shania.funurl.com

Brush With Fame

SunSportsTV.com
Whit Whatson
January 11, 2008

As soon as I posted my entry into the NBC/USGA/Golf Digest "play a US Open golf course" contest, I got an e-mail from Sun Sports contributor and national sports radio host Todd Wright, questioning one of my (all true) claims:

"You actually met Shania [Twain] in a bar? Was her navel exposed and/or was she wearing tight pants? You always say you want my life...well, now I want a piece of yours."

Oh, ha, says the man who has been married for ten years. Yet, the story is worth telling.

Scene: 1996 NBA All-Star Game, San Antonio. I was producing features for the Magic TV Network. They sent me to Texas for the weekend because we had Shaq and Penny in the starting lineup, and Darrell Armstrong about to make his ill-fated attempt at the Slam Dunk contest.

It was just me and a cameraman, Rick Price (who is still with the Magic today). Our job was to shoot everything, including some standups and some packages, for use in halftime features and on "One Magic Place," the weekly show on WESH-2 in Orlando (which has transformed over the years into "Midnight Magic," on WKMG-6 in Orlando and on Sun Sports).

So we go to the Alamodome on the day before the game to get b-roll and scenics. We happened to walk into the empty arena at the exact moment that the game-night crew was doing dress rehearsal for the game itself the following night. That included the anthem singers. The girl who sang the Canadian national anthem caught my eye -- she was very cute, extremely short, and sang her guts out. Rick and I both noticed her, but thought little of it.

That night, with our work completed, we headed out to the Riverwalk in San Antonio to catch a few adult beverages. After hopping a few places on the river, we ended up at Dick's Last Resort, which had a multi-level dance floor and cheap food. We settled in with drinks and Tex-Mex and were pretty happy.

At one point, I looked over at the bar and saw the Canadian anthem singer herself. She was dressed to kill, with black tights and a white lacey top, and she was surrounded by her "entourage," which was all of two people -- a matronly, silver-haired lady that I took to be her mother, and a flitty little dude of questionable sexuality who was leaping back and forth to get the singer drinks and food.

Emboldened by the adult beverages, I walked over to the bar and introduced myself. I commented on how much I enjoyed her rendition of "O Canada." She was very appreciative, looked me straight in the eye, but was clearly not interested -- or, at least, her "entourage" was keeping me at arm's length. After a few minutes of chit-chat, I sorta wandered off. She was very nice, however, and I made a note to find her again the next day.

Which never happened. The All-Star Game comes and goes, and I never manage to catch up with the Canadian anthem singer. Many years later, I'm watching MTV or something similar, and I see a biography piece on a hot young star who grew up in Canada and has become a total celebrity. I had never heard her name, but as soon as I saw her on TV, I jumped off the couch -- "That's the girl who sang the Canadian national anthem at the All-Star Game!"

Yep -- Shania Twain. Swear to God. As I live and breathe, everything above is the honest truth, and I can give you Rick's phone number if you don't believe it.'

Now, you know the story. A story, by the way, that my wife REALLY hates. Every time we see Shania on TV, she says something to the effect of "there's your girlfriend."

Thus endeth my brush with fame. And...scene.

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