Posted on 01/01/2018 4:38:49 PM PST by Drew68
Disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding re-entered the public eye earlier this month when she showed up for the Los Angeles premiere of "I, Tonya." She was snapped on the red carpet, laughing with the actress who plays her, Margot Robbie, and getting silly with the film's big scene-stealer, Allison Janney.
All of this may have seemed strange to anyone who hasn't seen the movie. Isn't Tonya Harding the eternal villain of our collective memories? Why is Hollywood embracing her? For some people, she will forever be the woman responsible for making fellow figure skater Nancy Kerrigan cry, "Whyyyyyy?" She'll always be the Olympic athlete with the dubiously problematic skate laces; the woman who married a guy named Jeff Gillooly.
But the Golden Globe-nominated movie offers a different take on Harding's life, and it's one that turns the skater-turned-boxer into an extremely sympathetic — even unfairly maligned — character.
If Tonya Harding was tried and unanimously convicted in the court of public opinion more than 20 years ago, then "I, Tonya" makes a solid case for exonerating her.
The movie is just the latest piece of pop culture that forces us to reassess our opinions of headline makers. Think of Marcia Clark in FX's Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning series "The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story." After seeing a dramatization of everything the prosecutor went through while trying to convict the former football star of murder back in 1995 — all the ridicule and the stress and the fame she didn't ask for — those "Saturday Night Live" skits don't seem so funny anymore. Neither does Tina Fey's impression of the lawyer making googly eyes at Christopher Darden during the first season of "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsok.com ...
Was Nancy Kerrigan on the red carpet? She’s got a small part in this story.
Robbie is too hot to play her, though. It’s funny that the sympathy for Kerrigan lasted for all of 5 seconds when the public realized she was the annoying, haughty elitist cheerleader type who thought herself better than everyone else in high school, superficially popular, but privately loathed by almost everyone.
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Tonya looks pretty good there
Ask yourself, “How could I care any less?”. Just a stab at exonerating herself, with Hollywood’s help of course, while both trying to make a buck.
Ask yourself, “How could I care any less?”. Just a stab at exonerating herself, with Hollywood’s help of course, while both trying to make a buck.
I would have dated her at the time and I would have treated her much better than that Jeff Gillooly jerk. As her boyfriend, I also would not have had Nancy's knee smashed. Instead, I would have given Tonya the encouragement and confidence to kick Nancy's butt on the ice fair and square.
Tonya, you should have gone with me babe!
Uhm... (looks around sheepishly) Nope.
I have a dream, that the next time a bunch of burka clad Muslim bitches demonstrates in front of a synagogue, that the leader gets punched out by the likes of Tonya Harding.
Robbie is too hot to play anyone let alone the amazing trailer trash ice princess who chained smokes despite having asthma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXZQ5DfSAAc
I can’t believe I’m just hearing about this movie. I’m getting a “Fargo” vibe.
More likely she has spent most of her life on both knees...
Why the Kerrigan family didn't pay for one of Tony's debt collectors to meet with her is a mystery. I'd prefer that this bitch would have to roll up the red carpet at the opening in a wheel chair...
There was a woman that actually married Charles Manson, so this is not surprising. Anything for fame.
#BoycottHollywood
Back in the day I immediately felt sooooo bad for Kerrigan but she did not handle herself with an ounce of grace and became totally unlikable to me, I began to want to believe Tonya.
I saw Nancy on Flea Market Flip a while back and still didn’t like her one bit.
Isn’t that “manspreading” illegal or at least anti-social?
To this day Tonya Harding has always maintained that she knew nothing beforehand of the attacks. Jeff Gillooly has always maintained that the intention was only to scare Kerrigan, never hurt her, and Harding was a full participant from the beginning.
Harding plead guilty to obstruction, receiving a fine and community service. Gillooly went to prison for two years.
Jeff Gillooly has since apologized to Nancy Kerrigan. Harding never has.
And then she became known as a home-wrecker as well, breaking up her manager's marriage before marrying him herself.
Although Kerrigan's life has had her share of ups and downs. In 2010 her alcoholic brother beat their father to death in a drunken rage. After which, it was learned that Kerrigan's "America's Sweetheart" image was largely manufactured and in truth she had a hard Massachusetts working-class upbringing herself.
Well, sort of.
Thanks for the info.
So Tonya did suffer a little bit of legal repercussions.
Having spent some time on the periphery of Junior Skating, I can tell you anyone successful has to be a great skater, a politician, and confident beyond their years.
I never met one that was “likeable.”
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