Olympic gold medallists Sale, Pelletier divorce

[Twilight1]

I have never noticed the magazines here because they aren't something I purchase in stores or see at work... or at friends homes... or families homes and considering our TV shows/programming are purchased from the US, it makes sense we would be stuck with their gossip shows too. lol

[Japanfan]

I think there are just as many people obsessed with celebrity in Canada as the US.

The only difference I see, and it's a very little difference, is Canadian media, which is much smaller in itself, is perhaps not as focused.

And, most Canadian celebrities move to the US.

[The Observer]

You are wrong. There were several mentions of David's first marriage in a number of reports around the time of the 2002 Olympics (e.g. Beverly Smith's post-Olympics book in 2002, Gold on Ice, mentions it). And if you read what others have posted earlier in the thread, it is also not clear that he left his wife for Jamie - he and Jamie were skating together when his marriage broke up, but there are differing reports as to whether he and Jamie got together as a romantic couple while he was still married. So maybe the media didn't report that part of the story because (a) it wasn't verified, or (b) no one really cared that much prior to the Olympics, or (c) there were much more newsworthy parts to S&P's story, e.g. the Olympic cheating judges' scandal.

I've worked in media outlets, and I can assure you that most Canadian sports media have a lot more important things to do than to sit around and concoct coverup stories about the marriage status of professional ice skaters. There is no conspiracy. They just don't care. That is why the current breakup hasn't been covered until S&P made their formal announcement.

You're mistaken on this one. I know of at least several Canadian sports reporters who deliberately chose to cover up certain things about S&P, David's first marriage and the timing of their relationship.

It was particularly obvious during the 1999-2000 season when they were romantically involved but several sports writers claimed they weren't, even though they knew that to be false.

The sports media wanted to create a fairytale couple for Canada, and anything that didn't fit into that story was "altered" to make it fit. It's not that unusual - the media regularly alter the truth. It's been going on since the beginning of journalism.

[cal]

I'd like to add that one of the best and most highly visited gossip blogs is from Canada:

Lainey Gossip

Lainey is also a correspondent for e-talk on CTV, also a big Canadian-based entertainment-celeb-athlete gossip source. e-talk covers the red carpets at all the awards shows, music shows, special sports events. Lainey worked along side Jamie and David at e-talk covering the Olympics and other skating events. She is a figure skating fan and always blogs about it when she is covering skating.

I'm not saying that every Canadian follows Lainey's column or watches e-talk, just pointing out a darn good source of celeb news and gossip not previously mentioned.

[cal]

Historically speaking, celebrity gossip has long been a part of figure skating, especially in the late 1920s through 40s when multiple Olympic champ Sonja Henie ruled as one of the biggest celebrity athletes, ice show and movie stars ever.

Lainey gossip gets a lot of good inside scoops on all sorts of famous people who visit and work in Canada, plus the many, many Canadian and British and other international stars. She doesn't repeat every American headline like Perez Hilton. She has sports, books, movies, commentary. She is very heavy on fashion - red carpet coverage. She also writes alot about her Chinese heritage and mother, and about the many books she is reading, or her impressive fitness regime. She's a kick, and an email pal of mine.

here's Lainey's bio at etalk

http://shows.ctv.ca/eTalk/Bios/Elaine-Lainey-Lui.aspx

That's it. Just wanted to be sure that Canada and Lainey got their props for contributions to the world of gossip.

[Twilight1]

And I never even heard of her!!! I have heard of E-talk because I think it is one of the commercials I skip through for So You Think You Can Dance.

[ChiquitaBanana]

The sports media wanted to create a fairytale couple for Canada, and anything that didn't fit into that story was "altered" to make it fit. It's not that unusual - the media regularly alter the truth. It's been going on since the beginning of journalism.

Maybe it is a matter of privacy, that the Canadian media wants to preserve unless the concerned person talks about it.

It's one thing not going into personale matter online, and another thing trying to create something else...

[overedge]

You're mistaken on this one. I know of at least several Canadian sports reporters who deliberately chose to cover up certain things about S&P, David's first marriage and the timing of their relationship.

It was particularly obvious during the 1999-2000 season when they were romantically involved but several sports writers claimed they weren't, even though they knew that to be false.

The sports media wanted to create a fairytale couple for Canada, and anything that didn't fit into that story was "altered" to make it fit. It's not that unusual - the media regularly alter the truth. It's been going on since the beginning of journalism.

A few sports writers don't represent the entire Canadian sports media, or how the entire Canadian sports media chose to cover the S&P story.

And if these particular writers knew enough about what happened when to create a cover-up, then they must have pretty amazing fact-finding powers, because not even the participants in the actual events have the same version of events.

[Perky Shae Lynn]

A few sports writers don't represent the entire Canadian sports media, or how the entire Canadian sports media chose to cover the S&P story.

And if these particular writers knew enough about what happened when to create a cover-up, then they must have pretty amazing fact-finding powers, because not even the participants in the actual events have the same version of events.

It's really not that complicated. It was obvious that Jamie & David were in a relationship when he was still married. Anyone covering skating events could see it. Of course, nobody knows the state of Dave's first marriage at the time. But while they were the golden couple of Canadian skating, the timing of Jamie & David's courtship was glossed over by the media.

[overedge]

It was obvious that Jamie & David were in a relationship when he was still married. Anyone covering skating events could see it.

What made it "obvious"? Reporters are supposed to report facts, and unless Jamie and David actually said, "We are in a relationship", there would be nothing to report. Saying you think they looked like they were in a relationship is not good reporting.

[Perky Shae Lynn]

What made it "obvious"? Reporters are supposed to report facts, and unless Jamie and David actually said, "We are in a relationship", there would be nothing to report. Saying you think they looked like they were in a relationship is not good reporting.

They were acting like a couple off the ice while David was still married. You don't hold hands and have PDAs all over the place with someone you are only partners on the ice. It was the worst kept secret in Canadian skating. Just like their separation last year.

[The Observer]

It's really not that complicated. It was obvious that Jamie & David were in a relationship when he was still married. Anyone covering skating events could see it. Of course, nobody knows the state of Dave's first marriage at the time. But while they were the golden couple of Canadian skating, the timing of Jamie & David's courtship was glossed over by the media.

Yup. You've got it.

[Japanfan]

They were acting like a couple off the ice while David was still married. You don't hold hands and have PDAs all over the place with someone you are only partners on the ice. It was the worst kept secret in Canadian skating. Just like their separation last year.

So reporters should have written a story with the headlines 'Married Skater Strays for Current Skating Partner' at that time. And another 'Married Skaters Strays' headline during the time of their separation, when Jamie apparently disrupted a hockey players' blissful marriage and family life, and David got intimate with a skater much his junior in years.

I really hope our figure skating reporters have better things to do than that - more important skating news to report.

People Weekly and Entertainment Weekly thrive on dishing up the dirt on celebrities. Jamie and David aren't such visible celebrities that those publications would follow their marriage and relational antics closely.

People and Entertainment Weekly focus on all the titillating aspects of celebs' live. For example, problems between Angela Jolie and Brad Pitt have made headlines for weeks running. And the situation between Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and their baby is another commonly investigated subject.

However, Sale and Pelletier's actions/behavour are less news worthy. Maybe they will get a spot on Canada's 'Entertainmant Tonight' at some point, but probably not much more can be expected.

[screech]

And, most Canadian celebrities move to the US.

So do most international ones - that's where the jobs are. Heck, half of Hollywood is Australian these days.

Speaking of gossip love, I'm Canadian and I, on a daily basis, check out Perez (annoying as he is), Just Jared, Dlisted and Lainey. I fully admit that I'm a gossip whore, though I skip over the celebs I don't care for and usually only pay attention to the super hot ones, or those involved in shows/movies that I enjoy. Basically, I'm a bored person and looking at the insane stuff amuses me.

[overedge]

They were acting like a couple off the ice while David was still married. You don't hold hands and have PDAs all over the place with someone you are only partners on the ice. It was the worst kept secret in Canadian skating. Just like their separation last year.

I think you're confusing reporters choosing what information to write about vs. reporters actively concealing information.

Look at how much space or airtime figure skating routinely gets in Canadian sports news coverage (which is not much, especially compared to coverage of football, hockey, basketball, baseball, etc. etc.). Now imagine that you are a sports reporter covering Canadian nationals and you know the limited amount of space or airtime you have to tell your story. What are you going to use that space or airtime for? Reporting the results of the competition, or reporting "Jamie and David's PDA"?

Sorry, but making that choice is not a coverup or a conspiracy.

[Perky Shae Lynn]

I think you're confusing reporters choosing what information to write about vs. reporters actively concealing information.
Sorry, but making that choice is not a coverup or a conspiracy.

You completely missed my point. Of course there was no "cover-up" or conspiracy. For goodness sake, S&P were never that important. I am simply saying the truth was rather neglected in order to create a STORY. It happens all the time.

[MacMadame]

I think it's more that when reporters did chose to write about Jamie and David and did chose to write about their relationship, that many (not all) also chose to gloss over the timing of it and how that impacted David's first wife. That's a bit different than saying "their relationship isn't important enough to talk about". They were clearly talking about it. That's more "this fact is inconvenient to the picture I'm trying to paint so I think I'll just leave it out."

The same with Jamie and Craig's supposed affair. There were definitely stories at the time about the show and about their pairing. The reporters writing those stories could have mentioned that the winning couple had a romantic relationship off ice and that would have been very in keeping with the type of piece they were writing. But, for whatever reason, they chose not to mention that.

I think it's interesting what the media does and doesn't report on, what they deem important for us to know, what they are willing to sacrifice to tell a particular story (which may or may not fit the facts). I think it's important to be an informed consumer of the news and understanding how they operate is part of that.

[hongligl]

To be honest, I can't imagine how Sale and Craig could have an affair. They had zero chemistry on ice. I dare to bet that the relationship will not last long as there appears to be no profound affections. It would be more convincing if Shae-Lynn and Claud were the object of a story, they had such amazing chemistry. Shae-Lynn and Claud also showed much better skills, and IMO they should have won.

[Sabrine Tornston]

I think you're confusing reporters choosing what information to write about vs. reporters actively concealing information.

Look at how much space or airtime figure skating routinely gets in Canadian sports news coverage (which is not much, especially compared to coverage of football, hockey, basketball, baseball, etc. etc.). Now imagine that you are a sports reporter covering Canadian nationals and you know the limited amount of space or airtime you have to tell your story. What are you going to use that space or airtime for? Reporting the results of the competition, or reporting "Jamie and David's PDA"?

Sorry, but making that choice is not a coverup or a conspiracy.

I only noticed one person suggesting a cover-up. Everyone else is annoyed that the media manipulated us. They sure had time to write about Jamie & David's "perfect love story" - in fact, it was shoved down our collective throats before, during and after SLC. Surely, journalists had seen David's wife at competitions (when he was a nobody and she supported him); but the inconvinient timing of J&D's relationship was quickly forgotten. Because it didn't fit the story.

[overedge]

I only noticed one person suggesting a cover-up. Everyone else is annoyed that the media manipulated us. They sure had time to write about Jamie & David's "perfect love story" - in fact, it was shoved down our collective throats before, during and after SLC. Surely, journalists had seen David's wife at competitions (when he was a nobody and she supported him); but the inconvinient timing of J&D's relationship was quickly forgotten. Because it didn't fit the story.

Sigh. I don't know how many different ways I can explain this, but the media - or at least the parts of it I was familiar with at the time - basically didn't care. At the time when (allegedly) Jamie and David got together, they were an up and coming pair team, and the media were excited about their future competitive possibilities. The romance part was at best a secondary part of the story.

Then when Jamie and David became top-ranked skaters, the media had limited space to cover the actual events, and used that space to report on the results of the competitions, or other things that were going on. Like, say, that business at the SLC Olympics. Again, the romance part of it was a secondary consideration.

Call that manipulation if you will, but I have yet to see or hear anything that convinces me that there was some collective effort to write the magical love story, and a collective effort to leave out information that contradicted that story. Other than the fact that Jamie and David were an off-ice couple, their previous entanglements or how they got together simply weren't of that much interest.