Jessica Dube Loves Scott Moir

Years on, it's still unsettling how in these scenarios everybody looks uncomfortable but Tessa. I've tried to bury the W Network's Tessa and Scott Tessa but still recall that what came through of the Tessa and Scott Tessa made one pretty queasy about the actual Tessa who signed off on it.

The video of Scott Moir mentioning his "fiancee" isn't embeddable yet, so I went with this robot report on youtube. He certainly made that announcement most naturally.

I've never stalked Virtue Moir for blog material, although as many know, that would not be difficult. More people know about them than don't know about them.

As place-holdery as the blog is currently, the point was never just or even primarily to highlight the gap between the reality and what they're selling. It's the cynical exploitation of their fan following; their early deployment of social media as if social media weren't democratic but something they could use as a one way street to exploit their fan following. It's the corruption - the faux sincerity and earnestness pushing lies, with a side order of entitlement and pan-flute accompanied sanctimony.

And it's the gaslighting, the complete inversion of what's actually happening. Fans are called over-invested, basically sex-and-romance-starved and delusional, while Virtue and Moir signal rationality with commendable empathy and tolerance. Let's not call it condescending.

There's a status element to it that's revolting.

Very few fans outside this blog publicly question their claims, which makes Virtue and Moir liars in portraying their fan base. Those who call Virtue and Moir liars are correct. Virtue and Moir are married parents.


Over time I've tied Virtue and Moir's recurring scams to the timing of the Olympics, and been wrong about intention a few times. I guessed Scott Moir linked himself to Kaitlyn Lawes for synergy reasons but also because it gave him and Tessa an excuse to prolong their charade after Sochi. As Lawes was aiming for Pyeongchang, what could they do? Whatever her reasons for entering into this agreement, clearly they had to endure until 2018. I did not think VM themselves would throw in for 2018.

VM are drowning in sunk cost fallacy at this point, so obviously they dig in for new justifications after the old grow stale.

The W Network's Scott and Tessa reality show in 2014 showed where the bar was. It also suggested an unsavory level of getting off on it all. The pretense itself was a rush. It was also a display of status. Most reporters who asked VM about the reality show knew the reality is Virtue and Moir are married. Many fans know Virtue and Moir are married. This show went on despite Virtue and Moir knowing a great deal of the public knew they were lying. So the W network thing was a straightforward exercise in flexing along with its other agendas.

There may also be a pseudo-rational, dispassionate game plan justifying it all somewhere but I think if any of us saw it and its bullet points/talking points we'd recognize it as deranged.

What this looks like to me now is they're in for 2022 and another ice dance shoe is scheduled to drop. And it also looks like a misdirection gambit, because who would think they'd up the ante to this level. They're both control freaks. Both an almost sociopathic need to be publicly right, at least vis a vis fans. That relationship is very clear - VM are "understanding and patient", fans are overinvested, passionate and gee, it's flattering. I guess. There's a hierarchy that needs to be maintained.

I've never been a fan of the sexist stereotyping VM take advantage of in their antics either, and no amount of cheap empowerment rah-rahing social media bromides changes that.

ETA, it's more than sexist stereotyping; it's cultural stereotyping with fans occupying a much much lower rung on the status ladder than Virtue Moir. Not just vis a vis Virtue and Moir's higher social ranking.

Nobody should be expecting any type of reveal before there's a reveal. It should come as a total shocker. VM should never be seen to be bending. There should be no I told you sos. Nobody but them should ever be right. To me, they seem obsessed with those who don't play ball, which is a fraction of those who follow them, that fraction mostly disregarded (which is fine). To me, they are fighting stale battles, immature battles, and they're out of their minds.

******

I think this next is relevant. Over the years, I've talked about stuff on the blog before figuring out the specific relevance, because something about it FELT relevant. This does too. This is fun, but it also goes to how quickly distortion occurs on line and in all media. I've read reviews where basic information in a script is ignored or missed. I read analysis where 90% is the writer manipulating the material he/she is critiquing in order to promote a pet premise. I read biographies (not serious ones, show biz ones) where quotes are twisted to serve the biographer's thesis.

Simon Doonan did Barney's windows for years and years. When Christie's called him to catalog Marilyn Monroe's personal estate, he wrote this article for Slate (2013), tying in Judy Garland. A photo of Judy Garland had hung in the Barneys studio where Doonan worked, and he describes it thus:

In this compelling image, Liza’s highly strung mother is caught backstage wrapped in a towel. Her face is a festival of anguish. One rigor mortis hand claws the air. The other clutches at a bottle of rubbing alcohol which has clearly just been torn from her grasp. Judy is having a preshow meltdown.

I googled with a quickness, because who wouldn't. Here it is:

This is a lady getting a pre-show shoulder rub. Hence the towel, and the rubbing alcohol in the left hand of the person behind her, whose right hand is on her shoulder.

Both of her own hands are doing the same thing. There's no one hand is doing this, the other is doing that. It's called gesturing.* Nobody's clutching at rubbing alcohol recently snatched from one hand while the other hand claws the air. Why would anyone be desperate to reclaim rubbing alcohol anyway?

Does she look a little (lots) extra? Certainly. Her daughter Lorna says she was a pill addict, that at Garland's healthiest she took fewer, but was never off them. And this shot was taken prior to one of Garland's ultra high stakes concert performances in the sixties.

What strikes most about Doonan's description is the drama he invented and apparently believes about her hands when they're doing nothing he's described. Doonan's narrative for years steamrolled over the actual image; over what actually could be observed.

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I've been following the Meghan Markle shenanigans on social media, and am not a fan. But really the most interesting thing about her is not her, but what she's exposed about her new environment. On the one hand we have what appears to be an overly complacent, ostrich-esque sovereign, heir and courtiers, very big on PR and sweeping things under the rug, extremely averse to actual action while one of its newest members steamrolls ahead wanting all due respect paid, hyping the shit out of her title-by-marriage, and conspicuously disinclined to acknowledge rank higher than hers. Not to mention expecting taxpayers to fund whatever while she does fuck all in return. The British Royal Family response has been all very Emperor's new clothes and weak sauce, and whatever the hell they may have actually done is not completely visible and therefore it's useless. Take Her Majesty Le Queen out of the picture and look at the rest of them (with one or two or five exceptions) and it's not difficult to suppose Miss M. simply crassly embodies what everybody else has been doing only on their part there are more nods to convention, more occasion-appropriate attire, more observance of protocol and form. But at bottom, grift grift grift, monetize, and a little bit of celebrity bedazzlement.

But that's kind of British Royal Family specific, which does not affect most of us. So, on the other hand, what does affect the rest of us is the hypocrisy festival that followed don't use plastic straws, curtail your use of water, and live sustainabley. Now excuse me while I take 10 private jets in 15 days, but don't criticize, because I made a donation to a sheep farm that produces bespoke organic wool. That offsets the entire thing! So shut up!

There has been a ton of celebrity agitation, and what I see is this has cut so close to the bone some celebrities have come very close to abandoning all lip service and are just throwing down. We don't need to do as we say, because we're special and it's different for us. Do you not understand how this system works?

It's all right at the line, the eagerness to bully the rest of us into thinking this is ok.

It's also right there in one of Miss Markle's favorite gambits going back to Suits - let's give our leftover filet mignon to the poors! Let's give the cake to the kids waiting outside!

Nobody, nobody in that crowd wants everybody to have filet mignon and cake at the same time.

It's getting right down to those brass tacks. We offset. We highlight and draw attention. We have a certain status. We are using that status to tell you what to do but honestly, do we have to really spell it out? We're not you. We're more important than you. Stay home and staycation, stop crowding Machu Pichu, Bali's gotten super gross now that there's all inclusives, and watch your drinking water intake while we refresh our infinity pools.*

What it looks like to me, is an attempt to bully acceptance of the double standard because status. For the most part, the media is on board. I don't think that's irrelevant to the focus of this blog.

*Lest there be no misunderstanding I'm not just a card-carrying SJW, I believe in everything we're preached to about sustainability. It's the elitism I can't stand. "It doesn't apply to us, for the reason that we're famous and important." No, you're not important; get fucked. The attempt to just drop the facade and bulldoze people into signing off on that recently has been educational.

**I've seen video and stills of Garland in concert from the 1960s. In this photo she might be talking to someone out of frame. But she might also be running over a lyric or musical beat (IOW, singing) with characteristic gestures for said phrase. That could easily be a singing face, and a singing gesture aimed at orchestra leader Mort Lindsey, who waxed genius during her concerts. Or the producer. Or someone tasked with getting it all on tape.

What she's not doing is having a meltdown and grabbing at rubbing alcohol.