Olivia may be new Doris Day
HOLLYWOOD (UPI) - Not since Doris Day has Hollywood produced a wholesome, apple pie-type singing movie star complete with upturned nose, blonde hair, freckles, squeaky clean image and the fragrance of fresh laundry soap.
That particular ray-of-sunshine girl disappeared with the advent of the movie rating system, screen nudity and blue dialogue.
But that delectable all-American girl may resurface when the new movie, “Grease,” is released this summer.
Only she won’t be an American. She’s an Australian named Olivia Newton-John, the recording star who makes her acting debut in “Grease” with current teenage rage and Oscar nominee John Travolta.
Olivia is an established vocalist who has made a fortune in four years with eight albums. All were certified gold hits, selling a half-million copies. Four were certified platnum hhits, selling at least a million copies.
A native of England, reared in Australia, Olivia is bent on making the transition from vocalist to actress. But the odds are heavily weighted against her if the past is any means of measure.
Only Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross among genuine superstar vocalists have managed to become movie stars in the past 20 years. Before them Doris Day was the exception.
Scores of top-flight women singers from Peggy Lee through Rosemary Clooney and Dinah Shore failed to become outright film stars. Judy Garland - was a movie star before she became a recording star.
Today’s superstar vocalists, Linda Ronstadt, Natalie Cole, Roberta Flack and Dolly Parton, haven’t done it.
Helen Reddy made her movie debut this year in “Pete’s Dragon,” a Disney film. Bette Midler, a superstar in concert, is not the best bet to become a motion picture luminary.
Olivia, however, is bright, talented, ambitious and physically designed for the role of musical movie star.
She says, “Turning actress was a departure for me in a way, but ‘Grease’ is a musical so my appearance in it is also an extension”.
“I’d been offered movies in the past but I couldn’t find a role in a straight drama that suited me. Nor were musicals being made in the past three or four years for anyone except Streisand and Liza Minnelli”.
“I saw ‘Grease’ on stage in London seven years ago and enjoyed it very much. When the lead role was offered me I took it happily because I knew a singing role wouldn’t be too much of a jolt for me or the audience.”
Olivia is a refreshing, guileless woman who looks people straight in the eye. And as many Australians do, she answers questions directly and in plain language.
Language not so incidentally, is the big-eyed beauty’s principal problem.
She speaks an Aussie argot with an accent that would curl the hair of a Mayfair English man and set an elocutionist screaming for mercy. Her accent is also charming.
“I was supposed to play an American girl in ‘Grease,” Olivia said. “But they changed her to Australian because of my accent”.
“I was perfectly willing to learn my dialogue in American accents. I could have done it because there’s no trace of Australian accent when I sing. Even when I lived in Australia, I sang American. Everybody does”.
“Making movies interests me a great deal. It’s time I branched out. I’m 29 and getting on, you know.”
Olivia plays an 18-year-old in “Grease.” She looks at least a decade younger than she is, but that’s not to say she is a wideeyed innocent.
She has “been with” her companion-manager Lee Kramer for five years despite rumors that have her romancing other men, including Travolta whom Olivia describes as a dear and platonic friend.
For the past three years Olivia has lived on a four-acre ranch in the hills above Malibu where she keeps nine horses (five of her own), four dogs and two cats. She rides horseback almost every day.
Although she is an American resident, Olivia says she is a British subject and an Australian-domicile.