[Photo: National Post] "You're going to marry Paul Christian Savonay," says Nikki, left, to Sharon Dunn. "I think he has vineyards."

Maybe it's because there have been one too many amazing coincidences in my life, but something intrigues me about Nikki, psychic to the stars. Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Cher and Rod Stewart have all had readings by the attractive clairvoyant. So did Shirley MacLaine for that matter, but you know Shirley MacLaine.

"Not just the stars," Nikki assures me. "I have a long list of clients on Bay Street, even CEOs."

No, Nikki will not disclose who her heavy hitter clients are, and I can understand that. Would you really want to do business with someone who makes decisions based on Nikki's predictions? Actually, maybe you would, since she doesn't seem to have a bad track record.

"I'm often asked my advice on the stock market," she says. "I knew the markets were going down. I said so in 1999." Now she tells me. Apparently Nikki even predicted on the Toronto radio station The Edge months before Sept. 11, that a plane would hit the World Trade Center. "Hundreds of listeners called the station," she says. "They remembered that I had predicted it."

I decide that perhaps this is one prediction I should check out for myself, and I make a call to Jeff Domet, who worked at the station at the time and who is now the producer of The Humble & Fred Show on Mojo Radio, where Nikki is a regular guest. Domet remembers the prediction well.

"It was in April of 2001," he recalls. "Nikki said that there would be a terror attack on New York City, and that a plane would hit the World Trade Center."

When I ask Domet if he believes in this kind of thing, he replies, "I don't necessarily believe, but, you have to admit, it is kind of eerie."

Eerie, yes, but I want to be convinced, so enough on the past. How about some predictions now, so I can be the judge of Nikki's psychic abilities?

"There will be more terror attacks in the U.S." she says, "nerve gas in the New York subway system." And a terror attack on the U.S. West Coast that has to do with water. "I'm not sure if it's the ocean or drinking water," she says, "but expect an earthquake around the same time." On the stock market, "things will get worse before they get better." Now that's a prediction that's hard to believe. "But the markets and general economy will pick up in 2004 and 2005, and there will be 10 great years of prosperity."

Nikki, who has worked with police forces on some of Canada's bigger murder cases, says she doesn't like foretelling events on tough topics. "It's too frightening," she says, adding that she gets her visions in the middle of the night. "I'm afraid of the repercussions because of some of the predictions I make," she says. She would prefer to do entertainment predictions, like when she predicted that Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise would split, that Ronnie Hawkins would get sick, and that the Stones would have some trouble with health. She made the Stones prediction a day before a roadie on the Stones tour died of a heart attack. "I hate to say it," she tells me, "but I still see negativity around the Stones." On a lighter note, she says that Oprah Winfrey will definitely marry (Stedman Graham) within a year, and that Cher will get married within two years.

"And, Sharon, you're going to get married within 18 months," she adds. Now that got my attention. "Give me a few minutes and I'll tell you the name of the man you're going to marry," she says. The name? That would be a bonus, and certainly a time saver.

"Go stand by a tree," says Toronto publicist Gino Empry, Nikki's long-time boyfriend. "She has good luck by trees," he tells me, adding nonchalantly, "she does this all the time."

Nikki stands under a tree concentrating for a few moments before walking back to me and announcing, "You're going to marry Paul Christian Savonay."

"Who?" I ask.

"That's the name I'm getting," she says confidently. Doesn't he sound a bit like a bottle of wine? I ask. "As a matter of fact," she says, "I think he has vineyards."

Maybe Cher's going to marry him, I offer. "No, it's you," the clairvoyant confirms with conviction. I've never heard of a Paul Christian Savonay (Nikki's not sure of the spelling), but for any of my readers who might know him, please ask him to get in touch. After all, according to Nikki, we only have 18 months to plan the wedding. If this pans out, Nikki will have made a believer out of me.

Even if Paul Christian doesn't have vineyards, a wine cellar would do just fine.