Hockey's always been a low-profile sport, but its greatest icon is turning into a tabloid star to rival Bruce Jenner.
Wayne Gretzky's daughter, Paulina, has struck the gossip hornet's nest yet again, posting an outtake from the family Christmas card. The image was (supposedly) intended for 100 close family and friends, and not for public consumption. But maybe the Great One's daughter doesn't consider her 73,000 Twitter followers members of the general population. She's deleted the photograph, but just like the Great One in his "office" behind the net, there's no stopping the inevitable.
In the portrait, Wayne's wife, Janet, is proudly smiling, but the rest of the Gretzky family is striking a tough-guy pose. Paulina is wearing a lacy, white mini-dress. Some are comparing the Great One's family to the attention-hungry Kardashians. What do you think?
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Lisa Crowell, designer of the Gretzky holiday card, told the Toronto Star she was surprised to receive an e mail from reporter Stephanie Findlay about the photo. "Nobody knew that Paulina was going to tweet it and here we are," Crowell told the Canadian paper.
While the leaked photo was an outtake, Crowell says it strongly resembles the real deal. So were the Gretzkys, as some have said, really trying to copy the Kardashian's Christmas card of 2010?
"I just spoke to the Gretzkys," Crowell responded to the Star in an email. "They don't feel that there is any comparison to the Kardashians because they have never been involved in reality TV."
Fair enough. Paulina has hardly been involved in the entertainment world, despite efforts to make it in Tinseltown. She skipped college to focus on show business, but other than a 2009 song titled "Collecting Dust," and a modeling cover with her famous mom on a Canadian fashion magazine, opportunities have been rare. However, as Puck Daddy fans know, the first-born child of the best hockey player the world's ever seen took a break from Twitter in late November after posting racy photos of herself that ended up going viral. She returned to Tweet just three days later and celebrated her 23rd birthday earlier this month.
"I think people like the hype," photographer Ryan Phillips, who took the Gretzky family portrait said of Paulina, "but she's really down to earth, totally normal. She loves her family and hangs out with them all the time. The picture they portray is pretty skewed."
Phillips has worked with the former Oilers and Kings star's family for more than four years. The photo shoot took over two hours, and was designed by Janet.
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