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 ...
I think that Tonya regardless of circumstances was put through hell and back for 20 years. She gets one brief moment and people will criticize that. Nancy did very well for herself after that hit. In fact, Tonya's husband botched up the job as Nancy recovered very quickly. I do have to admit that the 2004 Olympics was the funniest ever. That Friday night when Tonya broke her shoestring will be legionary.
Yes.
OK...but then I’ve always had a thing about trashy women!
No, you’re not the only guy who thought that. I did too.
I’d hit it then - I’d hit it now.
Tonya was a better skater than old goody two shoes Nancy Kerrigan. Tonya’s problem? She needed rid of the trash in her life ie her husband and her mom.
Was actually glad Oksana won that year as never could stand Nancy’s bad attitude.
LMAO at the '"Goodfellas" of figure skating' description.
I saw the figure skating contest where Kerrigan got the gold but only because the fix was in with the judges.
The Judges should have given Tonya the win as I saw her performance that day was better by an obviously wide margin. I remember I said to myself they have their narrative that Nancy is the fairy princess and Tonya is the biker bitch from hell.
So Tonya’s people saw the injustice and got even because the FIX was in. Just like the Media couldn’t believe last year that Trump won when they had all these people believing otherwise and wouldn’t call the election for Trump for hours.
Maybe Tonya isn’t to fault, maybe the Judges should be investigate for being dishonest, and seeking to create a box office star for Figure Skating money maker.
She reminded me of the girls I used to party with in college back in the early 90s. All a little rough around the edges, never afraid to knock back some shots, always had a pack of Marlboro Lights in their purses. Smelled like cigarettes, hairspray, breath mints and strawberry lip gloss. Fun girls.
Yeah, I was a fan.
“...when the public realized she was the annoying, haughty elitist cheerleader type...”
Yes, true enough... but she still didn’t deserve to get her knee cracked by a bimbo ne’er-do-well.
If Harding couldn’t outperform her fair and square, she didn’t belong there.
Yours is the first comment on this thread that has made any sense. Kerrigan may have been annoying but she was STABBED due to Tonya Harding because she is sociopathic and jealous. Nobody who works that hard on a career should be brutalized like that in the pursuit of it.
Yep...I have first-hand knowledge of the dedication, work, and pain associated with competition figure skating.
Have a 17-year old granddaughter who is one of those figure skaters and has dedicated her life to it since she was 6-years old. Now she has the competing pursuits of qualifying to skate the 2020 Winter Olympics and to go to college next year and, eventually, medical school.
Although her home is in Maryland, for the past year she has been in Florida training 7-hrs each day with the Panthers Figure Skating club because of all the well-known Russian coaches there. Her Mom (my daughter) and Dad alternate flying back and forth every 3-weeks to be with her.
Yes indeed, I was serious in my post about how this 84-year-old grandfather would absolutely react if faced with the same circumstances as the Kerrigan afair. Once a Marine...Always a Marine...
Whoops! I meant the 2022 Winter Olympics...I’m going to learn to speak chicomese, if I’m still above ground temperature...
Her boyfriend did it.....
That nasty Nancy Kerrigan had a boyfriend?
LOL! Harding had the boyfriend who was a real lowlife loser and probably the real cause of all the trauma - I remember thinking that I didn’t care much for Kerrigan even as she cried on camera.
Yea, that’s why I intentionally mix them up. Kerrigan was a whiner and an opportunist. I’ve had some great arguments over the years by accusing her, not Harding.
Didn’t mean to imply she deserved the attack, it was a cheap shot. Just said Kerrigan herself didn’t engender a lot of sympathy and support later on because of her personality.
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