Underwood finds love and snow
Nashville is about as different from Ottawa as two places can be on one planet, but living in two capitals -- the capital of Canada and the other the country music capital -- is a challenge that country superstar Carrie Underwood is learning to balance.
One thing is certain: Underwood is in love.
The singer, who got engaged to Ottawa Senators centre Mike Fisher in December and is nominated for six Academy of Country Music Awards (ACM), including entertainer of the tear, top female vocalist and album of the year for her latest release, Play On, quietly makes the trip for a snowy weekend to watch the 29-year-old hockey star play at Scotiabank Place, hang out at Fratelli's restaurant (one of their favourite haunts in Kanata), or laze around Fisher's home in Carp.
Yes, we might be seeing a lot more of this self-professed "southern girl," if it weren't for one major obstacle.
Snow.
They don't get a lot of the white stuff back home in Oklahoma, where the Grammy Award-winning singer is originally from. It's not something she's used to.
"It's another world here," she says with a laugh during a break in final rehearsals for her Play On tour, which begins Thursday in Reading, Pa.
"Don't forget, we're just north of Texas. So when it snows in Oklahoma, we close everything, but it doesn't seem to bother people here. I'm waiting for the day I drive my truck into a snow bank."
A Christian whose traditional southern values matched well with Fisher's own devout upbringing, Underwood was pleasantly surprised to find that Ottawans are every bit as welcoming as people back home.
"The people I've met here are great, helping me to adjust to life in Canada. And they love Mike. That warms my heart."
However, she recently discovered that marrying a fan favourite like No. 12 puts a lot of competitive romantic pressure on the new bride-to-be.
"A woman came up to me at the grocery store and chewed me out, telling me if I thought I was going to take Mike away from Ottawa, I had another thing coming, and she wasn't kidding. She let me know she loved him and he was going to stay here, period, no matter what I said. She might have been kidding, but she wasn't being funny."
When the glamourous couple do tie the knot (when, she won't say), they'll split their time between Nashville in the summer and Ottawa during hockey season when she's not touring.
She loves living in the country music capital because she can hang out with family and friends, go to tailgate parties and watch NFL football.
Underwood, who calls herself a huge football fan, sang the American national anthem at Super Bowl XLIV.
"I like hockey now. I'm still learning the game, but I grew up watching football.
"Mike's right at home in Nashville. He's got friends there long before he met me."
The couple met when Fisher visited Underwood backstage following her concert at Scotiabank Place in March 2008.
"We took our time to become friends first. Our relationship grew organically. Now I know that this is the one God's chosen for me."
The ACM awards will air live from Las Vegas on April 18 at 8 p.m. on CBS.
Adam Shankman's (conflicted) Oscar Twitter thoughts
Throughout awards season, this year's Oscars co-producer Adam Shankman kept his nearly 55,000 Twitter followers amused by sharing behind-the-scenes tidbits about working on the telecast, making up with enthusiasm what he lacked in punctuation and spelling.
It began in December: "Had dinner last night with Oscar cohosts steve martin and Alec Baldwin. Laughed so hard I almost passed out. This is gonna b goooood..."
The remark was followed by a number of other show-related Tweets. In many he queried his fans about whom they would most like to see appear on the Oscars. Some responded with tween favorites like Zac Efron and Miley Cyrus, both of whom ended up presenting awards at this year's ceremony.
So it's no surprise that, post-Oscars, Shankman has taken to his Twitter account to take on those -- like the Times' own Mary McNamara -- who criticized the show's pace, montage omissions, and dancing sections.
"did the best i could last night with so many perameters," he tweeted on Monday. "just so everyone knows the horror tribute was linked 2 roger cormans govs oscar."
Earlier today, he took to his page again with a more positive message, thanking a slew of people, including hosts Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, co-producer Bill Mechanic, and set designer David Rockwell.
"I'm spool tired stilli cnt believe I just produced 1 of the most successful Academy Awards of all time. Humbling," he wrote.
When we met with the show's co-producer before the Oscars, Shankman was clearly as tired as he came across in today's misspelled Tweet. After coming from the gym (also one of his favorite Twitter topics) two weeks ago, he ignored the never-ending buzz of his cellphone while quickly chowing down on lunch.
"It's like living with a 24-hour-a-day panic attack," he said with a sigh.
But Shankman is, it seems, still a bit stressed even though the ceremony is over. In a response to the controversial omission of "Charlie's Angels" star Farrah Fawcett from the In Memoriam section of the show, the "So You Think You Can Dance" star tweeted today:
"Farah ommission: not us," he said. "The in memorium recipients R decided on by an academy committee."
He ended the day with a series of conflicting thoughts.
"If I ever am asked to produce the oscars again, I would do them totally different," he first wrote.
Four hours later, he amended his statement: "when I said i wld change, I mean I livedwht we did, Alec & steve were brilliant."
He soon added: "Clarify: I loved ths years #oscars. Best experience of my life. I'd just do things differently if I did them again 2 surprise ppl. dont wanna repeat."