It might explain why, when this photo was originally published, the lighting was poor and the detail indistinct. How foolish to think it was to conceal a lack of comfort level and degree of familiarity on Scott's part.
This is the companion photo to the "vista" photo which Scott decided would be enhanced if he removed his shirt. I won't put it here because it's on the banner, among other places.
And apologies to those who are queasy.
Since this blog started there have been foaming at the mouth comments reflecting an almost vicious attitude towards the blog, IMO at least. However, at the time, I don't recall that there were particular partisans of Jessica visiting here, saying, basically, when you boil it down: "Fuck Tessa, he's with Jessica, who is (recite why he loves Jessica better)." There was some taunting about "he's with Jessica!" but it didn't rip up Tessa.
Cassandra, OTOH, seems to have quite the fan club, including a few new to the blog. People who, while insisting her relationship is legitimate, also seem to be invested in ripping Tessa apart and claiming that Cassandra is much better for Scott.
P.S. - I put an ip blocker on the blog (sidebar). This is because statcounter (versus blogger.com's own statcounter) counts each page refresh as a page view. If somebody is refreshing like a madman, the entire statcounter read out is going to show just that person's activity, pushing all the rest outside the timeline tracked by the counter. The blog has a number of regular visitors who spend some time here, but however they are looking at the blog, and however many pages they're visiting, their activity is not littering up the counter to where it's difficult to see what else is going on. Only one is. The IP blocker isn't permanent, and currently is blocking only one ISP.
Instead of posing for vacation pics Scott should rather leak pictures of himself in training since D/W are working 28 hours a day while everybody else is just too lazy and is lacking their uber human work ethic ...
ReplyDeleteAre they going to drag Cassandra to Sotchi with them or will she be at home sobbing and sleep skyping ?
Leaked training pictures would be awesome.
DeleteBut no, in their great wisdom and professional smartness, VM and their management team have decided instead to continually leak pictures of this other freak side show Scott is engaged in.
It's part of that famous bubble, don't you know. VM stay under wraps but Scott and freak side show get a chance to be exhibitionist and sleazy on public social media.
Isn't that what celebrity-PR is all about? Showcase yourself on social media in slimy photo-stories with a willing pseudo-lover.
Professionalism and good taste. The hallmark of VM's PR. Bwahahahaha
As to that, why would they share with the public when they want the public to tune into the "reality show". This crowd really isn't about sharing.
DeleteOC 8:19 - I think this crowd is about sharing, just not sharing real stuff. Sharing a boatload of a disgusting fake life has not been a problem for them.
DeleteIf lines have become blurred that would be very sad but I won't feel sorry for them. They made the choice to play around and create opportunity for Scott and another woman.
I'll still enjoy the skating and I'll be a fan of VM the team. I won't have any respect for their personal choices but blog is right, if the sham crosses the line into the real thing, it's not our business.
What continues to amaze is how for them, "real stuff" INCLUDES skating stuff - in a sport that exists purely for entertainment. For all the blood sweat and tears Olympic athletes put into their careers and how seriously they take it, sport is a public enterprise and it's entertainment. What else is it? Without the public element competitive sports wouldn't have a reason to exist. Every fuck up the ISU has visited on this sport has been with an eye towards increasing its public appeal.
DeleteBut for Moirville, Scott and Tessa's skating career (as well as their personal life) is an exclusive Moirville asset, part of the Moirville portfolio. It's a commodity they trade.
Once again Alex Shibutani is ruling at Champs Camp, posting charming, funny, friendly and entertaining videos of his experience, mostly tongue-in-cheek. He gives away no program details, reveals no classified information, and doesn't get down and dirty with the gossip - or go near gossip or personal lives. What he does is share the camaraderie and the personalities of his teammates while they're having fun. I wonder why he doesn't figure out a way to slap a price tag on it instead of posting this stuff for free. It's amazing, with all the time and money the Shibutani parents have sunk into their children's skating, that they just let him give himself away like this, instead of claiming exclusive rights for their own business enterprises.
(Incidentally, if there is any justice, the Shibutanis should be contending for the podium in Sochi. There is no reason they should be pushed down just so DW look better than they are.)
Then we look back on Scott's various iterations on social media where he never even acknowledged on his supposed facebook that he'd competed in and won the Olympics.
The blog is toying with a satirical post predicting a Moirville member's "Sochi Olymics!" album, featuring random side shots of someone's nose in the athlete lounge, another a blurry shot of somebody in yellow slurping a frappacino, a squinty image of the sd warm-up, and maybe a shaky image of part of a plane wing.
Agreed on the training photos but they would probably charge us 29.95 for those...
DeleteWho's going to be hosting the "happy birthday Scott" photos? Can't wait to see them!
ReplyDeleteHere's my dilemma, blogwise, although I haven't figured out yet where the lines are for the blog. Meaning - what is the blog's business, and what isn't. The sham is most definitely the blog's business because it's created for our consumption. I don't know what is the blog's business if lines start to blur.
ReplyDeleteFrom the beginning, the blog has laid out what it knows to be true. Scott and Tessa are married and they share a child. The sham is a sham. The girlfriends are fake.The Moirs are every bit as involved as Scott, Scott doesn't look twice at these women when there's no shamming, in the past we can see he barely looks at them when he IS shamming; he's completely devoted to and in love with Tessa. I think the blog has reasserted this repeatedly.
Along with that, the last time we were facing an Olympic season, the sham output was also disgusting. Scott and Tessa were merely about to wed back then. They weren't married and parents. But still, the initial impression any fan would get from the photo output was that Scott and Jessica were spamming facebook with an overkill of excessively intimate images, both candid and posed, seemingly in direct competition with the focus on Scott and Tessa's coming season that we received from the mainstream media.
Prior to the Olympic season, and after that season, the sham output settled down to where it was much more sedate, give or take a smooch on the rocks in Mexico. The grotesque mostly lay in a pregnant Tessa and her husband Scott running around telling every media outlet how much patience they needed with delusional shipper fans and how they were each dating other people and also how they barely talked for a year dating from her original surgery to Canadians 2010, when suddenly the skies cleared and they were close again (remember, they're selling this when they married in and around TEB 2009). If you want to know more about these candid revelations - here's our book for only thirty bucks!
It also lay in typical sham tone deafness and lack of consideration, such as how sham p.r. immediately jumped on Bryce's injury as an opportunity to promote Scott and Jessica (something D&D's many fans appreciated NO END).
So here we have another Olympics upon us, and we have another set of disgusting photos, all the more so because a) they have a kid - a kid that was PLANNED - and yet why not pollute the child's early years with an internet garbage dump full of salacious photos of daddy and another woman, supplemented by written celebrations of daddy's "hot" relationship with another woman all egged on by his attention-hungry friends and neighbors, all in the interests of the Moirs restaurant, skating business, and bursary fund fund raising (you can hardly establish boundaries with the community and hangers on if you think their insider access and knowledge about your star skaters is good for the various family enterprises). It's wonderful to have a ringside seat to these types of values.
DeleteAnd secondly this Olympic season, b) the photos look like Scott's warmed up (quite a bit) to both the sham and the girl this time around.
So - is this type of speculation any of the blog's business - not that the blog knows at this point, but the dilemma is - does the blog continue on with the same set of assertions - everything is devoted and clean behind the scenes, the shady stuff is purely in two dimensions, staged for our consumption? Whether things have gotten a little dicey or if they have NOT, still, does the blog pretend to believe the exact same dynamic as it did before? IOW, if I'M not comfortable - a discomfort that extends beyond looking at all of this as pure sham content aimed at fans - do I continue to stand behind the old set of assertions?
Then there's a visitor to the comments section spitting about how the blog is focused on their personal lives (it's not, it's focused on the sham) and basically how is this the blog's business and then fumed that they're not from Moirville so the blog can just forget that excuse right there. Of course it sounded like a usual suspect so I went to stat counter to confirm, and the comment person was new and indeed, not from the same location as "Moirville", so after visiting stat counter I went to google maps to see how far Miami is from Coral Gables (location of the Hilborn place there) and the answer is 9 miles (16 minute drive). Chances are there's no connection but I'm not going to ignore that either. The comment person's fuming was a little illogical (of course a sham aimed at fans is the business of the sham) but if the person is confusing that with "What business of it is the blog's what may be going on behind the scenes no matter what it is!!" then one can understand the defensive, hostile tone.
Lastly, if there were something icky happening, wouldn't they pull the plug? Would they parade REAL stuff in the guise of sham stuff (Because they do know how many fans know it's sham). IOW, if things ever turned icky and lines are crossed, would they continue to parade photos in the guise of sham, when it's more than that? A normal answer would be absolutely not, but the problem is we aren't talking normal people here. We're talking people who care only about winning.
P.S. - in the Jessica sham, that sham was embedded in the international skating community in North America. Tessa was as much a part of that community as Scott. To all of those skaters, including sham enablers, it's "Scott and Tessa", not "Scotty and the princess who has him whipped." (a tone which, btw, can only be found in and around the literal and extended "Moirville" crowd, not in the skating world or in the media that both observes and reports on the skating world - and listens to gossip about the goings on there).
DeleteNow the sham isn't embedded, it's Scott that's embedded back with the old London pals, including shamming with a vain, unattached women eager to distinguish herself in the spotlight. Her mom is apparently eager for that to happen for her, and her friends are along for the ride.
The ripping up of Tessa is very disturbing.
DeleteYep. And since some of these people claim Scott isn't with Tessa, why are they bothering to rip Tessa apart and pitch Cassandra as much much better for Scott? She's not in competition with Tessa, because Scott and Tessa aren't together - or so they say, but they don't post like it.
DeleteYou're basing this on a Twitter account that was made by someone who clearly has no connection to Moirville other than being followed briefly by Carol. If someone was speaking like that about my nephew and his girlfriend, I'd probably want to check it out too.
DeleteYou figure they intend to raise their kid to disdain the internet. Because that has worked with everybody else who has kids.
DeleteNo, I'm referring to new visitors to the blog. The assumption was it was the twitter person, but the stat counter says otherwise.
DeleteWish to know what is going on in their family. If Tessa's aware of Scott's cheating it may affect the "skating together every day" part and the whole upcoming season. That is the worst thing
DeleteWe don't know that Scott is "cheating". The photos are absolutely gross, particularly the skirt one, they're very gamey given Scott's real situation (wife and child) and that this is how they choose to present the sham is flat out icky, as anybody with a pair of eyes and a quasi-working brain can see immediately.
DeleteAs everybody can see what they're doing, not just fans or this blog, but media and the skating community, they obviously don't give a fuck. It's probably a good thing they appear to have distanced themselves from, for instance, David Pelletier, as associating with a crowd the caliber of the Moirs could damage Pelletier's public relations. Not to mention, he has his young son to consider.
What the photos look like is fun with boundaries, where Scott's hands are. He's got years of practice with Tessa in public. He's just decided to loosen those boundaries up a bit from where they used to be. You'd think as a dad he'd go the other way.
A princess, btw, apparently is somebody who battles through compartment syndrome to win the free dance at the 2008 Olympics, after that returns from compartment syndrome surgery about eight weeks afterward to resume training so as to try and make the Worlds podium (and succeeds) despite actually struggling with walking on occasion, who the following season (the Olympic season) commits to an extremely, extremely, leg-intensive short dance while submitting to hours and hours of pt and while battling post-short dance pain, in order to fulfill not just their shared dream, but his family's dream. Then, after helping to drag him through to their first Worlds title, goes ahead and has a child with him, returning in time to win the short dance at Worlds and another Worlds silver medal.
ReplyDelete8:24 - Heather was initially followed by Carol, by Nicole and by Charlie. Her twitter was public. There was no need to follow her to check out her twitter. Furthermore, the majority of her output was fan bashing - bashing as deluded all fans who believed Scott and Tessa were together. The Cassandra talk accelerated when she got an audience and it was at that point - since the Cassandra talk was accompanied by Tessa bashing - that the Moirs unfollowed.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, Scott has a wife, who is Tessa. If he has now also acquired a girlfriend, this would be in addition to his wife. Regardless, Carol, Charlie and Nicole jumped aboard because Heather started vigorously mocking Scott and Tessa's fans. The Cassandra-centric stuff came later.
I'm well aware of who followed "Heather". It's my account, created to see what response it elicited from the Moirs. Nicole never followed the account but at various times Charlie, Carol, Cara, Sandy Lee and even Cassandra herself did. I don't know whether it's because they were on board with the message or what because none of them ever said anything.
DeleteSo, you'll need to stop basing any proof you have around what was said by this account. I figured it was so over the top that it would be painfully obvious that it wasn't anyone connected to Scott and Tessa but sadly, the opposite has proved true. Some people were quite happy to believe it was Cassandra herself saying those things about Tessa and others assumed it was a Moir-friend. BTW, PJ... #stopthemadness indeed.
I don't know what's behind your reading comprehension issue but I said some of the BLOG comments I'm talking about are not from Heather, as I first assumed. That's what I visited the statcounter to determine. It had become more than obvious a long time ago that "Heather" (or your) twitter started out feigning sanity and then went quickly over the top, having sport with the Moirs as well as with fans. Anybody with half a brain could see that Heather was intentionally over the top.
Deletehttps://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/25517_10150106790620621_7697018_n.jpg lol this photo. Semple's in front while Tessa and Scott are at the back.
ReplyDeleteRe: the hits, I apologize. When I'm bored, there's a series of ten sites I visit. You're not unique. I'm sure anyone who tracks hits on the other sites says wtf too. I'm a bit ocd with that. :( Block me if you must, I'm not sure what you're so upset about not seeing in your stay counter though.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you need to understand why I'm looking at the statcounter from time to time, but if you're interested and can scroll through the blog on your mobile, I have actually explained the purpose of the statcounter many times.
DeleteIncidentally, I would humbly suggest that you not understanding something, not knowing something (or everything) or not being sure of the why of something, does not mean these things don't exist. And if they're not explained to you, that also doesn't mean they don't exist.
P.S. - the blog has been badgered by more than one visitor willfully refusing to acknowledge there could ever be any reason why someone wouldn't reveal how they know something. Therefore, I expect some of these people wouldn't understand why the blog wouldn't go ahead and reveal other things, things that are no skin off the blog's nose. But the blog doesn't reveal those things either.
OC Can you do a post on the new ISU communication/rule? Whenever other couples do something different, the ISU turns a blind eye to it, but just because it's V/M, they're gonna do everything they can to do something about it. They are always up in V/M's business. Shouldn't they focus their efforts on actually making the IJS better all around?
ReplyDeleteAt the moment my pdf reader isn't kicking in and I'm not able to read it for myself. It's been summarized for me, and I understand a five point penalty kicks in when a team requests an interruption. There's also a bit about determining if the interruption occurred at the entrance to an element or not (but where Scott and Tessa are concerned, apparently it was the interruption didn't occur while an element was in progress). And of course the ISU covers its ass by claiming these amendments have received a very positive response from membership.
DeleteMy thoughts: Scott and Tessa lost the fucking 4CCs by what - 4 points? 3 points? All of this grandstanding acts like they fucking WON via stopping, and such a travesty must never be allowed to repeat. Docking another five points, they'd still be silver medalists. This is pandering and payback of the worst kind, and it might bite the ISU in the ass.
That said - and unless Scott's birthday celebrations produce more fun with the married guy's hands on his "sham" girlfriend, the blog is going to have skating related posts. I don't know what more to say about the ISU amendment other than what it is - it's pandering to anti-VM politics and it attempts to create the impression that VM were attempting to hijack a 4CC's win, because God knows they could never beat DW on the level.
DeleteOC have u seen this??? http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/showthread.php?89050-ISU-COMMUNICATION-1817-DELAYED-START-or-RESTART&p=3985542#post3985542
ReplyDeleteusfsa must've politick hard for this one
It's been summarized for me (see above) - I haven't been able to read through it on my own. Of course they need to follow through on this tail-chasing charade. And of course the rule wouldn't impact either of VM's 4CC's stops. In 2011 they withdrew from the competition and in 2013 the ISU could have docked ten points and VM still win silver.
Deleteikr Jiazumi is a giant idiot
DeleteProbably peeing in the wind explaining this, but the new rule is NOT some kind of USFS-ignited konspiracy against V/M. It is a result of three stoppages during the '13 World Juniors in Milan, including one from the French ice dancers that was due to an off-ice injury to her ankle, suffered earlier that day. The French tried to withdraw, but the referee urged them to take a three-minute break and then continue. They were not penalized in any way; in fact, they earned a seasons' best score.
DeleteThere were various other delays in Milan, due to lack of equipment and administrative foul-ups. Considering Milan is the home of Cinquanta, it was all very embarrassing to the ISU and contributed to the new rule. Besides, who cares? It's not like V/M are planning to halt their free dance in Sochi.
What you've shared is the fsu spin.
DeleteMore Tessa/Moirville thoughts. At the gold medal celebration, as well as elsewhere at times, Tessa expressed her feelings about wanting to be more than a skater.
ReplyDeleteThe fans would take this and run, assume Scott was more committed to the career than she was, assume that each season there was the risk Tessa would cash in and start sketching runway fashion, or maybe she'd finally finish her undergrad studies and enter law school. Assume that he's dragging her through the 4CC's 2013 when she'd rather stop. (No matter what he pretends, he knows her and would never do that. This is a woman who has skated under conditions that would compel other skaters to retire - because she wanted to, not because she was pressured to do it. If she presses on, it's her choice.) This is not a comment on her reality now, but her past experience.
When fans did this, they ignored how she obviously trained, how she competed and under what challenges, ignored how a woman whom fans suppose must be sort of: skating's nice, but there's other things" is not a woman who competes at Worlds weeks after giving birth to her first child when there's legions of reasons and legions of people, who'd appreciate it if she'd stay home and wait until next season.
OTOH, any person would want to be considered more than a skater if "skater" meant "title machine" "how Scott's going to win gold" - IOW, if she were considered mostly a means to an end and felt perhaps not as appreciated as a human being in her own right. This, btw, is not a comment on Scott, but on Moirville.
Sorry for the off topic but...interesting news !
ReplyDeleteAll my Canuck friends and family watch and vote for @SAVEY49 & Jessica Dube in BOTB4! Savy's my latest NHL figure skating student
6:34 PM - 1 Sep 13 from Ontario, CA
https://twitter.com/LadretDoug/statu...44482495270913
ETA: @SAVEY49 = Brian Savage
I know! I was going to mention it but couldn't decide if it was even on topic at this point. I would much rather see Bryce, but it's not as if he can put on a skating dress and partner a male hockey player under the current BOTB format.
DeleteMy initial thoughts are - I hope the guy has really good health insurance. And I'm really curious about the kind of shape Jessica's in, going by facebook. Will she really able to focus choreographing for a hockey player and performing with one?
But then I figure, if she's headed to television, she'll get herself in trim. BOTB can always bring in outside experts to help piece together the program. Plus it's a gimmick show so there's no need to do regulation elements. So mostly I'm interested in how much focus and commitment she demonstrates in her programs while competing.
Well, David Pelletier partnered with a female hockey player for the show, so Bryce could be an option -- but it might conflict with what seems like a nicely developing coaching career.
DeleteI figure - or at least hope - that IF they get a female hockey player, they call on Davison. Plenty of the skaters who've participated already have coaching careers and BOTB doesn't interfere. I don't know how BOTB casts its seasons, but if it's like similar shows there are certain skaters that are going to participate no matter what the cast looks like, and certain skaters that are asked after they know who they have among the hockey players. When it comes to a female hockey player I'd imagine they get her signed first, and then ask/choose the male figure skater.
DeleteWell if they get a female hockey player and Pelletier is not her partner, I think that they would probably ask Cody Hay before Bryce Davison - only due to Bryce's ability to lift and whether his knee can go through it.
DeleteI think Bryce can manage any type of lift necessary to BOTB. The knee takes jumps out of his repertoire and he doesn't need those for BOTB.
Deleteoc
I kind of miss the old sham. Would Scott have been in the audience cheering on Jessica? Is Jessica going to wear one of those non-skirt skirts she loves so much? Will she ever smile at her partner?
DeleteMemories... from the corner of my mind... misty water color memories... of the way we were... (who ever thought CH would make me miss Jessica?)...
Golden opportunity missed... I believe that Battle of the Blades films in Toronto so it wouldn't have been anything for Scott to make an appearance in the audience...
DeleteWell, as has been mentioned, there was definitely a comical side to the Jessica sham, particularly as it went on. How her face turned on and off, depending on if the camera was aimed directly at her or not. If it was on her - Smile! Head tilt! If she were in the damn frame but not the primary subject she was all "kill me now" instead of "mon amoureux!" Plus there were things like the AGM when Scott was called to the stage and took the stage faaaaaar to the right, off-angle to where he was headed, explicitly to avoid having Jessica in his sight line and having to greet her, and how later, when Bryce was leading a recipient off stage and Jessica had to briefly stand on the other side of Scott, she stood there staring straight ahead and Scott acted like where she was standing was empty space (no joke intended). The awkward of it all was so entertaining. And of course, WTT with Scott's head scratching and other shiftiness while Jessica swung in the wind on her own right next to him, while over on the other side, there was Bryce with his hand on Tessa's shoulder, chatting merrily away.
DeleteAlso, that was back then. The very fact that they rebooted with a new girlfriend just ... it's disgusting. I don't mean just everything talked about here, but honestly, the stupid is just disgusting. It's like shoot it and put it out of its misery already. And then there's the part that Scott is twenty six years old and has spent his entire adult life, all of his twenties, lying about who he's with, and now lying about a marriage and a child NO end in sight, and for what is it again? The family business? That's manly. I think he missed a few things when he asked himself (if he asked himself) if he were ready for marriage and children. But I have no doubt that in Ilderton even the parish priest is a Moirville enabler. It tends to work that way.
6:19
DeletePlease. No wishing the old sham back. It was pretty awful. This one right now is deliberately grotesque but so was the intent of the other one. No thanks.
Perhaps Jessica wanted out...maybe in the back of her mind she was thinking if her buddy Cynthia Phaneuf can score with an actual NHL player (Max Talbot)...perhaps she can too down the line..
DeleteSince this weekend the blog has ended up wading into previously unconsidered territory, I have to mention something I've often considered.
DeleteWe all look at how this sham is run. Like a dog with a bone. Where you'd think some sense of decency SOMEWHERE would rear its head, it does not. It's mean and rotten and selfish and asshole through and through. So why assume there are any limits whatsoever? I'm not talking about sex now, I'm talking about death. What if GOD FORBID, Scott and Tessa's child died. Would they ever admit they'd had a child and lost the child? Or would they sham it up and cover it up, never acknowledging in public that the child had existed. What if Scott died, or Tessa died? What if freaking TESSA died? Would Scott take Cassandra to the funeral? I mean - priorities people. Because when you think about priorities, true, fundamental priorities, the ones where people live, it's not usually yellow sweatshirts most of us think about. But we're not them. And thank God for that. I don't think I've ever seen people like them ever, or anything close. I don't think there's been people like this ever in figure skating. They're like some monster perfect storm of awful.
And the bizarre part is they act like Scott and Tessa are a fucking golden calf that only they have rights to. Can they not run a successful restaurant and a thriving skating enterprise WITHOUT this shit or do they suck at all of it way more than we've been lead to believe? When you look at what they get out of it, it is so pitiful it makes everything even worse. Which is the hallmark of this whole thing. It can always get worse.
"What if GOD FORBID, Scott and Tessa's child died. Would they ever admit they'd had a child and lost the child? Or would they sham it up and cover it up, never acknowledging in public that the child had existed."
DeleteThat thought has crossed my mind as well. What if GOD FORBID....
Another GOD FORBID scenario--what if the child was kidnapped or otherwise disappeared? Would they admit to her existence then, when it would be critical to finding her? I'd like to think so, but with these people... For Moirville, it would probably be more important to protect what's theirs than find a missing small child.
6:58 - I also got the impression that at times Scott's delightful personality and sense of humor was lost on Jessica, as much as she'd polished her English. So she got bored.
DeleteAnd vice versa, of course. I think they struggled to appreciate each other's special qualities.
One of these days the blog is going to post pictures of Cynthia and her boyfriend Max vis a vis Cynthia and her previous "boyfriend" Jay LaRochelle, as featured in the "LA/Santa Monica" sham album in Jessica's facebook back in 2009. It's funny how Jay disappeared and a long term relationship with this hockey player was brought to our attention as soon as Cynthia's career started winding down.
Also as a side note - look at how Miki Ando broke her own story about the daughter she has without no one knowing. I don't live in Japan and I could be wrong - but it appears that the media has not chased her for any further follow-up to the story. Lesson learned - you come clean with the minimum amount of information and voila - life goes on...good for you Ms. Ando...
DeleteAs Marina (and others) have compared the VM chemistry to G&G, it's hard not to remember that Scott is now the same age Grinkov was at Lillehammer, and Tessa is the age Gordeeva was when Grinkov died. If something ever happened to Scott or Tessa ("something happened" meaning - one of them died) they'd have carried on their entire relationship lying to the public about who they were to each other. Would the one left behind consider that good or bad? How incredibly fucked up are their reasons for all of this at this point anyway? They are two people, after all, who have dedicated their entire lives in the pursuit of recognition in the public sphere - the highest level of competition. And, when they won the Olympics, they stayed in. That says something as well. If this whole public thing is about the public, well, they won the Olympics, at home, in Canada, the youngest ice dancers ever, the first North Americans. Congrats you guys, now retire to private life where the public won't bother you. But nope. They stayed in. Stayed in AND the upcoming reality show. Stayed in AND a bridal shoot. So what's the problem again?
Delete7:20 -- of COURSE. VM are in complete control of what's written about them. They don't need a sham for that. What's written, what's asked - they control all of it. Figure skating journalism is all public relations and works by the same rules. This sham is, once again, completely unnecessary for the reasons they've pretended. That's a crock. They're just stuck in a freaking quicksand pit of personal politics and lack the energy to get out. But at least Scott's found a way to entertain himself while it drags on.
DeleteI love how some on fsu think Miki must have cloak and daggered her pregnancy. Of course she didn't. The skating world knew about it and likely media in Japan knew about it. If she doesn't acknowledge it publicly, that's where it stays until she does. She didn't go around in a freaking tent or send a fake Miki out as her.
There's also Canada's supposed sweethearts, Sale & Pelletier. Look what they did. They co-commentated in Vancouver, and did a bunch of fluff pieces on the side, where I believe they were introduced as husband and wife. They skated together in shows after that. Then they issued a statement "FYI we've been separated 18 months and we're gonna get divorced now. Love you all and we still love each other to bits as friends, co-parents and, always, as skating partners! Look for us at an arena near you! Bye now!"
That was it. Nobody followed up. Nobody went - oh boy, they were pretending to be married in Vancouver and acted all husband and wifey and blah and blah blah blah. Nope. Except for a passionately interested outlier fan or two, the end. Pelletier was on twitter, Jamie was on twitter and they never talked about it. It transitioned immediately to "Thanks @jamiesale for helping me and @tessabonhomme today! Smooches!"
Jamie remarried in due course and started a family, Pelletier won BOTB, and that's it. How much ink has been spilled on it - they were on the cover of Time or Newsweek just 11 years ago, right? Shouldn't their story get a sidebar or something?
Nope. Not until they decide they want one. Until then, this is it. WHY they haven't recruited half a town, both families, and a bunch of sleazy fake bitchy shit to get this managed for them is just a mystery.
Let's remember they're not Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday or a member of the House of Windsor. This situation wasn't thrust upon them. They sought it out. To then "manage" it with a farce this ugly takes some hubris.
DeleteI agree completely with your post at 7:33 OC. That is exactly why all this sham stuff makes no sense at all. Many people must know the truth and for those who don't, if hey had just come clean and said, hey we are married and have a small child, see you in Sochi, that would have been the end of it. Idiots. Seeing this side of things has ruined my perception of them and I am no longer the fan I was prior to figuring out what smelled so bad. I still believe they are the best ice dancers and deserve to win in Sochi, but I am not a fan of them anymore, just of their skating.
DeleteThe argument is, I think, that their job is public, and as marketing is "the nature of the sport", to protect their private lives from marketing they manufacture one and market that instead.
DeleteExcept no, they don't have to market their private lives, fraudulent or real. The USFSA kicks their ass marketing its skaters. DW are in the media way more than VM and the angle is never their personal lives. Charlie's with Tanith and that's never part of his p.r. It is VM's choice alone to market a pseudo private life instead of marketing their skating, or following the lead of the USFSA and sharing their personalities and other public activities. Do you know who Alex Shibutani is dating or has dated? How about Meryl? VM are ridiculous.
It's their choice to market a fake personal life instead of their skating and their experiences as athletes. That's another thing - all the not necessarily serious, but fun, experiences as athletes - tour stuff, training camp stuff, etc. Very easy. It is their choice not to focus there. It's their choice to focus on their personal lives, and switch out the real one for a fake one.
If it was known they were married with a child, what would happen? A few kiddie gifts thrown on the ice instead of flowers? It would be mentioned in the broadcast? Oh the pressure - so different from having many in arena and everybody in the broadcast booth already aware they're married with a child.
They are in complete control of this. They're "managing" nothing external. This is all driven by the two of them and what appears to be the thuggish stupidity of their nearest and dearest.
They always say D&L were such great role models for skating, so why didn't they see that D&L had a perfectly normal career while acknowledging what they meant to each other?
DeleteWas Tessa embarrassed when she got pregnant, because ppl would think she had s-e-x with Scott and didn't know they were married? That can't be it, she had no problem taking a picture with Andreev outside or hotel, and Semple posted a picture from a bed "in Canton."
A "we've been secretly married for a while, and we're pregnant" announcement is nothing in Hollywood. Two "General Hospital" just made such an admission: http://celebritybabies.people.com/2013/08/20/kirsten-storms-pregnant-married-brandon-barash-exclusive/
The comments are extremely positive.
10:30
DeleteThere have been so many comments on this blog with great ideas about how VM could come clean. Your link is also interesting in that it shows how fans would respond. For the most part, the fans and general public only want good things for these celebrities and they're happy to hear any good news about them.
It's very clear VM aren't listening to any advice that's for their benefit or that would create good will. They're stuck in this morass of lies but they don't need to be. How can they not know everyone would only be happy for them? They've made these choices and there's no good reason. I've never seen anything this bizarre.
Unless, of course, Scott doesn't want any of this to stop because he gets to be married plus have a girlfriend on the side and his friends and family get to call him a hero for being a jerk.
Will there be a post focusing on Tessa's part of the sham?
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 6:19
DeleteObviously Tessa is part of the sham but she isn't the one on social media with a photo story-line going back years showcasing her and a "lover", making sure everyone in the world assumes this is the person she's banging.
I wouldn't mind knowing more how Tessa enables the sham, but Scott is an adult, so no one is holding a gun to his head. For me the real douchebag is Scott. He has no business getting it on with a woman not his wife, I don't care how "fake" it is. It's vile and gross in every sense of the word.
Well, I think there's more to it than how the PUBLIC would respond. I think VM are considering much more than any fan fallout.
DeleteHere's an example. At one point the blog pointed out that Debbi Wilkes was positioning herself center frame behind Scott and Tessa when they were interviewed by P.J. Kwong at HPC. There she was, turned 3/4ths our way, pretending to chat, several yards back, while the sightlines between her and VM's camera were completely cleared, despite VM being interviewed in what looked like a busy concourse. Debbi was the only one in the background getting face time. Also, Barb got her few seconds on camera as the interview began, then exited downstage facing the lens, and moments later Debbi entered.
This is all fun to hoot and point fingers at when we look at it, but I don't think Debbi gives a damn what we think. The woman is like a tank, as close to embarrassment-proof as it gets. OTOH, I bet some people in Skate Canada, parents, skaters, media, etc. also knew exactly what she was up to when these screen caps were published, and that was embarrassing.
I suspect that VM aren't really concerned with how the public per se would react to a reveal, but more about how admitting the truth at a time when they have no choice but to be in the public eye (they're eligible Olympians) might embarrass not just them, but those around them, and the ensuing commentary - even if the commentary is internal. It stands to reason that a lot of people in their environment that originally believed the sham was protecting the two earnest young lovebirds have recalibrated their point of view, and no point in validating that.
Of course all of this could have been skirted if they hadn't decided to make a sloppy party out of denying their relationship, instead of leaving it to be managed by professionals. It's still a mystery what Moirville has gotten out of this - OR Skate Canada, other than picayune power tripping, discharging hostility a lot of people connected to this appear to harbor, and feeling in control and superior.
I'm not sure what is meant by "her part of the sham" - the sham belongs to both. If you mean when she put out that she was with Fedor, and then with Ryan Semple, the blog has compared that to Scott's output many times previously. With Fedor, I believe the total sham was it appeared as if he might be her escort at a team banquet in 2008 (I will go back and find out what Canadian competition specifically), they briefly publicized that she was helping to choreograph one of his programs and expressed mutual admiration when they did so, she attended the performance of one of his programs with her mother (according to a fan report anyway) and Scott attended the lp the following day (without Tessa). She attended his competition at the DSC in 2009, and at the end of summer 2009 he tweeted a photo of himself with Tessa outside Ann Arbor's "The Inn at St. John's" where Tessa was dressed in pink ruffles up to the neck, and Fedor somehow failed to hashtag #lucky guy #nailing Virtue or any other tackiness. In fact, later he amended the caption to put quotes around "Inn at St. John's" so we'd know he meant the restaurant. And he'd tweeted an equally pleasant looking photo of the two of them at a Dave Matthews concert.
ReplyDeleteFurthemore, whenever he was interviewed about his skating, Fedor routinely cited both Scott and Tessa as his inspiration. It was never just Tessa. He also congratulated them both on twitter when they won the Olympics.
Ryan Semple just stood next to Tessa like a ham sandwich - that was his contribution to the sham. She posed between him and another guy on a boat for a photo that was instagrammed, her arm slung around the other guy. He tweeted from a bed in Canton but she wasn't in the photo. Oh, and of course Semple sat with a collection of Virtues and Moirs (including Scott), on one side of Tessa with her mom on the other, when the gang doubled up to watch Jessica skate pairs at Skate Canada (the sham was operating at efficiency levels back then). One wonders why Scott didn't run and hide under a seat, the way Tessa did whenever Scott appeared with Jessica. This would seem to be a very important component of convincing people.
Despite this degree of discretion, the fandom understood that Tessa was definitely dating Fedor, and, that later, she was definitely dating Semple. When people go that much out of their way to tell you they're dating something (as the Skate Canada mise en scene spelled.it.out) - it's only polite to at least pretend to believe them.
And then we look at the mudslide from Scott's end.
DeleteI'm also thinking about this small video on youtube called "Scott Moir shirtless!" The video is only a few seconds. A camera travels behind the scenes until it reaches an entrance, and just as it reaches the entrance/passes by Scott, Scott pulls off his shirt. I think he had to take his shirt off to change anyway, but this is a guy that can sense a camera lens in the next province. Did he wait til the camera was near before yanking his shirt off? Nah! He wasn't looking at the camera - that proves it was totally natural.
Scott is a lovely looking guy, of course, but not necessarily someone who'd turn heads if he weren't known to be Scott Moir, or if he weren't standing next to someone who looks like Tessa Virtue.
Nevertheless, like most male figure skaters, especially those in partnerships, there are online squeals about oh the hotness. If we listed a bunch of other male skaters who also get oh the hotness, this phenomonem might look like less of a distinction, but there's no doubt the fans are sincere. And of course, his interaction with Tessa also makes him attractive to fans.
Maybe the Moirs - and Scott - take it seriously when fans are all "Oh he's so hot!", and they think fans, no matter how they "pretend" to recoil, really do want to see him with his hand on some girl's ass - look at the squeals for Carmen! Or at least maybe he thinks he looks hot when he does it.
I hope that's not it because, well, pathetic, and also creepy. Maybe we're doing it wrong. Maybe the next time one of these photos comes along - maybe Scott will decide to up the ante on the kissing side - we should talk about how can Tessa let another girl interact so closely with such a hunk.
I do wonder if the skating world thinks that's what he's doing with these displays. He actually does think he's showing off how ungay he is, AND he actually takes all of the fan gurl stuff seriously? Somehow, though, no matter who they're dating or not dating, every other guy that gets the fan gurl stuff manages to refrain, and that would be most guys in skating. Why is he the one putting himself on parade? There isn't a person viewing all of this who doesn't know that both the volume and content aren't just not needed, but completely not needed, and Tessa - who is ASKED to pose in her swimwear, is certainly not parading around on social media in any way similar. Maybe she's compassionate and kind girl and indulging her husband's vanity. Although it sure is embarrassing for the rest of us.
Since the ISU has now passed a 5 point deduction rule for stops in a program - I was wondering if you think that it may be wise for V/M to bring back Mary Brannagan, physiotherapist for this year. I am not suggesting that Tessa's CECS symptoms are back but considering the travel this year, the Finnstep SD and the fact that during the Olympic games V/M will most likely do the team event - I would be on-board with Mary Brannagan coming in at least for the GP final, Nationals and the Olympics..Not dissing Skate Canada's physical therapist - but when you've got a highly qualified physical therapist who already knows her patient...I would go with the winning formula..
ReplyDeleteI think it's a given that if VM think she needs to be brought in, she will be.
DeleteI agree, I don't think the fans need to worry about Tessa's legs for her, or anything really on the skating, conditioning and performance end. They don't need our advice/opinion, and surround themselves with the best.
DeleteThe SCORING is something I think fans can focus on, and its legitimacy, especially as we'll soon see DW's Olympic programs.
I am sorry if this has been talked about in the comments section in other posts...i scroll through them, but fail at reading every last word...SO - there's a quote from PJ on her twitter "@anxiousclown for the record - I don't pretend to be unaware- I ask skaters and respect their answer-am mostly interested in on ice...you?"
ReplyDeleteshe is saying right there in black and white that she knows the truth and when she asks them on camera about it she doesnt call them out because she "respects" their answer...more like respects their work, (mostly interested in on ice) i doubt she can respect a blatant and very public lie.
There is also the possibility that she respects the reason behind the public lies too...so that all gets wrapped up as "respect their answer"...PJ, Moirville and Virtue Inc #stopthemadness
"For the record" ;) i believe this lie was instigated because they simply did not want their relationship to be a fluff piece instead of their hard work. look at ALOT of G&G's fluff pieces, it is basically ALL about their relationship and barely any bit of the hard dedication and work they did.
That would piss me off too, and i would make it my business to tell the next ice sweethearts so they could have that life experience without having to live it...learning from others honest mistakes is a virtue...and it wouldnt be that hard if my old coach was their coach and she (Marina) could easily have that moment arranged..or have just told them herself since she was right there and saw everything....WHO KNOWS - SPECULATIONS but honestly, there is some sense in the speculations...no?
Anon 7:56 I think your reasoning could be logical if Tessa and Scott didn't make a point of talking about their relationship that isn't a relationship. If they wanted the fluff pieces to be about their hard dedication and work then why allow so much press time to their non-relationship over and above the time dedicated to their skating?
DeleteVM have never sounded nor acted like a skating team that wants the relationship question off the table and wants the focus on skating. I was hoping that would happen for this Olympic season but it's already been abundantly evident that they WANT the fans speculating about their sex lives and not so much the skating.
Even the G&G fluff pieces were done with G&G's green light.
DeleteThe mistake is - oh it would piss me off so much if the focus was on the relationship and not the skating! The focus can be anywhere they put it, and the fluff doesn't have to zoom in on the platonic versus romantic. The fluff in the last Olympics didn't, did it? It was like every other glowy fluff piece on the other Olympic teams.
A year or so ago one comment pointed out that even Shae Lynn Bourne and Viktor Kratz had to "deal" with romantic relationship questions even at an event like a National competition. No, they didn't. If they didn't want those questions they'd have been asked other stuff.
Scott and Tessa have a choice now. They would have a choice if they hadn't shammed, or if they'd shammed with some basic decency. They are the ones that continually drag their relationship status into the conversation. Correction - they are the ones who continually drag their lies about what the fans think of their relationship status into the conversation. First of all, most fans for years and years not only believed they were just friends, but mocked people who thought otherwise - and very few dared say they thought otherwise. And there's now, when they know a lot of people believe the truth about them, and they continue to mock THOSE people as crazy #stopthemadness.
This is all their choices. This isn't defense.
I can understand that to a point they would use other skates to sham to keep the focus of their burgeoning relationship. Don't really understand why you'd want to get married right before the Olympics in that case (to me, it's like getting married right before graduation, but then going to the prom with other people because you don't want anybody to know) but I'll assume they had some emotional/philosophical reason to want to be married then.
DeleteBut once she was pregnant... ????... what in the world made them want to continue??? It's fascinating really. Other female skaters have gotten pregnant, but to hide a pregnancy, and still compete... so why didn't Delobel just withdraw because of her shoulder injury and pretend she wasn't pregnant? How did Tessa know that her pregnancy wouldn't show, that people at shows wouldn't notice how big was she was getting, why promote a book in those heavy sweaters... why not just tell the truth or just take the season off in relative obscurity (still pretty weird).
By then they were already Olympic champions, they could have made it clear that private lives would remain private and they were staying in because of their work. Really not hard to accomplish at all. Navka's daughter wasn't paraded all over TV. And VM seem like really intelligent people otherwise, so I just don't. get. it.
If the whole justification is that Moirville thinks fans are below dirt, then that's pretty funny, since they're twisting their lives in knots solely because of the fans now.
"If the whole justification is that Moirville thinks fans are below dirt, then that's pretty funny, since they're twisting their lives in knots solely because of the fans now."
DeleteNailed it.
Tessa didn't know she'd be able to hide the pregnancy, that's the thing. The pregnancy was planned, they knew it might need to be announced. If the idea of having their personal lives exposed was such a horror, you don't sandwich a pregnancy in between your Olympic and World titles and the first year of the next Olympic cycle, where you also intend to compete at Worlds.
DeleteSince they didn't announce it once things worked out so that they didn't have to acknowledge anything, they made the decision to keep on shamming and keep on lying - and of course, why not keep on selling the book too.
Of course you've nailed it. The tail has been wagging the dog a long long time, and before the blog.
P.S. - I want to reiterate though, although the above remark seems to contradict it, that obviously while the public is definitely going to be the ones holding the bag for all the bullshit, at this point I think it's clear the public isn't actually the reason the bullshit continues - it is the excuse. The content they choose to create and publicize might be a way they get their jollies at our expense - in fact what the hell else is it - but the actual motives for continuing the sham at this point can't possibly have very much to do with how the public will react, or privacy from fans and media, or any other conventional reason fans might assume. This ain't about us.
DeleteAgree that we're now just the excuse. They could have continued to hide their status, while not shamming to the extent they are.
DeleteThis is 10:28. I'm even more fascinated that this was planned... especially the contingency plan for if she was showing too much. IMO, their book was written like a love story, especially all that stuff about how much Tessa had to rely on Scott early in their time in the US. Every quote from their family members sounds like a story about how a couple got together. The stuff about "although they're not actually in a relationship..." seems so pasted on. It's almost as if they weren't sure by the time they went to print whether it was going to be a love story or a platonic story.
Although they were shamming during the Olympics, for a while they were kind of quiet then they really ratcheted it up around the time of the book with the infamous "The platonic passion of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir" article... some fans on fanforum at the time speculated that the media "felt bad" about hammering them so hard with the couple question during the games, that they were being extra nice to VM by now fully supporting their status of a "special connection," nothing more. Of course, it doesn't work that way. It does seem that maybe they were undecided for a while, and as she got further along, and wasn't showing, they said "ok, we announce the injury and go ahead with the platonic storyline" instead of "we announce that Tessa is pregnant [or go into hiding]."
I just don't understand why they do anything they do... why would a woman plan pregnancy, knowing she is going to have to stress herself out hiding it on the ice and on a book tour? It's supposed to be a relaxing time...?
That pattern kind of repeated after 2012 worlds as well, with that article about the jacket from a "former girlfriend" it almost seems like they were testing the waters, but nope, by SC, they both had new shams going on. In 2013, they are all in. Maybe they only have second thoughts in even-numbered years.
Really, the sham should be charted like on an EKG machine.
Scott and Jessica continued to sham the entire summer of 2010.
Delete3:29 that really has no relevance to the fact that they planned the pregnancy despite knowing the jig might be up. Tessa's pregnancy was early days in the summer of 2010; they didn't know how it would progress. If they were going to reveal the time for that would have been just prior to the GPS. They have always maintained the status quo until suddenly they don't. In 2008 they didn't let it be known Tessa was having surgery until a very short time before their first assignment, even though they knew earlier than that that they wouldn't be competing. They hang onto information like it's going to fund their retirement.
Delete2:42 I guess the answer is that Tessa didn't find hiding and lying stressful. Obviously if this were terribly stressful for them it would be over. What seems to stress them out is telling the truth - about anything.
DeleteAthletically, many high performance athletes are energized by pregnancy. There's a lot of research on this available on the web, so I won't repeat it here, but it's not as if she were fighting through some depleting experience. For many pregnant elite competitiors, it's the opposite experience.
OC - I know it doesn't. I was just replying to 2:42's observation that the sham lay low between the Olympics and the book tour. It remained active, though mainstream media was slightly quieter. I'm not commenting on the reveal contingency plans.
DeleteOh, apologies. You're right, it didn't lay low at all. The stuff prior to, during and immediately after the Olympics was so over the top anything that followed would seem like lying low, but it continued its regularly scheduled broadcast.
DeleteOne thing that really stood out at the time was when Scott and Tessa were scheduled for their London celebration - the London Hall of Fame - the media made quite a point of letting us know that Meryl and Charlie had called and requested invitations to attend. I can't recall what the quotes were, but there was an initial report that they were going, then a fuller article talking about how they'd made a special request.
DeleteThen the event comes and they're not there. Yes, DW's own plans could have changed, but it was easy to suspect it was VM's plans that had changed, and as they weren't going to reveal, they didn't need DW there as a buffer. Being open as a couple under those circumstances in London practically required outsiders as a buffer, and I wonder if DW were stepping in. Then when the plug was pulled, there was really no need for them to sit through something like that, which is more fun for the participants and those conferring the honors than those receiving the honors, even though of course the honor is appreciated.
Lol. Looks like fan has created a facebook page for Miss Hilborn:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/model.cassandra.hilborn
How on earth can Cassandra have a fan ? Like what did she accomplish ? Even if she would date Scott, what would her biggest achievement be to deserve fans ? Wearing tight hot pants at a holi festival is probably enough to count as model, is it ?
DeleteI still can't believe that Tessa doesn't care about these things.
I'm pretty sure it's meant to be mocking her....
DeleteTo me that facebook site looks more like someone making fun of Scott and Cassandra, not a creation of a person who admires Miss Cass.
DeleteBut I wholeheartedly agree, she's a nobody. We shouldn't know who this person is. It's gross she gets attention for posing in sleazy pictures with Scott Moir.
http://metronews.ca/sports/786622/a-summer-spent-on-rink-in-detroit-for-chan/
ReplyDelete"The reality series, Moir added, will be a nice keepsake of what will likely be their last season skating competitively.
“This is a great point in our career,” Moir said. “We’re healthy athletes and we’re going to another Olympic Games to defend our title. It’s a great part of our lives, let alone our careers.
“Being able to document that is fun for us to look back on.”
Such a lovely keepsake for the child that will be edited out of their lives for this (and has been edited out of the public record her entire life). I'm sure that will be a lot of fun to look back on.
This part is even better:
Delete“It’s a fly-on-the-wall type series,” Moir said. “People are going to really see what we go through day to day. So much is (usually) just seeing us in makeup and sparkles. So you’ll see me when my hair doesn’t look this pretty, right?”
Virtue and Moir said they don’t mind the added attention.
“The neat thing is we get to share so much of our story with viewers and with family and friends and fans, and hopefully it’s something that people find interesting,” Virtue said. “I know when I see other athletes I love seeing the behind-the-scenes things, I love seeing the highs and the lows, and we’ve been through so much together, there is a lot of that. You see the tears and you see the laughing fits.”
We posted at the same time, I guess. I just put a full post with all of this, then came down here to read the comments, and here are these quotes/comments. I guess many people are having the same reaction. You couldn't make this up. A script writer would think these people were too cartoonishly awful.
Delete