When will Johnny be in Stars on Ice?

[janetfan]

What Komrades mean

I think it is the Russian version of K-Mart

 

[Tonichelle]

I think Weir has enough fans in Asia and maybe Europe he doesn't need SOI which probably doesn't want him for many reasons, the chief two being a) his management b) his ..... demeanour which glorifies everything Scott Hamilton has fought against in male figure skating for .... how many years now?

he may have fought the 'demeaning' stereotype (that's what it is, even if being gay is a-okay it's still considered negative in male sports) and beads on his costume in competitive skating, but shoot he directs SOI with Jef Billings (also his costume designer for umpteen bazillion years) some of his closest friends are also of that 'other group' that he supposed is disgusted with. please.

SOI is IMG's showcase for their skaters, period.

 

[Wicked]

I wish Johnny would start his own tour. I would imagine it would be hard to get financial backing because potential backers might not be sure there are enough fans out there to support two tours.

 

[ballerynna]

If he skated to Otanal and My Way sure. But the kids and the over 65 crowd that frequent these shows do not appreciate Gaga or whatever outragous music/ costume he will pull out next.

To be fair, Johnny's skated to GaGa only once. His other exhibition programs have been pretty lyrical, Ave Maria for example. And his other exhibition program for the season was to a French ballad.

And you'd be surprised at the number of kids that like GaGa. I was surprised, and slightly concerned, when I saw GaGa in concert and there were kids as young as 7 in the crowd. Parents, the concert ends at midnight, make your kids sleep.

Anyway the whole thing is moot because SOI mostly hires IMG skaters.

 

[Raatkirani]

Perhaps the reason Johnny's not on SOI is because of money issues. Johnny wants top SOI dollar and they want to pay him a lot less. They can't find middle ground. Johnny can find other ways to make money and SOI gets easier people to manage. The fans lose out.

I don't think Johnny would demand any more than what Evan Lysacek (OGM, world champion) would demand. The number one reason why Johnny Weir is not in SOI is because Scott Hamilton is co-founder and producer of this tour and basically owns it now with IMG and he is the one calling the shots. This tour was specifically created by Hamilton and IMG for Hamilton after he left Ice Capades back in the mid-80's. Truth be told, Hamilton is actually quite a conservative person and doesn't approve of skaters who are not straight or who do not "act" straight (from what I understand, he was quite clear about his feelings about this in his autobiography as well as Christine Brennan's book). Johnny is simply not his cup of tea for all the un-politically correct reasons we don't want to admit. SOI once had a poll on their website about who they would like to see on tour and Johnny Weir won that poll by a landslide. SOI knows that he would be a huge draw, but having him would go against the uncontroversial, wholesome, vanilla image of the tour. Not having Johnny is a business decision (mainly IMG skaters on the tour) and a personal decision (Scott Hamilton's feelings). There are lots of discussions on this topic at the Johnny Weir message board and on other websites, such as Aunt Joyce.

But the light at the end of the tunnel is that while interest in figure skating is minimal in the US, it has exploded around the world. I do feel that Johnny will be invited to tours in Russia, Europe, Korea and Japan. Good for the world, bad for USA fans.

One more thing bad for USA fans: Joannie Rochette and Virtue and Moir will be on the Canadian leg of SOI, but not the American. I smell bad management. Do they want to sell tickets or don't they?

 

[Lilyvalley]

At the moment I’m planning to go to Torino at the end of the month [to compete in the World Championships], and then Evgeni Plushenko and I are going to tour across Russia and Europe, doing shows. Then we’ll be in Asia in the next few months.

http://crushable.com/entertainment/exclusive-johnny-weirs-fashionable-future/

 

[Jaana]

SOI once had a poll on their website about who they would like to see on tour and Johnny Weir won that poll by a landslide.

Well, that poll was just for fun, as the skaters for the tour had already been selected earlier.

 

[Tonichelle]

funny if Scott is such a homophobe why are some of his closest skating friends gay (and I'm not just going by what he says in his book)? just saying.

 

[antmanb]

funny if Scott is such a homophobe why are some of his closest skating friends gay (and I'm not just going by what he says in his book)? just saying.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Ok i'm being very silly!!

But I just don't like the "even some of my best friends are [gay][black][blue][one-armed][three-headed]" arguments. It is perfectly possible for someone with gay friends to be homophobic, even sub-conciously or passively aggressively so. I have close work collegues who will suddenly forget the company they're in and make some homphobic joke, or use "gay" negatively around me....if i pull them up on it they're very embarassed and gloss over it, but to my mind they get a little tick in the "homophobe" box.

Ant

 

[Kitt]

When you remember what Scott said when Johnny finished his LP...."That is the BEST he has ever skated." etc etc, praising him profusely.....makes Scott seem a bit of a phony and hypocrite that he won't hire him for the only established American skating show. Europeans and Russians and Asians get to see Johnny on Plushenko's tour, but we don't!

 

[DesertRoad]

Scott Hamilton doesn't hate the gays. He loves the gays. That's why he holds them to a higher standard.

 

[Wicked]

funny if Scott is such a homophobe why are some of his closest skating friends gay (and I'm not just going by what he says in his book)? just saying.

I thought Scott had admitted that he was a homophobe and that it was something he struggled with. I applaud him admitting this but encourage him to keep working on his attitudes. And as a gay person, I have had the same experience as Ant with people who will be friendly to my face and then kind of "forget" I'm gay and say something homophobic right in front of me. I always call them on it, they never have a reasonable explanation for it, and I do think they're homophobes from that point on.

 

[Tonichelle]

if you're phobic you don't do it, it's a phobia... "homophobia" is thrown around too much. I just can't seem someone like Brian Orser being friends with someone who supposedly hates something about him - or is afraid of him in a way too strong sort of way. That's all I'm saying.

 

[Mafke]

I don't think Hamilton is necessarily personally homophobic (IINM he makes it pretty clear he was when he starting out) but on the other hand, Weir's public image is very far from any kind of public image of male skaters that Hamilton wants to put out there and promote.

And there's the management issue. I think hey'll only hire a non IMG skater who's got a better hardware collection than Weir.

 

[Jaana]

And there's the management issue. I think hey'll only hire a non IMG skater who's got a better hardware collection than Weir.

I agree that must be one big reason, Weir has no current titles. Besides, I cannot imagine that Weir with his diva personality and big mouth, would fit well with other skaters on SOI tour. I could though imagine that Weir could appear in one or two cities, but as he has tours elsewhere, I doubt that he would have been interested.

 

[Hsuhs]

Now that they list Jeremy, it's become really confusing. Well at least to me it has.

Oh and of course glad that Jeremy's got the job! :thumbsup:

 

[jennylovskt]

Jeremy might not go for the whole tour. His list of the cities he'll perform hasn't come up yet. I wish he'll come to my city.

 

[Spun Silver]

Johnny's hardware collection is smaller than Alissa Czisny's?

 

[antmanb]

if you're phobic you don't do it, it's a phobia... "homophobia" is thrown around too much. I just can't seem someone like Brian Orser being friends with someone who supposedly hates something about him - or is afraid of him in a way too strong sort of way. That's all I'm saying.

"Phobic" and "phobias" are not the right term. Honestly I don't know when "homophobic" was first coined but the way homophobic is used is not in the strictest sense of a "phobia" it is more like Racist is used. There is a big difference between the term Racist and Xenophobic, but i think the term "homophobic" is used to talk about people that fall into the -phobic and the -ist cateogry when it comes to gay.

Personally i have never heard of people having a "fear" of gay people in the truly phobic sense, close family members have phobia's of needle, insects etc and their reaction to those things are more like physical reactions of fear. Aogrophobic people too. I have not come across anyone that broke into a cold sweat and wanted to leave an area just because there were gay people there

Anyway this more a semantic conversation about language i guess!

Ant

 

[Wicked]

I think Scott wants a tour that he thinks will appeal to the greatest number of people and is afraid that Johnny will be seen as too "outre" by many. I think Scott is wrong. I think there are way more people who would love to see Johnny on SoI than who would avoid SoI because Johnny was part of it. In other words, Johnny would put more butts in seats than he would keep away.

And re Johnny not being available to do SoI because of committing to other shows, I think he committed to those other shows because he knew SoI was not going to ask him. I really believe Johnny is not on SoI because they don't want him, not the other way around.