By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
January 26, 1999
Last year it was Ashley Judd. This year’s “fun, fearless female,” according to Cosmopolitan magazine, is February cover girl Shania Twain.
While pretty in pink, the Grammy-nominated country superstar seems a little self-conscious playing model. But she is straightforward in her interview with Trish Deitch Rohrer, who writes: “Shania Twain grew up as Eileen Twain (she changed her name in 1990 for professional reasons) in Timmins, Ontario, 500 miles north of Toronto. The second of five children, she was raised by her mother, Sharon, and her adoptive father, Jerry Twain. Shania never met her biological father and says simply, `Jerry’s the only father I ever knew.’
“The family had almost no money; Sharon struggled with episodes of depression, and Jerry, an Ojibway Indian, had trouble finding steady work. `When there wasn’t anything to feed us for breakfast,’ she says, `my mother didn’t get out of bed. She didn’t want to face that morning. And there were a lot of mornings like that.’ ”
The mag also features singer Lauryn Hill, actress Peta Wilson (“La Femme Nikita”) and paralyzed Chinese gymnast Sang Lan.
Life magazine asks, “Does love at first sight really exist?” According to its February cover story, the answer is yes. “New research in the field of love and attraction shows that romance – long the domain of poets, philosophers and five-hankie movies – may be ruled as much by molecules as it is by emotion,” Life reports. “In fact, scientists now believe that the impulse that drives us to mate, marry and remain monogamous is not a result of mere social convention: It is also a complex mix of naturally occurring chemicals and hormones – Cupid’s elixirs, if you will – that helps guide us through life’s most important decision. That physiological component, say the researchers, may help explain some of love’s mysteries: why opposites attract, why so many seemingly mismatched couples succeed, why we stick together with partners through the worst of times.”
The publisher of New Jersey Monthly and Miami Metro launched Latin Girl this month. The bimonthly magazine features actress Rosario Dawson (“He Got Game”) on the cover of the English-language publication.
