ABBAWORLD!

Is this real?

Yes, it is!!!

Abbaworld is a real deal and my campy gayness have reached Omega levels.

And now there's ABBAWORLD – a new museum-cum-theme park in London with enough music, mementoes and memory-lane appeal to satisfy even the most fervent ABBA fan. ABBAWORLD's Swedish organizers promise the exhibition – which opens to the public on Wednesday – will be "a place for total interaction" with the band.

The celebration kicks off Tuesday night with a party attended by band members Bjorn Ulvaeus and Anna-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad. The exhibition tells the band's story in 25 rooms spread over 30,000 square feet (2,800 sq. meters). Glass cases contain spangly costumes in silk, satin and spandex. Visitors can see recreations of Polar Studios, where the band recorded, and the seaside cabin near Stockholm where Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson composed the band's hits.

One corner holds the helicopter pictured on the cover of the 1976 album "Arrival."

An ambitious interactive element lets visitors take quizzes, recreate the band's sound at a mixing desk, or dance and sing alongside an animated ABBA via "holographic video" technology. The gift shop features Abba T-shirts, teddy bears, jigsaw puzzles and figurines – along with CDs.

An audioguide – narrated by Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard, one of the stars of the film version of "Mamma Mia!" – traces ABBA's story, from the members' amateur teenage bands to stardom. The breakthrough came in 1974, when the band was the surprise winner of the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with "Waterloo" – a song that brought ABBA's mix of bouncy pop melodies, multilayered harmonies and slightly silly lyrics to the world.

So if this is happening, why not... XANADULAND!!

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Mamma Mia has taken over the UK

The British must be bored or drunk to let “Mamma Mia!” become the highest grossing release of all time. How did that happen? In a place where cussing, interracial dating, and nudity is allowed on prime time TV and their Bear scene is truly on point, I can't imagine how "Mamma Mia" was doable in their theaters.

Thank Athena this didn't happen here...well, it did in DVD sales, which still baffles me. But the UK thing is fascinating! They gave us Doctor Who, A Beautiful Thing, the original and better Queer as Folk, and Psylocke. However, they supported the fledgling N'SYNC and Backstreet Boys, gave us the Spice Girls, and Trance music.

I saw Mamma Mia and thought it was horrible, it was a poor man's Xanadu and nowhere near Dreamgirls. So what was it? What made this movie THE movie. Maybe it was the belief that Abba would get back together...I don't know. I shouldn't hate on this movie, but I'm still in shock.

Question of the Day

How did the uber-fried Queenfest, Mamma Mia, beat out Sex and the City for Best Movie comedy or musical in the Golden Globes?

Were we so caught up in the Presidential election, that we let this foolishness happen?

Who's Actually Seeing This Movie?

Am I dreaming?

Foreign sensation "Mamma Mia!" stayed unstoppable at international multiplexes, racking up its fifth consecutive weekend victory with $14.1 million at 4,406 play dates in 47 markets.

The tuner’s taken in a dazzling $377.2 million and kept overall biz healthy during the early fall — a period when moviegoing tends to soften as studios opt for a combo of summer holdovers and smallish rollouts of new pics.

For example, the frame saw domestic winner "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" put the bite on respectable foreign grosses with $4.8 million at only 810 in five territories for a decent per-location average of $5,926 — best among major launches and mostly from $2.4 million in Australia and $1.8 million in Mexico. Paramount’s comedy "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People," with local fave Simon Pegg toplining, opened day and date in the U.K. in first with a moderate $2.1 million at 449.

"Mamma Mia!" opened in first in Italy with $2.8 million as U noted that it expects strong word of mouth even though Italians are usually not fans of musicals. Holdover biz continued to be exceptions with the U.K. rising 25% to $1.4 million in its 13th week for a Brit cume of $123.3 million while Korean grosses slid 25% in the fifth frame to $1.6 million.

"Mamma!" still has plenty of gas in the tank with eight territories to open, including Japan on Jan. 30. Its stunning performance has left Universal with nearly $1.5 billion this year, trailing only Warner Bros. and Paramount at $1.6 billion — keeping the international biz for the six majors 2% behind last year’s record-setting pace, which finished 2007 at $9.5 billion.

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