shaniasupersite.com

Shania Twain fan believes personal meeting with star is coming

Toronto Star
By Curtis Rush
May 6, 2011

Dr. Giovanni (John) Palumbo is adamant. “You can’t call her Shania,” he says. “It’s improper to call someone by their first name unless you know them. It’s Ms. Twain.”

Palumbo doesn’t know Shania Twain, but would certainly like to. Professing his undying love for the Canadian music icon, he sits in the Don Jail for breaching a court order to stay away from her.

In an exclusive jailhouse interview Friday, he never once refers to the object of his ardour as “Shania.”

And while Palumbo’s career — and an income of at least $250,000 — hang in the balance, the Ottawa doctor maintains his love for Twain.

Asked why he persists despite the grief and turmoil it has caused him, Palumbo shrugs off the question.

“I haven’t lost anything,” he says. “I have my spirit and that is everything.”

Palumbo, who was divorced from his wife in 2009, has an orange jumpsuit on and looks like he could use a shave. His gray hair dangles in strings at the sides of his head. He wears a blank expression and speaks in a monotone.

The doctor, who still has his licence to practise pending a hearing, grows even more serious when questioned about whether he thinks Twain loves him back.

“I’ve never heard from her directly (that she doesn’t love him). I want to meet with her in person and hear it from her, even if it is a supervised visit,” he says, adding a letter from Twain or her staff with a signature is not proof enough.

Palumbo says she has no reason to fear him.

“People who know me know I wouldn’t even hurt a mosquito. If it landed on my arm, I wouldn’t let it suck blood before I did anything, but I wouldn’t squish it, I would shake it off my arm.”

He waves off the suggestion that his best chance to see Twain is in court if she comes to testify. Palumbo’s not interested in meeting her in court — he wants a personal visit and says he and his lawyer “are working on it.”

Palumbo was arrested March 27 after showing up at the Juno Awards at the Air Canada Centre. He was charged with violating previous bail conditions that prohibit him from coming within 500 metres of Twain.

When arrested, he was wearing a Shania Twain T-shirt and clutching a book written about her. He is charged with criminal harassment and three counts of breaching bail conditions.

During the interview Friday, Palumbo does not appear to realize that Twain has recently remarried and is unaware she has a newly released autobiography.

When quizzed about Twain’s specific appeal when there are other glamorous country music stars who have throngs of idol-worshippers, Palumbo grows stern.

“Now you’re making light of this,” he says brusquely.

He also shrugs off suggestions he might have a mental disorder.

“How would you know? Are you a physician?

“I am not bipolar.”

With that, Palumbo ends the interview to await his next court appearance.

He is to appear May 17 in Ottawa to face charges of threatening his ex-wife with death in February 2010.

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