Concerts Opera Dance Theater Gigs Exhibits

	Poor old Yevgeny had to put on leather trousers and skate down a runway coated with "artificial ice."

In The Spotlight

Poor old Yevgeny had to put on leather trousers and skate down a runway coated with "artificial ice."

By Anna Malpas
Published: April 25, 2008

This week, figure skater Yevgeny Plyushchenko started his own reality show, "Plyushchenko Live," on MTV Russia. It's all part of the Olympic gold-medal winner's quest to transform himself into a showbiz star who is capable of so much more than a quadruple toe loop. Now, rather like Greta Garbo, Plyushchenko talks, sings and gets kissed by Boris Moiseyev.

On the ice, Plyushchenko was a whirling dervish in black stretch velvet. Off the ice, although he still skates in an entertainment show, he had to join a long line of figure skaters who want to be loved for themselves. And there's only so many episodes of "Stars on Ice" and "Dancing on Ice" that Russian television can air.

As part of his initiation, Plyushchenko has gone through the detailed discussion of his divorce in the tabloids. The main question at the moment is whether the skater will have to give his ex-wife the apartment that he was awarded by President Vladimir Putin for his Olympic gold in 2006. He is also due to appear at the Eurovision Song Contest in May, adding an ice-skating touch of some kind to Dima Bilan's performance for Russia.

The Eurovision appearance makes more sense if you believe the fairly longstanding tabloid rumors of a romantic or business relationship between Plyuschenko and Bilan's producer, Yana Rudkovskaya. They sat together at the Eurovision heat in Moscow, and Bilan thanked Plyushchenko in his acceptance speech. As for the new MTV show, it's interesting that Bilan already has a reality show on the channel, and it has the same title, except for a different surname. And it's likely that both shows will milk the Eurovision story to death.

The new show, which first aired Tuesday, began sexily with Plyushchenko taking off his top and saying that the show would tell us new information both on his skating and his personal life. Unfortunately, like David Beckham, he has a dull, monotonous voice. And he may be up there with Beckham in the self-regarding stakes, although he doesn't wax his chest. Slightly worryingly, he referred to himself as Yevgeny Plyushchenko.

The show was pretty respectful, even though its trailer promised "another side" of the skater. It showed cute footage of Plyuschenko as a child star, looking like a tiny David Bowie, and some ho-hum commentary from trainers. We know he's good at skating. That's not why we tuned into MTV.

The new footage showed Plyushchenko modeling at a fashion show by Russian designer Sh'Iyan Ilya, as he styles himself. The other models were stars such as pop singer Filipp Kirkorov and celebrity hairdresser Sergei Zverev, who, let's say, see all publicity as good publicity. Filipp had to wear a white matador outfit with short trousers, but he has done worse. I recently saw a snapshot of him appearing at a cat show. After those hairless Sphynx cats, he's ready for anything.

Poor old Yevgeny had to put on leather trousers and skate down a narrow runway coated with "artificial ice" -- or plastic covered with a thick layer of grease. Even an Olympic skater couldn't do much with that, but he was a trooper about it. He even seemed quite impressed by the galaxy of stars surrounding him. Camp pop star Moiseyev came over to kiss him, calling him "my pretty one" and he also got to chat with Kirkorov and hang out with Eurovision hopeful Bilan in the dressing room. Although Bilan seemed a lot more interested in checking out his -- Bilan's -- rear view in the mirror.

"I think today was a productive day," Plyushchenko summed up the show.

Print this article

E-mail this article

Copyright © 2008 The Moscow Times. All rights reserved.