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| "Say it!!!" Debbi Wilkes "interviews" Virtue and Moir |
BOOM.
This woman literally spoons the words into the skaters' mouths. It's all her her her. She's unbearable.
From what I gather Debbi Wilkes was an okay pairs skater who medaled in an Olympics. That's great but she's not a particular stand-out in Canadian skating history. Where does she get her hubris? Where does she get her belief that her audience is a bunch of imbeciles who need her to act. out. her. interviews. Where does she get her idea that the camera loves her face?
Tracy Wilson has about ninety thousand times the resume and recognition factor but does not turn and cheese at the camera to cue us how to react to what was just said, nor does she pry open the skater's mouth and put in the words. And in the category of former skaters as media personalities, there are all kinds of good-natured seeming blithering idiots but none with the self-regard of Debbi Wilkes, none with the absolute belief in his/her own pompous pronouncements. From her interview with Carolina Kostner, which remains epic in recent annals of condescension, to Wilkes shamelessly orchestrating each interview with each figure skater so as to continually reference herself, to how neither she nor Thompson bother pretending she actually attends to the responsibilities attendant with her Director's title, what the unholy fuck with this woman.
Where does this lady get her balls? What higher ups fucked a bunch of goats and because Debbi has the photos they turned Debbi loose in front of a camera and gave her a bunch of phony, ever-evolving titles that essentially build-in on-camera-face time because the job description has "marketing" "public relations" or "communications" in it?
Debbi Wilkes is like a movie character. Her smarmy demeanor, her just-folks word usage, her power-tripping cloaked in unctuous, control freak manipulation and pandering. Her fake job. Her omnipresence. Her fingers in every pie, and her sticking a bit too close to the skaters' personal lives and in their physical space. The way she makes each little sentence component a little teaching moment because we're so dim witted we can only process information a syllable at a time. Her huge smile - often when no one else is smiling. Her obsession with controlling the narrative and putting words in people's mouths. She's straight out of Central Casting as a stereotypical movie villain - she could go in a comedy sketch as is without tweaking a thing. Sometimes it's hard to believe she's real.
P.S. - Moore-Towers Moscovitch had a trainwreck of a long program and so Dube/Wolfe got silver after putting down a somewhat cautious, wobbly, apprehensive-feeling but overall clean program. They've improved a lot but even adding in the triple twist, their clean skate finished only about eight points ahead of MTM's spectacular debacle. They are unlikely to add choreographic content or up the difficulty.
William Thompson is making noise that he might send Phaneuf to Worlds. I think it's ridiculous not to send Lacoste. It doesn't matter if SC sends 1 lady to Worlds next year or twelve when all the ladies suck. Better to send the bronze medalist who can at least do a triple/triple. Instead of kissing mediocre veteran ass, give it to Kaitlyn Osmond so she can start getting international experience under her belt. Hell, if you're going to play wriggle room games, give the second pairs slot at Worlds to MTM, who are unlikely to go down on a lift again in the same program where Kirsten trips and does a face plant mid jump sequence, and so are likely to place higher than a clean Dube/Wolfe.
