewhat.Then the reticence about bringing Jessica out of the murk of social media and into the bright, archive-able world of legitimate journalism would make sense.
__________________
*It actually shows foresight. Considering how blithely many fans on message boards outright make shit up about what they've seen, known and have heard, it's a good idea to establish now that Tessa is in the loop and enabling everything.
**Which raises another thing. In the Menage feature, Bryce and Jessica overshared about the "fact" that she "skates with Bryce and dates Scott MOIR". But there were key details omitted, such as why was the friendship between Scott and Bryce over? Did Scott "steal" Jessica when she was still together with Bryce? Or is Bryce just a believer in the "Don't date your best friend's ex" rule?
(How come the girls at Canton don't worry about the don't date your friend's ex rule? Fedor gets passed along from Tanith to Tessa to (insinuated) Jana to (claimed on fsu) Meryl and the girls sail along, all besties still.)
It's very unusual for high profile figure skaters to share this kind of personal dirt, and not a single media outlet followed up. It was like it didn't exist.
On message boards, it was around spring 2007 that some fans started saying that according to Scott, Scott was dating Jessica Dube. Jessica changed her relationship status to "in a relationship" around July 2007. But Menage didn't first come out til 2009, I believe. Why did they wait two years?
Let's look at the story elements that fail to interest the sports/entertainment media:
1) Male ice dancer from Canada, contending for the gold medal at upcoming Olympics held in Canada.Yeah - this is boring.
2) His teammate and close friend, a male pairs skater from Canada, contending for the podium same Olympics.
3) Pair guy publicly declares his friendship with the ice dancer is in ruins because the ice dancer is dating his partner/former "lover".
4) Ice dancer and pair girl proceed to spam social media with "romantic" photos, including kissing, on facebook where the pair guy can see it and fans can see it - right before the Olympics.
5) The pair guy still has to train with his ex for the Olympics - in the most dangerous figure skating discipline for the female. Yet the photos keep coming.
6) The female is a girl famous for having her face slashed by her partner's skate blade.
How will this impact the pair in competition? How does it affect Bryce to have Scott watching in the stands?
How does it affect Bryce that his ex girlfriend/partner, along with his former best friend are blasting "intimate" photos all over the inter-verse for the entertainment of fans?
Does this jeopardize Jessica and Bryce's podium chances? Does this affect Bryce's focus and put his partner at risk?
Is Jessica so thrilled about dating Scott Moir she'll risk her Olympic hopes and her safety?
Oh - and btw, Bryce and Jessica are skating to The Way We Were and claim Jessica has tears in her eyes when they practice it. They keep the program for the following season too, they love it so much. Then Bryce is injured and Jessica dumps him for a new partner.
Who would be interested in a seething clusterfuck like that? No wonder the media left it alone.
Skate Canada doesn't bring it up even though it brings up other ick, such as the time we got to hear that Jessica and Bryce were former "lovers". So it ain't taste holding them back.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed the Canton location tag on Ryan's tweets.
ReplyDeleteIt's odd that Jessica is now tossing up a pic of her with a baby. I had wondered if perhaps it wasn't Scott's niece but someone else's recently born child.
I thought it was Danny who had the baby, but that was a few months ago. It's a newborn in the pic. Did Charlie just have one too?
ReplyDeleteI really hope it's someone else's baby, someone who she's actually close too. It's so sickening if otherwise.
Apparently Charlie did indeed have a baby. O.o A girl named Quinn from what I can find.
ReplyDeleteSickening is the right word.
ReplyDeleteLong ago these guys crossed the line from simply desiring some privacy to outright revolting and appalling deceitfulness. There's a definite impression of them gleefully setting things up so they can sit back and watch the reactions.
They're jerks.
My initial reaction to this photograph was a sinking feeling in my stomach. If it is indeed the other Moir bro’s baby, a couple who have seemingly remained private in all matters of Virtue/Moir-dom, then it is extremely disappointing. I don’t see them posing with their newborn on their facebook profile pics (at least as of Tuesday morning).
ReplyDeleteSemple all of a sudden in the mix with blatantly obvious shout-outs, uncomfortable fan hugging interaction at SC with a female who coincidentally looks like Jessica, Tessa piggybacking on others to ‘unexpectedly’ resurface again on the internet (or create the assumption that she is coming out) – something weird is definitely going on.
Charlie Moir hasn't been that low key - Amy Leigh (Nicole's sister) hosted a sham album for Charlie's wedding that included the "just having some fun!" photo of Scott/Jessica at that wedding I believe. (Amy Leigh and Janet Carey hosted the wedding albums on facebook.) Amy Leigh has also turned up at different points on Scott's "private" fb wall.
ReplyDeleteI agree, using babies to pull the strings of fans who can't believe people would use their own babies like that is sickening. It reads as if the Virtue Moirs are amused and very aware they can exploit such naive assumptions to their advantage. They exploit the fact that many fans can't imagine they'd be this calculating with the parts of their lives most fans naturally think Team Virtue Moir would protect from this shit. Weddings, their own babies, family holidays.
It's a real advantage for Virtue Moir - that people believe the Virtue Moirs are certain types of people - the best of Canada!
The Virtue Moirs are genuine! One on one they're so considerate and generous!
Surely they're not compartmentalized to a toxic extent. They're not capable of being calculating and coarse. Or crude and vulgar, rude and petty.
Assumptions like that give Team Virtue Moir a lot of play for the base part of their pr instincts. It feels like fans are the adversary - long before this blog and they give themselves license for the "all's fair in war" rules. They see it that way because they want to, not because it's necessary or how it is.
Their rationale is Virtue Moir are coping with circumstances nobody could possibly understand except the half gazillion fans and connections and family that know their circumstances.
To manage these special, sensitive circumstances, nothing but the best possible advice from the most professional and experienced people will do - we can see that all over every move they've made in the past couple of years, right?
Surely such unusual circumstances requires the guidance of real professionals who know what the fuck they're doing.
Nope - too special even for that. Gotta be handled by family, friends and SC and former competitive figure skaters - those bastions of marketing competence and social media expertise.
Those two things don't go together - a unique situation and tasteless overkill - but maybe they can't help it. Maybe it's equal parts who they are, who they THINK they are, and who they think fans are.
As with everything connected with SC, they think they can do as well as and even improve upon what has been done in this realm before by smarter people with more experience and a better track record of success. Their ability to underrate the kind of ability it takes to do something they don't know anything about is kind of stunning.
And I know enough about their history and circumstances, and enough about the type of speculation they're trying to shut down to know how gratuitous 90% of what they do IS. That 90% goes to their character - or lack of it - not necessity, not strategy, not those "very good reasons" to which Tracy Wilson alludes.
oc (not logged in)
"And not even Aunt Joyce did the math of - well then who IS Tanith dating? "
ReplyDeleteThis becomes an interesting question in these circumstances. Who IS Jessica dating? Surely her life doesn't consist of being available for Moir family events to take pretend-couple photos with her pretend boyfriend.
As to the addition of Semple to the game, this is a good indicator of Tessa's personal involvement and her willingness to be just as OTT as Scott in what they hope fans conclude. Given the nature of how they've handled this, including the latest tweets from Semple, I can only assume that what both Tessa and Scott want is for the fans to think these people (Jessica and Semple) are the ones they're having sex with.
Talk about tasteless. These guys have majored in it.
They bait, set off triggers and fuck with fans because they don't want to own or officially commit to what they're doing. That means, they want to limit the Scott-and-Jessica stuff in mainstream media.
ReplyDeleteFans get the brunt of it DIRECTLY because Scott and Tessa are interested in protecting THEMSELVES from what they're doing.
Down the line, they'll re-set. They don't want a trail of media pieces archived on the web about Scott's big romance with Jessica Dube during the Olympic season and beyond. Not about how it was Jessica in Monaco, Jessica in Paris, Jessica in Mexico, Jessica in Los Angeles and by the way - here's stuff Scott said about their relationship. OMG - NO. That stuff never goes away!
Keep it minimal.
That's why fans got the short straw. So Scott and Tessa won't have to deal with it later and they can have as clean a record as is possible.
They're not ballsy like Tanith and Evan who told the legitimate media they were a couple and had anecdotes and little stories and everything and attended real events together. Those two owned their choices.
With Virtue Moir, nobody is telling the media or real interviews cute stories about their fake SO. No - we met like this, no - this is my favorite thing about Jessica, no our relationship has only gotten stronger in the four years we've been together. NOPE. I don't think I've heard Scott say her name. Where you'd expect a shout out in a mainstream situation - especially considering the flow of Jessica-and-Scott bullshit on social media - there's absence.
They shy away - in English language media anyway. Why?
They don't want that record, among other things. That kind of record lasts.
Well - not so fast - maybe it's because they're private!
Yeah - that's why the flow of photos from Mexico, the Dominican, a kitchen - wherever - make people cringe. They're so so private.
It's clearly not privacy or respect for others.
Scott didn't even talk about spending time in Monaco with Jessica. To the legit press, he said "we" (him and Tessa) spent "four days in paradise" after Worlds even though Alma had blasted her facebook with photos of Jessica in Monaco.
As Scott related ON THE RECORD, anyone would have thought it was him and Tessa spending four days in paradise.
Why didn't he say I went to Monaco with Jessica, my folks, and Tessa had her family, and my girlfriend's been great throughout this whole experience so it was great to be in a romantic location with her right after to celebrate.
Nope. Jessica? Jessica was in Monaco?
In mainstream media, at the most, there's the occasional name tag stamped on Scott's "gf" and that is IT.
Then they make up for it in social media cause we all know fans are too damn stupid to comprehend anything but getting beaten over the head - and there's no consequence to running a scam on fans. There's no consequence to lying on facebook. There's no mainstream push back or exposure.
So they have no balls. That's what makes all of this even more distasteful. That it's cheap and easy with no consequence to them, so taste, tact and respect not required. Just back up the dump truck and unload on fans. With the media, where it can affect THEM - OMG, suddenly so discreet.
I think Mark Twain said "I wrote a long letter because I didn't have time to write a short one." But here's what I'm trying to get at - it's sometimes said that character is who you are and what you do when nobody's watching.
ReplyDeleteWell, in this case - it's who you are and what you do when there's no accountability or consequence you care about. What do you do when you figure it'll never come back to bite you cause it's not in the legit press and because it's facebook it won't damage your brand or hurt your business interests? How do you behave when those considerations are missing?
If, when you bypass legit media and deal with your target through social media, as plenty of public figure do, but when YOU do it, you play people for fools and treat them like shit and jerk their chains because you can get away with it, that is revealing about your real character.
Scott on his fan page - repeatedly now masking sham bait with a faux genuine outreach, for example. Scott's baby nieces for another example.
Basically, what they do on facebook is apparently who they are when there's no penalty for being a jerk and no $$$ incentive for being genuine. So why bother not being a jerk?
Their famous good character can seem, in this light, to be nothing more than a product of cost/benefit analysis.
There's no brand damage. There's no media blowback. They're not damaging themselves with people who will hire them and give them cars, money, make a commercial with them, be a sponsor, write them up. Facebook isn't on the radar - that's for fans.
They show their best face to those people. They show their best face in PUBLIC, when they are present in 3D. However maladroit, fidgety, showing tells left and right, and contradictory they are when they interview, they are still very careful. So tasteful. So respectful. Considerate. So polite.
Because nobody's saying anything that is quoted in the mainstream media, there are no photos issued to the mainstream media, and legit media and certainly a skating media that allows themselves to be used as photo op props for Barb MacDonald is not going to introduce facebook into anything they write. They're all groupies/in the tank.
The baby thing really bugs me. I keep circling around the main thing - but it's really basically exploiting the respect people have for things like that - a newborn baby, a family wedding, family holidays - and the assumption fans make that the Moirs Virtues are normal and decent enough that they have the same respect and wouldn't use that stuff. The thing is the Moirs and Virtues are compartmentalizing. I'm sure they think all this is PROTECTING what they hold sacred. I also think it's so self-serving because they go overboard in social media but they are extremely careful and discreet with the mainstream media and the only difference is - shamming on social media just makes the fans look stupid. Shamming in legit media would be messy for THEM and also make them look ridiculous - not to mention, they're all building a family, and I don't think they want the kids to be able to see reams of legit media items that daddy had a girlfriend when they were a baby or where was mommy and why is daddy talking about someone else in 2010 when I was born and why are they kissing. Facebook stuff will disappear by that time - right? Direct-to-fan stagecraft will have expired with the flickr accounts and screen names.
Media stuff is archived. It's on the record.
So they're very careful about themselves, but to make up for it they are happy to make fools of fans even when it's complete overkill. WHY they are so bent on OTT is all about them and who they really are - it's not about fans at all.
"The baby thing really bugs me. I keep circling around the main thing - but it's really basically exploiting the respect people have for things like that - a newborn baby, a family wedding, family holidays - and the assumption fans make that the Moirs Virtues are normal and decent"
ReplyDeleteI had a nephew arrive recently. When I saw this, I was almost sick - literally. Things so special and it's a game to them.
One thing I can't understand is why this family is such a united force. There is always resentment or buried issues, even in the happiest of families. Are neither Charlie or Danny or their wives feeling used? Are they all a-OK at playing along and using their children this way? No one saying "we're doing this AGAIN?!" I get that the brothers love Scott a lot, but the idea there is no tension is hard to imagine.
^Maybe it's a way for everybody to participate and support. He and Tessa are the stars of the family - the star system works inside families too.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's those inside helping to "protect" their loved ones from "them." Plenty of families/friends enbable other celebrities in not-so-swift ventures.
Not to bring up Tanith again - but she's a good illustration - I can't imagine using Charlie's neice as a prop in her profile pic without Charlie also in the photo.
ReplyDeleteBut again, she's a real girlfriend, so she doesn't need to prove it.
At the Olympics, with Jessica's face front and center after Scott and Tessa finished their free-skate, and after Tom Hammond finished pointing out Scott's mom, sister-in-laws and dad as "Scott's brother Danny" - why didn't Tracy Wilson or Hammond point out "Scott's girlfriend, pairs figure skater Jessica Dube, whom we saw in the pairs competition finishing sixth with Bryce Davison - now cheering on Scott as he wins a gold medal!"
ReplyDeleteOther SO's got network commentator shout outs. The girlfriend, the boyfriend.
In pairs, Sandra Bezic mentioned Langlois/Hay were a couple, mentioned Dube/Davison wanted to skate to "The Way We Were" because they used to be a couple (yeah, that makes sense for an EX couple - let's yearn and regret on the ice - but of course fans bought that one).
But they go to all this trouble to stick Jessica in the Moir-cam and no network says there's Scott's girlfriend, pairs skater Jessica Dube, cheering with Scott's family.
They didn't do it at Skate Canada either, when Jessica, with Cynthia Phaneuf, was positioned dead center framed between the Virtue and Moir families. She's simply not acknowledged by network commentators.
And why didn't Scott sit with the Davisons and Dubes when Jessica and Bryce skater the lp at Nationals for that matter?
When a network does Olympic prep, things like the Scott/Jessica/Bryce supposed story is GOLD. So if someone at NBC checked that out, they were told - no, there's nothing there - it's one of those sham things. And the network would be - okay. Otherwise they'd be on it like white on rice.
Them NOT pointing her out is collusion.
Like the blogger has pointed out, the English-speaking media has ignored the Jessica-Scott narrative. However, it's interesting that for the French-speaking media, in Quebec, Jessica is continually very open about, "my boyfriend, Scott Moir", and in general, the media there has not been reticent about bringing it up and specifically naming names ("Jessica and Scott").
ReplyDeleteThis blog entry notes Scott's failure to give any kind of descriptive comment or anecdote about his "girlfriend". Yet, for example, Jessica, in that print article after the Olympics re. the "Most Beautiful People" was very open, saying that her boyfriend, Scott Moir, made her feel beautiful, loved her like she is, etc.
It's interesting that Jessica feels so comfortable with this subject with the "on the record" media. If V/M really think they've been careful about not leaving a forever-trail through media, they'll be surprised at all the "on the record" stuff that will be available in the Canadian French-speaking-media. And if they think this facebook crap won't come back to bite them, they're ignorant idiots.
^ Yeah - it's like Quebec is Mars to them - it's French - may as well be Farsi. They use it like they use social media - it doesn't count, clearly.
ReplyDeleteJust remember this is not JESSICA doing this stuff on her own in French. It's still like social media, it's still decided upon ahead of time by Team Virtue Moir.
Moir kids aren't going to grow up reading or understanding French, right and neither will their kids' friends - besides it's all tabloidy there so who cares. AND it's mostly Jessica stuff so it'll be searchable for Jessica, not Scott.
So they can get the benefit of being more explicit getting a little F-C sham outreach, and they think it won't penetrate their own world down the line.
I think Jessica got the "Hello" Most Beautiful recognition due to a Hello/Skate Canada outreach. It was more than a perk for services rendered - it was a sham plant. One went with the other - you get the Hello recognition but you make a sham reference.
It's French - they can only win. Nothing will bite them (or more significantly, people they love who are close to them) - in the hind end later. Nobody's going to be upset down the road running into this stuff - it's French!
Right?
oc, not logged in
I would first like to say that baby is cute! Second I thought you were completely crazy and over analyzing everything because I couldn't understand where you got the idea that the rubber ducks given to Tessa and Scott were for the "baby." But then I rewatched their short dance from skate canada just for the sake of rewatching it, and to my surprise somebody does shout out that the ducks were for the baby. I was like wait, what?! I was pretty sure you were crazy before, but now I'm not so sure just because of that 10 secs from the video.
ReplyDelete"I was pretty sure you were crazy before, but now I'm not so sure just because of that 10 secs from the video."
ReplyDeleteIf you listen carefully, it's not only said, "for the baby", but someone says, "For Scott and Tessa's baby." I thought I couldn't possibly have heard that but when I went back and listened with the volume up, I clearly heard it.
For me, what has been extremely persuasive from the blogger's arguments is the glaring difference between the social media output (facebook) and the legitimate media. It makes no kind of sense for someone to grossly parade the "real", "private", "intimate" relationship on facebook, while hiding the business/platonic partner, and feign discretion and respect about the "real girlfriend" to the camera, whether print or audio.
P.S. - I definitely understand the media not addressing Scott and Tessa's actual status without confirmation. That's the usual rule with someone's personal life (outside of politics and tabloid gossip), especially when the media focus is supposed to be on the sport. Of course like all sports it's sports/entertainment so reporting has a bit of both in it, but it's definitely not of an investigative or expose' nature, contradicting an athlete's own account of their life.
ReplyDeleteWhich explains why they leave Scott and Tessa alone. It doesn't explain why they actively enable Scott and Tessa and allow themselves to be vehicles for something many know is a lie, but that's the media world we live in.
What is curious is why the topic of Scott and Jessica is left alone except for when it's a Jessica interview. The Olympic profiles didn't discuss it - for both it was the best friend-i-ness of D&D and VM.
Even when Scott and Tessa discussed May training break, the article said Scott was going to Mexico with his "girlfriend" for his brother Danny's wedding. For God's sake, his "girlfriend" is a famous figure skater, whose face slash has over a million views on youtube, who is written up by many of the same reporters who write up Tessa and Scott. Where's the name?
Why do commentators see the camera panning the stands, right on Jessica's face, a figure skater they have usually reported on when she skated earlier - and not acknowledge her, only Scott's family members?
Why does P.J. Kwong, who is very sympathetic, mention that Jessica's singles short program last year was choreographed by Scott Moir but not say "boyfriend Scott Moir"? That is NOT gossipy - this is a "couple" that has been together four years and makes no secret of it - they go out of their way to put it in the faces of fans even when fans would rather be spared.
It's not gratuitous by P.J. if what Scott and Jessica do isn't gratuitous. But nope. The very basic info about this very steady longstanding couple - we don't get it on the record.
oc, not logged in
Public, mainstream media means Scott's own lips moving and his own voice coming out as he directly utters Jessica's name and tells little stories about their relationship.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't mean some kind of indirect way of doing it that leaves a first impression of being direct and on the record but isn't really.
It also means when Jessica is conspicuous in the stands and on camera the talking heads identify her as Scott's long-term girlfriend, pairs figure skater Jessica Dube.
Rosie DiManno, who is a pretty tacky, coarse, tabloid-esque "reporter" who enjoys covering figure skating, is also not the type to steer clear of a story as juicy as Bryce, Jessica and Scott - especially with lovely Tessa and the speculation about Scott/Tessa. She doesn't touch it. She slams in there with "they're only a couple on ice" she amps up the purple prose about Jessica and Bryce's history and the face slash, but although DiManno's customary writing style is vulgar, and a reference to the "triangle" is right up her alley we get nothin from her.
Scott and Tessa have cover because both baby Charlotte and baby Quinn have been facebook profiled - viewable to everybody. So if a fan a very polished, TV-ready fan - presents Scott and Tessa with a couple of bathtub ducks, viewers who think about it beforehand will be all - well, how sweet, Scott's a new uncle twice over.
That doesn't really explain why one duck was handed to Scott, and one to Tessa. Again, sure, fans who are viewing might be - they're both celebrating Scott being an uncle twice over! So what- one duck is for Charlotte, the other for the yet-unborn Moir? Which baby was Tessa assigned?
Besides it was for the baby, not for the babies.
But that doesn't skew with the separation Scott and Tessa pretend exists between their personal lives off the ice. I keep emphasizing it only because it really sticks out - we're supposed to believe that neither Tessa nor any Virtues went to Mexico for Danny's wedding - an event attended by other family friends and neighbors. She didn't make the cut or it didn't fit it into her schedule - Danny, the guy she wanted to win the Olympics with when she was in first grade. Scott's brother.
Why do this on camera after the short dance? A welcome back to competition you two - here's some baby ducks for Scott's neice(s).
Jessica wasn't at the press conference at Skate Canada cause she didn't make the podium, and she skated early enough - it's odd that Scott, Tessa and Semple took off instead of Tessa and Semple spending some time together and Scott going off to congratulate his beloved. They all three left the stands and went to the concourse - maybe they're setting up a sister-wife deal here with a brother-husband dynamic at the same time.
I love all the media inconsistencies you are pointing out. For a long time I told myself I was crazy for thinking V/M were lying, so I'm happy to see that finally someone is publicly talking about it.
ReplyDeleteWhy haven't more fans not picked up on the abundance of these contradictions and all that they imply?
After all this time (according to your observations, since 2007?) it's sad that so many fans have been completely suckered into these lies. For V/M's sake, I hope in the end a whole lot of fans don't end up angry and hurt.
Ummm…..you’re missing some info. Davison was dating ice dancer Jordan McKenzie in the spring and summer of 2007. Dubé couldn’t stand it and broke them up. She and Davison dated again until January 2008 when they “broke up for the last time”. Only not really.
ReplyDelete^That's not "info". It's rumor and gossip. We all know how reliable skating fan gossip is. We know how reliable message board and "skating community" gossip is.
ReplyDeleteI'm emphasizing the information the skaters themselves go out of their way to present to fans. What the skaters themselves publicize. The stuff they've initiated, and have pushed with aggression, directly to fans. THOSE story points.
Bryce announces publicly that he and the guy he's been friends with since they were kids are no longer friends - because the guy is now Jessica's boyfriend. Bryce faces the camera and SAYS that. Directly to us.
Shortly after Bryce declares how difficult it is to see Jessica and "her boyfriend" together, Jessica starts a routine of publishing romantic photo albums of her and Scott on facebook. Bryce and his family are her facebook friends, so are large numbers of fans. Her profile pictures now regularly feature her and Scott together.
Jessica's face had been slashed by Bryce's blade, and now they are preparing for the Olympics under what Jessica and Bryce inform us is a tense personal situation that Scott Moir appears delighted to enable and make even worse, by helping to rub Bryce's face in it via photo bombs.
The SKATERS are pushing this scenario, and the media just doesn't take it and run.
How come? See the point?
It's not that mystifying why the skating press wouldn't touch "skating community" gossip. Of course the media is going to ignore what anonymous screen names claim on message boards, piggybacking on each other.
It IS interesting that they ignore the Dube/Davison and Scott Moir "story" when the skaters themselves have been the ones to announce the situation exists, and continue to promote it on social media.
Dube/Davison & Scott Moir - the door is open. The skaters have said "this is our story."
But it didn't interest the media at the Olympics - when American networks are hungry for stories. It doesn't interest a tabloid queen like Rosie DiManno. Hell, Rosie recently wrote that the Dube/Davision romantic split was completely drama free and peaceful.
And it also doesn't interest the network commentators when Jessica's face is planted right amidst the Moirs. It doesn't interest the network when Scott, Tessa and their families attend a pairs competition in Canada.
wait, what? I never heard that the ducks were for the baby! Time to check YouTube!
ReplyDeleteLOL Scott's Movember FB status was so obvious! Did you also see that picture/video of the Royal Barbecue that Tessa went to? Ryan was standing next to her.
ReplyDeleteIt's also very convenient that Jessica and her partner are assigned to TEB just like V/M.
Yes -- the ISU adapted the new GP assignment rules, favoring split couples and comeback skaters (of which Jessica is both), just to ensure that the sham be fostered with more together time in Paris.
ReplyDeleteOn the ducks, audio's significance should be favored more than visual a lot of times, but people seem to be easily distracted by image and fill in the rest on their own. Try listening without looking.
"Try listening without looking."
ReplyDeleteI did. I distinctly hear that the duckies are for Scott and Tessa and for "the baby." Then someone asks, "whose baby?", and there's a response of, "Scott and Tessa's baby."
Are you saying you heard something completely different?
Granted, it could have been all about baby toys for the new uncle, but it's admittedly weird that there's no allusion made to that, no reference to "the new uncle", or "for Danny's baby." And in that case, why give each of them a baby duckie?
About TEB, I agree it's an ISU thing and is most probably coincidental that V/M are going to the same GP. However, being in agreement with the blogger's premise that Scott-Jessica is a sham and they have disgustingly spammed the fans with their facebook shenanigans, I'm expecting some more of the same from this coming weekend. Unfortunately.
^I could be wrong but I don't get the impression the poster two up is saying they hear something different, just that sometimes it's good not to be misled by visual cues.
ReplyDeleteAs for the assignments of Jessica and Sebastien, I am most interested in the fact that Jessica and Bryce got Skate Canada, rain or shine, year after year, champions or not, as VM did. But when Moore-Towers Moscovitch are new champions, SC sees no problem sending them to Skate America and Cup of China.
VM certainly don't need TEB to sham, but having the same competitions does allow to multi-task, versus setting up photo calls in their own time. So that's an advantage, and we're sure to see some Paris fun. However they don't NEED to have the same schedule to get it done, as last season (with both Jessia and VM off the GP circuit) and this summer have demonstrated. They are pretty fixated on this.
Yes, oc. I was basically responding to the number who missed the bit -- there was such fuss from some over the Jessica lookalike that the real import of that moment was missed.
ReplyDelete"Yes, oc. I was basically responding to the number who missed the bit -- there was such fuss from some over the Jessica lookalike that the real import of that moment was missed."
ReplyDeleteI'm the Anon who thought you were saying that there was no mention of the duckies being for Scott and Tessa. Sorry I misunderstood.
I agree, it does seem to be an overlooked moment. Apparently no one wants to go there.
I wonder why?