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Old 11-24-2004, 12:41 AM
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Knight1 Knight1 is offline
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Location: Edmonton, Alberta Canada
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Nov. 27 issue of Canadian TV Guide

Shania's home! Ben Mulroney gets up close and personal with Canada's country superstar.

"I am a master of the five minute interview.

When promoting upcoming movies, actors sit in hotel suites and cycle through people like me, a different one every five minutes. Now, there are two types of journalists that attend these junkets. There are those who feel that while you have a celebrity in a chair, you can ask them anything and everything you want. And then there are people like me: I was given access to Celebrity X for very specific reasons and my mandate in the hotel suite was limited.

Cut to Timmins, Ont., where three weeks ago I accompanied Shania Twain as she visited her home town for the first time in years.

This was no five-minute interview. For two days, from daybreak until dinner, Shania took me to every old haunt of hers, and along the way, we talked. We visited two of her childhood homes; one was filled with happy memories, the other with struggles. She remembered going to school hungry every day, envious of those who could afford to throw out a half-eaten apple.

At her high school, we surprised a classroom full of students, still groggy from too early a wake-up. I was told, hours later, that some of them still couldn't believe their luck.

We travelled in style, taking an SUV from stop to stop and CTV cameras capturing much of the trip. But it was in those transitional moments, after the rush of a memory had subsided and we were back in the SUV, that our talks became even more personal.

The cameras weren't rolling when we discussed how different our lives were: She was the product of a much harsher reality than my own, and yet we were similar because of the affection and admiration we both have for our families. Suddenly, it was as if a light went on. When she saw me, she saw a person who had been raised by very successful, private parents with meagre beginnings. In other words, when she saw me, she saw a little bit of her son.

"I want him to be as comfortable on an Indian reservation...as he will be in a grand ballroom." Having never reared a child, I am reluctant to give anyone advice. Instead, I spoke to Shania as the product of rearing, telling her that all she can do is raise Eja to be respectful of the community on the reserve and feel lucky to be in the grand ballroom. In the end, though, unless he is well received in both worlds, that comfort will elude him.

Smiling, she said that her wish for Eja is that he be independent and self-sufficient. She joked about dropping him off in the woods for a while so he could learn to fend for himself.

Smirking and shaking my head, I took issue, stating that as long as he knew that she was waiting for him at the edge of the woods, Eja's struggles would be like mine: personal, selfish and nothing compared to the hurdles Shania faced early in her life.


What makes this exchange so special is that Shania is well-known for guarding her privacy. She married "Mutt" Lange, one of the most successful and reclusive music producers in the world, and then she exiled herself to Switzerland.

She keeps her cards close to her chest and is smart enough to tip her hand only when she wants to. Either she was in a very giving and reflective mood having come back to her roots, or she felt really comfortable around me, but I learned a great deal about this woman that I had never read or heard before.

The Shania Twain Centre was the pinnacle of the trip. Having accumulated more gold, diamond and platinum records, as well as press clippings, awards, ball gowns and costumes than any one person can deal with, Shania packed it all up in her tour bus and dropped everything off in Timmins.

The Shania Twain Centre (in and around Timmins, it is simply and affectionately known and "The Centre") sits atop a hill on one side of the small northern Ontario town. Its wide archways and vaulted ceilings welcome over 14,000 visitors a year, and yet it is as far away from ostentatious as Timmins is from Lake Geneva, where Shania currently calls home. Though it opened in 2001, the ribbon-cutting ceremony had to wait until now; the singer was "very pregnant" at the time, making travel impossible, But on this cold, wet and windy day, Timmins's most beloved daughter came home. And what a homecoming it was! Hundreds of fans braved freezing temperatures for hours to catch a glimpse of the woman who's made them all so proud. As she took to the microphone to officially open the Shania Twain Centre, a francophone fan asked her if she planned to ever record a French song. To the amazement of everyone in the crowd, Shania answered the woman in French. It seems that Eja's Franch lessons have rubbed off on this mother. By any standard, the woman is perfectly bilingual. How much more Canadian can you get?

The next day, we left Timmins for Toronto, where Shania co-hosted Canada AM. She fed off the live audience in Dundas Square like an old pro. On our way back to the airport, where she was scheduled to fly to Nashville, we talked politics, country music, and the prospect of doing all this over again sometime.

Shania Twain is an unparalleled Canadian success story. The expression "rags to riches" has been pinned on her many times, but it doesn't stick because it does not do her justice. Everything she has, everything she is, she has earned. Strip away the shiny trappings of fame, and what you'll be left with is the Shania you will see on her CTV special.

It was one heck of a homecoming."
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