For example, this:
She declares it "done".
Harking back to "Mexico 2010 - our swim with dolphins!" What she actually did was her half of this:
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| At least it's not a Cartegena situation. Scott paid. |
They each showed the same poses, separately, in the "Mexico 2010 - Our Swim with Dolphins!" fb album.
Dolphin swims in Mexico are comme ca:
Dolphin "swim"
You don't precisely swim. A boat chugs you across a stretch of water to a dolphin "attraction" where the exhibit has been constructed by dredging and walling off some ocean - as well as pouring cement - to create a large enclosure, and you hire yourself one of the captive, trained dolphin prostitutes. To wit: "x" amount purchases a dolphin tow (you're hanging onto Flipper who does the actual swimming), "x" bucks for hand-to-flipper contact, there's a price point if you want petting included, and onwards to the kiss on the cheek and, if desired, the lips. IOW, pay up and the dolphin pretends to like you. The more "behaviors', from the behavior menu, the more expensive. These are kidnapped slave type dolphins (Damn Mother Nature for making it seem they're always smiling.).
These swims are called "programs" or "experiences" . You wear a life vest in water you can stand up in.
The photos are not Dominican photo shoot rates. It's $25.00 per. That explains why we didn't get "red-eye with dolphins!" "Scratch my head with dolphins!" "Avoid eye contact with dolphins!" "Soil my shirt front with dolphins!" and "Get drunk with dolphins!"**
This has also been knocked off the bucket list:
Well there you go. Her sham benefits have included knocking some high end items off her bucket list before she's even twenty-five, and all free. She could be retro-fitting her bucket list to add stuff she's already done but I do find a difference between the "pinterest" "Swim with dolphins" visual and the actual "here's your plastic bracelet and life jacket, over there for your dolphin tow, dolphin-clap, dolphin handshake, dolphin make-out photo opportunity" she experienced. I wonder if there's a way to translate the rest of Jess Dube pinterest bucket list per the dolphin example. I bet there is.
Moving along, I have been considering switching out the "Follow Jessica and Scott" slide show that lives below the front page of the blog and rotating it with a new one paying tribute to Bryce's traumatic journey per story and legend on figure skating message boards. The number of times the poor guy was humiliated when his ex-love and former bff mugged down in public right in front of his face, teammates, and interneting fans is almost too much for a sympathizer like myself to bear and that's before Jessica's facebook took to whacking him in the teeth with it by inviting new strangers in to watch as fast as she could click 'accept'. Then we have to factor in how Jessica, per message boards, played with both guys' heads (yes, that's what they said) and bounced between them at whim like a high school girl (that's how the message boards put it. You know, like high school girls do.). Boy, she must be very exciting. And I guess figure skating at an elite level stunts social growth. If only there were more girls in figure skating, Jessica couldn't have toyed with Bryce and Scott for so long. Or if only most of the few female figure skaters weren't nearly all virgins. But alas, it's a male sport, and the girls that participate are pure, so Jessica was able to bounce between both dudes and they couldn't do a damn thing to resist her. I'm going to illustrate Bryce's experience in a slide show, as I feel he's been neglected here.
To do this (it's not even close to being under way) - those Scott/Jessica facebook kisses are going to have to be repurposed to a fare thee well and back, and that layers feature is going to get a workout. When I get down to business, I find other challenges:
It's almost like she's considering cutting a bitch. Is that side-eye, or is she gonna give stiff-necked Scott the full Fusar-Poli if he doesn't tout de suite with some Scope?
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*I love pinterest (well, not really, it's an embarrassing and almost too-easily snarked-on place to visit, although it's definitely useful as a virtual organizer/bulletin board for specific projects. Everybody loves pretty food, pretty clothes, pretty hair, dramatic and romantic travel, inspirational self-helpy quotes about the conventional milestones of life, flattering photographic lighting and, on pinterest, crafts. But, research is research.)
**It's a horrible life for dolphins
For anyone who finds the Scott and Jessica experience like it would be fun to try (the dolphin experience), the above link lays out why, in a non-PETA way, dolphin swim parks are a pretty cruel way to treat dolphins, particularly the attractions that make the dolphins run through a rote behavior menu many times a day for whomever has the money. And that's not even addressing that many are hunted in the wild and brought to concrete enclosures to live, all because we love them so much and they're so adorable. There's a gazillion articles such as the one above; awareness has been mainstreamed, although not everybody has heard. Still, when dolphin parks are mocked in popular novels by Carl Hiaison and Elmore Leonard, it's as middle-of-the-road, tree-hug category, as one can get.
So is this part of the sham over?
ReplyDeleteHave Scott and Jessica "broken up"?
As usual, the entire fan-verse has taken one seemingly passing remark from a reporter (that Scott's designer jacket was purchased for him by a former girlfriend) and drawn that conclusion, as Team Virtue Moir intended. So I think we're meant to infer, as these people are quite discreet about their personal lives, that yes, he and Jessica are no more. That's the Barb MacDonald way and she liaisons these interviews, when she can find the time in her busy, busy, very busy schedule.
ReplyDeleteJessica has included an inspirational quote on her "Words to live by" pinterest section that includes one about how worthy it is to be single. And she makes leading comments under some of the quotes, such as she needs to stop re-reading her past chapters of life, and of course, the hearts. Also after the Langlois/Hay wedding she messaged I believe Chris Mabee about how much she already misses him, Buttle and Scott Moir. So with that last, there, it's confirmed. Scott has migrated to a different category in her life for sure.
Jessica is now shamming as the ex, which is still a fake role.
So is it over? It's not. She's the ex-girlfriend. I love how incredibly weasely the article was too. It's mainstream media. The "reporter" was eager for views for his article as he retweeted the link about half a billion times after it was done, so he's going to angle the story to his subjects' satisfaction.
And the bit about from "an" ex girlfriend. Cause Scott has so so many of those. Why mention a name? There in't anybody reading a Virtue/Moir article that would know the name Jessica Dube. I'm sure if, God forbid, Tanith Belbin and Charlie White ever busted up, all the interviews with Tanith would refer obliguely to a nameless ex, cause who is Charlie White? The name has no news value. They're such worms.
That kissing picture is almost painful to look at. Aaaaah. I'm glad we're done with those but I'm almost afraid that what happens next could be worse.
ReplyDeleteDear Tessa and Scott, what DOES happen next? Also, what's going to happen with Jess since she's no longer the official Scott Moir girlfriend? Will the perks associated with that disappear? Will she and Sebastien actually have to work hard to get the love this season?
"Captive, trained, dolphin prostitutes" - LOL! I think what you mean by all this is that it's not really a risk to swim with captive dolphins in an enclosure while wearing a life vest, and typically bucket list things are more risky than that?
ReplyDeleteI take it more like, swimming with dolphins is a saccharine-sweet romantic thing that couples do on honeymoon, and she was trying to rub the fake-honeymoon in everyone's face, just like everything else she does. "Swimming with dolphins" is as cliche as "long walks on the beach." Does anybody believe it?
If Jessica and Scott were never really together then why couldn't she secretly stay with Bryce for real, since Scott and Tessa were together for real? Does she really hate Bryce? Was she just using him to get accolades?
It's a safe bet she was with Bryce, more or less, depending on how peacefully their training, and, therefore, relationship, was going at any given time, for most of the time she was shamming with Scott. In fact, Bryce's standing with the Moirs and Virtues was likely an incentive for using Jessica as the sham gf, although I don't have that info for a fact.
DeleteBut Bryce and Jessica had their issues, specific to the two of them, unrelated to Scott or the sham.
Based on my understanding of the way many around VM feel about Jessica (and many around skating, for that matter), and, conversely, the way many feel about Bryce, my speculation is it's Bryce who'd have the bouts of level-headedness and maturity, and propose stepping back on a personal level so as to clear the table to focus 100% on the Vancouver Olympics, and Jessica who made it her mission to demonstrate this was not his best idea (look at all the crap she pulled on the ice in 2008-2009, particularly at the end of the season).
I don't think she hated Bryce at all. I think she loved him about as much as she can love anyone. But, as the blog has stated a gazillion times, on-ice conflicts can trash the best off-ice relationship, and these two had on ice conflicts. Jessica is not a go-getter. The times she's displayed unusual energy, she's had incentive. That's still true. Every year, her focus and training peaks at Canadians. She makes the team, keeps her funding and her lifestyle. Once the GP assignments and Worlds are a given - eh. That's not Bryce. He really wanted on the podium at the Olympics, however pipe-dreamy that might have seemed. Look at Bryce during his time with Jessica. Always in peak condition. Always improving his musicality. He trained above and beyond. He had an appetite for new things. Jessica didn't. She got with the program after Vancouver and Torino because that's how it had to be if she wanted Bryce to stay in figure skating - or stay in it with her. But when he was injured, for one, was she going to wait around for him? Two, that gave her the time to look around for options, and when she found one, she lowered the boom. She'd never have done it if she didn't have Sebastien in the bag. Again, I don't have this as information, but I'd suspect she told Sebastien she and Bryce were mutually splitting, and never told Bryce til Sebastien agreed to give it a try. Even when Bryce was saying it was a shock, Jessica was still insisting in public it was mutual. Their personal relationship is obviously not going to survive that. I'm kind of curious to see the next season for Dube/Wolfe as the novelty has worn off for her and here's where the work comes in.
"Even when Bryce was saying it was a shock, Jessica was still insisting in public it was mutual."
ReplyDeleteSuch a different media portrayal of the D/D breakup all last season - one that was very flattering to Jessica, as I think this blog has already pointed out.
I had also been thinking the same thing about Jessica's present social media activities. She seems to be basking in the role of "previous GF of Scott Moir." Any day now I expect her to bring it up in an interview - how much she's suffering, how much she's grown and learned, how she would never trade her times with "my BF Scott Moir," blah blah blah.
The sham has been the gift that keeps on giving to Jessica Dube.
Well, she's got several Moirs as pinterest followers. However self-flattering some of her habits may be, all of it is authorized/encouraged, instructed. I don't know, therefore, how much "basking" she's doing. Role playing, yes, but who is the director? I don't think it's her. They can't make her a whole new person with a whole new way of expressing herself. They have to work with what they've got in her, but if they didn't want her alluding to the good old days with Scott on pinterest, she wouldn't be doing it. I'd go further and guess it's not just that they're letting her do it, but telling her to do it.
DeleteIt's hard for me to forget how swiftly she'd return her profile picture to her preferred non-sham one when her latest sham cycle was concluded, or how little interest she showed in sham things or Moir things when it was off-season for sham. So who is gung ho on the association - her or Team VM? They have to dance with the one who brung em, and Jessica is the one who shammed with Scott. She's the ex-gf, not the non-girlfriend, and unless they want to be seen as admitting she was always fake, she still has a role to play and it's always her who has to play it, not Scott. Remember that she didn't refer to him as the bf who makes her feel beautiful in Hello on her own. She got that "Most Beautiful" shout it BECAUSE she would be able to allude to the bf. I never directly read the Hello article and I'm quite curious if it was Hello who tagged Scott as her bf while the quote from her was "He" or "My bf", without using his name directly, first person. I wouldn't be surprised if it was set up that way.
Pinterest is just another social media way to re-affirm that he was with Jessica, not Tessa. I don't believe she's ever given an interview, since she bellowed out the intro to "Menage a Trois", where she blabbed on about Scott in the first person. It would usually be the voice over or the article that did it, and then she'd refer to it. But if she used his name in an interview, that was the purpose of the interview.
I'm not a fan, but I can't emphasize enough that she doesn't "bring it up" unless she is told to bring it up. Her perks do not inlude throwing it around without permission. It's not a perk of the job that she can run around self-dramatizing about Scott past or present whenever she feels like it. She does what she's told. That's why she gets the bucket list items to enjoy, that's why the family travel, that's why the other perks. She does what she's told where this is concerned. She doesn't use it on her own.
Jessica may simply be doing "as she's told," but I doubt she's merely like a puppet on a string. She's her own person, an adult responsible for herself. Even going back 4 - 5 years, she does appear to "bask," or at least overly enjoy, being linked to Scott. She's chosen not to disassociate herself from VM. Just the fact that she stays in and decides to "do as they say" seems like a conscious decision to take advantage of every single perk possible, including right now the role of melancholy ex-gf and all the possible sympathy to be garnered from that role. Doesn't that smack as "basking?"
DeleteWhat I meant is she doesn't have license to use Scott's name in vain. She can't, on her own, use his name and the "relationship" in interviews or fb to get attention or prolong the association.
DeleteYeah, she has her own special touches. I think, "he's my bf and he's the best!!' stands out. She was sham cycling then, running around "liking" various Moir wall posts and commenting on their photos, and that was an idiotic thing to do, but I don't think ill-intentioned. She was just making her fb rounds, a little impatiently, it appeared to me.
Yes, she could disassociate herself from VM but I'm not expecting her to show more integrity than VM themselves and Jessica's own skating federation. This could very well appear to her and her family to enhance her importance. She's not just a skating star, but she's part of this high level public relations program - a key part! With the most important team SC has!
Yeah, it's crap, but I can't see her being the one to point it out when nobody else is doing it - not VM, not SC.
I hate pinterest even more now. Such a meaningless time suck and now, another annoying forum for celebrity bragging.
ReplyDeleteThere are times when JD adds her own special touches, WTT kiss and cry for one.
ReplyDeleteOff the main topic, thanks for the info on dolphin parks ("non-PETA" ha!). I just don't get the PETA stuff usually but that doesn't mean there aren't real concerns out there.
I'm still not sure I entirely understand the reason for the sham (for Scott and Tessa I mean). I mean, what exactly are they hoping to protect or accomplish with such an outrageous lie? Why the need for it, either from V/M's perspective, or from Skate Canada's perspective? What is it that they think they are accomplishing with these tactics?
ReplyDeleteIt all looks ad hoc to me. The original idea was privacy and a shield from stress with Olympics ahead and a blazing spotlight. I think the game plan of ramping up facebook to counter-act Tessa/Scott's closeness in mainstream media was idiocy, but that's where it got out of hand. The Olympic year plan was asinine, but it allowed everyone to participate in VM's big year so maybe that explains the over enthusiasm. I think to change how Skate Canada handles this would mean more than changing how they handle things; it means changing personnel, so the directors aren't keen on new tactics; the ones they use are the only ones that really require their services. The "how" of the way they did the sham was nuts, mean and unprofessional and immature and I believe came back to bite them in the ass. The "why" has morphed from the original rationale to justifying doing it in the first place, and saving face.
DeleteThe above isolate picture of Jessica puckering up for that kiss looks like someone going, "Ewwww..."
ReplyDeleteJust the expression they were going for to convince the viewer of a mad hot passion. Lol
I guess puckering up was the price to pay for a free Dominican vacation for all the Dube siblings.
DeleteI somewhat suspect that Jessica's facial expression is a reflection of the vibe she gets from Scott. The sham introduces an unaccustomed element into her life. She's used to her ass being kissed; she's the most enabled figure skater on the national team.
DeleteIt's going to be hard to get through until after Sochi without the Jessica card, do you see any possible way they'll decide to come clean now?
ReplyDeleteeta: I feel like Joey in that "they don't know we know" episode of Friends, I just want it to be over!!
DeleteIt seems to me like they are setting things up for an announcement or at least an admission that they are now a couple. Some recent photos I've seen of them look more like a mature couple than "best friends hanging out". I know OC has blogged about how Tessa seems to go to great lengths to distance herself from Scott at off ice venues when the camera is on. These photos look like they're saying, "look at us we're getting more romantic off the ice now".
ReplyDeleteWell, despite other explanations I've heard, this is where Tessa's supposed near-neurotic privacy mania starts to smell fishy. The explanation they provide, in general, to their connections, is privacy. It fits. Tessa is an independent introvert (look up the actual definition/description), and is privileged enough to shape her world to her preferences in that regard. But is her privacy mania really a scapegoat? There was only one season where she was extremely reserved in public, and that was 2007-2008, when her shin problem was escalating and they were hiding it from everybody. By 2008-2009, 2009-2010, she reverted to being demonstrative in public - in the KnC, for instance, and before a skate. Partnered with the privacy concerns is Skate Canada's theory that marketing involves a whole lot of bullshit, a whole lot of lying, and the facsimile of TMI with fans - a theory Scott and Tessa apparently didn't quetion.
DeleteWhat stands out to me is that when it's convenient, they play coy, hint like crazy, and Tessa is a full participant. She's not fainting when Scott uses innuendo. It all looks cold to me. It's one thing to be a near pathologically private, enabled figure skater who will go to what appears to be extreme lengths to isolate herself from public scrutiny, even the most innocuous. But then there's the photo situation - how Tessa freed up a lot of photos when it was time to sell a book but apparently there's a lock down on all others. How she's cited her mom as a business influence. The documentary. Their behavior in front of many fans. The fact that many fans - strangers - are aware of Scott and Tessa's actual status and this doesn't inhibit Tessa on ice or off. To allude to an archived blog post - is she really that private? Or do they recruit her privacy concerns to conceal financial calculation? They've evaluated the market value of their real life chemistry, right or wrong, and don't intend to give it away?
It's hard to avoid concluding they don't give a shit as long as they don't officially incriminate themselves. It's all about what's on the record. Why? On the record or off, they can control what they talk about in interviews. That makes me suspect this has nothing to do with privacy. It's far more calculated.
Who decided and when was the decision made that Scott would end the fake relationship with Jessica? Was it because Scott and Tessa got sick of hiding? Did Jessica come up with the idea to sham up her fake loneliness on the social portals? DId SC get pissy about this because it means they are going to be less "needed" in regards to "protecting" the golden couple?
ReplyDeleteI don't know. I suspect the blog probably had something to do with it, although not the only reason, and there are probably multiple reasons. The Jessica piece of it probably isn't as convenient as it used to be. Skate Canada is up to its neck in playing a hoax on the public, when what you're supposed to do is see no evil, hear no evil and keep your hands clean; everything under the table. You don't jump up and make something like this part of your overt organization management agenda, and they did. Jessica practically did a meet and greet at one of Scott and Tessa's practices at an event last season (GPF I think), assisted by Kate Virtue and Alma Moir and some SC personnel. I don't think that's something Skate Canada should continue doing. Nationals worked out for Skate Canada, as MTM crashed and burned and Dube/Wolfe won the silver and went to Worlds. At the same time, I think MTM, as brand new champions, might have benefitted from the assignment at Skate Canada prior to Nationals - an assignment which went to Dube Wolfe - and it was at Skate Canada where Scott and Tessa put on a ridiculous mise en scene featuring Moirs, Kate, and Ryan Semple during the pairs competition. This stuff, I think, just sticks out more now that D&D are history and could be becoming a liability.
DeleteJessica and Sebastien were disappointing at the 4CCs and even more disappointing at Worlds; if she continued to get big promotional assists from SC because of Scott and Tessa SC might have experienced some internal blowback. I think more people than we know know themselves or are beginning to believe Tessa and Scott are full of it, so they're scrutinized even more and furthermore, the sham with Jessica as they customarily do it, is even more gross. I'd imagine they are also busier and carving out time for this is challenging, and again, more disgusting than ever.
However, it's not about being sick of hiding because Scott and Tessa are still hiding and the National Post article alluding to Scott's "former girlfriend" is one of the articles linked on their web site. I think it is probably good for Scott and Tessa to remove as much of their off-ice, non-competition promotional ventures from Skate Canada as they can.
Jessica's loneliness thing on pinterest strikes me as doing double duty - for those who buy the sham, it's Jessica picking up the pieces and getting used to the single life. But for those that think of Bryce, her tone can be read as the mood of a woman for whom the rush of adrenalin wearing off - the high from making the decision to split and launching a new partnership and making a fresh start is gone, and now she's struggling against nostalgia for the good old days when Bryce was by her side professionally and personally. That partnership defines her career and if she's going to succeed in the new one it will need to be driven by her because Sebastien is no Bryce. She does have a life outside the sham, and that life was skating with Bryce. She made the decision to change it last year, but it was a year ago, and she could be looking back. Even if she doesn't regret her decision, it would be natural to miss what she had.
Something else occurs as a possible component too. Bryce. When Jessica offloaded Bryce, it wouldn't have done to end the sham right then. That would be a bit suspicious - she ends her partnership and then Scott and she "break up"? Wouldn't that be awfully coincidental? At the same time, man it was a relief to have Bryce involved. As a buffer, there is no one better. Uniquely, he actually LIKES(d?) Jessica. The Moirs and everyone else love him and his family. He's a value add for sure. Scott and Jessica excuted a photo call hoist and drop in the Vancouver Kiss'n'Cry, and then they can hand her straight off to Bryce a few steps away backstage, freeing the Moirs who had been babysitting. At all the competitions, there was Bryce. Hell, when Bryce was first injured and Jessica skating singles, Bryce was clearly the one involved as her moral support and Scott only had to make an appearance and then he could engage with Bryce, his estranged ex bff. Life was easier.
DeleteSo basically, with Bryce out of the picture, Jessica-wise, the VM team was faced with either enabling someone else to hang with her (her parents, a family member, a friend) or waiting a discreet interval - a season will do - so people don't link the two events - Bryce making his exit, and Jessica and Scott "breaking up."