So they all still hate Tessa

Pretty much the entire national team as well as a number of prominent alumni

got themselves to Jamaica recently for the union of that formerly platonic figure skating pairs team, Anabelle Langlois and Cody Hay.



At their final competition (Olympics 2010) we
learned these two were a couple after years of them saying 
no we're not. It's something in the ice at SC.



Jessica Dube and Scott Moir are officially former bf and gf (we assume), and both attended.

I'm sure it wasn't awkward. The split had to have been amicable if Scott is still wearing the designer jacket Jessica purchased for him (Surely she's the as-always nameless "former" gf in a recent article).*

Or perhaps he intends to cling to every item of clothing from Jessica, wear that stuff til it unravels. Otherwise, until he finds himself another girlfriend with a mysterious amount of play in her budget, he might get stuck having Tessa style him.

Pfft. Tessa couldn't think of giving Scott 
a sweater like this in a million years.

Speaking of Tessa, with almost the entirety of relevant Skate Canada present and accounted for at the Langlois/Hay wedding, guess who was not?

Shit, even this guy made an appearance, although the caption suggests he could only visit before taking off again.

Always left out in the cold.

I see at least three FOT at this wedding (Friends of Tessa's), if we don't count Scott (her proclaimed bff) or Jessica (the woman Scott has said must love Tessa as much as he does. Unless he was being clever and letting us know this is why he'd never marry Jessica. Or unless he was being SUPER clever and Jessica hates Tessa and this was Scott's back door way of saying he hates Tessa too. They're so slick, it's hard to keep pace.).

Always left out in the cold.

Anyhow, missing this wedding was like missing a graduation. It's Anabelle and Cody!!!!!  But Tessa's not there.

So, here are some theories:

1) She is hiding from the camera.

Why the fuck would she do that? She and Scott are platonic, every figure skater in SC is there who could be there, this wedding has been scheduled for a year so Tessa had plenty of time to clear her calendar if she were invited, and surely Scott and Tessa and Barb don't believe that if Tessa were known to be at a beach resort at the same time Scott Moir and a gazillion teammates and former teammates were at the same beach resort in order to attend the wedding of beloved former Olympic teammates, people would think they were together as a couple!  Even they are not that fucking asinine**. Shit, she went to NYC with (possibly among others) Jeff Buttle in 2009 and Buttle sent twitpics without fearing people would jump to conclusions. Did they stay in the same hotel? The same room? On the same floor? OMG!

Jeff didn't give it a second thought, neither did Tessa, and later that year Tessa gave the green light for Fedor to tweet a photo of the two of them posing in front of an inn with Fedor "recommending" it. Tasteful as always Team Virtue Moir! We get it. You aren't just platonic and dating others, you're fucking others. Scott letting us know he's getting busy with Jessica, Tessa with a desultory rotating line-up which immediately upon dating her takes up TMI habits on Twitter.

So why on earth would Scott and Tessa plotz over people thinking Scott and Tessa attending a pair of teammates' beach wedding along with a platoon of other figure skaters might mean they were together? Why would they suddenly care, setting aside how grandiose such concerns might be?

2) Everybody hates her.

This has my vote. She hasn't been at any of the weddings, save Leanne Moir's, since 2008. And they had to invite her to that, since she lives in London.

Maybe 3)?

She was there, with Toddler Moir, but hid from the camera cause unless it's a book or a documentary, Tessa is very very private. Or unless there's literal profit in it, as in money.

Or perhaps

4) She wasn't there because she decided to stay home with Toddler Moir. After all, what parent would fly to a Caribbean resort with her husband to enjoy some r&r under the sun after a long competitive season and relatively brief SOI tour if it meant taking a toddler along? Nobody else brought kids.

Cody and his sister.

And if they decided to take the brief trip as a couple, with whom would they leave Toddler Moir? It's the off season, they're spending most of their time at home base, all sets of parents are alive and available so who would watch the kid? The logistics are impossible!

So. Tessa is hiding from the camera because we better believe it's all getting stockpiled for money-making or promotional ventures, and certainly not for fan eyes for free with nothing in it for them. Are we kidding? EVERYTHING they do in the fan direction must have something in it for them, something solid - forget plain old good will. That's for chumps. They do it up big. They make money from and promote themselves to fans by mocking fans into believing a pack of lies - and then charging fans for the lies. Of course they'll want to make at least the same amount of money and bleed more promotion on the back end of this deal - squeeze money from telling the truth. "I know we lied to you and made you pay for it! But now we'll reveal the truth - for only the price of THIS book or if you tune in to THIS self-aggrandizing special on cbc and/or tsn and help the ratings and their sponsors."

Couldn't Tessa have posed with "the girls" and not Scott, or does that mean that we, the fans, seeing Tessa there among dozens and dozens of other skaters as well as supposed male platonic pals of Tessa's, would automatically take it she and Scott are together?

Oh wait, there's this (I don't want to leave out the POV of some favorite FSUers)

5) perhaps Tessa wanted to spend time with her skier/skater/skater/speed skater bf? I'd understand that. She's the only active member of the SC figure skating team with a SO - ergo, she is excused from attending. The rest have no outside personal lives to steal focus.

Eta;

6) Tessa wanted to spend time with mommy Kate. Kate is presented so often in the media as an implied Scott blocker (how can a girl be with her skating partner if her mom has been living with her wherever she moves)? sometimes it comes off as if she's dating Kate. Or, you know, as wonderful as the relationship is, it's like one of those celebrity mom/kid dealies, where mom is more important than any love interest, and is the only person the adult listens to or lives with. I'm sure that's not the case here but the way Tessa trots out Kate to sort of say "Kate is the SO in my life, not Scott" Kate is doing the sham work of ten pretend boyfriends.
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*That little back door info drop shows just what kind of weasels they are. I think we can expect the "reveal' to be effected with the exact same chicken-shittery.They will hide behind anything and anyone.
**Yes they are.


 P.S. This photo is either unfortunate or fabulous. Or both. I think cropping would have helped.

Is there a corrollary?

Economic expert and Skate Canada CEOWilliam Thompson has said the sucky economy is why Skate Canada's title sponsors ... don't exist.

It's unclear why Skate Canada's previous sponsors waited until 3 years after the economic crisis to bolt for the exits.* The 2010 Canadian Olympics were a rousing success and Skate Canada in particular emerged with three star-quality Olympic medalists.The USFSA's sponsors have hung tough in these budget-squeezing times, and the USFSA is never short of sponsors even though the neither the public nor US television give a shit about figure skating. Not to mention, during the peak of the 2008 economic crisis, Thompson and cohorts were confident that they were assembling star-making machinery almost guaranteed to usher in a 1990's-style figure skating resurgence by the time the Vancouver Olympics were over.

Is there a non-economic reason why after the Vancouver Olympics there's more white space on Skate Canada's rink boards than before?

Sure, Thompson might pull a rabbit out of the hat and crony somebody into sponsoring Skate Canada for 2012-2013.

But it's easy to wonder if Scott and Tessa and the falsehoods they market with Skate Canada's help aren't in important part why Skate Canada has gone so long without marquee sponsors. Scott and Tessa are liars who spent an entire year plus after the Olympics using their new-minted stardom to cram a hoax down the public's throats. No matter what fans think, this is not a huge secret and perhaps there are corporations and other brands who think it's best not to be part of this scheme lest their own credibility take a hit.

Skate Canada, it is surmised, is already regarded as a dubious bet for corporate affiliations because nobody wants to deal with the obnoxious, ignorant tools at the top. That by itself could cause former sponsors to cut and run and potential new sponsors to steer clear.**

If the Scott/Tessa hoax is responsible at all for Skate Canada's status as sponsorship kryptonite, who is paying the price? Scott and Tessa have a few separate deals and wouldn't be hurting for money even if they didn't. Jessica was nicely compensated in a number of different ways. But that's not the case for other skaters, including some of Scott and Tessa's friends.

Ironic, if the star figure skaters Skate Canada believed would open the spigots are actually the figure skaters who have caused the revenue to dry up, burdening less fortunate teammates.

I think back to Own the Podium, which provided important financial support but hit a few potholes getting its message across (i.e.. - if you're not on the podium, you're a tourist). The "it's okay to win!" sort of chest-thumping reeked a little of overcompensation in its tone. I recall Bryce Davison saying that Canadian figure skaters were nicer than the figure skaters from Russia and America; that Americans and Russians took the warm-up ice like they owned it while Canadians were more "Excuse me, after you" and how Canadians needed to be more aggressive. I think of some of Debbi Wilkes' more idiotic ideas about branding (the "tough" campaign which was predicated on elementary word association. Just switch it out! Done and done! Debbi's a genius!). I wonder if the clowns at Skate Canada thought it was wimpy and old school Canadian to be matter of fact and professional, and that it might be more slick, sophisticated, "international" somehow and "big time" to manipulate the public into buying huge lies, using the wimpy old home grown Canadian persona as calculated bait.
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*If you visit BMO'S webpage and click on "donations" and also click on "sponsorships" you'll see that BMO continues to sponsor a roster of sporting events as long as your arm and its donations list is gigantic - a crowded, small-type page for each letter of the alphabet. So Thompson's excuse that all sports are struggling for sponsors doesn't hold water. BMO is still a major contributor.

**Even though it's questionable if Debbi Wilkes spends --- ANY -- time even pretending to do her supposed job, unless she's got a clone, shouldn't it have been Skate Canada's Director of Business Development yakking about light shows and revenue spin-offs to the good people of London last month?

It's going to be very cool

From the folks who brought you Scott and Tessa's public relations.

Some people look at p.r. and ask why lie? We look and ask why not

Sometimes I feel as if Scott Moir finds himself very clever, other times it seems to me this crowd basically needs a reason to tell the truth, and it better be strong. Otherwise the default is lie. 

It's not enough that he has an official girlfriend and is spamming the internet with cheesy photos of him and her. What if that doesn't stick? So much is at stake - they're getting ready to do something no young people in love have ever done before - make it legal. If people suspected, ooh boy - what would happen?

The value of telling/selling/exploiting their story on their own timeline would go down, maybe? Worth a few lies to protect pay day.

From McLeans:

Q: In your book, you say you stopped communicating for a few months after the 2008 surgery. Do you mean you literally didn’t speak?
TV: We didn’t even send text messages. Isn’t that weird?* This time, we’ve been diligently talking every single day.

Q: Scott, why didn’t you call her?
SM: I think I was scared to hear what was actually going on. A couple of times the doctors had said, “Maybe she’ll be back by this date,” and I’d get excited, then it was constant letdown. Also, I didn’t want to tell her, “I’ve been at the rink all day, training.” I was thinking that’s not what she needed to hear. But it was a mistake. Clearly. It took us a long time to figure things out, because we grew apart so much in those two months.

Tessa had had surgery in early October, 2008 and returned to training in early December, prompting this fb status update from Scott: "Scott Moir is no longer a solo ice dancer!"

Below we have Scott and Tessa on November 19, 2008, at the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada fundraiser,  John Labatt Center, London, Ontario, (Snap London, November 19, 2008) just about midway through Tessa's "recovery".

Why didn't you call her, Scott?

They totally made that shit up, packaged it, sold it and acted it out on their book promotion tour.

For me, what is most distasteful is how cynically they corrupt the genuine parts of their personalities in order to market their lies. Tessa speaks in her clear, earnest tones, Scott nods and looks serious. They are self-aware enough to use their own real earnestness as a manipulative tool.

Something I've knocked around with here is the subject of religious faith as applies to this situation. Barb MacDonald is a professional Christian. Here, I'm not projecting standards/values onto them, but rather observing what they themselves project about their values, and what those values mean, and how well their actions line up with those values.**

Scott wears a cross and Marina Zoueva has mentioned his faith, and how when visiting his folks he attends religious services with them. He's also mentioned Jesus a time or two on his ("private") facebook - he's dry, but I'm going to assume he's not being satirical when he does.

Hypocrisy and mendacity on the part of those who profess to hold Christian values is old hat. Still, Tessa and Scott maintain they want to be nice people and yet they've done a large amount of lying, recruiting their "persona" to help sell the lies.  It's easy to speculate that they've fallen into the trap that many of staunch faith find themselves in: "Jesus loves me more than you." "I'm more worthy than you." "I have a higher goal that makes me an exception."

We all have special circumstances. I don't recall footnotes in the Bible. It's those who are in 'special circumstances' whose beliefs are put to the test. Are they real beliefs, or situational beliefs? Do you turn them inside out so black is white and lies are holy when it's convenient?  It's those who have really good reason to lie whose faith and values are tested and I don't think Scott and Tessa (and Barb and SC) are passing the test.

Unless it comes down to what the blog talks about a lot. It doesn't matter because a) it's "business" and most of all, and bottom line:  b) the people who are being lied to aren't as important as the liars.

IMO, as the sham looks for reasons to justify itself and chases its own tail, it has morphed to where they don't give a flying fuck if they're believed or not believed. They simply want their reality ruled off limits until they're ready to market their spin on the truth. If they cared they wouldn't play push/pull, wouldn't make no bones about their togetherness in front of many fans, they'd care about how many fans know what's up, and they'd make what comes out of their mouth match how they behave. They don't care. This is just a lot of filler noise because they need to do pr but they don't want to talk about the reality until it's all done, and maybe they think they'll get a bigger price for the truth with what Charlie calls a "shocking revelation" than if people knew the basics and Scott and Tessa filled in what details they deemed appropriate down the line. SC is full of drama queens.

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*Isn't that weird? Isn't that terrible?

I remember a period when interviews with actresses would often include a confession of something pseudo unkind or self-serving that they'd done, followed by "Isn't that terrible?" It's supposed to make it not terrible, and beg contradiction. I always wanted the interviewer to say yeah, it sucks and your telling on yourself isn't as cutesy as you think. Thankfully that quirk has mostly disappeared from celebrity interviews.

Tessa is acknowledging it's weird, so that is supposed to make it look like she's not selling it too hard.

**William Thompson, Skate Canada, CEO's customary manner of public address - i.e. "Be grateful you're getting any of my attention whatsoever" - is perhaps illustrative of the attitude influencing VM  marketing decisions.
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P.S. - being "nice", while - nice - is not, IMO, the whole enchilada of a person's character. Integrity is.

P.P.S. - I've been re-reading some of Malcolm Gladwell's stuff, and for those who have always felt there was something "wrong" with Jessica/Scott, and with Scott/Tessa's account of themselves, it wasn't a vibe you were picking up on; it was the whole mess failing the "thin slice" test in absolutely spectacular fashion. See Gladwell's Blink for the rapid cognition process I'm talking about.

Tessa and Scott during Skate America 2008 (October 2008)

This links to a video used on a blog post last year. Tessa and Scott said she had her original surgery in early October, 2008. Skate America was October 23-26th. I believe they also filmed some Olympic promo spots shortly after her surgery. It was a very busy estrangement they had.

Scott and Tessa gave their annual "We're so special absolutely nobody can really understand" interview establishing that they're preparing to take their annual 14 day sabbatical from each other.

Photo illustrating the article.
Their holy bond

This was new:

When Scott and Tessa are walking with the reporter, they lowball the odds of being recognized. Seems like they've called it accurately, but still they attempt to walk separately. The reporter says they're not recognized save for some side-eyes, which Scott says don't count (why not - does Scott only count fans who come at him or Tessa with a blindside tackle? How many of those does he meet?). I'm curious why he and Tessa are confident they won't be recognized yet Scott keeps his hands in his pockets for fear of bumping into somebody and being recognized. Scott. You think the chances are slim or you need to jam your hands in your pockets to avoid being recognized, not both.

My first thought - he imagines that whomever he might 'bump into' will not be one of the polite side-eyes but obnoxious and needy. So? What's the worst down side of occasionally being recognized? If they're recognized on occasion while together - what damage is done?

Jessica Dube is the "girlfriend" the Moirs and Virtues paraded down Main Street in a buggy, next to Scott's mom. Jessica is always an unnamed, semi-abstract  "girlfriend" to the mainstream media, yet the fact of her being on the same team, a pairs skater and semi-famous in her own right opens up new angles on the Virtue/Moir story. Somehow though the legit media knows not to touch it by name. Not when interviewing the loquacious Jessica, not when interviewing Scott and Tessa. Why not? The Times was happy to name Tanith as Evan's ex .

As to Jessica, presumably, being demoted to former gf, what now changes? The following, IMO, are elements that are potentially part of the public takeaway on Virtue and Moir and their sham. It's not fans who "don't understand." Tessa and Scott are the ones who don't understand that:

1) It's a scam and a hoax, they've been proactive about misrepresenting the facts, and they've marketed their lying while sanctimoniously praising themselves for their genuine hometown kids personas at every turn. I believe SC thinks lying and cheese-eating bullshit is what marketing IS. It's not.

2) It's been a married man and father, someone we're told has religious faith, "making out" with another woman for a photographer and spamming social media with photos and other material conveying that he's having sex with this woman - and why? To make his lies convincing.

Both "1" and "2" might lead to unpleasant realizations about Scott and Tessa's true opinion of Canadian fans, and a concurrent realization that these self-styled humble figure skaters have an extraordinarily high opinion of themselves, in inverse proportion to their low opinion of the paying public.
"All of Canada was on the ice with us" is something they say repeatedly, failing to add it was a horrible sensation. It must have been. Look at them. To protect their special selves from the Canadian public, they made the strategic decision to systematically violate elementary standards of decency and respect.*

What they share must not be contaminated by fans. Furthermore, the public is too stupid to understand and respect their relationship. (I know - it's unprecedented!!) Ignore side-eyes and fans showing them courtesy - they don't count!

But then - how much are they really protecting for sensitivity/privacy reasons and how much is money/exploitation, control freak reasons?

ETA: Because I'm thinking - you know, the public, with their overinvestment in figure skating, their knitting, their needy, no-lives having - they might pay BIG for the now-it-can-be-told story of these fairy tale figure skaters, considering figure skating fans as a demo live dumpy love-and-sex-starved lives and live vicariously through the skaters. Right? How much do you think Scott and Tessa can make for themselves and maybe SC if they play it right?

Tessa repeatedly says they value their privacy - but here comes a documentary.Their book with "private" photos is gathering mold at clearance sales. Scott is repeatedly photographed with a digital camera but he can't share anything with fans, not from a rehearsal, a training camp, nothing. Privacy? Don't think so.

They have to earn a living.

To cover all these bases - the pious and the self-serving - what else could they have done but what they did and continue to do?

And how else would SC justify paying Barb and Debbi. Debbi isn't doing the job in her title. Barb is inept and pretty lazy as well as transparently overeager to get her face on camera, promote Barb and enjoy other perks of a relatively high-profile, low-show (when there's actual off-camera responsibilities on her plate) position.

Their opinion of "us" couldn't be more contemptuous.Their opinion of themselves couldn't be higher.

P.S. - I look forward to some of the usual suspects on fsu claiming they've "heard things" re why Scott now has a "former" girlfriend.
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*A corrollary - babies. Casen Loosley and Quinn Moir. Plunk a baby in Jessica's arms. Better yet, plunk a fresh-baked newborn Moir, still in the maternity ward, in Jessica's arms and make it her profile photo concurrent with Alma's profile pic holding the same baby. The public will never believe the Moirs could be so vulgar or so blatantly mock the public's assumptions. That's what makes it perfect! Exploit the public's homegrown, parochial, bourgeois values. Those suckers. We're so slick, and unlike us, they're such rubes. What a way to mock the public's values and manipulate them to get a lie across. Christmas is the same deal. It's Christmas for God's sake!