UPDATED: OMFG . . . Adam Rippon, Tonya Harding and Mirai Nagasu are on the DWTS' all-athlete cast

[Bellanca]

One of the reason pro skating died besides the isu trying to sabotage it was pro skaters skating to the same music too many times. Caryn Kadavy skated to "if you touch me like this" about a 1000 too many times.

Yeah...

They also kept showing the same (mostly img with occasional invites to Rosenberg's sfx) skaters all the time instead of having different people at events. There were also pro skaters that shall remain nameless that would show up for competitions unprepared and say it didn't matter because they got paid the same regardless of placement. One pro comp even had an unprepared Yvonne Gomez compete instead of producing because someone pulled out and they needed a last minute replacement.

HAT FULL OF STARS killed professional skating. (Unfortunately I couldn't find @escaflowne9282's tribute on youtube.)

Adding a few more . Yuka was beautiful, as always, but the music...

 

[StasiyaGalustyanLove]

Oh FFS. Assault and murder are not the same thing.

It is not at all fair to Tonya Harding to make such a declaration. And she herself did not attempt anything.

What does FFS mean, fantastic figure skating? A salt and murder are both things that Tonia wanted to of done to Nancy may-be she only contributed to one but it was way more then a attempt.

What is not fair to Tonia is to accept her being on Dancing Star when she should be in the slammer.

 

[sp555]

It was lucky for Tonya that she is short and got paired with Sasha Farber on DWTS. He seems so nice and supportive.
He even went to a karaoke bar with her apparently. lol

Tonya is so self-sabotaging. Her husband better hide all the hubcaps before she goes home.
If she blows it again, I will be .

Access Hollywood interview

At around the 5 minute mark, she says that Mirai landing the triple axel at the Olympics was amazing and that she is very happy for her.

 

[Yazmeen]

Also, consider if Tonya and Co. had decided to whack the knee of someone like Kristi Yamaguchi… I don’t think that Tonya would ever be able to rehabilitate her image or recover from that scenario at all because of how beloved and well thought of Kristi is with her easygoing, approachable and warm personality, IMHO. That would have been like carrying out an attack on Mother Teresa. In other words, I believe that for many people, the likeability of the characters involved in an incident like this, for example, have a great deal to do with whether an image can be rehabilitated at any time in the future.

Definitely agree here. If the plot has been against Kristi in 92 instead of Nancy in 94, Tonya would have been thrown off the Olympic team, no questions asked, done, gone. And that would have been the end of any comeback in any manner. A significant portion of the current reaction to her being portrayed as a victim in “I, Tonya” and her being on DWTS has been negative enough as it is. But if Kristi had been the victim? No movie, no “rehabilitation celebrity,” no nothing beyond serve the time, pay the price for your crime and go away.

 

[sp555]

I don't necessarily agree. It might have depended on how Kristi would have reacted in the aftermath - would she have appeared to be more forgiving for instance? Who knows?

I recently re-watched that odd Breaking The Ice special from 1998. I found it strangely fascinating all these years later.
When Nancy came face to face with Tonya, it obviously affected her more than she had anticipated. Nancy really let her subtlety have it there! lol They both seemed tired of the whole thing even then. Tonya obviously wanted Nancy's forgiveness but she gave such a lame apology that Nancy was not able to forgive her dammit! The most heartfelt part of her apology actually takes place after Nancy has already left the room!

 

[berthesghost]

Oh FFS. Assault and murder are not the same thing.

It is not at all fair to Tonya Harding to make such a declaration. And she herself did not attempt anything.

Yeah, even Tonya is smart enough to know that hiring a hit man is considered like attempting it yourself, that's why she gave up skating to stay out of prison.

 

[Japanfan]

What does FFS mean, fantastic figure skating?

It means For F_ _ ks Sake.

A salt and murder are both things that Tonia wanted to of done to Nancy may-be she only contributed to one but it was way more then a attempt.

Source please for your claim of murder.

 

[Japanfan]

Yeah, even Tonya is smart enough to know that hiring a hit man is considered like attempting it yourself, that's why she gave up skating to stay out of prison.

SFAIK it wasn't a choice between one and the other?

There is a legal difference between being an accessory to a crime or a principle who performs a crime. However, an accessory can be considered and charged as a principal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessory_(legal_term)

This didn't happen in Tonya's case because the evidence of her being an accessory was not really strong. I'm not a lawyer, but would think that the address written on the scrap of paper found on the trash would not be sufficient evidence to charge Tonya as a principal. For example, if Tonya had a defense, they might have argued that members of her team wanted to go and watch Nancy practice just to to gauge how the competition was doing.

It's entirely possible that the whack could have performed without Tonya's involvement because Stan wanted to financially benefit from Tonya beating Nancy. Of course, many people believe otherwise, but belief has limited utility in a court of law when evidence is lacking.

 

[sp555]

The assistant prosecutor has rarely spoken about the case. She made an appearance on scandal made me famous a couple of years ago. She made a lot more sense than the main prosecutor who really enjoys his little 15 minutes of fame from this case. A reporter even said that he had referred to Tonya as the most dangerous sociopath he ever met.

Give me break. He thought she was really smart because she managed to implicate her ex without implicating herself. He totally fell for everything Jeff said. Jeff made anything that could be considered smart (i use that term loosely here) sound like it came from Tonya. But if she was so smart, why did she "mastermind" such a stupid plot in the first place! She would obviously be the main suspect. Duh. She even called a skating writer (built-in witness!) to find out where Nancy trains and she called the rink right from her house (phone records!). She also did not destroy the only piece of forensic evidence against her. I mean come on - you know she was holding a ciggie in the other hand when she threw that stupid envelope out!

The only far-fetched way I think Tonya could be "kind of innocent" is if she thought the whole thing was a farce (because it was the fake bodyguard's idea and he was in charge of it) and nothing would actually happen. That nothing actually did happen in Massachusetts would have cemented that feeling. Were the training hours Jeff gave the FBI even true? Maybe she just made something up! lol

This theory falls apart later in Detroit. There is a clip on Youtube where a young Shane Stant explains that he never met or talked to her but she picked Jeff up from the meeting the four guys had at Shawn's parents' house in Portland. He says that he and Tonya made "eye contact" while he was walking out of the house and she was waiting in the truck - meaning that she knew what he looked like. While he was walking through the skaters' hotel in Detroit, he did not see Nancy. Who did he see? Tonya! He says that she stared at him and then looked away and had a funny look on her face.

The way it's explained in that documentary makes it sounds like he spoke to Jeff directly on the phone after this happened. Jeff supposedly said that Tonya was "scared" and did not want it to happen in front of her. According to the affidavit however, he did not talk directly to Gillooly at all. What actually happened was that Tonya called Jeff who called Shawn who called Derrick who was with Shane! LOL

Maybe she had a cow and actually told Jeff they could not go through with it. Jeff tried to stop it but either Shawn or Derrick did not give that message to Stant. That would kind of explain why they (Tonya and Jeff) turned against each other so badly in the end. Tonya would have thought it was Jeff's fault but it was really Shawn or Derrick. It would also explain the simplified story Jeff gave the screenwriter that it was Shawn that really did it.

Tonya also skated better when she was mad – that’s the excuse her mother gave for being so mean to her. Maybe she skated well at that competition because she was pissed off that these idiots actually went through with it!

 

[miav9]

There was some Twitter drama between Sasha and Val, seemingly about Adam’s comments on Tonya

Sasha: https://twitter.com/sashafarber/status/995328405112475648

Val’s deleted tweet: https://twitter.com/smwashburn1/status/995517322734387200

ETA that this all started because Sasha liked some IG comments telljng Adam to “keep his ugly snarky comments about her to himself”

 

[sp555]

There was some Twitter drama between Sasha and Val, seemingly about Adam’s comments on Tonya

Sasha: https://twitter.com/sashafarber/status/995328405112475648

Val’s deleted tweet: https://twitter.com/smwashburn1/status/995517322734387200

ETA that this all started because Sasha liked some IG comments telljng Adam to “keep his ugly snarky comments about her to himself”

LOL. Oh dear. How did Val get involved? He's not even on the show this year?

 

[love skating]

LOL. Oh dear. How did Val get involved? He's not even on the show this year?

Val is dating Jenna, Adam's partner

 

[sp555]

Val is dating Jenna, Adam's partner

Thank you! I should have clicked on the links before asking.
I've watched DTWS on and off for years but I've never followed the dancer gossip or anything.

The world of ballroom dance with all those pretty people and big egos probably makes the cattiness of the skating world look like Little House on The Prairie or something by comparison.

 

[annie720]

Val is dating Jenna, Adam's partner

Val is not on the show this season. He needs to stay out of it.

 

[Inessence]

Val is not on the show this season. He needs to stay out of it.

He is a man and must defend his girlfriend’s partner’s honor.

 

[Foolhardy Ham Lint]

Definitely agree here. If the plot has been against Kristi in 92 instead of Nancy in 94, Tonya would have been thrown off the Olympic team, no questions asked, done, gone. And that would have been the end of any comeback in any manner. A significant portion of the current reaction to her being portrayed as a victim in “I, Tonya” and her being on DWTS has been negative enough as it is. But if Kristi had been the victim? No movie, no “rehabilitation celebrity,” no nothing beyond serve the time, pay the price for your crime and go away.

Further, Kristi is also much more slight and shorter than Nancy. Shane Stant may have had better aim, and the force could have permanently broken Yamaguchi's knee cap, too. Not just hit her on the leg below it.

 

[bardtoob]

Definitely agree here. If the plot has been against Kristi in 92 instead of Nancy in 94, Tonya would have been thrown off the Olympic team, no questions asked, done, gone. And that would have been the end of any comeback in any manner. A significant portion of the current reaction to her being portrayed as a victim in “I, Tonya” and her being on DWTS has been negative enough as it is. But if Kristi had been the victim? No movie, no “rehabilitation celebrity,” no nothing beyond serve the time, pay the price for your crime and go away.

Further, Kristi is also much more slight and shorter than Nancy. Shane Stant may have had better aim, and the force could have permanently broken Yamaguchi's knee cap, too. Not just hit her on the leg below it.

Team Tonya (Gang Tonya . . . Tonya's Sons of Anarchy?) would have never gone after Kristi because:

1. Tonya knew she could beat Kristi (in skating ) because she did at Skate America and US Nationals.

2. Any losses to Kristi were easily explainable; all you had to do was count the triples.

3. People seem to forget that Kristi did experience some prejudice (if not discrimination) in her time because there was a lot of anti-Japanese sentiment between 1985 and 1995 because the US owed a lot of foreign debt to Japan, and it was perceived that "the Japanese were buying everything".

What Kristi had over Tonya was the Kristi could perform very well, even with some mistakes, and hold her head high, like a winner, so that when everybody else fell she would come out looking best, like a champion . . . From Kristi, there were no excuses like there were from Tonya and no self-loathing like there was from Nancy.

 

[sp555]

What Kristi had that the other two lacked at times was the "whole package". She had good jumps (ok-minus that darn sal!), a difficult combo with the lutz-toe and by far the best choreography out of the three.

Those little hippety-hop step sequences that Nancy did always gave me the giggles.

Tonya sometimes had a tendency to go from jump to jump like a Mack truck on ice.

 

[bardtoob]

Tonya sometimes had a tendency to go from jump to jump like a Mack truck on ice.

True, but I like to reserve that imagery for Slutskaya . . . except that I love Slutskaya now

 

[sp555]

DWTS is way too corny and boring tonight. This series jumped the shark several years ago.

 

[jenniferlyon]

I didn't say that I knew that - I said that that is what I believe - that she was blacklisted, or producers were discouraged by others not to hire her imo. If ever she was sought out for an ice show I am absolutely certain she would have accepted.

It was pretty well known at the time that several other big name skaters refused to appear in any shows, tours, or TV specials with Tonya. I heard they had no-Tonya clauses in their contracts.

 

[just tuned in]

I am so angry at this show. Who will be the chosen one next time, OJ Simpson? And Carrie Ann will praise his hip action and say, "We are just here to judge what happens on the dance floor!" And his best year will be the year he won the Heisman Trophy and his "MVP" can be his mother or Johnnie Cochran. Pppppttthhh

 

[berthesghost]

^

But were you really into this show until now? I’ve never cared for it but even for what it was, it seemed to have jumped the shark a few years back. Anyway, if this is what broke your camel’s back, that makes sense too, as Tonya has a well documented history of ruining everything she comes in contact with.

 

[GreatLakesGal]

I don't watch DWTS but I'm delighted that Tonya made it to the final three. Great redemption for her--I love redemption stories--and a very nice paycheck no matter how she places next week.

 

[Rogue]

I don't watch DWTS but I'm delighted that Tonya made it to the final three. Great redemption for her--I love redemption stories--and a very nice paycheck no matter how she places next week.

For a true redemption story, she needs to use her very nice paycheck to repay all of Nancy's medical and therapy bills related to the whack.

 

[care bear]

I have nothing agianst T. Harding, but the way she danced, she should have been out yesterday. Mirai was much better.

 

[soogar]

HAT FULL OF STARS killed professional skating. (Unfortunately I couldn't find @escaflowne9282's tribute on youtube.)

Kadavy's Celine Dion program is iconic and stands the test of time!

THIS!!!!!!!!!!!! I also think raising the standards to 2 triple jumps per program eliminated a number of really entertaining pros which resulted in the same skaters over and over. I think the pros should have not taken that golden goose from the ISU because it ultimately killed pro skating.

 

[pixie cut]

For a true redemption story, she needs to use her very nice paycheck to repay all of Nancy's medical and therapy bills related to the whack.

I'm sure whatever insurance didn't pay, USFS covered. Rather she should write a check to Nancy's charity of choice.

 

[bardtoob]

It was a set up by the producers to pit Adam against Tonya.

My prediction is the football player will win.

 

[Barbara Manatee]

I doubt Nancy wants anything to do with Tonya's paycheck. I think the best, most redemptive move would be to put the money into a college fund for her son, so he has the kind of choices in life that she's always believed she didn't.