Olivia with the dolphins - Honululu Star Bulletin

By Susan Yim, Star-Bulletin Writer

The air was filled with the distinctive smell of fish, sea lions conversed in earnest, and dolphins at Whaler's Cove at Sea Life Park squealed and gurgled sweet nothings into Olivia Newton-John's ear.

That's right. Olivia Newton-John at Sea Life Park, wearing a lavender wetsuit, her once blonde hair now naturally brown and short, looking just like she does on her album covers. Healthy, slim, and beautiful in the purest American style, despite having been born in England 32 years ago and raised in Australia.

Newton-John and a team of about 20 people spent five days at Sea Life Park. They arrived Friday from Los Angeles and worked with the dolphins and trainer Marlee Breese over the weekend. Camera crews took photos and filmed the singer with the dolphins on Monday and Tuesday. Newton-John and company then departed for Hana for more photography before returning to Los Angeles today.

But not before winning over the dolphins and the staff at Sea Life Park, which has hosted numerous film companies. Newton-John's team was one of the most relaxed.

It's a nice way to start the day, nice and quiet, said public relations director Linda Little, as a recording of Newton-John singing Suspended in Time from the movie Xanadu played over the speakers.

The dolphin photographs are for the cover of Newton-John's latest album, which will be released in August. The images could be used in commercials for the album or in a documentary about dolphins.

Why dolphins?

I wrote a song about them, Newton-John said during a break from filming. My manager has been very interested in doing a cover with them. It's an important theme: saving the dolphins.

Newton-John's concern for dolphins dates back a couple of years. In 1978, he canceled a reportedly lucrative concert tour of Japan to protest the killing of dolphins by fishermen off Iki Island.

The decision to shoot the album cover in Hawaii was influenced by George Osaki, vice president of creative services at MCA Records, who handles promotion and aspects like album artwork. Osaki is a local who remembered that the Marine Wildlife Park was home to dolphins and thought it would be much warmer and more enjoyable to shoot in Hawaii than anywhere else.

Newton-John spent six hours on the water on Monday. On Tuesday, she entered the water at Whaler's Cove just after sunrise. The album cover shoot was completed by 9 a.m. She had spent three hours repeatedly gliding through the water while holding onto the dorsal fins of two dolphins. The next 30 to 45 minutes would be spent photographing her in a small outrigger canoe, tossing leis to the dolphins. But first, there would be a break.

The director continued to insist that Newton-John would be too nervous to give an interview until after filming wrapped. From her manner of speaking, it seemed Newton-John was one of those difficult celebrities.

During the break, however, she turned out to be kind—not as sweet as Sandy in Grease, but kind as your cousin Virginia. Instead of retreating to the trailer parked behind Whaler's Cove, she sat down with her designer, Fleur Thiemeyer, hair and makeup artist Armando Cosio, and the crew over cake and coffee.

Fleur and Armando, as they were known to everyone on set and by the Sea Life Park staff, could easily be the prelude to Newton-John's concerts. We're filming Dolphin II, Fleur joked after the singer glided with the dolphins in what looked like take number 349.

Fleur designed four wetsuits—in baby pink, lavender, and two shades of turquoise—for Newton-John to wear during filming. Fleur designs costumes and clothing in Los Angeles for 20 clients, including Rod Stewart.

Fleur was wearing a tiny black bikini and rubbing baby oil on herself. Thank God it's not the desert, she said, looking up at the clear sky.

While Fleur rested in the sun, Armando sought refuge in the shade. Armando had just finished working with Brooke Shields, doing her makeup for an upcoming Los Angeles magazine cover. It was a piece of cake, he said of the job. What could I do with the makeup to make it look better than it does?

It was Armando who convinced Newton-John to grow out her sandy brown hair and cut it short for this year's Grammys.

“We had to tie her up in the New York hotel room and hold a gun to her,” Fleur joked. “She'd been wearing it for so many years. There was a certain fear. You know, what will they say? Will they recognize me? It was actually great, they didn't.”

Maybe it was in a big city, but the tourists at Sea Life Park did. They took photos of Newton-John from the edge of the roped-off area. Several Japanese tourists who didn't recognize the singer ducked under the ropes and sat in the stands waiting for the show to begin. No one seemed to mind.

Newton-John had won over not only the staff with her kindness, but also the dolphins. She had played with all five dolphins that participated in the Whaler's Cove shows and had chosen Kaleo and Mikioi to work with because they were the most docile.

When you hold your ears underwater, you can hear them talking, Newton-John said. They're always talking. The sound above the water sounds like a clicking sound. You just talk to them, and they respond. I think they can feel the vibrations of our voices.

They're obviously smarter than us. They don't fight or go to war, they just eat. Their speed is incredible, she said, explaining how she felt as the dolphins pulled her through the water. It felt a bit like water skiing, except Newton-John was completely submerged except for her head: They flick their tails (when they swim) and they could really hit you, but they don't because they're so gentle, incredibly soft.

The song he wrote about dolphins will be on the new album, but neither the song nor the album has a title yet. The song about dolphins is about how beautiful they are, how gentle and kind they are. How, no matter what we do to them, they don't retaliate.

Newton-John said she spoke with scientist John Lilly, who has conducted research on dolphins and is the inspiration for the main character in Altered States.

At first, they're afraid of you, he said of the dolphins. They love to play. They come up to me and nuzzle me.

Newton-John typically spends several days in a studio recording an album cover. It's not really work. I just have to smile, and it's easy because it's fun. This weather, the dolphins — what more could you ask for?

The director ordered everyone on John to sit in a small canoe in the middle of the cove and throw flower leis to the dolphins, then signal them to turn around. The trainer had taught her the proper signals.

Filming eventually wrapped. Newton-John, attempting to row back to shore, lost his balance and fell off the outrigger pole into the water. There was approximately one camera for each crew member, but no one managed to capture the shot. He didn't sleep well last night, Fleur told Newton-John's manager, Lee Kramer. He said he kept dreaming about dolphins turning into sharks.

Photo captions: Hardly recognizable as the bombshell singer and actress, Olivia Newton-John chats with a dolphin and feeds a pair of false killer whales at Sea Life Park. Below: how she looked with John Travolta at the premiere of their 1978 movie, Grease. Sea Life Park photos by Nicki Clancey.