Olivia Newton's ‘Grease’ Outfit Sells for $405,700

Olivia Newton-John attends the VIP reception for upcoming ‘Property of Olivia Newton-John Auction Event’ at Julien’s Auctions on October 29, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Getty Images)
Olivia Newton-John attends the VIP reception for upcoming ‘Property of Olivia Newton-John Auction Event’ at Julien’s Auctions on October 29, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Getty Images)
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Olivia Newton's ‘Grease’ Outfit Sells for $405,700

Olivia Newton-John attends the VIP reception for upcoming ‘Property of Olivia Newton-John Auction Event’ at Julien’s Auctions on October 29, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Getty Images)
Olivia Newton-John attends the VIP reception for upcoming ‘Property of Olivia Newton-John Auction Event’ at Julien’s Auctions on October 29, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Getty Images)

Olivia Newton-John's tight black pants and leather jacket from the iconic movie "Grease" sold for $405,700 at a Beverly Hills auction on Saturday.

According to Reuters, the outfit that marked the transition of Newton-John's character in the 1978 musical from demure high school student to sexy Sandy was among 500 items for sale to help raise money for the performer's cancer treatment center in Australia.

The famous pants worn by Newton-John for the "You're the One That I Want" duet with John Travolta were so tight that she had to be sewn into them to film the scene, and were sold with a broken zipper.

The buyers for the pants and jacket were not revealed.

The auction raised $2.4 million in total, with many items related to the movie going for many times over estimates, Julien's said.

A "Grease" poster signed by Newton-John, Travolta and other cast members sold for $64,000, compared to an estimate of $1,000. The pink lace gown the actress wore to the movie premiere in Los Angeles went for $18,750. A custom Pink Ladies jacket given to the actress by the cast and crew fetched $50,000, 25 times its original estimate.

The British-born, Australian-raised 71-year-old singer and actress said earlier this year that she was battling breast cancer for a third time since first being diagnosed in 1992.



Bull Sharks Linger in Warming Sydney Waters

A man watches large waves on Bondi Beach in Sydney on July 2, 2025, as large swells and high winds hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)
A man watches large waves on Bondi Beach in Sydney on July 2, 2025, as large swells and high winds hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)
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Bull Sharks Linger in Warming Sydney Waters

A man watches large waves on Bondi Beach in Sydney on July 2, 2025, as large swells and high winds hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)
A man watches large waves on Bondi Beach in Sydney on July 2, 2025, as large swells and high winds hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)

Bull sharks are lingering off Sydney's beaches for longer periods each year as oceans warm, researchers said Friday, predicting they may one day stay all year.

The predators are migratory, swimming north in winter when Sydney's long-term ocean temperatures dip below 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit) to bask in the balmier waters off Queensland.

A team of scientists looked at 15 years of acoustic tracking of 92 tagged migratory sharks in an area including Bondi Beach and Sydney Harbour.

Records show the sharks now spend an average of 15 days longer off Sydney's coast in summer than they did in 2009, said James Cook University researcher Nicolas Lubitz.

"If they're staying longer, it means that people and prey animals have a longer window of overlap with them."

Shark attacks are rare in ocean-loving Australia, and most serious bites are from three species: bull sharks, great whites, and tiger sharks, according to a national database.

There have been more than 1,200 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, of which over 250 resulted in death.

Researchers found an average warming of 0.57C in Bondi for the October-May period between 2006 and 2024, said the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science of The Total Environment.

Over a longer period, remotely sensed summer sea-surface temperatures in the area rose an average 0.67C between 1982 and 2024, they said.

"If this trend persists, which it likely will, it just means that these animals are going to spend more and more time towards their seasonal distributional limit, which currently is southern and central New South Wales," Lubitz said.

"So it could be that a few decades from now, maybe bull sharks are present year-round in waters off Sydney," he added.

"While the chances of a shark bite, and shark bites in Australia in general, remain low, it just means that people have to be more aware of an increased window of bull shark presence in coastal waters off Sydney."

Climate change could also change breeding patterns, Lubitz said, with early evidence indicating juvenile sharks were appearing in rivers further south.

There was some evidence as well that summer habitats for great whites, which prefer colder waters, were decreasing in northern New South Wales and Queensland, he said.

Tagged sharks trigger an alarm when they swim within range of a network of receivers dotted around parts of the Australian coast, giving people real-time warnings on a mobile app of their presence at key locations.