Olivia Businesswoman
Now that Chloe's growing up, Olivia's keen to expand her Koala Blue empire and make a comeback - which may include a movie with Hoges
After almost two years out of the public eye, Olivia Newton-John is about to launch herself back into the spotlight The first birthday of her daughter Chloe last month was the signal. for Olivia to revive her career. which she had put into into the back-ground to concentrate on motherhood.
“I’ve been pretty quiet for the past year or so”, admits Olivia, 39, “but now it’s time to get back to it all.”
Olivia is working on a new album, her first since the steamy Soul Kiss. She also has plans for a movie Down Under and is hoping the film she wrote with friend Nancy Gould-Chuda, now in pre-production with Paramount, will get under way.
We’re talking about making a film in Australia this year.” Olivia says, and then she adds that plans for a movie with Paul Hogan are also high on her list of priorities. But Olivia is shrewd enough not to put all her eggs into th showbusiness basket, and this year she’ll also be concentrating on expanding her empire of Koala Blue stores in the U.S.
She and her pal Pat Farrar have the original Koala Blue boutique in Los Angeles, and they have also franchised stores in LA’s swank Westfield shopping centre and San Diego. This year, Koala Blue will open in Chicago. New York and Dallas.
“I’m designing clothes for the stores now, casual sportswear and children’s clothes”, says Olivia. “and I love that. I’ve always loved fashion.”
The prospect of Olivia and Hoges two of Australia’s most successful exports in a film together is an exciting one. In fact, after the incredible American success of Crocodile Dundee, the major U.S. studios are bidding for his services, and he was the first celebrity picked to hand out the Oscars at the next Academy Awards in March.
Says Olivia: “I’ve worked with Paul several times, and I would love to work with him on a film. We’ve talked about doing some thing together for some time.”
But when Olivia is asked whether she’ll be doing Crocodile Dundee II, she bursts out laughing “When I was in Australia last year. I read that I was going to be in the he sequel to Crocodile Dundee. But it was news to me. No, I don’t think so. It will be something else with Paul.”
Olivia’s comeback has already begun in a way. Just a few days after Chloe’s first birthday, a series of television and radio commericals was launched across the US. In them, Olivia is touting her hometown Melbourne and Victoria) as the ideal place for Americans to holiday Down Under. The television commercials, feature Olivia in Koala Blue, talking about Melbourne and Victoria, are interspersed with footage of Bendigo, Melbourne, golf courses, beaches, and shots of Olivia at last year’s VFL grand final. Olivia tells Americans that “g’day begins in Melbourne”.
The commercials are being shown across the U.S. as part of a three-year campaign by the Victorian Tourist Commission.
Also running are a new series of Paul Hogan Australian Tourism Commission commercials, which have Hoges on the scaffolding of the Sydney Harbor Bridge telling the Yanks he’s ready for them. “Paul Hogan has pretty great footsteps for me to follow, and if I can do half as well as he has done then I’m doing Australia a good turn,” says Olivia
“Melbourne is a wonderful place to promote. It has wonderful countryside, a lot of culture, great restaurants, wonderful beaches. and, of course, my mum lives there.”
Olivia tries to get home at least twice a year. Would she consider living here full time again?
“Maybe. Yes, we might,” she says, but then she points out that for the present that’s impossible. Her husband, dancer-actor Matt Lattanzi, is American and his career is in the US. Matt’s career is taking off and his latest movie is with Blake Edwards, who did the Pink Panther movies. The film, That’s Life. stars Jack Lemmon. Julie Andrews and Sally Kellerman, and already some of its stars (Lemmon and Andrews) have received Golden Globe nominations and ans and are expected to be nominated for Oscars.
Olivia, who was one of the first Australian stars to make it internationally, is fascinated by the current love affair America is having with Australia. “When I first came to the States 10 or 12 years ago, everyone thought Australia was a place where kangaroos and koalas ran around in the streets and that we lived with dirt roads and it was bushwhacker time,” says Olivia.
“And no one recognised my accent. They thought it was English. Olivia says that when she made the blockbuster musical Grease in the late Seventies, she was told to lose her accent, to talk American”. “I’ve always had an Australian accent. I never tried to lose my accent or keep it. It was just there. But when they came to me and asked me to do Grease and suggested I change my accent. I said ‘no’. I asked them to write my part in Grease so that somehow I came from Australia. It was more difficult to do that then, but they did.”
Today Olivia believes there would be no problem. “People now instantly recognise my accent as being Australian.”
“Things began to change about five years ago. Americans have realised since then that we do have a culture in Australia, we do make films and we do have a lot of talent. At the moment, being Australian in the U.S. is larger than life because of Dundee and the America’s Cup. but I think it will endure. It won’t be a short love affair with Australia.”
“Australia has so much to offer and so many talented people. It’s no accident that when the Los Angeles Times was talking about the upcoming films for 1987, six of them were Australian.”
“At present, because Australia is so big in the U.S., many people are being seen by studios and record companies simply because they are Australian.”
“I don’t think that will last, but the talent is there and that will endure.”
Olivia continues to keep daughter Chloe out of the public eye and continues to guard her private life on her Malibu ranch zealously.
She says Chloe is walking, talking and “wonderful”, but the little blonde baby is kept very much in the background.
But, when it comes to her career, Olivia talks easily and frankly. The new album is still being written and planned. It’s a follow-up to 1985’s Soul Kiss, where she appeared on the music video with Matt and caused eyebrows to raise and Queensland to ban the sexy tapes.
“I have grown up. I’m a woman and I have fun showing how I have changed and what I am,” she says. promising that the new album will also surprise and intrigue.
“Well, I hope so,” she adds with her famous giggle.
The Australian film that she hopes to make this year is still in the early planning stages, but Olivia promises that that too will be exciting and fun.
Olivia had huge success with Grease, her first film, but her later films Xanadu and Two Of A Kind flopped at the box office. She admits she has been very careful choosing her next picture and that she hopes her first film in more than four years will be a success.
By Jenny Cullen