This aint your father's "Whack Heard Round The World"

I don't know if many news organizations are going to go there .... but I will.

The Bolshoi Acid Attack -

Hello - Tonya/Nancy?

Yesterday's club-wielding thug is today's acid-throwing villain. There are a lot of similarities. And if it plays out like "the Whack" did, it will be give ballet a bump for the next ten years or so. Like the USA Today article written by Christine Brennan observes, "Tonya-Nancy was the perfect media story because it built to something —
... that night of skating will remain No. 6 on television's all-time list until the end of time, or ESPN, whichever comes first.

That is an amazing statistic. Thankfully, Nancy Kerrigan recovered quickly enough to skate in the Olympics and her beautiful face was never touched.

But acid ... acid ... that's nasty stuff. That's not fooling around.

It doesn't look good for the Bolshoi Ballet's cast of criminals, but here's hoping the Artistic Director Sergei Filin will recover in the long run.

Yes, the Bolshoi Ballet soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko and the Tonya Harding of the ballet world, admitted to arranging an attack and claims he didn't know acid would be used. According to an article by Ellen Barry in the New York Times, "Mr. Dmitrichenko said he had agreed that an ex-convict acquaintance would “knock him around,” but that he was unaware that the man planned to douse Mr. Filin’s face with sulfuric acid, jeopardizing his eyesight."

I'm not sure if that's true, I won't judge, I hope a court will do that. But it came out in the Harding trial four years after the attack, she not only knew of the attack but helped plan it.

But wait a minute Ice Charades, don't jump to conclusions yet.

According to the New York Times article, " ... Many in the ballet company are said to have greeted Mr. Dmitrichenko’s arrest with skepticism, and Andrei Bolotin, a soloist at the company who attended Thursday’s court session, suggested that the dancer might have been pressured into confessing on videotape.

“The way he looked when he gave that confession, it was one-quarter of the Pavel we know, and it’s horrifying to think of what he had to go through,” Mr. Bolotin said.

After news of the confession broke on Wednesday, “all, from the wardrobe assistants to coat checkers, said that something isn’t right,” said Alexandra Durseneva, a soloist at the Bolshoi’s opera company."

It's true he didn't look good in the video. But that could just be his latest diet. Who knows.

This story isn't over.