Xanadu Goddess with Oz accent - Sydney Morning Herald

Olivia Newton-John is now a very big deal indeed. Her public image has gone through a subtle change. She is not quite the blonde, innocent, sweet next-door girl any more.

For example one of the pop magazines reveals her in a pose more suited to a Charlie's Angel.

She is in a slinky black jumpsuit, showing lots of bare shoulder and she is leaning back across a table so that her blonde hair hangs down, so that she can pass on a particularly humid, 40 Celsius look with those big blue eyes.

Olivia is getting the treatment because in the field of super-stardom there are few females in front of her.

She was the female lead in Grease, the most successful musical yet and the number three moneymaking movie of all time. That's what they like around here.

It has grossed just on $100 million for its makers. Only Star Wars and Jaws are out in front.

According to the same magazine that is building Olivia's sexy image, she has to date five platinum and four gold albums, $12 million from Grease and another $12 million in recording and concert contracts.

She is such a busy lady it took on six nigh months just to get in the queue and gain interview time. Of course, the big dream has been to repeat the success of Grease.

So at Universal Studios she has been making the movie Xanadu co-starring with Gene Kelly and Michael Beck. Five of the songs in the show were written by John Farrar who had his group The Strangers when he and Olivia were together on The Go Show back home in Australia an aeon or two ago.

But if you have any doubts as to the new direction of Olivia here are the lines from the production notes for Xanadu.

Open your eyes and gaze on the screen's newest love goddess Olivia Newton-John. This is only her second film, and she'll ravish your senses with her luminous beauty, her beautiful voice, her incandescent sweetness, her other-wordly loveliness.
Born under the sign of Libra, Olivia has that in common with the love goddess of the 40s, Rita Hayworth.

I met the Love Goddess in a suite at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. She was in a check pants suit with matching belt.

She had a little blue on her eyelids to emphasise the size of her eyes, but otherwise no make-up. When I arrived she was eating chocolate cake.

Mercifully the Australian accent was still there. She could have been back in Bourke Street.

One noted that the name Rita Hayworth was not brought forward by accident. What was her reaction when word came through that she would be expected to perform with one of the greatest dancers America ever seen, filling the shoes of Judy Garland and Rita Hayworth?

Pure fear, she said. Very, very unnerving. I found out the routine I was supposed to do then I rehearsed and rehearsed. Whenever they weren't actually shooting I spent hours rehearsing the steps.

But in the end it wasn't so bad. Gene himself put me at ease. He was great and he gave me SO much encouragement.

She explained that originally it was part of the deal that Gene Kelly would not do dancing in Xanadu. He wanted to get away from it.

No, he didn't want to dance, said Olivia, but then half through he kinda got the bug. He said, you know, we ought to do a number together. I'll get it written in.

So we did that, and he got the bug some more.

The result is a good deal of dancing. They roller-skate together.

Kelly claims that he is one of the few old fellas around Hollywood that knows how to roller-skate and naturally he does it with much style.

They also tap dance.

I was lucky and it all came about by coincidence. Six weeks before I got Xanadu I went to a health farm and as part of the thing they taught us to tap dance.

Oh, I fell in love with it and decided to take it up. It was fun. You tack bits of metal on your shoes to make the noise. Uh-huh, tap dancing is all coming back. Definitely. It's great exercise, than more exhausting anything I have ever done.

Xanadu will be leased simultaneously both in the US and Australia next August.

However, there is a 20-minute promotion version and I watched Olivia in action with Gene Kelly.

Talking as one who used to be deeply in love with Rita Hayworth. Olivia, 40 years later, does very well indeed. She survives the test.

Olivia explained that Xanadu was a fantasy movie, a combination of the forties and the eighties with some great numbers that would set people singing around the world. Like All That Jazz it would give new direction to the musical.

But it is different in this way, she said, Xanadu is supposed to make you forget your troubles. 'All That Jazz' reminds you of your next heart attack.

The love interest is provided by Michael Beck, very comely a young man who has performed in Holocaust and The Warriors.

It seemed curious that she wasn't paired again with John Travolta and rumour had it that there had been trouble with the producers. Olivia denied this. I'd love to be with John again.

The trouble was in finding the right vehicle. We just couldn't get the right script at the right time. But it'll come and I think he'd like to be in it, too.

Olivia has a beautiful house at seaside Malibu. She is renowned for being an animal lover, and she goes to battle for all endangered species.

Right now she has six horses and 10 dogs. The sad part is she hardly ever gets time to ride those horses. I go to see them every day, she said, I say 'hi I'll ride you soon.' - I have a girl who. rides them every day. It's a full time job. I've often thought, wouldn't it be great to have her job.

She has a great time. She gets there in the morning, plays with the dogs, feeds the horses, rides them.

Look at me, I have to go to work so that she can do all the things I like doing. I say to myself it isn't right. Maybe we should swap.