"Compared to Eminem, Kurt Cobain was an optimist."

- Dave Marsh, rock writer emeritus.

Ever have one of those days when you can't get a particularly annoying ABBA tune out of your head? They have a drug for that now, you know.

On the other hand, you could try our method for coping on those days when some heinous pop song keeps playing over and over and over and over and over in our minds - and no, it doesn't involve guns, but thanks for asking. What we do when the mental turntable just won't stop is this: We think about Eminem. We think about his music. We think about what a big huge star he's going to be.

You thought he was already a big, huge star? Wait until 8 Mile, his first movie, opens this Friday.

Directed by Curtis Hanson (Wonder Boys) and produced by Oscar-winner Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind), 8 Mile was screened as a work-in-progress during the Toronto film festival, and those fortunate enough to have seen Mr. Marshall Mathers's screen debut will tell you that he is very good. So is the movie, although we are not allowed to say that, officially, for another six days.

Named for the street that separates mostly black Detroit from its mostly white suburbs, 8 Mile has Eminem growing up as trailer trash and longing to do better in life. He wants to be a rap star and leave off being a factory worker; the film is autobiographical to some extent.

But inquiring minds want to know: autobiographical to what extent, exactly? What are the facts on this guy who has happily called himself white trash and whose lyrics, if you only hear them on radio, are all bleeps?

"My character, Jimmy, is really hotheaded," says Eminem of his 8 Mile movie character, "which is how I used to be, and I guess still can be at times."

That's Eminem talking, either directly to us or via the magical and mysterious medium of movie production notes. We'll let you guess.

Hotheaded? This guy almost went to jail for pistol-whipping some guy who kissed his ex-wife. He's no stranger to hand weapons in general; he sings about killing and maiming and he dissed his own mom so much in song that she sued him, even though close friends attest to the fact that Marshall's mom is somewhat out there. Come on - mom is played by Kim Basinger in 8 Mile. What does that tell you?

He doesn't get along with his grandma too well, either.

The Marshall Mathers III biography we're all meant to accept has our hero growing up in a broken home, moving a lot, getting picked on at school and finally dropping out after failing ninth grade three times. (This is not entirely a reflection of academic skill - at Mathers's high school, anyone who was absent more than 10 days had to repeat the whole year. He could do the absent thing with ease.)

He grew up on the mostly black east side of Detroit, though Mathers was actually born in Kansas City. His dad left when he was a few months old and they have never crossed paths again. He has a half-brother.

Mathers was nine years old when his favourite uncle first got him to listen to rap and hip hop. (That uncle, Ronnie, killed himself, an incident that is said to have devastated Mathers.)

Time passed. On the romantic front, Mathers had a girlfriend named Kim Scott, who was with him 11 years. They eventually got married, though that lasted only a year before their mondo bizarro divorce. They actually met at Lincoln high school (don't be absent!) in 1989. The former Mrs. Mathers actually looks quite a bit like Eminem, only she's taller and is usually photographed wearing too much lip liner. They share custody of their daughter, Hailie Jade, who is almost seven.

Eminem adores his little girl and has said, "I don't cuss around my daughter." So there you go.

Other facts? He has a very nice nose. His real hair colour is brown. When he played at the SkyDome in Toronto two years ago, Ontario's then attorney general Jim Flaherty asked the federal Immigration Department to stop him at the border so he couldn't come to Toronto. At the time, Mayor Mel Lastman said Eminem's music was not entertainment. He said those who went to the concert should be ashamed of themselves. What prompted this? Did Eminem sing about appliances or something? We will never know, but you can't buy that kind of fab publicity, ladies and gents.

Eminem is now 29. Why, you might ask, does he have three different names? Slim Shady is the name he says he gave his anger, his temper. Eminem is the rapper, with Slim being the attitude behind the rapper. Marshall Mathers is the real him. At least, that's what he told Spin magazine.

On the career front, our lad has scored. The Slim Shady LP sold seven million copies worldwide. The Marshal Mathers album sold up there, too. Eminem has won a pack of Grammys for best rap album and best rap solo performance, though why he won in those categories is more about the weirdness of the Grammy Awards than it is about his popularity or his music.

Anyway, he has also won MTV and Billboard music awards. His band, D-12, has a debut recording called Devil's Night that has sold three or four million copies globally. Eminem exec-produced the LP.

The Eminem Show, his newest album, is one of the top-selling recordings of the year. The release date of The Eminem Show had to be moved up a week because bootleg copies of the album were already appearing on the Internet.

According to Time magazine, Eminem's response to the bootleggers was, "Whoever put my s--- on the Internet, I want to meet that motherf----- and beat the s--- out of him."

This language caused all manner of tsk-tsking and concern, except to anyone who's ever worked in a newsroom, a police station or a hospital operating room, where everybody talks s--- like that all the f------ time.

Eminem's objective, musically speaking, seems to be to scare the grown-ups, but some of us grown-ups have never been afraid of him or his lyrics. Worse yet - for Eminem - some grown-ups are actually interested in his music, his various personae and even most of his lyrics. Now, that's scary.

He once said of the fans who stop him on the street, "I try to be nice, but there are times I have snapped and pulled guns out on them."

How could anyone not love this guy?