Thursday, February 21, 2013

SOAPY SKATING

Yesterday marked the 15th Anniversary of Tara Lipinski's Gold medal win at the Nagano Olympics.  I was in Japan, working for a TNT show called Cutting Edge, hosted by Peter Carruthers, Rosalynn Sumners and Alice Cook.  I saw her skate - and win - in person.  It was quite the upset.  Though Tara was the 1997 World Champion, 1996 Champion Michelle Kwan was favored to win.  She ended up coming in 2nd.

Following her gold medal performance, Tara went on to guest star on The Young & the Restless, and to present at the 1999 Daytime Emmy Awards.  I worked as a researcher on those awards, and when I first read the intro written for Tara, I went to the writers and said, "This doesn't make any sense, skating wise."

They told me it was funny, that's what matters.

I said, "It doesn't make any skating sense."  And then I may have whined.  Incessantly.

Until they changed it.

Yup, boys and girls, that's how we get things done in the TV biz.

Following her daytime and award show debut, Tara went on to make some prime-time appearances, as well as work for Inside Edition where, as part of their coverage of Skating With the Stars, Tara interviewed (it's a small soap word, after all) Rebecca Budig of All My Children:



For more on Rebecca Budig and skating, click here.

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