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.

______________
*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.
____________________
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.