Hope Solo & Maksim Chmerkovskiy: Season 13

[chrisg]

So does anyone have link to the part of the book about Maks? If it is only this one statement...

"He was often nasty, swearing at me and being harshly critical," Hope writes. "He manhandled me in rehearsals from the start, pushing me, whacking my stomach, bending my arms roughly."

...then I don't know what the excitement is all about. These accusations are all believable for their interactions that season. Not sure I would call it "abuse." It seemed to me that Maks was far more forceful with Hope than any other partner, which I attributed to her tom boy attitude as well as his frustration that a partner that he himself selected wasn't really a good dancer.

The book isn't published online anywhere that I know of RickiRick. There are snippets being reported in articles if you look in this thread and the media thread or Google ‘Hope Solo Maks abuse’. The most serious allegation appears to be that Maks slapped her hard across the face.

The best thing the show could do, overall, as far as I’m concerned, is get rid of those rehearsal packages and just cut the length of the show which would also cut down on overall viewer fatigue after so many seasons. And the core reason I think that is, if we work our way backwards, I just see no way manipulation and the selling of storylines is not involved in what is shown in them at this point -- otherwise where was the rehearsal footage of Jaleel having a meltdown that was acknowledged by Mark in at least one interview but apparently never shown? What was shown for that week for the rehearsal footage? Something manufactured to more appropriately fit with the Jaleel storyline?

Honestly, the whole show just gets hinkier by the minute as far as I’m concerned which makes me incredibly wary of taking anything DWTS presents -- particularly in those rehearsal packages -- at face value or finding them, or anything that appears to extend from them, necessarily believable.

[karalott]

What kills me about the Jaleel incident is that there wasn't even a mention of anything-nothing shown, it was all peaches and cream. I think the chemistry between Kym and Jaleel was off, but that was the only sign of anything wrong. If you didn't get online, you'd never know anything happened. That's why I always get upset when they continually have to show Maks as the "bad boy" and all the ugly moments in his rehearsal packages. And yes, I'm well aware they can't show what didn't happen. But look at the stuff we don't see. If we see every bit of the 5-6 days of rehearsals with the other pros, we might get different opinions on them as well. Maks is easy to fire up, but no matter what he does, it's wrong. Last season he tried to stay mellow and neutral, and even that wasn't good enough.

Hope claimed that Maks slapped her so hard she felt ringing in her ear. She also said there was a visible hand print on her stomach that she showed her boyfriend. Which, again, makes me skeptical. Maks has always been a tough teacher, he's made his partners cry, and some have said they didn't realize how hard it would be. But some of those same ones sang his praises, saying he was exactly what they needed. And he's never had any type of charges like this against him. I would hope that this would encourage the producers not to focus so much on the negative. I knew this would backfire on them sooner or later.

[JunkieGirl]

The best thing the show could do, overall, as far as I’m concerned, is get rid of those rehearsal packages and just cut the length of the show which would also cut down on overall viewer fatigue after so many seasons. And the core reason I think that is, if we work our way backwards, I just see no way manipulation and the selling of storylines is not involved in what is shown in them at this point -- otherwise where was the rehearsal footage of Jaleel having a meltdown that was acknowledged by Mark in at least one interview but apparently never shown? What was shown for that week for the rehearsal footage? Something manufactured to more appropriately fit with the Jaleel storyline?

The will never get rid of the rehearsal packages, which is why I preferred the old school DWTS with the celebs and pros interacting outside of rehearsal and different training techniques.

But storylines are storylines. The producers manipulate viewers by what they show of rehearsal. If the producers like you, your video packages are more positive, you come across as likeable and a hard worker. If they don't like you, you come across someone not wanting to do the hard work, unlikeable with a few cuss or cutting words about your partner. If they really think you have a good chance of winning, like Katherine Jenkins last season they will portray you as an angel. Donald Driver didn't get a bad edit, but some of his packages were obviously from the early days of rehearsal and it would seem that he would come out and bomb his dance.

Pay more attention to how you view TV. I've noticed over the years if I watch passively that commercials seem to have more impact on me, even if I would never use or need that product. Then I'm thinking "Hey, maybe I could use that and feel better". One really good example is Jif commercials. Their tagline is "Choosy moms choose Jif" If you buy into that statement what are you buying at the store instead of Kraft or gawd forbid store brand because they are cheaper. Does that mean you aren't choosy enough? Not a good enough mother? There are many more examples and advertisers know this.

I'd like to see what comes out of this, if anything. If Hope breached her contract, then go after her or at least give her the possibility of thinking about that. She may be an Olympic champion but just reading about her here, she sounds like she feels entitled and comes across as a whiner. Especially her twitter comments about Brandi Chastain. I didn't realize that former Olympian commentators had to blow smoke up another athlete's a$$ even if they competed in the same sport. 'Twas news to me.

Hope claimed that Maks slapped her so hard she felt ringing in her ear. She also said there was a visible hand print on her stomach that she showed her boyfriend.

That's assault. Why did she not contact the police? Did DWTS prevent *that* from happening too?

[ness]

Y'all can just count me IN with the "I call BS!" crowd.

Hope is so full of it that you can smell her before you see her coming.

1. As has been pointed out, above (I believe), even with that Jaleel deal, quiet as TPTB tried to keep it, and ignored saying anything about it on the show, PLENTY was leaked. Now, if Maks had REALLY slapped Hope, or left a handprint on her that she showed her boyfriend, why would anybody with at LEAST half a brain cell not think that THAT would have made national headlines?

2. If she DID show a handprint to her boyfriend, why were there no leaks, etc., about the boyfriend meeting Maks behind the studio in order to have a "chat"?

3. This probably should've been No. 1: WHY IN THE HELL DIDN'T SHE SAY SOMETHING ABOUT MAKS PHYSICALLY ABUSING HER WHEN IT SUPPOSEDLY HAPPENED?

4. Yeah, we KNOW. Baby Girl got a BOOK comin' out.

5. Oh, and uh, how quickly she forgot, but wasn't MAKS the one that got tired of the judges dumping on her and went OFF on them, on camera, DURING a show, for it? Wasn't she the one that he was speaking to, in a PI later on, when he said: "Don't ever say I don't have your back!"

Now, I'm hearing blips and blurps that TPTB are looking into the possibility of suing Hope behind this.

GOOD!

Frankly, I think it took 'em too damn LONG to defend Maks on something, instead of dumping on him and attempting to cast him as "The Bad Boy of the Ballroom"!

I DO hope they sue HOPE on "breach of contract" grounds, at least.

Serve her ass right!

[AZChristian]

ness -

Thank you for speaking up for Maks!



It made my jaw drop to take a look back at Maks' twitter account - he was cheering "her" on all through the Olympics, and she talked in many interviews about how they were such good friends.

You know, with friends, like her . . . a guy doesn't need any enemies.

[ness]

ness -

Thank you for speaking up for Maks!



It made my jaw drop to take a look back at Maks' twitter account - he was cheering "her" on all through the Olympics, and she talked in many interviews about how they were such good friends.

You know, with friends, like her . . . a guy doesn't need any enemies.

Ain't THAT the livin' TRUTH?!

[chrisg]

But storylines are storylines. The producers manipulate viewers by what they show of rehearsal.

You are totally talking to the choir to me about that, JG, sorry that I did not make that more clear but I have been tired and rambling incoherently all day today, even more so at work (and that is pretty extreme considering I rambled something totally random about DWTS secretly taping rehearsals before even getting to work) .

And I don't know if Bloomers is still around but I think she was one of the first people who threw the possibility out there of DWTS staging rehearsal packages to establish/continue a storyline rather than just merely creatively editing them. I am not completely sold on that idea but I think it is good to throw things like that out there in the spirit of being skeptical, considering that we are talking about Reality TV which may be even more insidious than consumer advertising at this point. And, I have sometimes wondered here and there if Maks has gotten locked into some bad boy staging given what I feel he sees as very justified rebelliousness toward the show.

Ness, you are awesome! If I am ever in serious trouble, I am definitely going to PM you from jail, hope that is OK.

[Fanny Mare]

The will never get rid of the rehearsal packages, which is why I preferred the old school DWTS with the celebs and pros interacting outside of rehearsal and different training techniques.

But storylines are storylines. The producers manipulate viewers by what they show of rehearsal. If the producers like you, your video packages are more positive, you come across as likeable and a hard worker. If they don't like you, you come across someone not wanting to do the hard work, unlikeable with a few cuss or cutting words about your partner. If they really think you have a good chance of winning, like Katherine Jenkins last season they will portray you as an angel. Donald Driver didn't get a bad edit, but some of his packages were obviously from the early days of rehearsal and it would seem that he would come out and bomb his dance.

Pay more attention to how you view TV. I've noticed over the years if I watch passively that commercials seem to have more impact on me, even if I would never use or need that product. Then I'm thinking "Hey, maybe I could use that and feel better". One really good example is Jif commercials. Their tagline is "Choosy moms choose Jif" If you buy into that statement what are you buying at the store instead of Kraft or gawd forbid store brand because they are cheaper. Does that mean you aren't choosy enough? Not a good enough mother? There are many more examples and advertisers know this.

I'd like to see what comes out of this, if anything. If Hope breached her contract, then go after her or at least give her the possibility of thinking about that. She may be an Olympic champion but just reading about her here, she sounds like she feels entitled and comes across as a whiner. Especially her twitter comments about Brandi Chastain. I didn't realize that former Olympian commentators had to blow smoke up another athlete's a$$ even if they competed in the same sport. 'Twas news to me.



That's assault. Why did she not contact the police? Did DWTS prevent *that* from happening too?

Maks is a grown man- why doesn't he just sue if all this is BS. Easy peasy. I don't see what the big deal is, if nothing is true. He doesn't need ABC permission to do this. [mod edit]

[ness]

You are totally talking to the choir to me about that, JG, sorry that I did not make that more clear but I have been tired and rambling incoherently all day today, even more so at work (and that is pretty extreme considering I rambled something totally random about DWTS secretly taping rehearsals before even getting to work) .

And I don't know if Bloomers is still around but I think she was one of the first people who threw the possibility out there of DWTS staging rehearsal packages to establish/continue a storyline rather than just merely creatively editing them. I am not completely sold on that idea but I think it is good to throw things like that out there in the spirit of being skeptical, considering that we are talking about Reality TV which may be even more insidious than consumer advertising at this point. And, I have sometimes wondered here and there if Maks has gotten locked into some bad boy staging given what I feel he sees as very justified rebelliousness toward the show.

Ness, you are awesome! If I am ever in serious trouble, I am definitely going to PM you from jail, hope that is OK.

SURE it is!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!

[VAgirl79]

Well, my opinion has done a 180. I believed it was a he-said-she-said case and was trying to stay neutral. No more staying neutral for me. IMO, she's lying through her teeth!

I was flipping the channels Monday night and happened to see her on that Chelsea Handler woman's show on E!. I found it at the tail end of the interview, but the last topic was Maks. CH asked her about it, and Hope immediately got all annoyed and acted put out that she was being asked to talk about it. CH snarked back (not exact words, but close) "Hey, I didn't write this, you did! You're the one saying it!"

Hope then said her face was in the wrong position in practice (slumped down instead of back and at an angle), so he put her face in the right place. She says she had hoop (?) earrings on and I think she mentioned the ringing ears thing in this interview, but can't recall exactly. Said she was stunned, then I think CH asked her why didn't she punch him, and Hope said something like she wanted to punch him in the face, but something about the show would edit it to blame her. CH said Maks sounds like a (bad word I will not repeat), and Hope agreed.

I don't know if this is online anywhere, but if it is, y'all should watch it. Her body language, facial expressions, etc., everything screamed that she was lying, IMO. It was nothing like the ESPN interview where she seemed at ease and like she was just stating her side. Totally different. And among other things, as y'all have said, why tweet to/speak kindly of a guy who is so awful?

If I were to guess, I think she took a basic training situation like him moving her face into the correct position and evolved it into "He slapped me!" And if so, he should sue her.