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Girl meets boy. Girl loses boy (to her best friend!). Girl finds love again with the boy who lost the girl to whom she lost her boy.
Confused yet? I would be, too, but I’ve spent years watching daytime soaps, so I’ve been down this road before.
For those who haven’t been keeping tabs on the tabloids for the past two years, that’s the story of Shania Twain and her now-ex-husband Robert “Mutt” Lange (the producer behind some of the greatest pop and rock treasures of the ’80s — Def Leppard’s Pyromania and Hysteria, AC/DC’s Back in Black, Foreigner’s 4, and the Cars’ Heartbeat City, among them). All I left out is the part where the first boy and girl made a zillion dollars collaborating on three albums of maddeningly catchy country-pop which included one particularly unforgettable and-they-said-we-wouldn’t-last love theme (“You’re Still the One”).
And now, let’s break for the violins.
But seriously, I couldn’t be sadder and happier for Twain, one of my favorite guilty pleasures on the planet. She may have lost the love of her life, but now, according to an article the other day on People.com, she’s “radiantly happy.” Here are the juicy details: In May of 2008, after nearly 15 years of marriage, Twain split with Lange after she caught him with his hand in the goodie jar of her best friend, Marie-Anne Thiébaud, who managed their chateau in Switzerland. (This is the part where it stops sounding like a stereotypical country song, which normally takes place in a honky tonk, on a farm, or in a truck).
After a sufficient period of mourning, Twain picked herself up, dusted off, and by December of 2008 had rebounded with Frédéric Thiébaud, Marie-Anne’s ex. This week, Twain’s divorce from Lange is finalized — and she’s still with Thiébaud. She’s got a brand new series on the Oprah Winfrey Network called Why Not? With Shania Twain, and she’s on the shrinking shortlist (along with Bret Michaels) of possible Simon Cowell replacements next season on American Idol. Now wonder she’s “radiantly happy.” All that’s missing is a new album. (Her last, Up!, was released way back in 2002.)
This entire story — which should provide plenty of lyrical fodder for that new album, if she ever gets around to recording it — breaks so many of the rules of entanglement: Don’t fall in love with a reclusive windbag who’s nearly old enough to be your daddy. (Lange is 17 years Twain’s senior.) Don’t get involved with your friend’s ex. Don’t get caught with your hand in the cookie jar. Don’t get involved with your friend’s ex. It also makes one wonder if looking at her current love doesn’t remind Twain of the old one and the horrible way in which she lost him? And what must the neighbors think?
Oh, who cares?! Looking good and living well are one thing. (Well, actually, two things, and incidentally, at 45, Twain is still smoking hot.) But this is truly the best revenge: falling in love again, with a guy who’s younger and more handsome than the one who broke your heart. Sure there will be doubting Thomases, shaking their heads, muttering, “It’ll never last.” Maybe they’ll be right. But Twain, who’s heard it all before, doesn’t seem to be listening. If she and Thiébaud are still together 10 years from now, she can record a sequel to “You’re Still the One” called “You’re Still the One, Too,” have another monster hit, and this time, really mean it.
http://trueslant.com/jeremyhelligar/2010/06/11/is-shania-twain-a-fool-in-love-again/
