It was the question on everyone’s minds when a passionate, sultry kiss between Grease co-stars Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta at the Paramount Studios after-party in 1978 went viral in fan magazines. In real life, were these attractive celebrities also utterly devoted?
A few years later, Joan Rivers’s crowd erupted in deafening ovation when Newton-John and Travolta bounced hand in hand onto the stage, their smiles as huge as their bouffant 1980s hair.
As the couple cuddled up side by side while still holding hands, the presenter remarked, “You look great together.” “Are you an item?”
“Yes,” Travolta replied, making Newton-John chuckle. “The truth is, we were both involved with other people,” he said, trying to seem serious. Thus, it never took place.
However, it now appears that the 1983 interview may not have represented the whole story.
According to a recent biography of the British-born Australian-American actress, Newton-John and Travolta were romantically connected during the 1978 filming of the iconic Grease.
They were so infatuated that she considered getting married to him.
However, Travolta’s Scientology beliefs were an impassable barrier, according to Matthew Hild, author of A Little More Love: The Life and Legacy of Olivia Newton-John. He was raised as a Catholic, converted at the age of 21 in 1975, and is still one of the most prominent members of the religion today.
Until she questioned a member of her band who had been married to a Scientologist what it meant for marriage, more than 20 years after the movie was released, Newton-John showed no indication of how serious her feelings were.
Fan magazines circulated a picture of Grease co-stars Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta sharing a passionate kiss during the Paramount Studios after-party.
According to a recent biography of the British-born Australian-American actress, Newton-John and Travolta did have a romantic relationship during the 1978 filming of the iconic Grease.
Travolta’s Scientology beliefs were an insurmountable barrier, according to Matthew Hild, author of A Little More Love: The Life and Legacy of Olivia Newton-John.
“I know the Church of Scientology really reveres him as a very valuable follower,” Olivia stated, according to Hild. “If I had married John, would he have expected me to become a Scientologist?” ‘
“It would not have been mandatory, but it would have been encouraged, put it that way,” the musician responded, according to Hild.
According to reports, Newton-John said, “Thank you.” I only want to know that.
As long as they are not considered to be in opposition to Scientology—a person referred to as a “Suppressive Person”—non-believers are not prohibited from marrying church members.
However, if Travolta’s religious beliefs were a hindrance to Newton-John, this would not be the first time that Scientology has allegedly caused problems for well-known couples.
In 2001, just after their tenth wedding anniversary, Tom Cruise—possibly even more well-known as a Scientologist than Travolta—divorced Nicole Kidman, citing his religious beliefs as a contributing cause. Both she and Cruise’s second wife, Katie Holmes, who divorced in June 2012 after six years of marriage, never converted to the faith.
Despite their marital issues, the couple’s chemistry on set was evident right away. Newton-John writes, “When we walked inside the room together, it was magic, and everyone saw it,” in her 2019 biography Don’t Stop Believin, reflecting on her first encounter with Travolta on the film’s set. “Yes, we were attracted to each other and really liked each other, but we would never date because we were both involved with other people at the time and we have a deep-seated loyalty streak.”
However, Didi Conn, their Grease co-star who played Frenchy, told the Daily Mail that Travolta had feelings for Newton-John. “Oh yeah [he did fancy her],” Conn said. “So the beginning of the movie Sandy and Danny are kissing and then she pulls away dramatically and sad and wondering if they’ll ever see each other again.” Do they ever share another kiss in the film? They never do.
The director, Randal Kleiser, thought, “Maybe I should make an alternative ending,” and they take off into the sky. Rather than turning around, Danny looks at Sandy, draws her to him, and gives her the juiciest kiss along with Olivia.
She appears somewhat taken aback before responding. It’s delicious and juicy. They weren’t acting at the time; it seemed like he had his opportunity and would seize it. It truly was real.
In August 2018, Travolta and Newton-John celebrated the 40th anniversary of Grease. In 1983, Joan Rivers praised Newton-John and Travolta, “You look great together.” “Are you an item?”
Sadly, the 1983 film Two of a Kind, which brought Newton-John and Travolta back together on screen, was a failure.
Newton-John acknowledged years later that it had stuck with him, saying, “There’s a safety I feel when I’m with him.” He has always shielded me.
But neither Newton-John nor Travolta ever acknowledged anything more than friendship: “It almost happened between us a few times, but it didn’t,” Travolta wrote in a section of Newton-John’s memoir. Sometimes you just get the wrong timing in life. As close friends, we had to part ways.
When Newton-John arrived at Heathrow airport in London in 1980, he was questioned about Travolta’s assertion that he was always in a relationship with his leading ladies.
“He is always being misquoted,” she retorted. Since we are close friends, I am confident that he would never say such a thing.
Naturally, Travolta was already well-known for being a ladies’ man.
He started dating 41-year-old Diana Hyland, who played his mother in the television movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, when he was 23. A year later, in 1977, she passed away from breast cancer.
After a few months, he moved on with Marilu Henner, whom he would occasionally meet for the following thirteen years, including during the Grease production.
He started dating rumours with Catherine Deneuve in 1980. The next year, he was spotted out and about with Brooke Shields, who was 16 and he was 27. Years later, she described it as a platonic relationship in her memoir.
In 2018, Travolta stated, “If you were a young man in the 70s, and I’m sure many of you were, out there, if you remember that album cover of Olivia with that blue shirt on, with those big blue eyes staring right at you, every boy’s and every man’s dream was, “Oh, I’d love for that girl to be my girlfriend.”
Newton-John married twice before passing away in August 2022 at the age of 73.
From 1984 to 1995, she was married to actor Matt Lattanzi, with whom she had a 40-year-old daughter named Chloe.
Additionally, she was married to businessman John Easterling, a specialist in Amazonian herbal medicine, from 2008 until her passing.
In contrast, Travolta was wed to actress Kelly Preston from 1991 until her passing in 2020.
Travolta in May 2018 with his spouse, Kelly Preston, and their kids, Benjamin and Ella Bleu
at October 2002, Newton-John, Travolta, and his spouse, Kelly Preston, at Beverly Hills
“She had a brilliant voice, and I didn’t think there could be any more correct person for Sandy in the universe,” the New Jersey-born Travolta told Vanity Fair in 2016, adding that casting Newton-John in the 1970s was similar to “putting Taylor Swift in that role today.” At the time, Newton-John was a musical superstar but a film novice.
“I never let up on it,” he continued. I demanded that we meet her and cast her.
In the first new biography of Newton-John since her passing, Hild describes a lifelong connection.
Newton-John and her future husband, Lattanzi, spent the Fourth of July holiday in 1982 with Travolta and his then-girlfriend, Marilu Henner, who had first seen Travolta when they both featured in the Grease Broadway musical.
Sadly, the 1983 film Two of a Kind, which brought Newton-John and Travolta back together on screen, was a failure. Her acting career suffered greatly as a result, and Travolta was shelved for a number of years before making a comeback with Look Who’s Talking and Pulp Fiction.
They reunited to record the single “This Christmas” nearly two decades later.
Newton-John stated, “We did something life-changing, making that film,” forty years after the debut of Grease. The excitement during the premiere gave you the impression that something was going on. The response was enormous. I’m pleased to have collaborated with him and to have been a part of that. Since then, we have remained friends.
“When you share that kind of meteoric success—and nothing has been able to surpass it—you share a bond,” Travolta continued.
I’ve witnessed her lose her sister, get divorced, and have a child. She has witnessed my marriage and the birth of my children. It’s fantastic and full of memories.
