It is mid-March, and the waiter at Opus One in Detroit is tempting Didi Conn with the restaurant's irresistible dessert tray. But Conn musters all her middle-aged resolve and resists. In a few days, she will be attending her 20th reunion, and she plans on looking good.
Of course, John Travolta may have put on a few pounds in the last 20 years, but Conn doesn't mind. To her, the man with whom she attended Rydell High during the movie phenomenon "Grease" will forever be Danny Zuko, uncontested leader of the T-Birds and heartthrob of her female auxiliary, the Pink Ladies. She doesn't mind that she has to share Danny and her memories with millions of other fans who have turned the movie into such a multi-generational myth that celebrated its anniversary with a rare theatrical re-release Friday on screens across America.Conn recently tracked down her "Grease" co-stars to ask about their lives 20 years later. She thought it would be fun to ask them what they thought their characters would be up to now. Here's what she reported in "Frenchy's `Grease' Scrapbook" (Hyperion, $15.95).
John Travolta, a k a Danny Zuko: Currently on his second tour as a big film star, commanding more than $20 million per picture; his latest is "Primary Colors." Married to actress Kelly Preston; they have a 5-year-old son. Danny, said Travolta, would be married to Sandy. They would have three kids, and he would "own an auto shop that specializes in 1955-57 T-Birds."
Olivia Newton-John, a k a Sandy: Her efforts to maintain a post-"Grease" film career with "Two of a Kind," which reunited her with Travolta, and "Xanadu" were unsuccessful. She turned to television movies and specials before her battle with breast cancer. Now healthy and divorced, with one daughter, she's recording a country album. She says Sandy and Danny lived together in a trailer park before he joined the Air Force and was stationed abroad.
Jeff Conaway, a k a Kenickie, Danny's best pal: Currently a regular on the television series "Babylon Five." He joined the Broadway revival of "Grease," playing disc jockey Vince Fontaine. He says Kenickie would be a mechanic today and married to Rizzo, with "kids screaming all over the place."
Stockard Channing, a k a Rizzo. One of America's most admired stage actresses, she appeared in last year's acclaimed Lincoln Center production of "The Little Foxes" and has won Tonys for her work in "Joe Egg" and "Six Degrees of Separation." Now onscreen in "Twilight." She says Rizzo is "living in the Valley" and divorced from Kenickie, with whom she had a "dysfunctional relationship."
Didi Conn, a k a Frenchy, lives with her husband and their son in suburban New York. She starts work on an independent film next month and expects to be in the movie version of "Shining Time Station," the children's show in which she co-starred for eight years. She says Frenchy would be a dog groomer, specializing in "poodles, of course."
Conn dedicates her book to the Greasers who have passed on: Warren Casey, who co-wrote the Broadway musical; screenwriter Bronte Woodward; Joan Blondell, who played Vi; Eve Arden, who played the principal, Mrs. McGee; and Dennis C. Stewart, who played Leo, a rival gang leader.