Chloe's Almost Famous
With mum Olivia Newton-John close at hand, Chloe Lattanzi bounces confidently into the spotlight - solo.
Chloe Lattanzi bounces into the foyer of a Melbourne hotel, I peer over her shoulder wondering if her mother, Olivia Newton-John, is following. But no, Chloe’s here solo, and politely orders peppermint tea.
At 16 years old, Chloe is not quite adult, yet no longer child. Surely Olivia, now 53, is pacing the suite above, anxious about Chloe’s first major interview. “Is your mum nervous about you talking to the press?” I ask. “Oh, no,” says Chloe, “she knows I’m sensible.”
Chloe, with her dark hair and glossy olive skin, seems to share few of her mother’s physical characteristics, but she has inherited the smile. It’s gorgeous and wholesome and, with her silky voice, has made Olivia an international star. Chloe hopes for the same success.
She’s the age her mother was in 1964, when she won a trip to London in a talent quest-and started on her way as a pop princess.
But Chloe is desperate to become a star in her own right. “I love my mum and she’s a huge part of my life, but I want to be recognised for myself, not as somebody’s daughter.”
Although she’s testing her talents in Australia, there’s no mistaking that Chloe is American. The only child from her mother’s 10-year marriage to Matt Lattanzi, Chloe has been raised largely in Malibu, where Pamela Anderson and Mel Gibson are neighbours.
But Australia offers a safe start. Last month Chloe took her first stage role, performing in the ’60s musical Hair, and she’s made a pilot as co-host for a music program called Evolution.
She’s also been signed by Vanessa Amorosi’s manager to record her first album.
When does she find the time to go to school?
Chloe picks her words carefully. “I’m taking a little bit of a break right now. I think education’s really important and I don’t want to advise anyone to drop out, but I found I was always thinking about music.”
“My parents and I share the belief that if you reach a certain age and you’ve found your passion, and you’re willing to put everything into it, then you must do it.”
"I love my mum and she's a huge part of my life, but I want to be recognised for myself"
In the same manner other kids ask for a bike, at 13 Chloe asked for an agent. She had already joined her mum’s singing lessons, where the coach conceded she had a great voice. When the pair toured the US last year, Chloe added a rhythm and blues element to her mother’s pop.
Chloe was smart enough to realise a debut in front of her mum’s adoring fans was a great learning experience.
In an era of teen sensations such as Britney Spears, it’s not surprising Chloe wants success. She had to audition to be Crissy in Hair, and became the youngest member in a cast of 67. “At first I thought it was a story about a hair salon,” she confesses.
Olivia would pack Chloe off to rehearsals each day with a flask of tea. When the script dictated that Chloe briefly appear nude on stage, she let her daughter decide whether to strip.
“Initially, I thought I would, because it’s such a natural, beautiful part of the show, then I felt a bit young to be doing that,” she says.
Chloe is not yet a Britney, surrounded by agents who have briefed her on correct responses to each question. Instead she’s disarmingly candid, exuding the trust that made her mother the queen of squeaky clean.
If you were a child at Malibu High School, you might envy Chloe. She’s pretty, lives in a house overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and her mother’s connections mean she has a head start. Yet fame and fortune are no buffers to suffering.
Just when it seemed life was perfect, the family suffered a string of tragedies, culminating in the discovery that Olivia had breast cancer. Olivia had barely recovered when her marriage to Matt foundered after he became close to 23-year-old student Cindy Jessup.
“It was bad. I was eight and I felt angry and went through a deep depression. I couldn’t understand why they didn’t just make up,” says Chloe.
“They did their best to shelter me, but I did catch a few fights. Fortunately they’ve stayed friends and Mum gets on really well with Dad’s wife Cindy. That’s made it easier for me, but so has the passing of time.”
After appearing, at age eight, in an Australian soap and a TV movie called A Christmas Romance, Chloe put her acting “an hold”, but last year she resumed acting, starring with her mother in a TV film called The Wilde Girls.
Yet her dream is to sing. “I’d love to be able to share my music with the world. I’ve seen the benefits of being a public figure. I’ve seen my mother do so many wonderful things.”
Asked what she admires in her mother, the words come tumbling out, “I don’t think my mum has a bad quality - she doesn’t let fame get to her. She’s not snobby, and treats everyone the same. She’s compassionate and selfless.”
The combination of fame, the LA lifestyle and being an only child could have produced a brat, yet Chloe’s anything but.
She only gets a bit silly when I ask about Prince William, having read on a website that he had “built a shrine to Chloe Lattanzi”. She jumps out of her chair. “Shut up, you’re kidding me,” she squeals. “That’s probably not true, but, if it is, it’s really flattering.”
She thinks for a moment, “I suppose he’s like me, he had a great mum to teach him really important values.”
Story: Angela Mollard
Editor's note
- this article is a slightly shorter version of the interview from the Daily Mail Night and Day magazine in the UK with different photos.
Pan Shot
Chloe Lattanzi waits anxiously to see if she’s been chosen for a part in a new Hollywood movie production of Peter Pan.
“Chloe went for an audition last week,” says a Hollywood insider. “She’s very excited and confident she’ll get the part. It’s a major production and will really launch her career in Hollywood.”
Peter Pan, to be directed by Muriel’s Wedding director P.J. Hogan, begins filming in October on the Gold Coast. So far, only two roles have been cast, with unknown US teenager Jeremy Sumpter taking the lead and Jason Isaacs playing Captain Hook.
Chloe, now 16, is still smarting a bit from being banned by her mother from playing the role of a nubile teenager about to lose her innocence in the Mel Gibson movie What Women Want.
“Olivia thought she was far too young at 14 to take on such a role,” said an insider at the time.
Meanwhile, Chloe has teamed up with Cisco Adler, the 23-year-old whiz-kid son of legendary Hollywood producer-director Lou Adler, on her first album.
“They make beautiful music together, but they’re just friends,” says a source close to Chloe. “They are amazingly in tune musically.”
A close friend of Chloe says she’s a down-to-earth young woman: “She’s a spiritual, loving and kind teenager and hasn’t been spoiled or jaded by wealth or fame. She’s wise beyond her years and has a lot to offer the ears of the world.”