The Olivia Newton-John Effect: Did It Happen to You, Too?
I’m going to need a minute.
Yes, people die. Even celebrities. Even icons that you’ve loved since you were seven years old.
(70s movies were IMPACTFUL.)
If “Jaws” made me afraid of the ocean, then “Grease” – specifically ONJ – made me want to dress up in lipstick red Candie’s clogs and skin-tight spandex jeggings and sing “You’re the One that I Want” to cute boys at school carnivals.
Did I mention I was seven when this fantasy took over my little third-grade brain?
My mother took me to see “Grease” on Saturday afternoon and I was transfixed. Olivia Newton-John took Sandy from goody-toe-shoes sweet to a sexy, singing siren in less than two hours. (My mother had other thoughts, and immediately after the movie railed against the notion a girl should change for a boy. She was right, by the way.)
But the damage was done. I was hooked on Olivia. Though I never watched that acid trip that’s known as “Xanadu”, I did choose her “Greatest Hits Vol. 2” vinyl when I won my first and only dance contest in 6th grade.
She was a rarity in showbiz – no drama, scandal (though her boyfriend disappeared) and spent her later years raising money for cancer research.
Rest easy, Olivia.
RIP Olivia Newton-John, an icon.pic.twitter.com/FRYO6vNaNF
— Andrea Junker (@Strandjunker) August 8, 2022
