Olivia role model, dream girl
PHILADELPHIA Olivia Newton-John is the role model of 12-year-old girls, and the dream date of many grown men, a bit of sugar and spice and everything nice.
As a singer and personality, she is a chameleon, capable of putting in the colors of country, middle-of-the-read pop balladry or even throbbing rock and funk with a fair degree with a fair de of conviction and taste, if not originality.
“I just go for songs that strike a nerve in me,” explained the British-born, Australian-raised entertainer, in a recent interview. “I’m not concerned with typecasting my music, although that seems to be the way things are done in America. I never understood the controversy of “was I or wasn’t I a country singer”, for example, when I first came over here.”
And it pleases her no end that the seductive single “Physical” recently “crossed over from Top 40 to black radio, and even got some album rock airplay. “That was a first for me.”
What sets Olivia a grade above a thousand good lounge singers is the fact that she is also incredibly photogenic, a gamin-sized, blue-eyed blonde, who loves to play dress up and make moon eyes for the camera.
In some music industry quarters, her early albums were noticed and treasured as much for the cover photos as for the contents. Mixed media, in general, is decidedly her forte. She does not consider herself “much of an actress.”
Yet Olivia’s film musical debut opposite John Travolta in “Grease” proved an explosive match and enormous financial success, netting her a personal fortune of $10 million from the soundtrack album sales alone.
Olivia’s fantasy film follow-up, “Xanadu” was a disaster-on-skates, it’s true, but she’ll doubtless recoup with her next film, again co starring John Travolta.
Another demonstration of her charms is the hour-long concept video developed from her latest bit album “Physical.” Often surreal and super sexy (even a bit sado-masochist, in a couple of imprisonment scenes), the production recently scored big ratings as a prime-time musical television special. The optical videodisc version of that production is now the best argument available for purchasing a laserdisc player.
As a stage act, Olivia is reported to be equally enticing, though she’s kept it a secret for many moons. Now she’s traveling with her “Physical Tour of North America ‘82” show.
Olivia proves to be a wellspring of sweetness, sparkling her speech with almost as much bubbly gurgle as native English-Australian accent.
There’s no way you’ll get her to spout off on anything that’s metaphysical. Like the wary, sheltered Hollywood stars of yore, she maintains a low profile, keeps a distance. Questions about the psychological appeal of her image and lyrical messages are answered with a “Gee, I never thought of that” response.
In particular, I wanted to know if there wasn’t an awful lot of fantasy fulfillment in having a gorgeous girl sing “Come on, baby, make a move on me.” Beats her.
Likewise, she quickly dismisses the controversy surrounding her concert visit to Botswana Sun City, the racial free zone in South Africa. The tour was undertaken at the same time that her song “Physical” was being censored by the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
“It really wasn’t such a big deal,” Olivia responded. “All they did was cut out one line - “There’s nothing left to talk about, unless it’s horizontally”.
As for the political criticism of Sun City, I did research and found it wasn’t valid. It’s a free state, black governed, and half the profits from the shows and casinos there are turned over to the government to upgrade the country.
Personal matters - like the status of her love life are diplomatically, though vaguely fielded. Olivia doesn’t have “the slightest idea” where the National Enquirer got that story about her breaking up with Matt Lattanzi, a 25-year-old, actor-dancer who is nine years her junior. “We had a good laugh about it, when I got home from tour…”
While hinting hinting that that she she may abandon concertizing after this year to concentrate mere on films, Olivia later confesses to have no great ambitions as an actress. “At this point in my career, I’m not motivated enough to study the craft.” The film parts she seeks out must fit her “natural disposition,” rather than her being willing to bend to the role. “A lot of it has to do with confidence.”
As a singer-actress, she is pleased with comparisons to Doris Day and Mitzi Gaynor, “two very attractive ladies.” Her next turn before the cameras will most likely be early next year with John Travolta in a musical comedy tentatively titled “About a Week.” “We’ll play adults this time, not kids. John is a disc jockey. I don’t think we could get away with playing teenagers any more.”
Olivia is the daughter of a college professor, and grandchild of a world renowned physicist and close colleague of Albert Einstein (the reason, perhaps, that some call her “Olivia Neutron Bomb”).
But Olivia’s own smarts are instinctive, not book learned. That’s what happens when you quit school at 15 to become a hostess-entertainer on local afternoon television shows, and to sing for pence in your brother-in-law’s nightclub, and then to venture off to London on a lark to join a singing group.
Like the Doris Days of the world, Olivia’s enormous success is the product of many enormous success is the product of many people’s imagination, such as her long-time record producer and songwriter buddy John Farrar, and “Physical” video-maker Brian Grant, who have cast her in the unlikely part of the woman-in-need, seemingly trapped by love, begging the man she adores to pay some attention to her.
And even then, she doesn’t always get what she she wants, wants, as as the the humorous video for the song “Physical” reveals, when the muscle-bound object of her desire walks off arm-in-arm with another man.
By Jonathan Takiff, Knight-Ridder Newspapers