2/14/2006: Princessy Correct
As the men take the ice, it's American Johnny Weir who's getting the media attention, but the pieces have a desperateness about them. NBC keeps showing clips of the arrogant 21-year-old, trying to make him into a Bode Miller with his "I don't care what anyone thinks" attitude, but it feels manufactured: Weir seems to care very much about what people think and goes very far out of his way to pretend otherwise.
Meanwhile the media is going out of its way in a transparent attempt to stay politically correct and avoid saying "gay" or "swishy" even as Weir tells them things like "I am very princessy as far as travel is concerned and having a nice room and things like that. Sorry to say 'princessy' but that’s what we do." He also told reporters about his Torino shopping spree where he bought "Louis Vuitton bags, three pairs of shoes, cute shirts, and some underpants with the newspaper print all over them."
It's actually kind of funny to read and watch the press skirt these kind of elephant-in-the-room comments in hopes of staying gay-friendly (translation: avoiding protests and losing sponsors), but then Weir spoils the fun by being a self-important ass with comments like "People are afraid of me and afraid of what's going to come out of my mouth." I don't know what gives him that idea - designer bags & newsprint undies aren't all that scary. He also claims he's "not out there to be a puppet for anyone" but he's actually being a puppet to a stereotype.. well, at least he admits to being pretentious.
For his short program, Weir skated to Camille Saint-Saëns' "The Swan" in a silver & black feather-motif outfit with sequins and one orange glove as his swan's beak. He calls the outfit "Camille". Before hitting the ice he said "People have touted me as the next American medal hope." His program was pretty and he skated well, but only well enough for second place. Russian Evgeni Plushenko (right) blew everyone away and finished miles ahead of the pack. Half of the other guys missed their quads, doubled their triples, "popped" or bounced.
In other gay news, the "Today" show's Matt Lauer & Al Roker are going to demonstrate doubles luge live on Wednesday's show. They had a learning/practice run on Saturday and reached a speed of about 30 mph. Matt's the bottom and Al's the power top.. make your own jokes.
