Gorgeous, lovely man inspires Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John’s love for a young man has inspired her first hit album in more than a year.
The album is called Physical which is exactly how Olivia, 33, feels about Matty Lattanzi, 21.
“Gorgeous, lovely man,” she says.
The two met on the set of Xanadu last year, and while the movie was disappointing, their love flourished, along with the music, and the soundtrack sold several million copies.
Olivia was immediately taken by Lattanzi’s innocence, saying: “He is unspoiled, nice… and genuine.”
And if this lady has her way, Matt Lattanzi will stay just that. “Hollywood is not going to destroy him.” she says resolutely.
From a dancing role in Xanadu, Lattanzi moved up to speaking real words with Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen in Rich and Famous.
He played one of Bisset’s love interests and got physical with her too.
But the real love story was happening out at Olivia’s luxurious home in Malibu, where her horses graze overlooking the Pacific.
She had just emerged from a long relationship with her British producer and manager, Lee Kramer, the man who brought her to the U.S.. landing her a decade ago with three straight top records.
Olivia has remained one of the nation’s largest selling female vocalists, but she has made some mistakes too. She wishes, for example. that she had said something when she saw Xanadu going bad. “The music was fantastic,” she says, “but the script just didn’t hold together.”
To help Lattanzi on his rise to stardom if it ever comes - Olivia is drawing on personal experience.
She says: “I advise him to be picky, not to believe the flattery, or his own publicity, and to keep his feet on the ground.”
“I tell him that if you have good people working for you, and friends to encourage you, and if you have talent you’ll be fine.”
“Hollywood is rough on kids who come here all by themselves, with no friends, nobody to talk with…”
Olivia also realizes Matt’s career will be much harder to launch than was her own. “For every part,” she says, “there are 500 actors. But for a singer, there may be 500 songs.” Through Lattanzi, she re-discovered the joys of sweating: Matt runs several kilometres a day, plays tennis, scuba dives.
“He has definitely made me more physical,” she says.
Out of all this physical activity and happiness came the idea for the album that is now climbing charts everywhere, a single from it moving into the No. 1 spot.
Says Olivia: “I wanted to do something new. I was feeling so happy personally, and with my life, that I just didn’t want to sing terribly sad romantic ballards.”
“So I called my friends, told them what I was looking for - and they produced.” (Friends like John Farrar, Barry Gibb, Terry Shaddick, Steve Kipner and Tom Snow.)
It is a young sound, and to accommodate it Olivia completely changed her looks. She has cut her hair, let it grow back to its natural color and tied on a bandana.
“I was just bored with the way I looked. My hairstyle wasn’t really current. It was very blonde, and I had had it for years and years.”
“My hair now fits my mood, and it’s easy to look after.”
Although Olivia made her name as a singer first, she notched up acclaim for her acting work in Grease.
“Everything since then has been a bonus,” she says.
Olivia has finally been cast in a movie to be made in her native Australia. Called Kangaroo, it is a story from D.H. Lawrence, set in the 1920s and ’30s. She will star opposite Bryan Brown of Breaker Morant.
All this pleases her but she does wonder why the Australians took so long to find her.
“Maybe they didn’t really think I wanted to work down there. I let them know some time ago that I was interested”
“But I’m glad they finally did call.”
Unlike some other exports from Australia, Olivia has remained very much an Australian: even in Grease she insisted the part be written so she could speak with her own accent.
And to this day she receives a supportive press in Australiaa press most American entertainers find offensively aggressive.
“Obviously, they’re not mad at me for leaving.”
But she is not liked everywhere in that part of the world: the Japanese are still mad at her for cancelling a tour to protest the killing of dolphins.
“I told then I would have done the same had fishermen in Germany or England so behaved.”
Meanwhile, Olivia looks at her success as if it was all happening to somebody else.
“I just don’t think about it,” she says. “To my friends I am just me,not this star. I still sometimes get surprised when I see things written. It’s like they’re talking about another person.”
“Anyhow, life would be unbearable if you went through it thinking you were this… star.”
By Colin Dangaard. Dangaard is a Hollywood freelance writer.