Thursday, April 30, 2015

I no longer have the flu, but like almost everybody I know, I've persisted with a kind of half-assed, coldish, allergyesque, malaise-y kind of feeling, despite experiencing some really really really really nice weather, and an overall general delightedness that spring has sprung. I wonder what's causing it:


When I know it’s (way past) time to crawl into the web
and find out what Scott and Tessa are up to.
Every time I trek back into the figure-skating regions of the internet, I wonder if maybe something like this went down while I was away:


While occupied elsewhere I could easily miss it, given how much real news is happening these days (Bruce Jenner!). But it always turns out not to worry, it's still Groundhog Day in Scott and Tessa Territory. Both on track to pass their thirtieth birthdays still lying their asses off with the avid participation (actual help isn’t really required) of the many eager beavers in Canada's media demi-cartel. I bet Virtue Moir didn’t anticipate, back in 2008, that it would become the norm for the mainstream North American media to peddle bullshit it knows flatout is bullshit, and doesn't care. We're not talking see no evil, hear no evil. Not failure to verify. Straight up. Tessa and Scott's mid-00s hoaxing antics matured in time to intersect seamlessly with the current Zeitgeist, which is essentially all bullshit, all the time.

Tessa used to want to be different, Tessa and Scott used to say they wanted to do their own thing, but in this regard they’re just lemmings.

Scott, never change:


“Now that that pressure is gone, we can both
focus on our LOVE … for skating and how much
we
love to skate ... TOGETHER”
 
Actually, he could change a little. I wonder if he still gets a kick out of himself still using the same material from 2009.



I of course read this:

Dating

More fun clippings for mommy and daddy's scrapbook. Kirk Penton has the byline.

The rest of Team Jones discusses how they’re dealing with the heightened public attention the curling team has done nothing but energetically cultivate since they stepped off the podium. It's how you do. Bust a hernia jockeying for the spotlight, then smile gamely and interview: "Oh my gracious - attention! Let us demonstrate what good sports we are about it!" 

I don’t think you even have to be really having any kind of authentic celebrity experience, because we all know that if your publicist tells a "journalist" you're getting attention, the media will say you are without having the first clue if you are or aren’t. What is the media going to do – verify? They’re too busy using celebrities to create celebrity for themselves.

************

I was really interested to read in Vanity Fair that NBC's news division was run by a woman who came up the Peggy Olson way (began as a secretary), accumulating an extensive management background but with a complete gap where news experience would belong. She has plentiful soap opera background, and for that matter, why does one actually need a news background, when the way you manage a news division is to commission a bunch of focus groups to find out what they think of the on-air personalities. Then you do what you want, because focus group research only exists to back-up something you’ve already decided upon. The article describes how communication among the different honchos up and down NBC's hierarchy was less than clear cut and aboveboard, and how Brian Williams did what he wanted and reported how he wanted because he was a network celebrity. His supervisors at NBC - once they remembered that's what they were - didn't really care that he'd lied. Turns out Williams' career-stalling blunder was crafting his weirdo apology himself, and delivering it on air without alerting anyone in advance. No no. You're supposed to hole up in your apartment with NBC's crack marketing wizards, shades drawn, for three days until you produce something that makes the lies slide by like butter. Williams went rogue when it mattered most.* Sheesh. Don't ad lib your own explanation for why you lied your face off, fool! Let the pros write it, that's why we pay them.







Speaking generally, I'm left with the understanding that most of the media professionals who ever gave even half a care about distinctions among and between news/entertainment/marketing are dead, or living dinosaurs, and those who work in the industry today don’t know the difference or think about it. Verifying has slid off the radar. I think if NBC is like that, then Jesus, TSN must be even sillier, ditto every television studio in Canada. And once you don't even know what a distinction is, you can not notice the distinction between marketing and lying.

*********************
As I said in the previous post, I've been reading about the seamier, more sordid, Big Lying and Faking, routine cover up, grotesqueries commonplace in Old Hollywood (which intersected with Old Politics and Old Law Enforcement and Old Mob). We've got murder, racketeering, all the dramatic stuff, but for me, the grotesque part happens where the politics of movie marketing really did extend to the most intimate and private aspects of people's lives.

What I find is that, in some cases, while some of the totally manufactured show biz relationships might have been the spawn of a studio publicity department and somebody's agent, sometimes the fake couple actually went ahead and did the deed. For example, on the orders of their studio (so the story goes), actor Keenan Wynn divorced his wife so his wife could marry Van Johnson, who was a huge star at the time, and gay. Van Johnson didn’t want to marry somebody the studio picked out, and Wynn was his best friend, so here, have my wife. Somewhere along the line, Van Johnson and Keenan’s ex had a kid, despite the gayness, and despite the fact that she only divorced her other husband to further the careers of both guys. I feel there's got to be story points missing here that didn't make it to wikipedia.

Then there’s Rock Hudson, who briefly wed his agent’s secretary cause HE was a mega star and also gay.
The Newlyweds
Some private detective, or the P.I.'s estate (or similar) released recordings containing a conversation between Hudson and his wife, where she seems to be complaining that he needs to go to gay-to-straight conversion school, and where she expresses dissatisfaction with their sex life. Their SEX life? Hudson lets his wife know she's not the only disappointed party in his intimate circle  - he shares some TMI with her about why he’s not marathon man with dudes. Check it out, but who knew. I thought the whole point of a beard or phony relationship was not having sex with the other party to the deal, but apparently some of these arrangements were fluid, no double meaning intended.

Scott Moir has evolved (one way of putting it) so much since he was an endearingly earnest, candid youngster full of ideals and high standards, so who knows what he’s doing. When he shams, Cara, mom, and other buffers are recruited always, seemingly so as to observe some sort of subliminal, subtextual propriety - "We're chaperoning. There's no actual funny business going on!" But we are living in an era of double and triple layer of bullshit and who can out-manipulate who, Scott and Tessa right in the thick of it waving the Maple Leaf, so who knows what's really going on with that.

_____________________
*This article made Brian Williams come across like a very very special snowflake indeed.

165 comments:

  1. OC I totally noticed that LOVE ---pause-- for figure skating! Thought I was reading too much into things.

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    1. That's obviously Scott. It was cute when he was, say, 21. Now he's a dad and a husband who will celebrate his sixth wedding anniversary this fall as well as his 28th birthday and he can't man up.

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  2. I read that same article in VF and was struck by the "sources" who criticised the new team at NBC because they didn't know how to "manage the talent" - that was the number one priority and tells you everything you need to know about modern news media - particularly in the US. it seems like journalists don't care about news unless they can somehow insert themselves and their feelings into the agenda.

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    1. Even when I read reviews and summaries of popular television programs on high profile magazine web pages, the reviewer often gets the plot points wrong. Nobody's paying attention. It's all just making your name. I was also struck by the focus group thing, because I know how bogus they are. They are there to support what someone already wants to do, can be easily skewed, and when it comes to non-quantifiable topics, such as how something tastes, or how much they like or dislike a personality, it's not predictive even if the focus group wasn't led to a certain result, which they always are. Focus groups are useful for truly quantifiable topics, such as when Gillette first came out with the three-bladed razorblade and research discovered the consumer would be willing to pay more for it. The whole industry is about what the public will swallow, and if they don't want to swallow something, how to make them, OR, more to the point, make it appear as if they have, even if they haven't. There's a reason, IMO, that people who work in actual media are hostile, patronizing and condescending to "civilian" people who talk back to them on social media and other platforms. It's a control issue.

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    2. I follow a number of journalists on Twitter. Following the Air Malaysia crash in the Ukraine, a reporter rifled through the belongings of the passengers live on-air. He later apologised, not on-air but in a newspaper, calling what he had done "a gaffe". I was incensed and said so on Twitter (more fool me maybe), tagging another journalist who had defended him The backlash I got from the journalist and then other journalists who followed her was something to behold. I even had a paparazzo, those lowest of the low, block ME, because I had dared to express an opinion. I was not rude or offensive but I had committed the cardinal sin - criticising a journalist. you don't criticise journalists - that's THEIR job.

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    3. Right, and all of the media love to characterize civilians on social media by the lowest common denominator. Their job exists as a platform for self-promotion and every news event is an opportunity to set themselves apart from the others. I think the disproportionate hostility you experienced is the norm. All of these media types acting like everybody who comments and tweets is a bestie until somebody out there demonstrates they can think for themselves. Instantaneously, the tone shifts to absolute contempt and aggressive hostility. That's because that's what underneath all the pandering.

      I was reading about Charlie White and Tanith Belbin's wedding, and some of their fans were thrilled that the wedding vendors had nice things to say about them, continuing to tweet after the event. For Christ's sake, the wedding was covered by People magazine, and White and Belbin's vendors all got a mention. Do we know what that means? Free cake, free dress, probably rate reduction or more on the venue, mostly free everything. Of COURSE the vendors are tweeting, because it's a commercial for their business. This is not simply everybody kumbaying because they think Charlie and Tanith are wonderful. It's commerce. It's quid pro quo. It was the same when Katie Couric got married - the entire feature was a vehicle to promote the business that created her dress, her cake, her flowers, and the venue where the wedding was held. This isn't reporting. It's advertising. Everybody wins. The bride and groom get everything at no charge. The vendors get to be in People magazine. People magazine hopes it increases circulation, and People magazine has frequently paid for exclusive photos. Since nobody connected with the wedding instagrammed or tweeted photos until People magazine was out, that's what happened here. They paid for it.

      I was reading that the New York Times and other media entities recently paid for an exclusive to a book called, I think "Clinton Cash" or something close to it. The author was shady, the book couldn't support its assertions, and when the content of the book was examined, it fell apart. But the NYT and the others paid for it and promoted it BEFORE checking it because it promised to be sensational and they didn't want anyone else to get it. Some of the world's supposedly legitimate news organizations do this sort of thing ALL the time - don't just obtain the rights to something without checking it, but promote the shit out of it, and then later walk it back. That's the "serious" side of the news business, and it wonders why it's dying.

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  3. I agree VM's hoax has evolved on all levels.

    Mainstream media is only too happy to lie for Tessa and Scott. Anything to be part of the story, chummy up to the celebrities. Who cares about standards for credibility.

    Also true VM have evolved from the youngsters with high ideals and standards. Now it's about protecting the fake status quo at all costs. Personal standards be damned. Media and fans alike fall over themselves to fawn over them no matter what they do. Why bother protecting any standards?

    There's no reason to suppose the most personal barriers have not been crossed. Why not? There's diminishing integrity across the board. There's opportunity. All the ingredients for cheating are present. IMO few people will believe it never happened. I don't think VM care of that's the perception. They got away with their hoax, that's all that matters.

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  4. I miss their skating. I'm not a fan of show skating/exhibition skating; have only liked a few skated by anyone. I think if they had their way they might return, but I don't think the "sport" is going to tack back from the position it's staked out this past season. It doesn't want Virtue Moir back.

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    1. Speaking of show skating, have you seen any of the clips of DW from the US SOI tour? They're declining faster than I ever even imagined they would.

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    2. I never watch them. They began to decline as skaters long before Sochi. For me, they've always been a team that, even before I analyzed their skating and realized they weren't skating, I didn't like watching them. Except for Bollywood (which was, despite my enjoying it, obviously less difficult, less content, more two-footed, less-of-the-best and more of the worst of everything), I didn't really care to watch their competitive performances either. Meryl's skating bugged, even before I zeroed on why. Once I locked in on Charlie's balance corrections, poor alignment and rocking blades, there was no point.

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  5. You know how usually when someone ends their career they can feel proud of their accomplishments? Well I have a feeling that these two will have some major regrets, as they already expressed in many post Sochi interviews. One day their going to look back on everything from their training environment, their programs, the "connection" that they sometimes pedaled too intensely, the medals, the competitions, the post skating career and to their "legacy" and realize that they made some bad choices that ultimately held them back. Scott in particular does not seem to be handling all of this too well.

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    1. I wonder how their relationship will change once Scott fully realizes what he gave up for Tessa's psychotic disorder. I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be a great obstacle for them, many marriages failed for lesser reasons. Add to that the fake girlfriends, Scott's hurt ego and the constant opportunity to cheat on Tessa and you have a disaster. Tessa shouldn't count too much on Scott's blind loyality, sooner or later most men who are given the chance to cheat ( and get away with it ) will cheat on their wives.

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    2. What regrets have Tessa and Scott expressed post Sochi? I haven't heard any.

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    3. 8:10: they repeatedly mentioned how they felt Marina wasn't in their corner through the whole season and that maybe they should have had a coaching change. Tessa even talked about how at 2013 Worlds Marina's attention was already wavering from them unto D/W and she herself confirmed it. Because of this and the other information we've heard of them having to go to other sources during their Olympic season for help I bet they wish they switched coaches.

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    4. @10:28. Perhaps. Nevertheless, there was not going to be any magic formula to change the outcomes.

      The ISU mafia had predetermined DW the winners, despite their subpar skating. The brilliance of VM's outstanding skills was ignored. A coaching change may have helped VM feel better, that's all. It's questionable whether uprooting at that late stage was worth the trouble. VM aren't stupid, they knew DW were winning regardless.

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    5. I agree with 11:10. Switching coaches wouldn't have changed the outcome at Sochi and they knew it. Tessa said (if we're to believe that report) she knew it after Worlds 2013 and I'm sure they were absolutely positive after GPF 2013 where VM skated both programs to perfection and DW had noticeable mistakes.

      Wasn't there some rumor that they approached Skate Canada about switching coaches but SC said it might give the wrong impression? I don't know if VM would care about SC's opinion or even ask them for advice but everyone involved knew it was futile.

      I think they may have some regrets about Seasons though. In one interview during the GP (I think but I'm not positive) Scott mentioned how they were going to make changes but also that Marina had an artistic vision that she wanted to stick to. They should have done their FD to the Pride & Prejudice ost.

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    6. I'm sorry but when your coach confirms to YOUR FACE that she isn't in your corner you leave her and find someone who will devout their time and attention to you instead of sabotaging you. I can understand them not wanting to leave the woman that coached them their whole senior careers to Olympic and World Gold but when they saw the crap that was Seasons, you would think they would have the hindsight to leave then. I think, had Tessa and Scott had a better free dance, they would have won. Why do you think I/K got third with their *relatively easy* program and to that end why do you think P/C won gold this season? It was because their free programs were mesmerizing and everyone was talking about it. No one was talking about Seasons, if only to gripe how it was Mahler 2.0 lite. Had everyone been talking about Tessa and Scott's free, had they had something with real Olympic charm, then I think their chance would still be alive. But no they screwed themselves over.

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    7. P/C are not mesmerizing unless you mean glazed over with boredom.

      V/M fully acknowledged the wonderful program that is Seasons. If the best ice dancers in the world know it was great I doubt your opinion holds any water.

      Not to mention how their show stopping tricks had been taken out and never mind how they won gold but it was stolen. There was no way for them to win. They knew that since Carmen get real

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    8. 9:39
      I/K got third because it was ordained they should be on the podium. They had good qualities but nowhere near what a bronze medal deserved on that day in that field.

      It's been speculated, and I agree, I/K were slated for second but VM skated too well and I/K not well enough for ISU to get away with it. As it was, it was clearly seen VM won the gold, not DW. It would have been too much to put VM further down. It's possible VM were not supposed to be on the podium at all but their skating simply could not be denied.

      Agree with 10:07. VM had no problem with Seasons. It was an outstanding program. The problem was the judging, not VM.

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    9. "Why do you think I/K got third with their *relatively easy* program and to that end why do you think P/C won gold this season? "

      Because I/K's and P/C's wins were as political as D/W's.

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    10. No. Season's was not an outstanding program come on people. Was it skated brilliantly? Yes, but other than that it was nowhere near outstanding and perhaps closer to dreadful considering what Tessa and Scott have done before in the past. The lifts were weak by their standards, the music cuts were bad (I never understood why they wanted so many different music cuts that were even apart of the same concerto), the choreo wasn't exciting or innovative and the story/ theme was too familiar and again not special in any way. Obviously V/M weren't about come out and say that their program sucked or wasn't good enough but after Sochi they mine as well did as much and I think deep down in their unfiltered thoughts they're smart enough to know just how anti climatic Seasons was. What a horrible swan song.

      Moving on. P/C and I/K's programs were anything bu anti climatic, they were crowd pleasers and everyone from spectators to commentators fell in love with these different programs the moment they saw them. That is the point that I'm trying to make. You may think it comes down to strictly politics all the time but there is another powerful factor that influences marks: the actual program and performance. A really great program can evidently do wonders for a team as we've seen with these examples and many more.

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    11. 6:40
      I happened to love VM's Seasons.
      YMMV

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    12. If the actual program on an artistic level can influence decisions to such a huge degree when it's out of line with the sport's scoring guidelines that overwhelmingly emphasize technique and difficulty above theme etc. ... how is that anything but corruption? How is that any better?

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    13. 6:47PM, while I haven't looked at all of the video during their time off, Scott seems stuck in time. He presents the same old story points the exact same way, with about the same level of enthusiasm, and, actually, IMO, absent some of the seething discomfort evident part of the year directly after Vancouver and that would surface from time to time afterwards (such as promoting the W network's fan fictionalization of their lives). I just think they're embedded in a culture that is elitist in the most shallow way that can possibly be defined, that flips the moral and ethical issues upside down so that all their lying becomes an ethical way to protect and support their family even as they constantly troll the public, which is not ethical. Exploitation isn't ethical, and that's what they do.

      Remember though, the biggest change in their lives is two kids. It doesn't do it for every couple, but that's the engine in their real lives. They're not trying to sustain a two-handed romance by themselves. The fact of parenthood might make them take all the lying and hoaxing less seriously.

      With the people around them, who do the work for them, there is the message of entitlement - we should be honored Scott and Tessa put themselves out there to lie to us, our lives would be poorer without attention from them, so be grateful. Any deeper and the tone becomes extraordinarily hostile, which, to me, suggests they do know it's wrong. You're not supposed to engage on that level. Any time somebody or some entity is trying to absolutely control a line of conversation, something's wrong.

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    14. It's as if they disdain, mock and look down upon the public that is interested in them - almost all of the articles and interviews on them condescend horribly to the public, patronizes the public and marginalizes them, while highlighting Virtue and Moir's virtuous toleration and understanding of this very untoward, childlike interest, and interest that has to be enabled, patronized and hey, why not exploited - since the people who are interested in Virtue Moir are nobodies, a little sad, have no social status, and are unsophisticated. That's what they believe about the public, because that's the message in all of their profiles - we're a bit pathetic, they're wonderful to be so understanding about it. The problem is they exploit the everloving shit out of the public and profit from it, and stoke the interest so they can exploit it some more, so where the fuck do they get off.

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    15. 6:40, that is nonsense. Don't talk like those at FSU who are all - it's this program versus that program - as if a program can be divorced from the skating (only if it lacks actual skating and difficult content). FSU can't get past "I like this program better than that program". The judges are trained - or are meant to be trained - to score a program based on criteria, and standards set down in an actual rulebook that is updated and modified every season, and is quite explicit about skating skills. There is absolutely no question that Season's content, and the content of the short program skated by Virtue and Moir in Sochi, were far and away the most difficult programs competed, and that's before we address that they were danced; the use of rhythm, the timing. There is nobody who walked into that building for the ice dance competition in Sochi, at the GPF, and in any venue anywhere that was in the same galaxy with their skating as the skating put down by Virtue and Moir. It has NOTHING to do with the programs. They were damned if they did, damned if they didn't. Carmen was the opposite, in rhythm, choreo, theme, style - from Seasons. They got fucked and that shit show of a Notre Dame won. Same with Seasons versus Scher. And let's be clear, it's NOT Seasons versus Scher, anymore than it's Nessun Dorma versus Show Tunes. It's skating versus skating and Davis White were in no position to even start to compete with Virtue and Moir, and didn't. It didn't matter. That's what happened. Not a bad program.

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    16. 6:40PM, what the hell do you mean by innovative? Do you mean to tell me that the straight line lift in its original iteration, before it was pulled at Sochi, was subpar? Are you SERIOUS?

      "Obviously V/M weren't about come out and say that their program sucked or wasn't good enough but after Sochi they mine as well did as much and I think deep down in their unfiltered thoughts they're smart enough to know just how anti climatic Seasons was. What a horrible swan song. "

      Really. That must have been when Virtue and Moir declared that every inch of Seasons was "hand-crafted" and they wouldn't change an inch of their program.

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    17. 9:39 PCS programs were like visual nembutal. Please stop pretending that it's this program versus that program. It's this skating versus that SKATING.

      I'm not going to break down everything you've said in your post that's erroneous, because I believe in 2014 that's already been done. But it's helpful if you don't mash up a lot of junked up analysis that doesn't correlate to anything that actual happened.

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  6. How do you know that Tessa doesn't want Scott to cheat on her? Maybe having him occupied with another woman for some time gives her the breathing room she needs.

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  7. How do we know any of this is driven by Tessa? Blog has speculated that's the case but it remains speculation only. We don't know for sure what is going on behind the scenes and/or the real reasons for what they do.

    We don't know if or how much either one of them hates the sham. I do believe they are shamming but I haven't seen anyone say they know for sure why. I'm not excusing it. I think it's a terrible thing to do to their fans and it's a terrible thing for any relationship and terrible for the children involved. But knowing why and putting it on her or him... Who knows.

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    1. Scott always looked too miserable to be the driving force behind the sham, you could tell he wasn't into it. Tessa and the Moirs on the otherhand always seemed gleefully invested.

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    2. They are different personalities. Tessa tends to come off batshit crazy when she's lying. Her eyes are a wall. If they process information coming in, it's defensive, like a calculator taking in data only to spit it out again in an already loaded program. Scott is more shifty. He lets stuff in, and has to eat it.

      That doesn't mean she drives it. It means she and Scott are different. Scott lies his face off, and happily too. I'm not going to forget the Scott in that reality show in a hurry. The man who has a career because of fantastic, talented women acting like a sexist meathead. The eyerolls if he got a whiff of estrogen in the area that wasn't there strictly to prove he was hetero. Scott Moir is a guy who, in describing Farrucus, acknowledged his character's presentation was macho at points, but appeared to devalue that compared to the intense, powerful connection he and his partner were working from in the program, each of them equal. He's not nearly as unsophisticated as he pretends, but you know, we are, so he has to pander. There was a LOT of Scott in that reality show, and the persona he marketed just leaked contempt for women.

      The occasional guilty expression Scott used to sport is a thing of the past.


      At this stage I think the're shamming because they have been shamming, because each time a window has opened to stop shamming they've upped the ante, because pregnancies are an excuse. It's a fucking year past Sochi. They're not obligated to talk to the media, they barely acknowledge the competitive season unless they're paid, why do they have to keep shamming? Oh right, because Scott is "dating" a woman definitely headed to the next Olympics, someone who is shamming with him for reasons we can only speculate about, but I don't think because DJ Kidby wasn't ready for prime time.

      They just don't want to. For one thing, it would empower fans, and they don't want that. If fans "officially" know that Scott and Tessa have hoaxed them, the dynamics shift, if only that the fans "know" and have the simple power of knowing, and having that knowledge acknowledged, by Scott and Tessa, and the entertainment media. Considering the role they've thrust the public into for a decade, I don't think Scott and Tessa have the cajones or the humility for it.

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  8. I have been watching figure skating for 35 years. Whenever I have a particularly bad day, I will frequently look up V/M on you-tube. Valse Triste, Umbrellas, Mahler, all of their compulsory dances, virtually ALL of their routines are so beautiful they transcend time itself. Their skating always lifts me to a higher level. I am not understanding all this lying at all. They could have had Canada in the palm of their hands.

    Belbin looks like she married her brother. She was a terrible ice dancer. That entire US ice dance team seems so shallow/artificial. The figure skating world is run by a bunch of reptilians. The pure joy of figure skating is completely ruined for me and I no longer watch it (except V/M).

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  9. Just because 2 people have blonde hair does not mean they look related. Charlie and Tanith don't even look related and I'm pretty sure Charlie looks nothing like her brother in real life. And what does her ice dance skill have to do with any of this? And sure you can say that the entire US ice dance team seems so shallow/ artificial but that doesn't mean its true. What about the Shibs or H/D? I can say that same thing about the Canadian Ice Dance team and be even more correct than you thanks to W/P & G/P.

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    1. I am 10:21. I do think they look related, that is my opinion, nothing more.

      I have been watching figure skating for so long, particularly between 2006 and 2014 when Agosto/ Belbin, Davis/White, Virtue/Moir were all competing head to head. The artificiality that I speak of is in the predetermined, mammoth undertaking to put Davis/White as the Olympic Gold Medalists and all who were complicit with this: the US media, their mothers, their agents, their skating association, etc. etc. I found Belbin's commentating on Davis/White to be very biased, which should have been a conflict of interest.

      Regarding the Shibs, I didn't focus very much on them because I couldn't reconcile their being siblings with having to skate passionate, romantic numbers together. I felt this same way with the Duschesney's, although their World title in 1991 was won to a free program that was designed to be anything but romantic.

      Ice dance skills have everything to do it. Belbin herself mentioned in her People interview that being an ice dancer doesn't necessarily mean she is a good dancer (paraphrased). Well, I find this statement telling. Virtue/Moir are exquisite ice dancers AND they are great dancers. Virtue was invited to join the National Ballet of Canada at one point. Look at their sultry free dance from World's 2011. They are superb in any style of dance.

      Yes, there is shallowness/artificiality in the Canadian team as well. But the singular and most compelling difference in ALL of this is that at least Virtue/Moir's ice dancing is authentic and the real deal. They are the finest ice dancers this 'sport' will ever see and the figure skating hierarchy is too caught up in business and alternative agendas to acknowledge this truth.

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    2. You kind of paraphrased the point right out of Tanith's statement. She said she was not a good dancer *off-ice*, not saying that dance isn't an important part of ice dance.

      Being a fantastic dancer off-ice means nothing if you can't skate extremely well and interpret that through blades, and there are plenty of ice dancers who don't have dance training since childhood who can move very well on ice because of a combination of skating proficiency and natural rhythm. The Shibs, for one...

      Also, I'm just in awe that you could start the paragraph directly following dismissing the Shibs, which you did for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with skill, with "ice dance skills have everything to do (with) it." Not to you, they don't.

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    3. "Being a fantastic dancer off-ice means nothing if you can't skate extremely well and interpret that through blades,"

      As a general point, I agree, but Tanith wasn't strong on the blades either. She wasn't particularly strong at either skating or dancing. Come to think of it that's true of most of the American ice dancers.

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    4. I'm not saying Tanith was absolutely amazing, but I think she's stronger than people give her credit for. In the fancams of the recent SOI tour, she's got good rhythm and is infinitely more secure in her skating and her movement than Meryl.

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    5. "Better than Meryl Davis."

      What a glowing recommendation.

      I understood the point to be you have to be a good dancer off ice to be a good ice dancer (on ice obviously). Having good rhythm and body control/movement are essential to be a good dancer off ice and on.

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    6. My point was that an individual who is only a fair or untrained dancer off- ice can be a great ice dancer because skating is the much bigger issue and being a natural mover can go a long way. (And of course, ideally, current ice dancers should be taking dance lessons at this point in their lives.)

      Tanith *does* have good rhythm and movement quality while on ice, so I think it's very unlikely that she's a terrible off-ice dancer. I took her statement to be (a) self-effacing and (b) if anything, a nod that being a world class ice dancer doesn't mean she's an elite off-ice dancer. And as other-level as Tessa is - I have no doubt she's a fantastic off-ice dancer - could she join the National Ballet now? No, as she didn't choose to continuing training in that, at the level required to make it your career. Tessa is, very clearly, the best female ice dancer ever - because, first and foremost, of her skating technique, and then backed up by a dance ability that most ice dancers don't posess. She is very, very far from the best off-ice dancer ever, as dynamite as I'm sure she is. Being an on-ice dancer and off-ice dancer have similar core skills, but are different beasts.

      My point about needing to be a great skater was *not* meaning you have V/M's skating skills to "actually dance". I completely disagree with that mindset. V/M are the best example of ice dancers, but not the only true, pure, actual example of ice dancers. My point was that someone who is more of a graceful and trained dancer than Tanith Belbin has to skate as well as Tanith Belbin for it to matter. Being able to skate as well as Tanith Belbin is in actuality a very rare thing, and is the more important asset to being an ice dancer than having an impressive off-ice dance resume. Ability to skate is the limiting factor in who is a good ice dancer. It would be cool to see the 10 year olds in the National Ballet School all be forced to take skating lessons instead and see what comes of it, but it's not going to happen. When individuals like the Shibs and Tanith are capable of "dancing" on ice, I find it bizarre to try to claim that they're not doing that. Just because they're not doing it at the level of V/M.

      Delete
    7. I love Tessa's grace, and it's very obvious from her quality of movement that she's had good ballet training, but she did *not* get invited to join the National Ballet of Canada. The National Ballet of Canada's *school*, but not the company itself (let's please get our facts straight). She would have had to give up skating to focus on ballet full-time and prepare for a professional dance career--and she chose (decisively) to skate with Scott at a young age. That said, I don't doubt that she had the potential to be a ballerina, if she'd chosen that path.

      Delete
    8. I love the clarity in Tessa's movement on ice in some performances - big, clear, specific, in time, expressive.

      I believe Tanith. She improved a lot but mainly she's athletic but not terribly coordinated (it makes sense, and I mean she doesn't use her body as a working whole or use her core to initiate movement). That's where the spazz effect comes from. I also think she has very little performance ability beyond working her appearance and slapping on that smile. She and Charlie are similar. I think she was a better skater than Charlie. If you watch some of her performances when she and Ben were at the top, and move your eyes from the ungainly way she used her limbs, she had far better control of her blades than either Meryl or Charlie, and was more versatile at blade level as well. She could actually sustain an edge. She could glide.

      Tessa went to the summer program for the National Ballet of Canada's school and after completing the program was offered a place at the school, as 10:27PM said. It's obvious she's had continued training in not just ballet, but other dance disciplines. I think it was reported (although who knows if true or not) that when she decided not to attend the school, someone from the program actually called the Virtues and wanted to sit down with Tessa and talk about it.

      Delete
    9. 3:52 here. FWIW, I think some of what I was crediting to Tanith was actually Joannie in large group numbers. But Tanith still has some nice qualities in the the trio blues-tango number.

      Delete
  10. If you aren't a good dancer, chances are you aren't a good ice dancer.

    ReplyDelete
  11. having watched some exhibition event with meryl and tanith/agosto i have to say that tanith looks INCREDIBLE bc meryl sucks so much. at one point charlie was literally pulling meryl's leg 20x in one "dance". point is tanith is pretty stiff but in a performance with meryl she looked like tessa!

    ive been an ice dancing lover for 30 years. i still remember bolero, then all the russians throughout 80s and 90s and then the change with virtue moir bringing athleticism and artistry and technical mastery, i.e., VM brought the sport forward, and now it's back to bullshit

    ReplyDelete
  12. Here's a recent example of a sham relationship: 50 yr old Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson and this 30 yr old "Chinese popstar" http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-mayor-gregor-robertson-wanting-qu-and-wanting-more-1.2894517

    For those who may be unfamiliar, the mayor split up with his wife last fall and very shortly afterwards was linked with this young woman. On Valentine's Day, they posted some sham "ILY" crap on social media for all to see and the media ate it up. Locals are aware of the longstanding rumours that Gregor is gay (and who really cares either way, honestly) but parading around with this young girl is somehow seen as a better option. There are several media reports that state she was recruited during the last election to help win votes from the Chinese-Canadians in the city and now they are in a relationship...I don't think so. Anyone who believes this is real is a fool. And I have a bridge with blocked access lanes to sell them!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This article is a laugh too - note that they left out the part where the "well known person in the development industry" is a man.

      http://www.straight.com/blogra/800281/mayor-gregor-robertson-romantically-linked-pop-star-wanting-qu

      A lesson in shamming, ladies and gentleman. How effective it appears, I am unsure but many people seem to buy it. I find that amazing.

      Delete
    2. 6:45 and 6:53
      Hahahahaha.

      Exactly like OC said, isn't it. Media gets on a bandwagon and no one bothers checking facts. Or they probably know the "facts" but they're not in the business of telling the real and true stories. Only whatever goes along with the story du jour, true or not.

      What I find incredible is that apparently the celebrity gets to drive the story. The journalist is the celebrity's servant. No one dares go against what the celebrity wishes to put out there? No one cares if it's all fabricated? I guess not. Keeping the celebrity happy is THE priority.

      Delete
    3. Yes, keeping the celebrity happy is the priority. The journalist is also seeking to become a celebrity, don't forget that. If they're low on the totem pole, then writing about somebody with a higher profile goes onto their website, their cv, their tweets. It has nothing to do with us. We're the excuse.

      Delete
  13. What are the chances Scott will attend Jones' Mexico wedding in June? 100 out of 100?

    He never did as much travel for his previous girlfriends as he does for the curling girl

    ReplyDelete
  14. 12:43. You keep trying to convince yourself Scott is doing more with this "gf" than the other fake gf's. Other comments in here have pointed out all the behaviours this time are the same as previous times. It's true he is not doing more with Kaitlyn than the others but I don't think anything will convince you.

    You've made up your mind. You can stop coming in here trying to make your case. It's not working.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He really does though. Where did Scott go for Cassandra? Chicago and Aruba? Now try to make a list of cities and countries Scott has visited for Kaitlyn already

      Delete
    2. With the previous girlfriends he had an excuse not to follow them everywhere - serious training and competition. He doesn't have that excuse this year and so, per sham logic, he has to show up at her events because otherwise the fans might start thinking he's not a real boyfriend.

      Delete
    3. Having said that, he's been to Toronto during Fashion Week, Winnipeg (for a country music festival), some town in Saskatchewan that's near the jewellery company Tessa's involved with; the last two locations being close-ish to Calgary where his brother lives. There's also Japan, of course, but it's definitely possible he's using these trips for other, personal reasons.

      Delete
    4. 8.09 There's more. First, he's been to Winnipeg multiple times including Christmas. Then he and Lawes attended a few festivals last summer,not just one, all in different cities. Then there was Vegas in summer and team Jones' vacation to St Martin in fall (though we haven't seen photos from this one). He's also been to 4 curling competitions. Pretty sure I missed something though

      Lawes was spotted in Ontario dozens of times too

      Delete
    5. Most of the times you mention don't have actual pictures (not to mention pics can be taken at a different date or place, and the hockey game ones were clearly photoshopped). I'm not arguing he's doing more, he is, but the magic of Twitter can make it look like more than it is.

      Delete
    6. i see trouble in paradise. this lawes chick is after moir for real.

      Delete
  15. I see Pyette is back pedalling the sham

    http://www.lfpress.com/2015/05/05/tessa-virtue-and-scott-moir-will-be-at-the-25th-anniversary-tour-of-stars-on-ice-in-canada

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He's not pedaling anything other than Virtue-Moir's bullshit about returning to competition. Scott and Lawes are together whether you like it or not. It's up to you whether you want to figure that Tessa and Scott have divorced and Tessa's constant thrusting of her husband toward other women was the cause.

      Pyette is irritating, yes, but it's not because he has anything to do with aiding in some imaginary sham.

      Delete
    2. Actually, Scott and Lawes are not together.

      It's all bullshit, not only the talk about competitive skating.

      Delete
    3. I happen to believe they're serious about coming back and the BS is more about not being sure, stretching it out as long as possible.

      Delete
    4. Pyette knows fine well that Tessa and Scott are together and for a while there he made no claims about them that he couldn't attribute to what came out of their own mouths. He's changed his tune.

      Delete
    5. Well if both Scott and Kaitlyn refuse to name each other as their significant other it's up to the journalists to do so. Come on Scott, I dare you to retweet a KLawes pic and add "my beautiful gf". Or talk about how much you love her in your next interview. Not sure why it's the one line you won't cross but it doesn't seem fair to make the journalists lie for you.

      Delete
    6. Maybe Tessa and Scott's situation has changed.

      Scott did say this:

      "But now, I understand how much pride there is in following someone who is passionate about something and giving back." So he's proud~ of Lawes at least.

      Delete
    7. 5:30 --That's right, Scott's passion and interest in curling and in KL in particular was so incredibly evident in all these curling competitions he attended (not).

      It's PR. Can't you tell the difference? They've been playing these games for years. They know how to spin and do the soundbites.

      Delete
    8. Yup. Notice how it's some vague impersonal statement that could apply to anyone, perfect PR-speak.

      Delete
    9. If he's changed his tune it's because after Sochi it became very clear that there was nothing to be ashamed of brazenly lying to the public, nobody was called out, and now we see exactly what prevented people from doing it before, and it wasn't ethics. It was concern for their professional hides. Now everybody is doing it OPENLY. Not covertly, not misguidedly, openly. It's fine. There's nothing wrong with it.

      Delete
    10. 4:55 - what line? He went there with Hilborn, after people thought that was the line. Went there and then some. There's no line. There's just the right price.

      Delete
  16. Looks like Tessa's solo career is taking off. She's got herself some new, more competent management.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They finally get a real agent after all these years of incompetence and Scott isn't included? Why?

      Delete
    2. My bet he wants the same management as KLawes

      Delete
    3. If Tessa wanted a new agent for her solo stuff, this is a strange choice. Manifesto looks to be very much focused on amateur sport and not so much the kind of fashion/socialite/what is sport? thing she's been doing these days. Plus a quick look at their client list tells me only one of them is retired and all of them tweet quite a bit about their sport and amateur sport in general. Not a fashionista in sight.

      If Tessa wants to do the intelligent thing and actually use what made her famous in the first place, then why do it separately from Scott? Are they short for cash or something and can only afford a real agent for one of them? Because they're more marketable together than apart. Even if Scott isn't too interested in the PR side of things (except for shamming purposes) doesn't mean he has to settle for complete crap. Tessa can do a few things on her own while he stays home, he can even delete his twitter and let Tessa do the work for both of them.

      Anything is better than dude bro who spends his time hanging around on farms, who only cares about hockey, drinking and the military, who's ashamed he was ever involved in a sissy sport like skating and basically only ever tweets about curling to remind everyone that he's getting some. Which is pretty much how his current PR comes across.

      Delete
    4. 4:27. So right about how Scott's current PR comes across. It's also clear his dude bro persona is contracted to cross-promote with Lawes/curling.

      Delete
    5. Anyone know who reps KL?

      Delete
    6. @1:30 I don't know, a lot of this stuff seems like a continuation of the reality show. I don't doubt there's some truth in the way he portrays himself but nobody is a walking stereotype like that. And the macho thing isn't a particularly good stereotype to go for but hey what do I know.

      Delete
    7. I think you are right on point, 5:56. Scott is portrayed as a stereotype and the PR is also a continuation of that ridiculous reality show. The only difference is the GF. Scott still gets to have his hot and heavy dating life but with a much bigger publicity bang, now that it includes a fellow Olympian and so many opportunities for public promotions together.

      Delete
  17. Looks like Tessa has new representation?

    http://www.manifestosport.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry 10.34 - I didn't see your comment before I posted mine.

      Delete
  18. why would tessa have different representation from scott? does that make any sense

    ReplyDelete
  19. Scott never sits with Tessa on transport. Guess he just doesn't love her enough

    https://twitter.com/starsonice/status/597187330265382912

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. God, they really have nothing new. If my "relationships" were this identikit, I would hope my friends would send me to therapy.

      Delete
    2. He is sitting with his girlfriend.

      Isn't it time to accept you have all been suckered in by this blogger. There was never a marriage, a child/ren, a divorce. They have separate lives off the ice.

      Delete
    3. Yet again, the backlash. Blog. Hitting. Nail. Head.

      Delete
    4. @ 12:43
      Where are you talking about he's sitting with his girlfriend? Do you mean the stars on ice bus picture?

      Delete
    5. I am not 12:43, but yes, that is KL sitting beside him in the grey t-shirt and long blond hair.

      Delete
  20. Do you think VM let Lawes stay at their house in London tonight or did they make her get a hotel?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe she stays with some Moir relative. The family does appear to act as babysitters to Scott's gf du jour.

      Delete
    2. If I was Lawes I'd be making them spring for the fanciest hotel in London, with unlimited access to the minibar and more pillow chocolates than my stomach could handle ;-)

      Delete
    3. Lawes stayed with her boyfriend at his house in ilderton.

      Delete
    4. 7:07. Unless she has a boyfriend who is not Scott and who lives in Ilderton, this is more of that fanfiction you're into.

      Scott's parents live in Ilderton. Scott lives in London.

      Delete
    5. 7.34 same with you. re:fanfiction

      Delete
    6. Wait he lives in London? Considering the tongue bathing he's always giving Ilderton, I'm surprised he made the move.

      Delete
    7. He lives in London because his wife lives there. He loves Ilderton because the town is literally Moirville. That's why his wife did not buy a house there.

      Delete
    8. Scott has never said he LIVES in Ilderton - he's very careful about that. He says he's from there or says it's his hometown but he has never, AFAIK, said the words "I live in Ilderton" in a interview (at senior level).

      Delete
    9. 1.18 and THAT makes you think he shares a London house with Tessa? lol

      Delete
    10. No, what makes me KNOW he shares a house with Tessa is that he is married to her.

      Delete
  21. Why did you come back then - what did you think was going to happen? As for slander - four and half years and OC has never been sued.

    ReplyDelete
  22. watched good kisser CSOI on youtube, there are some incredible moments.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wasn't too impressed except for the Carmen throwback. How Will I Know in Hamilton was amazing...I'm telling u the audience was silent watching them.

      Delete
  23. If I thought someone was a loser and the blog insane--I wouldnt follow it---I think the person who follows a blog they hate has a bigger problem

    ReplyDelete
  24. Bullshit propaganda on Assnetwork:

    "Some have compared Papadakis and Cizeron to all-time ice dance greats Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean. Others liken them to Russia's Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov, a team that radiated emotion on the ice like no other."

    Puke.
    http://web.icenetwork.com/news/2015/05/11/123688154/papadakis-cizeron-created-magic-again-and-again

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A peculiar kind of messed up

      Delete
    2. "That story I had heard a handful of times before: When a judge puts his or her pen down to watch, then the performance has to be magical. Judges have seen so many…"

      Oh for God's sake. When a judge puts his or her pen down to watch because s/he is overcome, that person is letting emotion cloud his or her ability to correctly assess a program. If you want to let your emotions drive your impressions of a performance, go sit in the audience.

      I don't dislike P/C's FD, but all of the accolades paid to it are ridiculously over the top. It's nowhere near some kind of modern day masterpiece of ice dance construction, and P/C's execution all season long was overscored. Scoring them so inappropriately does a disservice to their growth as skaters and to the rest of the field they're competing against. But what else is new, this is ice dance we're talking about. A sport people seem to think they can simply talk credibility into rather than actually forcing it to become credible.

      On the whole, the way this FD has been covered in the press all year is almost embarrassing. It also seems cut from the same kind of PR cloth as the push to celebrate D/W's skating over the last few seasons. It's consisted of a deluge of articles filled with unceasing generic platitudes and descriptions of the program as "magical," "illuminating," "dynamic," "emotion-laden," "crowd-pleasing," or "mesmerizing," with little to no breakdown of the actual skating except the occasional comment about knee bend or the glory of upper body movement, and absolutely NO critique of anything else related to what their actual blades are doing (or more significantly, NOT DOING) on the ice. The articles are all puff pieces filled with select skaters, officials, judges, and commentators scrambling over each other to get in their turn to genuflect about how the program made them "feel."

      Right now, there's a PR push in Canada to elevate D/L's training center to some kind of vaunted position at or near the top, whether it deserves such accolades or not. Everybody losing their shit over P/C's FD very much feels like a key component of that push.

      Delete
    3. I'm Just wondering if this can or will EVER change? There's such a vocal part which shuts down the "rule book" talk. And the skaters must know but say nothing. It's so corrupt. I just hate the whole sport but have the utmost love for the gifted and overlooked skaters :(

      Delete
  25. Do you think they underestimated how popular Scott and Lawes would be? No one (general public) can name his two previous girlfriends but Scott and Kaitlyn have max exposure on inter/national tv and now people know him as "Kaitlyn Lawes' boyfriend".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 2:52
      Two young, good-looking, popular Olympic medalists.

      Are you kidding? They knew exactly how popular it would be among a certain segment of the population and they're banking on that, I do not mean that only figuratively. Someone somewhere had this brainchild not only to continue VM's sham but also for financial benefits.

      What they did not take into account, or maybe they did and they don't care, is that diehard VM fans hate KL. They will continue hating her (and by extension hate curling) until she is no longer Scott Moir's ''official'' girlfriend.

      Delete
    2. I find KL about as appealing as a dead plant and I don't understand why "Team Jones" is supposedly so popular. They are a bunch of shallow harpies trying to cash in on their medal in a sport no one gives a crap about. Of course, I find curling about as interesting as watching grass grow, so perhaps I'm not their target audience.

      I suppose they have been successful in getting ice dance fans to discuss a totally unrelated sport on this blog, now that ice dance is so depressing it is practically impossible to watch.

      Delete
    3. "now that ice dance is so depressing it is practically impossible to watch."

      Yep.

      Delete
    4. @ 7:36 Pretty sure curling is more popular than skating in Canada.

      And of course fans are going to hate KL, just like they hated Jessica. Both women's weirdly OTT promotion of their "relationship" is obviously not going to go over well with shipper fans. Who knows why Kaitlyn agreed to do this, maybe it makes her feel like an important celebrity, maybe she has a relationship of her own she wants to hide. Because as a PR strategy it seems like a whole lot of work for very little result.

      Delete
    5. Lawes seems very integrated with Scott's group of Olympian friends/skaters. Good for him! Cassandra didn't knew any of his friends not located in Ilderton

      Delete
    6. 3:18
      Without a doubt, having many of the same Olympian friends was an important factor in choosing lawes to play the part of sham girlfriend. Also, it makes it easier to be on the same circuit of celebrity-athlete golf and other appearances.

      Delete
    7. Why can't people just be happy Scott finally has a girlfriend who shares a healthy relationship with Tessa?

      Delete
    8. At last, something new - a sham GF who actually acknowledges that Tessa exists - we have progress! And who says VM don't respond to fans and the blog???

      Delete
    9. 9:00. Naturally, you know these relationships are "healthy" because they appear in the same photo frame.

      Please. You are making assumptions and speculating from your own personal bias just as much as you accuse blog-believers of doing.

      It's been said ad nauseaum -- What VM and Co. put out is manipulated, filtered to a specific agenda and invariably coincides with fans' fictions. IOW, not real.

      Delete
  26. A bit off topic, but this piece touches on the discussion above of how much of the media would prefer for the public to not have a voice.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-vulgar-heckling-incident-let-me-spell-it-out-for-you/article24454966/

    "I’m struck by how many who bemoan this trend (which I’ll grant you can be tiresome, and sometimes the crowd gets it very wrong) have themselves been privileged to denounce and pronounce upon the masses, upon relatively voiceless minorities and specific individuals from media pulpits for years.

    Many complaints about “mob justice” come from those who have been wrong and biased and sometimes flat-out cruel with virtual impunity. One can’t help but see some self-interest in their objections – now that people can answer back.

    It’s true that when everyone has a voice it gets noisy, but passing judgement is hardly new, my fellow columnists. The system is not broken, our monopoly is.

    When people tweet things at me that are as emphatic as what I’ve written, I try to remind myself, they’re not trolls, they’re micro-columnists."

    ReplyDelete
  27. Here's a picture of Tessa with her husbands girlfriend:
    https://instagram.com/p/21K11QlVPg/?taken-by=tessavirtue17

    and an interesting observation of Ms. Lawes at SOI:
    http://cuteiceprincesslove.tumblr.com/post/119278990516/my-friends-report-observations-about-tessa-and

    ReplyDelete
  28. Anonymous reports aren't worth much, there's a good chance that report contains some fanfiction.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 12:45
      That report was a very good description of the skating. I don't think it's lying about what it observed concerning miss lawes. If that was a lie the rest of the report should also have a fanfic vibe to it. I don't sense that in any part of the report.

      You can choose to disbelieve - this report most likely goes against your own assumptions and that's why you cannot accept that it's believable.

      Unless it can be proved otherwise, I will believe this report because the tone of the whole report is credible.

      Delete
    2. Well I would probably be bored too watching SOI night after night. I like KL response to Olympic reunion to Tessa " WE cannot wait to see you" yeah ok...

      Delete
    3. 6:45
      I agree, it's likely become boring watching soi night after night. But I don't think that accounts for the report of no interaction with the boyfriend's family. Or not a single clap? Really?

      Delete
    4. I saw KL with Cara at SOI they were talking a lot...and I did notice that she didn't clap there either.

      Delete
    5. 5:52
      There's zero doubt in my mind that this is a sham relationship but that doesn't mean I should believe any report that comes up. I'm not saying it isn't believable (although you'd think Kaitlyn would at least clap for her "bf"- wouldn't that be part of her job?), I'm just saying don't automatically believe a report simply because you find it plausible. If you do that, you're no better than the people who fall for VM's crap.

      Delete
    6. 7:45
      Which soi show are you referring to?

      One reason I totally believe the report about the dynamics between KL and Moirville is that I saw the same thing during the FD at the Olympics in Vancouver. Jessica looked bored out of her mind. Scott's family, including bff Cara, ignored her to the point that it came across as contempt.

      This was the freaking Olympics, VM were experiencing a golden moment, and Jessica couldn't muster any fake enthusiasm. Nor did Moirville attempt to pretend enthusiasm towards the gf. It was plain as day there was no love lost between Jessica and Scott's nearest and dearest.

      What this soi report describes is the exact same thing I witnessed before.

      Delete
    7. I know the person who wrote that anon report on tumblr. She shared her report with me before it was posted there. I'm glad to see that many of you believe it because of the way it was written. Obviously, I'm anonymous here too, so take it for what it's worth to you, but this is fan is extremely reliable. She was at both shows and she had a seat that gave her a good view of KL throughout the show. Those were her legit impressions of KL's behavior, and she had no reason to lie. I totally believe her.

      Delete
    8. I was told my report was brought over here, and I wanted to say a few things in response. And yes, I understand still being anon diminishes my purpose, but I’m hoping what I have to say will help explain things a little better. In addition, if you knew me personally you would know that I know better than anyone you ALWAYS must treat anon's suspiciously even if the story seems like it could be true and goes with the rest of the truth (8:56)... but for my own reasons, I chose to give my observations anon for the time being. So, I'm hoping that by posting it will help give a little more credibility to just being someone’s “anon friend”.

      Like many of you, I know the truth, and I was not pleased to see that my seats were in pretty much direct line of the sham. However, as I was able to observe behaviors both in her demeanor, as well as interactions with the family, I realized it was helpful to have a firsthand experience to share with others regarding this current situation. I also think it’s important to note that this is not my first rodeo with the shamming. I’ve been unfortunate enough to observe these before.

      There are so many lies and false reports and fan fiction out there, especially with this current set of players that continuously go unopposed that I thought why not be able to have the truth as an option for people to consider. I completely, 100%, know and understand that I will not change a lot of fans’ minds. I don’t really care so much about that. But if the truth is never presented, then how can people even know to consider it as an option? I knew I would most likely get a lot of snarky comments. I knew I would have people calling me a liar. I knew I would have a lot of people doubting my credibility. But let’s be honest, most of this would still occur if I was anon or not, since what I’m saying goes against the info VM and co put out there.

      I was definitely there. What I said is exactly what I saw with my own eyes. Other fans/anons can post and say they were there too, and I’m wrong because they “saw” otherwise, and it becomes a he said/she said situation. Whatever. It doesn’t change what really was going on at that show. And if any of those people actually *were* there and observed, then they know darn well what I’m saying it true. I also know revealing this could lead to increased sham, so I apologize if it does. Sometimes I think they react to this kind of thing, and other times not. I also tried to be very careful to simply record my observations, without being negative or disrespectful to anyone. This is what was happening during the show, and some afterwards. I cannot control their behaviors and interactions, so if people think that is mean, then they should speak to those which were behaving in such a way.

      Thank you for listening and considering. It’s obviously still your choice whether to believe this anon or not. ;) But I hope that you can see that I have no agenda other than to report what occurred at that particular show so that fans are given this perspective of the current situation to judge for themselves. If they are going to continue to be fed lie after lie, why not throw some truth in there to consider as a possibility as well?

      Delete
    9. I'm the one who said she was with Cara at one of the shows and they were talking....I wasn't trying to discredit your report at all. I wasn't at the London show. They arrived together and they were pretty much stuck together. At intermission Cara, KL and Kate Virtue were talking and none of them returned for the second half (they probably couldn't bare the SuperTramp number!!). I also noticed that she didn't clap for anyone.

      Delete
    10. What is wrong with her? She presumably saw her boyfriend in action for the first (2nd,3rd) time in her life and didn't even clap for him like ???? He gave her a standing ovation at curling worlds!

      And "she's a fake gf" is not the answer, any other girl playing this role would clap

      Delete
    11. Just because Jessica Dube acted similarly doesn't mean the relationships are fake, it just means Scott has a type.

      Why can't they find fake girlfriends who will actually put some effort into the sham?? Make it convincing for us fans. Don't the gfs know the deal from the start. I hope they aren't paying KL much but maybe she just wants her payment to be all her vacations with Scott. Maybe Tessa's psychopathic tendencies finally got to be too much for Scott and he keeps adding "sham" trips as an excuse to drink beer on a beach with his girlfriend who is less controlling and psychotic.

      Delete
    12. Lol. Pretty sure Tessa ensures all fake gfs behave similarly. That way she looks great in comparison, and not like the controlling psycho she really is.

      Delete
    13. Why the assumption that Tessa controls the sham and/or she's a controlling psycho?

      We don't know these people, but Tessa never comes across that way. Those assumptions don't account for Moirville's dynamics with Jessica and now Klawes. It's not only that these "girlfriends" act like they have no interest in the most important thing in their "boyfriend's" life - skating - it's that way the boyfriend's family ignores the beloved girlfriend and openly demonstrates indifference bordering on dislike.

      It's very clear the gf is there as a prop. None of the behaviours displayed are consistent with real relationships.

      Delete
  29. On International Figure Skating's FB page:

    "ISU judge David Molina tweeted this news earlier today: Strong rumor at highest level: ice dance may no longer be @Olympics discipline. It would be such a pity!! Decision on June 5th @ IOC meeting."

    If ice dance is thrown out, and it should be, this will all be because to D/W's bullshit OGM. Great legacy, that.

    ReplyDelete
  30. I feel like they are digging their heels in. CD was thrown out ,at least I think, because it would be impossible to promote friggen' DW as better than VM when it was so glaringly obvious

    Then Scott says this:
    to compete for Canada [laughs]. Of course I’ll always want to have that, but we just want to make sure it’s the right choice and that we want to commit ourselves 100%. We’re not just going to come back to compete at the Olympics. The only reason we would come back would be to win.

    Well, that isn't the first interview where it sounded as though they wanted to come back and make a HUGE statement. ISU says "f that-lets shut 'er down"

    Isu have their heels dug in with their corruption-and VM too. We all lose, especially VM :( it really sucks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "ISU judge David Molina tweeted this news earlier today: Strong rumor at highest level: ice dance may no longer be @Olympics discipline. It would be such a pity!! Decision on June 5th @ IOC meeting."

      Delete
    2. 8:11
      Are you seriously suggesting ice dance might be thrown out of the Olympics to stick it to VM? I don't even know what to say to that.

      Delete
    3. I specifically said I feel that way-of course it's not based on fact I'm not privy to any isu meetings. It's an opinion. They're corruption is over the top in ice dance and if VM come back even stronger it's going to be a bigger train wreck. Disagree all you want, heck, I disagree and agree. I don't know!

      Delete
    4. ice dancing get thrown out of the Olympics would be the best thing ever. The sport is a total joke.

      Delete
    5. Sorry but I'd rather see ice dance in the olympics then syncro any day.

      Delete
  31. Nancy Armour tweeted that an IOC spokesperson said there was no truth to the rumor.

    https://twitter.com/nrarmour/status/601053490610311168

    My question is that if it's not true, why would Molina tweet about it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How do we know it's not true? Because the IOC, the same governing body that swept the reports about collusion under the table in Sochi said so? Because the IOC has so much credibility?

      Delete
    2. Check the FSU thread. Morry Stillwell confirms that a proposal was made and he's very well connected (former USFS president and ISU guy).

      Delete
  32. KLawes seems to be confused. She appears to think she is a member of the CSOI25 cast and it is necessary for her to attend all the performances and travel with the group. She also makes sure that she is part of the group photos whenever possible and her preferred location is the lower left hand corner of the picture.

    It would be interesting to know how the rest of the cast feels about her intrusion into the CSOI25 "family". In the recent photo posted by Stars on Ice everyone is identified in the picture except her. The same picture was posted elsewhere and Eric, Andrew, Kaitlyn W. Jeffrey plus "two" others were mentioned (assuming these were Scott and Ashley) thus no mention of KLawes. She does not seem to realize that she appears to many to be a desperate and pathetic "gf" tag along.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why are you assuming she wants to be in the pictures? It could be just as likely that Tessa has made that part of the sham agreement -- KLawes must appear in group pictures, and must attend every CSOI show. From the report, it seems like KLawes isn't enjoying it too much, but perhaps the Virtues just pay too well to say no?

      Delete
  33. Off topic but interesting in terms of the media: a timeline of when the Duggars (for those who are not familiar, they have been reality show stars for many years highlighting their family of 19 children) son Josh began molesting some of their daughters: http://defamer.gawker.com/the-web-has-known-about-josh-duggar-for-years-when-did-1706258269

    It's very interesting that a police report was filed in 2006 and there were already online comments about it in 2007, which weren't believed by the fans. It was an open secret - many family friends knew, and he even confessed it to the church. The info was even emailed to the Oprah show who cancelled their appearance. Now that it's leaked to the mainstream media, people are digging up the old message board posts. It reminds me of Cosby, too - his rape propensity was discussed online for years before it started to be covered. It's amazing how these things are secret until they're not.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same thing happened in UK with a well known TV personality - I'd been reading for years on forums that he was a child molester and necrophiliac and it wasn't until he died it all came out in the mainstream media, along with the confessions that people in the industry, the police, the health service and even the government had known about it all along but he had been "too powerful" for them to do anything about it. This sham is small fry compared to that - if someone can get away with abusing children with the full knowledge of the establishment, hiding a marriage and a couple of kids is a piece of cake.

      Delete
  34. which one of you is @allallallday???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Some pathetic little teenager with way too much time on her hands. . .

      Delete
  35. Enjoy your next fake vacation, Scott! What could be better than Mexico with all those people!

    ReplyDelete
  36. Speaking of corrupt governing bodies, FIFA is finally getting the bitch-slapping it deserves...when will the same happen for the ISU?


    by FIFA scandal, officials say
    ■Qatar World Cup sponsors targeted for improving workers' rights
    ■2022 World Cup in Qatar faces heat over ... everything


    External Links

    ■FIFA statement
    ■U.S. Department of Justice statement on FIFA corruption probe

    (Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)



    Bribery, match-fixing, fraud — for years now, FIFA has played defence against allegations of corruption.

































    Jepp Blatter's address to FIFA9:50




    But on Wednesday, soccer's governing body was dealt arguably its most damaging blow, when Swiss authorities arrested seven high-ranking executives as part of a larger criminal investigation.



    FIFA president Sepp Blatter rejects call for him to resign

    ■FIFA sponsors demand change as scandal rocks soccer world
    ■Jack Warner, indicted amid FIFA probe, had ties to Canadian soccer


    People who have followed the legal action against FIFA in recent years say that the very nature of the organization has allowed it to operate with impunity for so long.


    And there's no simple game plan to change that.

    Replace FIFA with ISU:

    "The problem is [FIFA's] lack of accountability and that everything is out of the public eye,"


    http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/fixing-fifa-not-an-easy-goal-1.3089164

    ReplyDelete
  37. ^don't know what happened there, this the link I meant to include:

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/fixing-fifa-not-an-easy-goal-1.3089164

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Speaking of corrupt governing bodies, FIFA is finally getting the bitch-slapping it deserves...when will the same happen for the ISU? "

      I fear never. This is an FBI investigation under US law. Although US does well in the Women's World Cup, soccer is not that popular and we don't do much in the regular World Cup... in the case of the ISU, USFS is just as dirty as any other federation and has real medal prospects at the highest levels (Olympic gold medals). Plus, this investigation seems to be targeted at corruption and bribes regarding the locations of the World Cup, something that isn't a big deal in figure skating. AFAIK, they haven't gotten into the scandals with reffing and carding during the actual games, which would be analogous to the figure skating judging. That's where the dealmaking really lies in skating.

      I also thought of the ISU when I read this, of course, and I do hope that someday more comes out about the DW scandal, even if it's incidental to some other investigation.

      Delete
  38. Found this gem on Tumblr :

    "I also believe that someone as private as Tessa Virtue would completely freak out if she was required to do what she does with Scott if they were actually together in real life. "

    How can people still uphold the " Tessa is so private " theory after the tv show, the book, her instagram account and all her interviews that are 100% about her relationship with Scott - she never speaks about anything else, everything Tessa says is personal, she never speaks about her skating.
    Yet she's somehow this uber private person who'll be caught dead before she shares personal information.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lol. Go look at Tessa's instagram again. It reveals very little about her personal life and is very planned. There aren't candids or even many casual photos. And the VM pics are all photos we've seen before (except todays post).

      Delete
    2. ^agreed, she shares nothing about her everyday life. Her instagram is for quotes, official shots and interior details. Also reposts from others. Pictures taken by Tessa are rare and they tell nothing about her personal life. If there's Scott in a pic taken by her then its business only.

      She could be living with Ryan and planning a wedding with him and no one would know.

      Delete
    3. She could also be living with Scott and raising a family and no one would know. As it was mentioned above, nothing in her social media or interviews is personal. There's not a single thing about her daily life, her home, the people she interacts with everyday, etc. It's business or pseudo-personal wrapped around a business agenda.

      In fact, her social media is very appropriate for a public figure, in that there's nothing personal. If she/they would get rid of the lies, it would be perfect. Even if they were upfront about their true reality, there is no need to be any more personal than they are right now.

      Which of course begs the question. Why bother with the big hoax when it's so unnecessary. After a few days of intense curiosity, no one would care that they're married, have kids, are in love, etc. Life would move on, for them and for the fans.

      Delete
    4. If they are married said marriage is probably a disaster or they're already sleeping in different bed rooms.
      No happy couple would go through with all of this for such a long time, especially because there's no reason to sham.
      God knows how many times Scott has cheated on Tessa.

      Delete
    5. The facts that are known, 5:57, are that Tessa and Scott are married parents. Nothing is known about their private lives or how they manage these facts with the fake PR.

      Every one of your sentences is loaded with assumptions and speculations. If their sleeping arrangements are not the normal husband-wife arrangement, that is unknown. Their happiness and choices are unknown. Their reasons for shamming are based on speculations, we do not know what "reasons" compel them, or whether said "reasons" are reasonable - to *them*. All of your assumptions also do not automatically lead to the concluding assumption of cheating.

      Delete
    6. The only people who ship VM more than Tumblr fans are the people on this blog. Nobody is allowed to touch the sanctity of their marriage, everything is perfectly fine between VM, no matter what comes, their marriage is perfect.
      No way that Scott could easily take advantage of somebody like Cassandra who's willing to to various questionable things to start her career. Impossible ! Scott wouldn't do that because he's different than the majority of men.
      People cheat when they have the opportunity ( google it, there are enough studies about this topic ) and Scott had plenty of opportunities.

      90% of the blogs content are speculation yet questioning the state of their marriage is off limits ?

      Delete
    7. Who said it was off limits? You're allowed to speculate but others are allowed to point out that it's all speculation. You're the one who's being emotional here while 7:53 gave a very measured response (and certainly didn't say their marriage was perfect).

      I once said that if they continued shamming much longer I wouldn't be surprised if they broke up. And got attacked by some people who reacted as if this were heresy. So I get what you're saying but ultimately we really know nothing about their lives.

      Delete
    8. Whether there's a sham gf or bf in the picture or not it has never ever stopped Scott moir from kissing and petting Tessa like a love sick puppy---why do people deny what is so blatant? I honestly don't get it. People will even go so far as to say they're in love and they don't know it. Ooooooh kay

      Delete
    9. " Whether there's a sham gf or bf in the picture or not it has never ever stopped Scott moir from kissing and petting Tessa like a love sick puppy---whoy do people deny what is so blatant? "

      Why does one thing rule out the other ?
      Scott cheating on Tessa wouldn't necessarily mean that he doesn't love her.

      Bottom line is, happily married couples usually don't get off on shamming for nearly a decade, denying their child's existence, pretending to love other people and make out with them in public.
      If Tessa and Scott actually do believe they're being reasonable they're probably not mentally sane enough to give consent anyway and their marriage should be annulled.

      Delete
  39. 5:57 -- you're so full of assumptions it's ridiculous. How do you know Scott is "cheating"? What if Tessa was also sleeping with Cassandra? What if she was the one who brought her into the marriage? What if Tessa regularly brings other men and women into the marriage? What if Scott does? What if they're both happy with that?

    Bottom line, like the previous poster said, you know nothing about their marriage, what makes them happy, etc. Stop with the assumptions.

    ReplyDelete
  40. CRAZY thought....but when did miss Tessa EVER say - Hey I've got an IG account and it's just a sneak peak into my everyday life ! ...never

    it's a business account promoting her brand (Tessa herself) so GET OVER IT

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. lmao everyone's over it. I personally don't want to see her casual weekly Ryan's pics

      Delete
  41. After all !!! Tessa and Scott are married? are boyfriends? or Scott is boyfriend of Kaitlyn Lawes? now became very confused. After seeing old posts that talk about T & S are married, other site S&T has a platonic love. And on another website something about Scott wanting to devote to relationship with Kaitlyn Lawes?

    ReplyDelete