I’ve never liked Evan Lysacek. I can sense the underlying homophobia in all of his comments about Johnny Weir, and he always has seemed to suffer from insecurity badly masked by snottiness. All of that could be forgiven if he were an interesting skater, (hell, I LOVE watching Tonya Harding skate, and look at her issues!) but on the ice Evan just seems really ill-at-ease to me.
Even so, I felt sorry for him after Evgeni Plushenko’s asinine behavior following the Olympics – in the battle of skating douche-baggery, Plushenko takes the gold over Evan all week long.
But my sympathy for Evan lasted all of 5 minutes – witness the latest go-round between Evan and Johnny over the Stars on Ice controversy. In March, the show declined to have Johnny skate with them, despite the really beautiful job he did at the Olympics (he was robbed of a medal, frankly) and Johnny thinks it’s because he’s not “family-friendly.” That’s probably right on target; Stars on Ice is rather on the white bread, homespun, booooooooorrrrrrrrring side. Bring your snooze alarm to the show. Johnny can occasionally court controversy (although I think he really does this at pretty strategic times) and they were probably worried about him upsetting the apple pie genera image the show maintains. (In reality, I’ve never seen Johnny bite the hand that feeds him – he genuinely appreciates his fans and treats his coaches well even when he’s not getting along with them. He works hard at his sport and always had great things to say about the figure skating world in general.)
In response to Johnny’s comments, Evan had this to say:
“Stars on Ice” is really selective of who they hire and they only hire the best of the best to skate. It would’ve been hard of them to justify hiring him, and I think he was really upset because he wanted the financial benefit of the tour. A lot of us in the skating world were really disappointed in the way he reacted, basically whining that he wasn’t chosen.
I call bullshit on that one – They do have some amazing skaters, but I’ve also seen some of the crash test dummies they’ve had on their programs – talent ain’t exactly a requirement for the gig. It’s more of a showcase of the wholesomeness of figure skating, geared towards tween girls, rather like Disney’s princess movies.
Johnny has been a U.S. Nationals champion (beating Evan!) three times, and he’s qualified for the Olympics numerous times and won a Bronze at worlds. He’s a very good skater and better than Jeremy Abbott, who’s a sweetie but just not the same caliber.
Johnny fired back today, saying he wouldn’t join the cast if asked, and calling Evan a “slore.” The Urban Dictionary definition if you need it. I can’t see the video yet to see whether Johnny was pissed or playful. I do think he has a point, though. I thought the Dancing with the Stars gig was on the whorish side.