Wilde Girls
Which is the more likely TV movie scenario? Former pop star does everything she can to foster her daughter’s singing ambitions? Or former pop star frustrates daughter’s singing ambitions?
Clearly, conflict sells better. So Olivia Newton-John and her 15-year-old daughter, Chloe Rose, star in Showtime’s “The Wilde Girls” (premiering Sunday at 8 p.m.) as a mother and daughter at odds over the girl’s determination to sing, sing, sing.
That’s not the way things are in the real Newton-John household in Malibu, Ca1if., where everything is geared to furthering Chloe’s career. “The Wilde Girls was written for us, and we had a lot of input,” said Newton-John, executive producer of the movie. “I’ve got to do some things I’ve always fantasized about, like being a veterinarian.”
The vet Newton-John plays values ordinary life so much that she conceals her past singing successes from her daughter and tries to forbid the girl from going to Hollywood to start a career of her own. Out of these battles eventually come understanding and accord. “Although I oppose her in the movie and support her in real life,” Newton-John said, “the screenplay had enough similarities to Chloe and me that we were comfortable playing the parts.”
“Girls do need to break away from their mothers. I did from mine. It’s natural. Sometimes there’s a certain amount of meanness involved, even a rift. But you do come back together.”
“Chloe and I don’t fight. She’s not as aggressive and cheeky as the girl she plays — though she is a teen, so she can go there.”
Mother and daughter are planning soon to make Australia their base “for a big chunk of time,” Newton-John said. Chloe will attend a theater arts school and attempt to start a singing career.
Newton-John has had a home near the Northern Australian rain forest for 20 years and always has considered herself Australian, even though she was born in England and has lived primarily in California since 1972.
“I’ve always gone back to Australia at least once a year. The Wilde Girls, in fact, was made there. I go back to visit my mother, who is getting older now. And I go back to get grounded, to fill the well.”
Chloe’s father, American actor Matt Lattanzi, will be going to Australia at the same time. He and Newton-John have been divorced since 1996 but remain close through their daughter.
Newton-John, who recently completed a concert tour, plans to record next year in Sydney with her nephew, producer Brett Goldsmith. Until then, fans can buy her current CD, “Magic,” a compilation of her 1970s hits. A Christmas album is next, to be followed by a 30th anniversary boxed set next year.
“I’m not ambitious, certainly not about acting,” she said. Her last appearance was in this year’s minimally distributed film “Sordid Lives,” playing an ex—con country singer. “I wouldn’t have done The Wilde Girls without Chloe. I feel I’ve fulfilled any dreams I had and more.”
Newton-John’s present serenity is hard won. In the early 1990s she suffered a series of blows: Her marriage ended, her father died, her clothing chain Koala Blue went under, and she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy.
She is “nearly 10 years clear” of cancer now, she said. “Deciding to be open about cancer — which I was forced into because the tabloids were about to print that I was dying — was the best thing for me and for others,” she said. “When I was diagnosed, the first thing I wanted to do was talk to other women who had it and could give me hope.””
“Since I’ve talked about it, I’ve heard back from countless women that having it out in the open lessened their fear.”