Tonya Harding's agent quits after she allegedly demanded reporters stop bringing up her past, or be fined $25,000
Frazer Harrison/Getty
- Tonya Harding is back in the limelight with the release and Oscar buzz for biopic "I, Tonya."
- However, she doesn't want to talk to reporters about her past.
- Her longtime agent/publicist is no longer working with Harding after she allegedly demanded that "reporters sign an affidavit stating that they won't ask her anything 'about the past' or they'll be fined $25,000."
If it feels like 1994 all over again it's because Tonya Harding is causing another media eruption.
The disgraced figure skater — who in 1994 was front-and-center when her follow skater, Nancy Kerrigan, was attacked after a practice at the US Figure Skating Championships by an assailant hired by Harding's ex-husband —doesn't want to talk about her past.
Though she's back in the limelight because of the award-season hopeful, "I, Tonya," which along with exploring Harding's abusive upbringing is also a deep-dive into the Kerrigan attack, Harding doesn't want to explore it any further.
In fact, she allegedly even wants reporters to sign a document before interviewing her stating they won't ask about it.
On Thursday, Michael A. Rosenberg, Harding's longtime agent/publicist, posted on his Facebook page that he would no longer work for Harding because she was adamant that "reporters sign an affidavit stating that they won't ask her anything 'about the past' or they'll be fined $25,000."
"Obviously, it doesn't work that way; and therefore I've chosen to terminate our business relationship," Rosenberg wrote in his post, which was later deleted.
USA Today columnist Christine Brennan tweeted out a screengrab of it before it was deleted:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/951603007296299008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
It appears Tonya Harding is up to her old tricks. Her loyal agent/publicist Michael Rosenberg resigned today over Tonya’s insistence that reporters be fined $25,000 if they ask her anything about the past. Here’s his FB post...”I, Tonya” is “Goodbye, Tonya!” pic.twitter.com/5BqLuLLLDE
After years of staying out of the public eye, the release and Oscar buzz for "I, Tonya," in which Margot Robbie plays Harding, has led to a comeback of sorts for the real Harding, as audiences see her in a new light. The movie depicts her as a woman who dealt with physical and mental abuse from both her mother and ex-husband Jeff Gillooly most of her life up to the 1994 incident.
However, there's still the question that lingers about how much she knew about the Kerrigan attack.
Both "I, Tonya" and the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, "The Price of Gold," which sparked screenwriter Steven Rogers to write the "I, Tonya" script, portray Harding as being unaware of the planned attack.
Business Insider asked Rogers before the movie opened in December if he was motivated at all to get to the bottom of what Harding knew before writing the script.
"It was before I figured out the story I wanted to tell," Rogers said. "Once I knew how I was going to do it, where everyone was going to say what their point of view was, then I didn't care."
Business Insider contacted Rosenberg and Harding's lawyer for comment, but did not get a response.
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