Channel Seven blasted for playing tacky Delta Goodrem biopic about Olivia Newton-John’s life

Delta Goodrem playing dress-ups as Olivia Newton-John. Many think it was wrong for ‘Olivia’ to have aired then, and very wrong to have aired right now.

Channel Seven has been criticised for airing an unauthorised biography about Olivia Newton-John last night, less than 24 hours after the singer’s death.

“Finding out [that] a TV miniseries is being made about you without your consent is bad enough. But poor Mum had to deal with it right in the middle of battling cancer.”  Chloe Lattanzi

The mini-series, with the unfortunate title of Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted To You was first aired in 2018 and stars Delta Goodrem as a second-rate, wannabe Olivia, that, quite frankly, ought never to have aired in the first place.

Even when Seven initially aired the series in 2018, Olivia Newton-John herself was not pleased, her daughter Chloe Lattanzi speaking out on her behalf:

“Finding out [that] a TV miniseries is being made about you without your consent, participation or knowledge is bad enough. But poor Mum had to deal with it right in the middle of battling cancer. It made me so angry that additional stress was being put on her at a time when all she really needed to be doing was concentrating all her energy on getting better.”

Much of the public also felt Seven’s move to air the series last night was tasteless, with one Twitter writer commenting, “Oh no Delta Goodrem in Olivia is on 7 tonight. We should be honouring Olivia, not have this horrible wood duck imitation on.”

Another critic on Twitter wrote: “Channel 7 miss the mark with the Olivia biopic starring Delta Goodrem. I’d rather watch something ACTUALLY starring Olivia, not someone pretending to be her!”

When it comes to ‘paying tribute’ or, let’s face it, milking a celebrity’s death for all it is worth, Nine appeared to have the wiser idea. The network’s rerun of Grease starring Newton-John made it into the top 20 programmes most watched on television last night, according to OzTam, while Seven’s Olivia series failed to make the grade.

Channel Seven has yet to comment.

Antonino Tati