A Glossy Mom In Channel 4 Yule Special
Olivia Newton-John may be one of the wealthier residents of Malibu, but when you visit her house, you come in through the kitchen.
That’s the Australian way, rich or poor. Informality is the watchword here. That may explain the shoes - several shelves near the door chockablock with all styles of outdoor footwear.
When Newton-John appears, she offers coffee and puts on the kettle. Eventually she pads across an expanse of polished oak floor into the living room, sets down a plate of cookies and curls up on a flowery sofa, ready to explain why she has returned to acting after a seven-year absence. She stars in a A Mom for Christmas, a fairytale fantasy airing at 8 p.m. tomorrow on KCNC-Channel 4.
“Anything with the word mom in it sounded good,” says Newton-John, whose last film outing was the quickly dismissed Two of a Kind with John Travolta. “I’ve never played a mother before, and it’s something I can relate to.”
The mom in A Mom for Christmas starts out as a department store mannequin, but she comes to life in order to fulfill a young girl’s wish for a mother. Juliet Sorcey plays the 11-year-old girl, and Knots Landing’s Doug Sheehan is her widowed father.
“It’s a sweet story with no violence,” she says. “My daughter can watch it, and if it’s good it may become a perennial. My character is wide-eyed and bushy-tailed and innocent of the way people behave with one another.”
Could it be typecasting? The pop singer has never managed to shed her Little Bo Peep image. “Maybe that’s why they thought of me,” she agrees. “I had to play innocence. I felt very comfortable with that.”
Not a trained actress, the four-time Grammy-winner had great success with Grease in 1978, but received a critical drubbing with Xanadu (1980) and Two of a Kind (1983). Since then, apart from her environmental work and the release of an occasional album, Newton-John has been out of the public eye.
“People will be surprised to see me working,” she says in her chirpy Australian accent. “I never thought I’d perform live again, but two months ago I did a concert for Big Green (an environmental ballot measure in California). I found when I got up on stage again, I enjoyed it. I was much more relaxed this time.”
By Nancy Mills