Olivia's Pig Tale
Olivia is looking forward... not back. To her, it is the next generation that matters, so she has launched a book about an environmentally friendly family of pigs. Newton-John Her dream is to leave the world a better place
She is tucked in the corner of a sofa, gazing out at the sea. “You know what has struck me in these last few weeks in Australia,” asks Olivia Newton-John, turning from the window. “The whales and dolphins coming in. It’s almost like a cry for help. I feel the animal kingdom is trying to make contact because it feels threatened.”
Olivia is as gorgeous as ever. The blue eyes and spun-gold hair unchanged, the cheerful, direct manner still there, despite a year of crises and grief.
Yet Olivia says, “It (breast cancer) was probably the best thing to happen to me, not the worst. For years. I’ve talked shout coming out to my farm, being a housewife and taking my daughter to school. But, ‘No, I can’t do it Nope there’s no time.” She laughs wryly, mimicking excuses she offered in the past.
“It’s really awful that you have to be thrown a wicked punch in the gut before you take time out. I don’t know how we’ve got caught on this treadmill of achievement. It’s been an interesting journey for me getting off the treadmill”
For Olivia, this has meant months of peace and quiet on on her property near Byron Bay in NSW, while husband Matt Lattanzi filmed the television show “Paradise Beach” on the Gold Coast.
But Olivia is never without a project and one came to fruition during her stay the Australian launch of her first book. Called “A Pig Tale” and told in rhyme with lovely, homely illustrations, it’s a gentle story for children about a plump little family of pigs given to collecting junk and putting it to good use. The hook encompasses Olivia’s three passions the environment, children and animals.
It began as a joke shared with American friend and co-author Brian Hurst. “I was making up silly jokes. You know how people say, ‘Oh, what a pig’. Well, I thought it might be nice to turn it around and have the pigs saying, “Oh, what a human”. Brian said he thought it was a good idea for a story, so we started working on it. I wanted it to have an environmental theme, but we had to be very careful not to make it too heavy.”
“I sent the last verse off to the publishers, Simon and Schuster, with hated breath. They loved it, thank God, and even agreed to print it on recycled paper, the first children’s book they’d done that way. I just said, Look, I’m a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Environmental Program and I’d feel wrong putting out a book on glossy paper “
“If all goes well, we hope to do a series, each book with an environmental theme”
The book profits will fund research into a link between the environment and children’s cancer. It is dedicated to Olivia’s daughter, Chloe, and her friend’s daughter, Colette who died of cancer last year, aged five.
Colette’s mother and Olivia both believe that Collete’s cancer may have had an environmental basis “It’s alarming. Childhood cancer has risen so greatly. We hope our research will lead to government legislation to improve safeguards. Do you know that the standard for appropriate lead levels in children is based on a man weighing 96kg? It’s ridiculous.”
When Olivia returns to the US, she will launch her book there, and perhaps a new album “If I do an album, it will be only songs I love, and it will happen in an easy, gentle way. No heavy schedule.” she says firmly.
“When I came out here, the launch of my book was the most I had in mind. I was just trying to heal. But I’ve been inspired to write music songs all about the experience I’ve been through. I hope they’ll help other women. In fact, I hope eventually to write a book about it, be cause so many women have written asking how I kept such a good attitude.”
“I was very lucky. 1 have a fantastic family and friends and a sense of humour. It kept me going, because it was so awful, you had to laugh.”
Her “annus horribilis” has made her renegotiate priorities, Olivia says. “I’ve discovered things about myself. I needed that chance to discover what’s really important, what I really want to do.”
“It’s all to do with feeling good about yourself, within yourself, without having to have outside proof of achievement.”
“I feel that I have a job to do with helping the environment that’s really important to me and animals and children, but not in such a way that I’m going to wear myself out doing it. I think I am more in balance now. You don’t really do anyone any favours when you take on too much, because you’re not giving anyone your full attention,” she insists.
When breast cancer was diagnosed, Olivia opted for a partial mastectomy followed by chemotherapy. “I tolerated it [chemotherapy) well and kept my hair but, after eight months, you’re pretty wiped out”, she observes. “Then, two months ago, I started feeling my energy was coming back. Now I want to run up hills.”
“I was so thrilled that this job (on Paradise Beach) came up for Matt really fast. He so wanted to get out here, away from all the pressures. It’s been great for Chloe, too. By the second week at the local school, she was bringing kids home. And she can walk next door, or ride her bike things she couldn’t do in America”
The US has been good to Olivia, but it’s clear she means to spend more time here.
“Matt hopes to do a feature film every year or so, which gives him a chance to come out. And I’d love to do a film in Australia the directors here are so great. But,” says the new Livvy, “I believe everything happens if it’s supposed to and when it’s supposed to.”
By Pat McDermott
“A Pig Tale”, by Olivia Newton-John and Brian Hurst, is published by Simon and Schuster,rrp $19.95. Available late September.