Ice skating superstar Johnny Weir twirled into New York last night for NewFest’s final screening, Pop Star on Ice directed and produced by David Barba and James Pellerito. Sporting a wide hawk (a sculpted super mullet, perhaps?) the well-manicured aesthete certainly has come a long way from where he started—a young teen skating in the frozen cornfields behind his rural Coatesville, Pennsylvania home where his talent almost went unrecognized by his parents. “He just looked like a gangly twelve-year-old with legs up to his armpits,” his mother said in the documentary.
And now, he’s famous. Although in a moment of humility during a visit to his old elementary school he admitted “I’m not like Britney Spears famous.” (James Pellerito, in a gentle ribbing during the Q&A following the film, explained that “we started calling him HRH, and we never had a problem after that.”) And he’s pretty. “I will fight to the death to be pretty,” he declares. Thanks to his bedazzled costumes created by Stephanie Handler and the Laura Mercier concealer that he revealed he uses, his sparkle won’t tarnish anytime soon.
"Pop Star on Ice" Director/Producer David Barba, Johny Weir, and "Pop Star on Ice" Director/Producer James Pellerito
Post-screening Q&A with "Pop Star on Ice" Director/Producers David Barba and James Pellerito, Paris Childers, Johnny Weir, and NewFest Documentary Programmer Cameron Yates
The Johnny Weir Jacket
READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP (MORE PHOTOS, TOO)!
And he provokes emotion. His approach on the ice has been criticized as not masculine enough, a point on which strong opinions have crystallized. And he’s never at a loss for an off-colorful analogy, which on more than one occasion has led him to apologize in press conferences. But he never surrenders himself to apologies, especially when challenged if he’s an appropriate role model. “I don’t think there should be one role model all kids try to live after,” he explained.
All of this makes for a compelling film documenting the victories, defeats, and struggles in the past five years of Weir’s career. (Well, that and all of the scenes with him shirtless, including a humorous bathtub interview with his friend Paris Childers.) The iron fist of Ukranian Galina Zmievskaya, his new coach as of mid-2007, appears to have pushed Weir to a turning point in his skating, rescuing him from declining finishes. Barba and Pellerito will continue to follow Weir as he trains for the 2010 Olympics in the Sundance Channel-sponsored eight-part series “Be Good Johnny Weir,” and we look forward to what the Queen of the “crack house with rhinestones and glitter”—the sport of ice skating, as Weir referred to it last night—will dazzle us with next.
Photos by SMHayhurst.
Post-screening Q&A with Johnny Weir
Weir's aunt Diane Neff; "Pop Star on Ice" Director/Producer David Barba; Weir's coach Viktor Petrenko; Johnny Weir; Weir's coach Nina Petrenko; Paris Childers; "Pop Star on Ice" Director/Producer James Pellerito; and Weir's mother Patti Weir
Post-screening Q&A with "Pop Star on Ice" Director/Producers David Barba and James Pellerito, Paris Childers, and Johnny Weir
Weir's agent Tara Modlin and Johnny Weir
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- “Pop Star on Ice” Director/Producers David Barba and James Pellerito, Paris Childers, Johnny Weir, and NewFest Documentary Programmer Cameron Yates
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- The Johnny Weir Jacket
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- Johnny Weir (left)
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- “Pop Star on Ice” Director/Producer David Barba, Johny Weir, “Pop Star on Ice” Director/Producer James Pellerito
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- Johnny Weir
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- Post-screening Q&A with “Pop Star on Ice” Director/Producers David Barba and James Pellerito, Paris Childers, and Johnny Weir
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- Weir’s aunt Diane Neff (left); “Pop Star on Ice” Director/Producer David Barba (2nd from left); Johnny Weir (4th from left); Paris Childers (3rd from right); “Pop Star on Ice” Director/Producer James Pellerito (2nd from right); Weir’s mother Patti Weir (right)
Related posts:
- Ice Queen Johnny Weir’s ‘Johnny Be Good’ Premieres on Sundance Tonight The much-anticipated ‘Be Good Johnny Weir,’ an eight-part series documenting Weir’s preparation for the US Figure Skating Nationals, begins tonight at 10:30 PM on...
- NewFest Filmmaker Mixer Filmmakers gathered at the NewFest’s Logo Lounge on the penultimate day of the film festival. Photos by SMHayhurst. MORE PICTURES AFTER THE JUMP! ...
- NewFest Closes with Final Scene @ The Promenade That’s a wrap - Filmmakers and fans joined Olympic ice skater Johnny Weir, fashion provacateur Richie Rich and other movers and shakers at The Promenade...
- Exclusive: Johnny Weir on ‘Dirty Love,’ His Tell-All Book, and His Purses We caught up with Olympian Ice Skater Johnny Weir at GMHC’s 88 for AIDS benefit last Thursday, and he gave us the scoop on his...
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Tags: Be Good Johnny Weir, Coatesville Pennsylvania, David Barba, Diane Neff, Galina Zmievskaya, James Pellerito, Johnny Weir, Laura Mercier, NewFest, Nina Petrenko, Paris Childers, Patti Weir, Pop Star on Ice, Stephanie Handler, Tara Modlin, Viktor Petrenko
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SEE, Johnny Weir understands the potential of achromatic dressing.
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In the group photo, the man and woman on either side of Johnny are his coaches, Viktor and Nina Petrenko. They coach him along with Nina’s mother (and Viktor’s mother-in-law), Galina Zmievskaya, who also coached Viktor to his Olympic gold medal in 1992. The little girl posing with them and Johnny in another photo is Viktor and Nina’s daughter, Victoria.
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Also, the woman in the green satin dress is Johnny’s agent, former figure skater Tara Modlin.
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So nice to see Johnny joining the stand against Skate Canada’s push to butch up male figure skating.
I am am not surprised now, at all, that openly Gay Canadian choreographer, David Wilson, has signed on to do Johnny’s program for the 2010 Olympics, nor that openly gay skater, Brian Orser, is coaching World Champion, Korean Yuna Kim. It seems like Skate Canada has indeed, successfully flushed the gays out of figure skating. They are now, all helping the competition now.
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Thanks for the IDs, tev.
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i love to Figure Skate, and this has been my favorite sport ever since i was a kid…’
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i love to see women that is doing some figure skating , they are really beautiful and gracefull.”-’
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i love to see women that is doing some figure skating , they are really beautiful and gracefull.-*`
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