Tonya Harding waiting to be Amanda Knox

” . . .there is still something strange and deeply off about seeing a woman who might’ve been complicit in a violent attack  . . .being celebrated for her strength and spirit.”

Some readers may be surprised to learn that this quote is not about Amanda Knox but another American woman known for a violent attack on another female- Tonya Harding.   It is from a well-written review of her new movie, I, Tonya.

The movie attempts to sanitize the image of Harding who was convicted of conspiracy to hinder prosecution for an attack on fellow figure skater, Nancy Kerrigan.  Now, after everyone has long forgotten she existed, Harding has resurfaced in an attempt to spin her story, a la Knox.  The success of Amanda Knox’s public relations firm in spinning her image from a violent female criminal into a cash cow no doubt caught Harding’s attention.  Now using the exact same formula, courting controversy (Am I guilty or innocent?) has officially been adopted by the aged ice skater.  While it may be a bit late, Tonya’s publicity has all of the bells and whistles of Amanda Knox’s act.

This is unmistakable in the first few seconds of the movie trailer for Tonya’s self-named  (like Amanda Knox’s) movie.  Right out of the gate, Tonya philosophizes, “The haters always say, Tonya, tell the truth. There is no such thing as truth. Everyone has their own truth.” *Ding ding ding*  That settles it, henceforth Tonya Harding is christened ‘Tonyamanda’.

Let’s see if Tonya’s public relations is doing the exact same thing as Amanda’s or not: self-serving book, check, self-named documentary full of cherry picked details, check, portraying a predator as a victim, check, lotsa attitude, check check check.

One wonders if the two will team up and go on speaking tour together.   Understandable since Knox has been, according to her followers, “sh*tting gold” these days, charging $5-10,000 for each speaking engagement.

Agency Amanda Knox uses to book talks.

It appears that Amanda had hoped to band together with a younger, more attractive and potentially more lucrative Michelle Carter to go on a “we’re the real victims’ speaking tour.  But the justice system finally caught onto their scam and prevented Carter from profiting from her crime.

Tonya Harding was all but forgotten when she recently dug herself out of the grave zombie-style to revive her old 1994 crime in the media. It is speculated that Tonyamanda had her goons hit her ice skating competitor, Nancy Kerrigan, in the knee-cap to take her out of the Olympics and inherit her money/endorsements.   The motive was apparently greed.  This appears to be the same MO with Amanda who was accused with her two goons  in attacking and killing Meredith Kercher.  (Tonya Harding’s buddies also considered murdering Nancy Kerrigan before settling on hitting her with a police baton.)  Amanda Knox’s co-conspirator  Rudy Guede said in an interview last year that Meredith was furious because Amanda had stolen her rent money.  He said that they fought about it when Meredith was killed.

The similarities just keep piling up.  Both Tonya and Amanda hail from the Northwest, Oregon and Washington state respectively. Is there something in the water? Or the same public relations firms? Whatever the case may be, they are certainly using the same PR tactics. They both claim to be innocent even with overwhelming evidence against them. They refer to anyone who expresses the facts of their crimes as haters. They even have similar strident voices and icy blue eyes.   If generating fake news, creating controversy, shameless self-promotion and greed were Olympic sports,  Tonya and Amanda would be gold medalists.