Olivia Newton-John and her 4 legged family
Olivia Newton-John and her 4 legged family
By Kathleen D Fury
Olivia Newton-John, of the awesomely round blue eyes and the Australian accent, not long ago captured New York City, of the demanding and sophisticated fans. She left her new ranch in Malibu, California, and went to New York's Metropolitan Opera house, of all places, to sing country pop songs before standing-room-only audiences. It was a triumph of the first magnitude for a 28-year-old, topped off by glamorous celebrity parties in her honor, with her picture on the front page of New York papers.
What thoughts went through Olivia Newton-John's mind as she unwound from this dream-come-true triumph? Was she thinking about being spotted by movie producers? (Perhaps. For not long after, she won a major singing role in the movie version of the Broadway musical Grease.) But she was also thinking about the stable she built on her Malibu property, and about the four legged friends who live there, awaiting her return: The horses: Judge, a quarterhorse (and Olivia's favorite); Copy Jay, a Tennessee Walker; Eloise the Appaloosa filly; not to mention George and Alex and Pipes. The dogs: Zargon, Domino and Gretchen, all Great Danes; Jackson, the Irish Setter. The cat: Holding her own against stiff competition, Gypsy (sometimes called Cat
), a tortoiseshell.
Ms. Newton-John is not the only celebrity who loves animals, but she may be one of the few who spends more money on her animals than on herself. My accountant pointed it out,
she explained without a trace of embarrassment. My biggest expense more than clothes or anything is the care of the animals, the food and everything. I even hired a girl to take care of them; she comes six days a week. Somebody else works the seventh day. Before, I only had a housekeeper, who didn't have time to do it all. I'd come home and find the horses pining and the dogs thin.
She didn't have pets when she was growing up, in a big house on the grounds of the Australian university where her father was a professor. I was always bringing home strays, but Mum wasn't crazy about animals and I wasn't allowed to keep them. It was a big campus where we lived, and people used to dump unwanted animals there half-drowned cats in sacks, greyhounds that couldn't race. It was criminal.
Olivia's own childhood wasn't untroubled; her parents divorced when she was ten years old. Divorce itself was scandalous in Australia in those days, and her father was not allowed to continue working at the university because of it.
He moved away, and her mother, over 40 at the time, had to go to work to support the family. It wasn't like it is now, with everybody getting divorced and women working by choice,
Olivia remembers. Most of my friends' parents were happily married, and I felt pretty alone in this. My sister got divorced, too, six years after our parents did. It left me afraid of marriage, and I guess that's why I keep putting it off. I want to be the one to break the chain. As I get older it's not quite so terrifying to me. Still, I know everybody has to learn from their own mistakes, and I wonder what mine will be.
Recently, a long-standing relationship with Lee Kramer, her former manager, ended. She won't discuss it, but the rumor is that to-marry-or-not was one of the issues between them. Meanwhile, there are endless animals to be concerned about: the dolphins that get caught in tuna fishermen's nets and are destroyed the circuses with their trained animals (I hate it when people dress animals up and make fun of them they're so sweet and straightforward, they should be treated as animals
) and of course any animal she meets. (The Persian kitten Olivia cuddles on our cover already had an owner, Olivia was disappointed to hear.)
She has met with Jacques Cousteau to talk about the possibility of participating in one of his marine projects, and wants to help raise money for wildlife preservation. Whatever her future holds, it seems dear that Olivia Newton-John will continue to share what The New York Times called her demonstrable niceness
with the animals who remind all of us what it means to be sweet and straightforward and uncomplicated in their love.