shania.funurl.com

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Shania Twain Centre opens, but without singer

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Northen Ontario community opens museum dedicated to country diva

June 30, 2001  4:45p.m. EDT

TIMMINS, Ont. (CP) - Despite swirling rumours that one of the world's biggest singing stars would make an appearance in her northern Ontario home town Saturday, a provocative cardboard cutout stood in for Shania Twain at the opening ceremony of a museum dedicated to her career.

''Shania wishes very much she could have been with us today,'' Mayor Jamie Lim said of Twain, who now lives in Switzerland and is expecting her first child this summer.

''I know in her heart she's with us and in our hearts we're with her also.''

Although many on hand were convinced that the 35-year-old crop-topped singer would make a surprise appearance, as she did last summer at her high school reunion, her absence didn't diminish the occasion for hardcore fans.

Among the crowd of about 500 were far-flung members of an Internet Twain fan club that was meeting in person for the first time, some flying in from Europe and the U.S.

''I've been planning this trip for months,'' said 46-year-old John Kime, who travelled from Rotherham, England to meet fellow cyber fans for the opening. ''It's something I've been thinking of for a couple of years, to see where (Shania) grew up, got her start and get some of the famous Timmins hospitality.''

After the opening, many in the group planned to travel on to Huntsville, Ont., where Twain launched her career in a musical revue at the Deerhurst resort and, in 1993, married producer Robert Jeff (Mutt) Lange.

''We just want to get a sense of what it was like for her,'' said Arlene Heine, a 51-year-old network administrator from Columbia, Md.

By early afternoon, the centre had sold about two-thirds of available tickets.

The first fans who pressed through the doors of the museum gushed over a Twain fashion tribute, with outfits ranging from the singer's high school jacket to the leopard-skin get-up she wore in the That Don't Impress Me Much video and the spaghetti-strapped gown she donned at a Bill Clinton birthday gala.

Other fans wrote messages to Twain on a mock backstage wall and admired the singer's awards collection, including Junos, Billboard Awards and two Grammys.

Perhaps the highlight of the $5-million facility is a screening room rigged with stagelights that features a video biography of the singer, including footage from a performance as a 15-year-old on CBC's Tommy Hunter show.

Five years in the planning, the facility has been projected to draw some 55,000 visitors a year and the federal government announced Saturday it would put up $500,000 to help with promotion.

Despite its location on the edge of a city more than 700 kilometres north of Toronto, organizers remain convinced that the centre will be a viable attraction.

The singer left the public eye at the end of 1999 after a busy five years at the top of the music scene.

She has kept in close contact with Timmins since she burst onto the scene in 1993, sending shock waves through the staid country music establishment with her pop-infused sound and skin-baring videos.

Two years ago, she delighted locals with a Canada Day concert and has donated about $1 million of personal memorabilia to the centre.

Many fans who attended the opening said they've been inspired by Twain's rags-to-riches story and her well-documented struggles to look after her younger siblings after her parents died in a 1987 car crash.

That story and her down-to-earth attitude resonated with fans at the opening.

''Her life story is such an inspiration,'' said 17-year-old Desiree Pitts of Front Royal, Va. ''If you can get over what she's gotten over, you can do anything.''

''She's not stuck up,'' said Stephen Folson of Randolph, Me. ''I don't think she's forgotten that she came from here.

''And of course, she's pretty good looking, too.''

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