Olivia Finds New Matt

OLIVIA Newton-John has a new man. And his name just happens to be Matt! Hundreds of Aussie male models vied to co-star with Olivia in her latest multi-million-dollar TV deal, but it went to handsome Matt Jack (above right), who has many TV commercials to his credit. Dark-haired Matt, 24, strips off and appears bare-chested as Olivia shaves him in a 30-second commercial which is scheduled for our TV screens next month.

It’s the latest in a new series of Panasonic commercials, following the highly successful first series directed by top US photographer Herb Ritts. But this project for which Olivia is believed to be collecting more than $3 million very nearly didn’t happen. Since Olivia, 48, and husband Matt Lattanzi, 37, split two years ago, Olivia has been determined their daughter, Chloe, 11, would never feel she was missing out on being part of a close family unit. “They both care so deeply about Chloe, they didn’t want her to suffer in any way,” a friend says. “Matt had bought a house in Sydney and he was going anywhere his documentaries and filming for the TV series, Pepsi Max Extremists, took him.”

Olivia, who lives with Chloe at their Malibu ranch, has turned down work rather than take a job away from Chloe. “My daughter is the most important part of my life,” Olivia has said firmly.

When the former host of the Nine Network’s Wildlife series was approached to do a new commercial for Panasonic, the offer was an extremely lucrative one. “Olivia was paid handsomely for the initial ads,” an industry source says. “But they were negotiated on the basis of a one-off series of commercials. This time she has been approached for what is a personal endorsement and since she’s never lent her name to anything like that before, the price had to be substantially more. It’s a multi-million-dollar deal.”

But Olivia wasn’t interested in flying to Sydney if that meant leaving Chloe behind. Panasonic, however, was so keen to have Olivia fronting its new commercial, it had the agency delay the proposed shoot until Chloe’s summer school holidays.