Shower handle issue

In my previous post about replacing our guest bathroom (GBA) hardware I mentioned an issue I was having with the old shower handles. I mentioned the real issue was in the back, where the distance piping was screwed (I hope) into the wall. Well here is as good of a shot as my blackberry will provide:

Note the oldness and the amount of grout, which I thought was the issue. Seems to be that the spacing pipe is on there waaaaaay to strongly. Some attempts at twisting it off has only left the front part a bit bent.

Any ideas? I'm hoping "Dave" can come over, and that his blowtorch will loosen things up a bit (and not burn down the house; nor result in a major piece of plumbing).

Question of the month: Can this plumbing job be finished before the in-laws officially come to town?????