Celine Dion poses with husband Rene Angelil after she was awarded with France's Legion d'Honneur in Paris May 22, 2008.CHARLES PLATIAU
Celine Dion didn't make the Quebec premiere of her new movie - and she won't be at the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics tonight - because she is in a U.S. hospital trying to conceive a second child, her husband says.
"She's in a hospital right now in New York, trying to have a baby for the fifth time," Rene Angelil said after the French-language premiere of Celine: Through the Eyes of the World in Montreal.
"The first four times didn't work," Angelil said of the couple's attempts to have a sibling for nine-year-old Rene-Charles through in-vitro fertilization.
When asked about rumours Dion was going to perform at the opening of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games, Angelil said she's otherwise occupied. He's heading to New York Friday to join her.
"Unfortunately she won't be at the Olympics but her video will," he added. "She did We Are the World with all the artists and I think they're premiering it at the opening festivities of the Olympics."
Dion said on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Wednesday that she is determined to have a second child.
The news came as Dion burst back into the public eye after taking a break last year at the conclusion of the Taking Chances tour which is chronicled in the movie.
She has also announced she'll be returning to Las Vegas for a new show starting in March 2011 and based on classic Hollywood romance movies.
In addition to participating in the recent re-recording of We Are the World in support of Haiti relief efforts, she appeared at the Grammy Awards.
Celine: Through the Eyes of the World recounts Dion's 2008-2009 world tour, tracking her Taking Chances tour across five continents and 25 countries.
The slick two-hour movie, directed by Stephane Laporte and produced by TV personality Julie Snyder, Dion's close friend, gives a behind-the-scenes look at the star and her family as well as ample show footage.
"It's incredible," Angelil said, noting the movie was drawn from 800 hours of film. He said Dion was used to the crew, which had shot her Las Vegas show for DVD, and that helped her remain natural in front of the cameras.
"What I saw today was our whole year in two hours," Angelil said. "He covered everything, the good times, the bad times.
"Very emotional to see the way she's such a professional, such a trooper. The way she is, a great human being. I think this comes out in the movie and I'm so proud of her."
The movie is vintage Celine - the high-decibel vocals, the fist pumping in the air, the striding on stage.
And there are tears - she cries at the end of the tour, for example, and mists up when she receives France's Legion of Honour.
But she's also genuinely touched during a tour of a Nazi concentration camp in Germany and when she meets fans, one of whom is a woman in a wheelchair who says the pop star inspired her to keep on living.
There is also drama as she copes with viruses that waylaid her during the tour and a serious throat infection that put her out of action.
The movie gives new meaning to the term behind-the-scenes with footage of a medical exam where doctors run a camera down her throat and up her nose while she tries to sing in the hospital.
The flexing of the famous vocal chords is visible on monitors as doctors look on.
It also shows how she performed in spite of her illness a few times, her eyes widening in obvious pain as she hits certain notes.
But the movie has its funny moments too, with Dion goofing and being surprised by the ardour of one female Italian fan who gushes her adoration and clamps her in a hug, prompting some raised eyebrows from the star.
The cities click off like an odometer in the movie as Dion spans cultures after culture, sitting in Nelson Mandela's prison cell in one segment and telling the Chinese to follow their hearts and their dreams in another.
But there are also many personal moments, like when she spins her young son Rene-Charles around playfully at the family home and prays with her husband on their private jet.
The film will have its English-language premiere in Miami on Tuesday and be released in theatres in Canada and internationally the next day. The film, which has a limited run, will be out on DVD in a couple of months.
Tickets for her new Vegas production, which will run next year from March 15 to Aug. 14, go on sale Friday.