He had to have used this angle and that look intentionally but my lord.
After being reminded below, I don't think we're going to see ye old fake Ilderton wedding in the community center. I think Ilderton will take a pass on that photoshoot.
Whether they decide to go ahead and announce or pull the plug, the wedding photoshoot is in the bag. Maybe they did it in a sunny state while conducting other business since they really don't like the PR couple stuff to take up real time. I'll be looking at the guest list. People who might have been happy to "support" the whole charade as back in the old days with Jessica Dube might think two or twenty times before showing up as credibility value adds for this one.
I still have a feeling it's going to end. The "forced" part of my feeling isn't that they will be forced to come clean, but that even the media and some personalities in the sport will have reached their limit, there will be a cultural shift about what is ok and what isn't, somebody with a public profile will say something, and then the dam will break.
It would have been better if they'd done it awhile go when the narrative would have been controlled by them and the media to portray them as putting up a fence between themselves and obsessed fans.
These days, what the media does doesn't control the narrative. Once that someone breaks, there will be a break from the "obsessed fans" excuse and people will be dropping tweets about what they know.
Until then though, this is a victimless PR hoax so it's not like busting out and announcing Ellen DeGeneres is a terrible person and please share stories. That one was exposing someone who was doing harm. The "harm" here is more general - the contemptuous way fans have been treated and exploited defines two faced, the smarm, how very very very extra they have always been, far beyond what would be required to protect themselves, all has a power trip smell and a mean spirited streak. But it's not towards individual people, it's towards a group of people - fans and followers of figure skating and I guess shipper types. You can't get lower on the pecking order than those two groups in the eyes of many people in Scott and Tessa's level of fame.
Want to add some more to the comment about "They're risking exposure!" below. You know when Scott gets "engaged" to his first partner, five minutes later you google and there's a million articles saying "Scott Moir is engaged, but not to Tessa Virtue." How many news outlets personally covered the Hall of Fame engagement announcement in Ilderton? Those articles came from Virtue and Moir's "team" (pr people). Entertainment media relies on PR output for most of its content. They all received the headline, the angle, the talking points. Always one of them is how fans are obsessed with them.
And btw, considering their latest narrative, just because Scott (or Tessa's) name doesn't appear as a client with a rep they used to share and only one of them appears to be represented, doesn't mean they're no longer repping both. It's just the narrative.
Virtue and Moir themselves are behind the steady stream of articles about how fans just can't believe they're not in love. I've noticed "mystery" has entered the narrative. But the source is Virtue and Moir. They're the ones taking shipper culture and using it to brand themselves. God forbid the fans get tired of it all and just let it be. They will again pump out PR articles about fan obsession.
Shipper culture is endemic on the internet. People ship them, people ship all kinds of performers and public figures in genres I've never heard of, they write reams of fan fiction. VM are Canadian figure skaters - there's not a lot of competition in their lane, particularly since they constantly stoke the fire. The constant flare-ups aren't a natural phenom; it's a cultivated phenom.
P.S. I do think they blundered with this Jackie Mascarin thing. I believe the desire to troll and get a fresh faux girlfriend angle was irresistible and they did not take into account the MAGA stuff, which does not match with their brand. Scott has often presented himself as law and order (until apparently he was arrested once and disliked how he was treated), a by the book person. For people to think this translates to him being a MAGA type doesn't sync with their brand and Tessa's profile. OTOH maybe that was part of it. He's MAGA, she's woke - they can't be together! But that would be pretty disgusting.
I saw that in April Tessa tweeted in support of Scott suspending his account because people were critical of choices he'd made in his personal life. Honey, shut up. His personal life is you. You have marketed his virtual personal life to a fare thee well - yours a little, but his a lot. The entire reality show was built around it. Let's not get snotty because even when fans aren't in the know, they know things don't smell right. They aren't right. You have absolutely no right to be mad about it. That many people don't believe your lies or that they acknowledge something doesn't sit right is none of your business. If they end up down the wrong road that's on you and him. They constantly solicit reaction from fans, but Tessa wants to police the reaction? Sit down.
Instead of fake significant other I think from now on "virtual significant other" is more apt. V&M were early adapters of creating an alternative reality on social media that has nothing to do with their actual reality. But I think the tolerance for that is reaching the end of its string.
ETA back to Tessa. The audacity! Tessa and Scott used their Hall of Fame induction to execute the "First partner" engagement stunt for maximum reaction. Fans react, but not as Tessa wishes. She gets pissy and Scott suspends his account. She climbs on a high horse for fans criticizing his "personal life" when she knows it's not his personal life, it's their engagement PR stunt gone awry with unforseen collateral issues. Does she blame herself and Scott for this thing backfiring? No. It's the fans!
Hey, OC. I'm having some trouble understanding what you mean by "you have a feeling it's going to end" and that there will be a cultural shift. Could you maybe elaborate?
ReplyDeleteDo you mean public (fans) culture shift with regards to the growing trend of cancel culture? Or do you mean a culture shift in their circle's?
I feel like there's been a growing trend of public figures to publicly denounce/call out that which they consider immoral. To appease their own privileged guilt, or to prevent any possible backlash to themselves or their camps.
Please let me know if I'm way of course lol. Thanks
Thanks for the question. When I first mentioned it, I think cancel culture. But now that you bring it up I believe in their circles too. My feeling isn't based on specific stuff I can identify. Right now it feel more like the "thin slicing" Malcolm Gladwell discusses in his book "Blink" - how the subconscious processes info much faster than the conscious mind, producing a feeling, such as "We've got to get out of here!" My feeling has to do with cancel culture, the impact COVID has had on figure skating and the careers of skaters, and wondering about just how sick many people have become over how Scott and Tessa played this. The righteous streak particularly from Tessa is not a good look, but I also think she insulates herself from info she doesn't like, so she's behind the times. Based on a few things, I believe Scott has definitely seen this blog, and Skate Canada used to have its ISP parked here 24/7. But Tessa I think prefers to "curate" (influencer word) her information. In the past, if they'd have come clean, they had it set up that legions of fans across the world were obsessed with them, that they needed to "protect" themselves and their family and friends. It would have been all on intrusive fans and the "delicate balance" they needed to maintain between keeping up that wall and showing appreciation to their fans. Tessa spoke to this right as they were prepping their fan fictionalized reality show, which tells the mentality. TBC
ReplyDeleteCont'd: Now the mainstream media has lost its ability to control the narrative, I agree with you that there is a trend to denounce what is immoral, and that people won't be bullied with "They had to protect themselves from stalker fans!" or other tactics. And I do think there is a chance a public figure will spill too. When that happens, others will come in to verify and amplify.
DeleteFor those who are newer to this couple and think this is all some massive secret they have to maintain in their off-media (including social) lies, I'd refer to their rift story from their book "From childhood dream to gold". or whatever it was called. 2010...? The story went that when Tessa was operated on and recovering from chronic exertional compartment syndrome, they failed to keep in touch for some reason and didn't speak for months. Or see each other. So that when she returned to the ice, the vibe between them was still off and was not righted again until close to the Olympics. While flogging this narrative in public, they married, which every skater knew and the media knew, and nobody contradicted it. There is public evidence that the rift was made up, everything from their appearance at SA interviewed by Kurt Browning right in the middle of their recovery, to Marianne Strong discussing how Scott and Tessa practiced facial expressions and other skating moves the entire time in her apartment during her recovery in order to be as prepared as possible for her return. Other public evidence. None of these people stepped up and said, WTF? They were out in London! It's in the papers. They were on television! The account they gave of her recovery back then was totally different and 100 supported by what's on the public record. The rift story is contradicted by evidence. What did fans do? Ignore it. To this day they still talk about the "rift" and Scott and Tessa's tendency to not communicate. They lie. They lie unnecessarily. I think what they're doing has now intersected with the wrong moment in the culture, the Mascarin thing was a blunder, and I think the tendency to find bros for Tessa to "date" is also short-sighted. I don't have a timeline (obviously), but I don't think it's going to be pretty when it does come out. For me, personally, I also think the several interviews Tessa has given where the article's slant is fame is organic and has been tidal waving over them and you can see the strain on her face doesn't particularly sit well with a woman who signed onto the W network's "Scott and Tessa" that aired just weeks before Sochi.
Clarify - I don't mean that got married while promoting the book in 2010. They married in 2009, right after the TEB competition, and later on, while promoting their "book" claimed that this was part of the period where they were barely communicating.
DeleteHey, 10:51 here! Thanks for taking the time to respond. As always very well thought out and insightful. I understand it better now, and I'm inclined to agree with you. COVID has shaken up the status quo, and what would have been given the blind eye a couple of years ago is going to be under even more scrutiny and criticism now.
ReplyDeleteThere's been a growing trend, in response to cancel culture and how its literally derailed/destroyed careers and credibility, for so called internet influencers to delete/private/apologize for past controversial content (videos, tweets, photos, etc.).If the truth is spilled you can't exactly delete published books, articles, interviews or a freaking reality tv show.
In most cases with YouTube celebs for example, it's just been a couple of instances, but still enough to do serious damage. VM have 10+ years of shit that the media and fans have screenshot and published to hell. I think you're right that VM are playing a dangerous game right now. People have a little more time on their hands right now, and don't have the stomach for bullshit.
That's what I think, and I also think "bullshit" in general that may have been flagged as unimportant, people are taking a second look and thinking it's more off sides than originally judged.
DeleteFans are like worms to most of the media. Figure skating fans are a self-selecting group of women, the core of which is middle-aged and that's a group that has been bullied for years. The least desired demographic on the planet. Then there's the other skating demo which might skew to younger shippers who talk to each other and love to share theories.
Because of gender bias and honestly class bias, the ham handed manipulation of fans may have been viewed as just what fans were asking for. I don't think that flies in the way the culture is currently trending. People are taking a second look at punching bag female-centered demographics, people are taking a second look at "You act that way so I was entitled to exploit it." and as you say, people have the time now.
Should have said "Status bias" not class bias. The status gap lies in fans living vicariously through Virtue and Moir -so, they're sex starved, they're living in a fantasy world, they're FEMALE, they prefer their fantasy world to reality, it's all very sympathetic but still for the real world Tessa and Scott, who live in the REAL world, aren't sex-starved, aren't living vicariously, who are very busy, very famous, have money, are very important, and very beautiful, this interest in them from needy fans is a burden even as they appreciate and empathize. Aren't they patient! Isn't it a lot!
DeleteThey are kneading and working and stirring this crap up seventeen ways from Sunday and have done so since time. Every shot at their fan base was free because their fan base is at the bottom of the status totem pole. I have never seen any other fan group self-recriminate the way skating fans beat themselves up when Virtue and Moir set them up and then detonate their hopes to hell.
Honestly, at this point I want Scott to enact a marriage to Jackie Mascarin the way he enacted vacations with Jessica Dube, Kaitlyn Lawes and Cassandra Hilborn. DO it dude. If Ilderton won't throw open the doors of the community center, if your family clout won't get anyone to sign off on that photo shoot (although I feel a photo shoot has already been done and everybody is just waiting for the timing), get married on "the farm". Get married in Florida. Get those pictures. Make Jackie wear an appropriate second wedding dress with a doily looking veil. Get Morgan Reilly and his newly revived public profile to pose with Tessa on the sun parched field. Do it. Lay down your cards.
The lilah’s Fear podcast ... what do you think?
ReplyDeleteBecause of this question I'm listening to it now. I don't normally because Tessa makes up a life and even issues for her public persona so no matter how long or short the interview you'll learn nothing real. They even make up cutesy stories. And for me, the "conflicted" Tessa she loves to promote. Her pre-Sochi "Am I JUST a skater!" and her post Pyeongchang "Am I just the girl in the red dress" are, to me stupid and overly precious presentations. She's a fanatic. A fanatic about skating, a fanatic about competition, was more shook about 2014 and retirement than Scott, so this demure questioning persona is IMO tiresome and panders to something, I don't know what. Also, she seems to have developed a lot of vocal fry I didn't notice before - maybe she was tired. Obviously the "date night" question is completely bogus.
ReplyDeleteOk still listening but it's white noise at this point. I'll come back if she drops something of any interest!
Ok, she arrived at the stage in her life when she went to Kitchener and then to Michigan. This is a stage of her life she started lying about left and right once she and Scott won in 2010. Here, she says that when she was 17 or so she "realized" the path she was on. That's crap. She didn't "realize" her path, she had been driving herself towards that path. The Olympics were the obsession of her and Scott and their team long before that point. And Skate Canada's.
DeleteShe just constantly loves to talk about some sort of struggle or ambivalence about not being normal, about being immersed in the skating world, about coming to terms. Meanwhile she is the ferociously immersed one. There was no coming to terms, that's who she is. But loves to pretend she's not.
ReplyDeleteOC, do you think Tessa and Scott will come back to show skating some day or they will coach ?
ReplyDeleteI don't think they can possibly be finished with skating and we have to remember that every single thing they tell us is bullshit so they could well be training hard right now. It's the COVID-era - nobody's officially skating so it plays into their "now we have the totally separate lives we always told you we had except when we baited you and jerked your chain" phase. Tessa mentioned in the Lilah Fear podcast she hasn't been training a lot lately. That tells me she probably has been training a lot.
ReplyDeleteDon't believe their representation of themselves as people for whom skating kind of took over and made all of their other passions wait in line. They are passionate about skating and about skating with each other.
What do you mean about Tessa commenting that Scott should suspend his social media because of the backlash? If they are shamming, how is it that Scott is always the one who gets abused by the fan and Tessa is seen as the victim?
ReplyDelete