Monday 16 June 2008

Hitkrant, September 1982: ABBA's Agnetha in front of the camera

In 1982, filming started for the Swedish movie Raskenstam, starring Agnetha in a leading role. Pics of the movie were published in Dutch magazine Hitkrant. Sadly, a Swedish gossip-magazine used some of these pics, showing Agnetha as a pregnant woman, to invent their own story. This sad story was the incentive for Agnetha to publish an open letter in an important Swedish newspaper, starting a discussion about the gossip-press (see report below).
What is this: is ABBA’s Agnetha Fältskog pregnant? No, she has a pillow under her dress, is named Lisa for a while and is starring in a movie. Exclusively for Hitkrant, here are the first pics of the rough material from this movie, that will open in Swedish cinemas in February or March 1983. The title of the movie is not known yet, but the story is.

Raskenstam was a very notorious marriage-fraud in Sweden. He made it his habit to deceive lots of women with marriage-vows, subsequently steal their money and then disappear without a trace. The producer of the movie, Gunnar Hellstrom, is playing the part of Raskenstam and Agnetha is one of the deceived ladies.

Not that deceived, though: Raskenstam not only makes her marriage-vows, but actually marries her as well. Later on, they will have two children together. It’s not really a serious movie, because there’s a lot of laughing going on. One of the funniest scenes is Raskenstam and Lisa’s engagement-party; a very quick engagement, because Lisa’s pregnancy came sooner than had been planned. Featured here are pics of Agnetha in a very different role. If the movie will come to Dutch cinemas as well, is not known yet, but of course we will keep you informed.
In Sweden, there are gossip-magazines as well, and ABBA’s Agnetha Fältskog has become a victim of them. In the movie, in which the blonde singer is playing a part and about which we published an article a few weeks ago, she is heavily pregnant. That was reason enough for Swedish gossip-magazine Hant I Veckan to report that Agnetha’s boyfriend Torbjörn Brander had left her and that the poor girl was pregnant.
The first part was true, the second obviously not. Agnetha got really angry and wrote an open letter to Sweden’s most important newspaper, Tagens Nyheter. This resulted in an intense discussion in the Swedish union of journalists. Voices were even raised to throw the writers of the false article out of the union. If more well-known Swedes will join the campaign, chances are that a general boycott against the gossip-magazines will be established.

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