Monday, May 7, 2012

Some people look at p.r. and ask why lie? We look and ask why not

Sometimes I feel as if Scott Moir finds himself very clever, other times it seems to me this crowd basically needs a reason to tell the truth, and it better be strong. Otherwise the default is lie. 

It's not enough that he has an official girlfriend and is spamming the internet with cheesy photos of him and her. What if that doesn't stick? So much is at stake - they're getting ready to do something no young people in love have ever done before - make it legal. If people suspected, ooh boy - what would happen?

The value of telling/selling/exploiting their story on their own timeline would go down, maybe? Worth a few lies to protect pay day.

From McLeans:
Q: In your book, you say you stopped communicating for a few months after the 2008 surgery. Do you mean you literally didn’t speak?
TV: We didn’t even send text messages. Isn’t that weird?* This time, we’ve been diligently talking every single day.
Q: Scott, why didn’t you call her?
SM: I think I was scared to hear what was actually going on. A couple of times the doctors had said, “Maybe she’ll be back by this date,” and I’d get excited, then it was constant letdown. Also, I didn’t want to tell her, “I’ve been at the rink all day, training.” I was thinking that’s not what she needed to hear. But it was a mistake. Clearly. It took us a long time to figure things out, because we grew apart so much in those two months.
Tessa had had surgery in early October, 2008 and returned to training in early December, prompting this fb status update from Scott: "Scott Moir is no longer a solo ice dancer!"

Below we have Scott and Tessa on November 19, 2008, at the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada fundraiser,  John Labatt Center, London, Ontario, (Snap London, November 19, 2008) just about midway through Tessa's "recovery".
Why didn't you call her, Scott?
They totally made that shit up, packaged it, sold it and acted it out on their book promotion tour.

For me, what is most distasteful is how cynically they corrupt the genuine parts of their personalities in order to market their lies. Tessa speaks in her clear, earnest tones, Scott nods and looks serious. They are self-aware enough to use their own real earnestness as a manipulative tool.

Something I've knocked around with here is the subject of religious faith as applies to this situation. Barb MacDonald is a professional Christian. Here, I'm not projecting standards/values onto them, but rather observing what they themselves project about their values, and what those values mean, and how well their actions line up with those values.**

Scott wears a cross and Marina Zoueva has mentioned his faith, and how when visiting his folks he attends religious services with them. He's also mentioned Jesus a time or two on his ("private") facebook - he's dry, but I'm going to assume he's not being satirical when he does.

Hypocrisy and mendacity on the part of those who profess to hold Christian values is old hat. Still, Tessa and Scott maintain they want to be nice people and yet they've done a large amount of lying, recruiting their "persona" to help sell the lies.  It's easy to speculate that they've fallen into the trap that many of staunch faith find themselves in: "Jesus loves me more than you." "I'm more worthy than you." "I have a higher goal that makes me an exception."

We all have special circumstances. I don't recall footnotes in the Bible. It's those who are in 'special circumstances' whose beliefs are put to the test. Are they real beliefs, or situational beliefs? Do you turn them inside out so black is white and lies are holy when it's convenient?  It's those who have really good reason to lie whose faith and values are tested and I don't think Scott and Tessa (and Barb and SC) are passing the test.

Unless it comes down to what the blog talks about a lot. It doesn't matter because a) it's "business" and most of all, and bottom line:  b) the people who are being lied to aren't as important as the liars.

IMO, as the sham looks for reasons to justify itself and chases its own tail, it has morphed to where they don't give a flying fuck if they're believed or not believed. They simply want their reality ruled off limits until they're ready to market their spin on the truth. If they cared they wouldn't play push/pull, wouldn't make no bones about their togetherness in front of many fans, they'd care about how many fans know what's up, and they'd make what comes out of their mouth match how they behave. They don't care. This is just a lot of filler noise because they need to do pr but they don't want to talk about the reality until it's all done, and maybe they think they'll get a bigger price for the truth with what Charlie calls a "shocking revelation" than if people knew the basics and Scott and Tessa filled in what details they deemed appropriate down the line. SC is full of drama queens.

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*Isn't that weird? Isn't that terrible?

I remember a period when interviews with actresses would often include a confession of something pseudo unkind or self-serving that they'd done, followed by "Isn't that terrible?" It's supposed to make it not terrible, and beg contradiction. I always wanted the interviewer to say yeah, it sucks and your telling on yourself isn't as cutesy as you think. Thankfully that quirk has mostly disappeared from celebrity interviews.

Tessa is acknowledging it's weird, so that is supposed to make it look like she's not selling it too hard.

**William Thompson, Skate Canada, CEO's customary manner of public address - i.e. "Be grateful you're getting any of my attention whatsoever" - is perhaps illustrative of the attitude influencing VM  marketing decisions.
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P.S. - being "nice", while - nice - is not, IMO, the whole enchilada of a person's character. Integrity is.

P.P.S. - I've been re-reading some of Malcolm Gladwell's stuff, and for those who have always felt there was something "wrong" with Jessica/Scott, and with Scott/Tessa's account of themselves, it wasn't a vibe you were picking up on; it was the whole mess failing the "thin slice" test in absolutely spectacular fashion. See Gladwell's Blink for the rapid cognition process I'm talking about.

Tessa and Scott during Skate America 2008 (October 2008)

This links to a video used on a blog post last year. Tessa and Scott said she had her original surgery in early October, 2008. Skate America was October 23-26th. I believe they also filmed some Olympic promo spots shortly after her surgery. It was a very busy estrangement they had.

22 comments:

  1. BHAHAHAHA, this is one of their most ludicrus lie.

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  2. Awww, look how cute Tessa and Scott are when they aren't talking to each other, or texting. In fact, by this time they were practically strangers, they didn't even know how to talk to each other anymore.
    Lol

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    1. Maybe they stopped off at the John Labatte Center en route to marriage - pre-cana - oops sports shrinkage.

      Except this is November and according to the book they didn't get counseling til after she returned.

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  3. Yeah, this is one of the things that I do agree with you on, that estrangement was a load of bull.

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    1. And do you ever wonder why they made it up? What do you think was the reason?

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    2. Honestly, I have no idea. Other than it makes for a good story for the book and for that interview with Jian Ghomeshi.

      This whole thing is very confusing.

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    3. During the period of time Tessa and Scott retroactively claimed to be estranged, they were planning their marriage. What better way to throw people off the trail than claim that in the run up to TEB, during TEB, and for a short time afterwards (when the marriage was being planned and executed) - they were actually not speaking?

      Also, as we know how much they like their privacy, just make up a fictitious "private" story and talk about that. The public thinks it's getting a scoop and buys your book, you haven't given anything away because you've made shit up and had the public pay for that thinking they're getting something real.

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  4. Why does every story about them have to insist multiple times that Scott and Tessa spend SO MUCH time apart?

    A typical article about them goes something like, "They're individual people, with their own lives (as they walk down the street separately), but Scott steals a glance at Tessa, tenderly moving a wisp of hair from her face... But, they continue on, afraid that they will be noticed by the public, as they head off in their separate ways, Scott to his own apartment and Tessa to university..."

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    1. They're out of new bullshit? They're vamping for time, placeholding? They have shit all to say, but two more years of filler to shovel?

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  5. About that article in the blog's previous entry - I liked how they said they've learned to just focus on each other during a performance and hope the audience gets drawn in. That sounds real.

    It's nice not to hear any more about Scott being George Clooney and the audience wanting him to get together with his leading lady. I don't know about anyone else but I never wished for Clooney (or any other major actor) to get together with the actress of the movie. That was a pretty dumb way to describe their "connection." (And Scott is no George Clooney. Lol.)

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    1. I think Scott is way hotter than George Clooney. Clooney's never done anything for me.

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    2. The movie star thing was something that raised a huge red flag for me, before I knew they might be together or before I was sure what I thought about "alternative theories". It was so....condescending. Like, they were patting us on the head. Um, NO that isn't what I feel, thanks. I've never felt that, or heard about anyone feeling that, or supposed anyone did feel like that. What's going on here is that we're all picking up on something that has zero to do with your "characters" or your "alter egos". And then to find out that this "something" is something that YOU'RE aware of and acting on Tessa, in a major and explainable way? Where the hell do you get off telling me I'm delusional? #notcool

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    3. Ithink that's their default when not sidetracked, and it's Marina Zoueva. That woman has a gift for not unnecesarily complicating something that's simple and obvious. It's a shame they don't think to apply her wisdom to the other aspects of their career.

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  6. I can't get over this picture being from smack in the middle of the time they say they were estranged.

    what the hell?

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    1. Where did you find this picture, OC? Because it looks like it was taken during 2009 4CCs, not during November 2008.

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    2. They also did an interview with Kurt Browning during Skate America 2009, in November 2009, smack in the middle of her recovery. The video is on this blog and on youtube.

      Tessa returned from excertional compartment surgery about eight weeks later. That is SICK. It's a ridiculously short amount of time. This blather about Scott saying "the doctors" would name an earlier date and he'd be disappointed what the fuck. Tessa had the fascia encasing the muscles around her shins sliced, and then left like that, so the muscles could expand where they were sliced. Think that hurt? Yet she was back on the ice in eight weeks. Yet Scott pretends the doctors were telling him it would be sooner. First, he was with her, living with her in London. Second, why is he acting like he wasn't talking to her but somehow he was able to talk to her doctors? And third, he and Tessa have done, IMO, a lot of damage to the impression people have of excertional compartment syndrome by making such a huge, mysterious drama out of it.

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    3. P.S. 4:52, the photo is from Snap London, and Snap London identifies the date and the occasion (which took place, needless to say, in London).

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    4. Correction - all my references above to 11/2009 should be 11/2008.

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    5. Scott could have information from coaches about Tessas legs

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    6. Anon 7:40

      You really think at any time Tessa and Scott would have been so estranged they wouldn't have even been able to communicate directly about something as important as Tessa's medical condition and readiness to skate?

      It's far-fetched. And ridiculous.
      No part of their tearful estrangement story is believable.

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  7. Off-top. ut how Marina Zueva could discuss such personal things in press? I could understand if she will talk about her faith, but not about Scott.
    And maybe she is not V-M anymore? In Nice she all time talking about how she were sad, becasue D-W didnt won there second WCh in Nice. What is going on?

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