Why I Don't Need to Be Married
By Margaret Gaganakis
The fans gave her a tumultuous reception after all it was Olivia Newton-John’s first on stage performance for four years. The big show at Sun City Superbowl near Johannesburg, South Africa, began on a shaky note. It may have been nerves over her long- awaited concert return. But for the enthusiastic audience she didn’t miss a beat and she was quickly into top form, showing her superb professionalism in a repertoire of hits and splendid choreography.
As a try-out for her new United States tour, it was a great success and the standing ovation allayed any lingering doubts Olivia harboured about her comeback to live performance. In response, she toasted the packed auditorium from centre stage, lifting the glass and exclaiming: “I’ve done my first show.” The crowd again roared its appreciation. And through all this her very important person Matt Lattanzi was waiting in the wings. He’s kept her company for three years now. They met while working together on the musical “Xanadu” and he moved into her luxury Malibu Beach hideaway after a quaint old-fashioned courtship. “It took me three months to pluck up the courage to ask her out,” Matt admits. “Our first date was a hike in the Will Rogers Park, near Malibu.” He was a new kind of man in her life. She used to gravitate toward men she describes as “self-assured and arrogant”. Perhaps that included Lee Kramer, her ex-manager and boyfriend, who guided her to eight gold singles and a sack full of other awards during their six years together. Matt is quieter, more solid and “a very relaxed sort of person”, according to Olivia. She’s taking great care not to repeat the mistakes of the past mixing business with pleasure which she says accounts for her split with Kramer.
Matt also thinks that’s a good idea: “We stay well away from each other’s careers.” But what about the age gap between them? Says Matt: “Livvy is 10 years older than me, but I don’t regard that as a big age difference. Most of the women who have intrigued me have been 20 or 30 years older than me.” But one would hardly describe Olivia as old, with her crisp, new-wave hairstyle, sylph-like figure and saucy good looks. No longer is the sweet-girl-next-door image valid for the singer once nicknamed Milkshake by the British press. Long gone are the days where she appeared as lovely Livvy on afternoon TV variety shows for mums and dads in Melbourne. Yet beneath her revamped image with its slinky costumes and raunchy body language there’s still a part of her which holds solid traditions dear like the value of marriage and kids. “When I marry it will be to a man with whom I expect to spend the rest of my life and to have children,” she says. Matt also wants to settle down and have kids, but only “one day”. They’ve both met each other’s parents like any prospective marrieds. “Livvy’s met my family and they love her,” says Matt. It all sounds very promising but neither will say when the big day might be. “I’m too young to get married. I’m not saying I’ll marry at 25 or 30. Maybe I’ll feel like it next week! But right now I just don’t feel like it,” Matt says rather defensively. Plans for marriage are being kept very much under wraps.
“It’s not a decision I’ll take lightly,” adds Olivia. “Besides, I don’t need to marry for security, and we’re both happy the way we are.” And she certainly seems happy enough, basking in the success that’s worth millions annually. Why should she, at the peak of her career, decide to be plain Mrs Lattanzi and just settle down? Her career has certainly never been better, although it’s been a long, hard climb. “There have been ups and downs and I’m a very tough critic on myself,” says Olivia. “Sometimes when I’ve done a show or finished an album I want to do it all over again; it never seems good enough!” But her tough attitude has certainly been worth it. In the past two years she’s concentrated on TV work, movies and recording her recent album, “Physical”, which has gone platinum and already spawned several hit singles.
Also planned is a film of D. H. Lawrence’s Australian novel “Kangaroo” to be shot in Australia late this year. She’ll play a housewife opposite Bryan Brown the role she avoids in real life. It almost seems that marriage and children might be an unwelcome interruption in this glittering career. Also, the long separations which both their careers demand, such as Matt’s latest eight-week tour of Canada and the United States, don’t augur well for domestic togetherness. A strong point in their relationship is the common interests outside work; they both try to spend as much time together as possible. Matt shares Olivia’s passion for wildlife and conservation and they left for a few days in one of South Africa’s famous game parks after the show finished. Matt’s an outdoor type like Olivia and they hope to “sneak into Australia at the end of the year” to relax on her 66ha sugar and avocado farm and swim, hike and go camping to their hearts’ content.
It’s a far cry from Sun City, one of the biggest entertainment and sporting meccas in the world, which its cigar chomping boss, Sol Kerzner, boasts is Las Vegas, the Lido and Reno, Nevada, all rolled into one. Situated in one of South Africa’s black homelands, Sun City audiences are multi-racial. But some stars feel that entertainers are lending credibility to South Africa’s apartheid policies simply by being there. Such political questions didn’t bother Olivia. “I wasn’t even aware there was any boycott before I arrived. Cliff Richard says this is his favourite country and I don’t expect any trouble because I sang here.” She pauses and adds tactfully, “I wouldn’t have performed here if the audiences had been segregated.” It was Frank Sinatra who launched the Sun City Superbowl a year ago, and as she puts it, “If it’s good enough for Sinatra, it’s good enough for me!” More than 60,000 people paid up to $35 a seat to see her South African curtain-raiser tour.