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Tonya Harding

"It's an image that the media has given me as a bad girl, and the only reason they gave me that image is just because of the few things that have gone wrong in my life, and also because I grew up living in a trailer."

Wedding Deflowerment Video Review

Perhaps the first time you viewed the tape, you missed some of the subtlety:

Jeff Gillooly's autobiographical account of his 1990 wedding night with wife Tonya Harding. Gillooly captures the chilling chemistry between the couple who plotted to injure Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan. Much like Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde, the chillingness of their crimes is juxtaposed with the heat of their sexuality. Gillooly's directorial style is free flowing, letting his co-star improvise. He understands the camera is a voyeur and sets the film in a small claustrophobic room. Most directors might have shown the room dark and awash in shadow to symbolize the dark lives of the two lovers. The genius of Gillooly is that he awashes the room in bright light, letting the couple's creamy white bodies gleam in an almost heavenly glow. This is not the story of their sordid criminal activities, this is the story of their love and their love making. 5'-1" Tonya Harding clothed reminds me of an angry Sally Field, a tiny bulldog, strong, barking, and scary if not chained. But as Tonya strips for the camera, we see she is vulnerable, coy, cute, and fun loving. This is not an empty headed sex kitten, this is a complex woman willing to show us her feelings as well as her body. Gillooly pushes the envelope in his first documentary featurette by showing us full frontal nudity of both Tonya and himself. This bold move is so truthful we really feel for the ill-fated couple. And Tonya Harding is cute. Nude, she looks a bit like Sally Field in her nude scenes in Stay Hungry and perhaps she will have a career someday to match.

Anonymous, posted March 2000.

Timeline

12 Nov 1970 Tonya Harding born, Portland OR.
1990 Marries Jeff Gillooly at age 19.
1993 Divorces Jeff Gillooly.
6 Jan 1994 Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan attacked with a telescoping baton by Sahne Stant, who was hired by Jeff Gillooly and Shawn Eckardt.
1 Feb 1994 Jeff Gillooly pleads guilty to racketeering.
17 Mar 1994 Tonya Harding pleads guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution.
30 Jun 1994 Stripped of title and banned from figure skating for life.
14 Jul 1994 Jeff Gillooly sentenced to two years prison.
Sep 1994 Stills of Harding and Gillooly's pornographic wedding video purchased by Penthouse.
May 2000 Tonya Harding pleads guilty to disorderly conduct, after she assaulted her boyfriend Darren Silver with a hubcap.
13 Mar 2002 Tonya Harding defeats Paula Jones in Celebrity Boxing. For reasons unknown, Amy Fisher had to back out.
20 Apr 2002 Arrested, drunk driving. BAL 0.16, Vancouver WA.
9 Jan 2003 Appears in court over a "probation violation" in which unopened cans of beer were found in a vehicle in which she was a passenger, driving in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Judge to prosecutor: "You are wasting the court's time."
22 Feb 2003 First professional boxing bout, loses in four rounds.

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