January 31, 1999

Q: I'm a fan of Petula Clark, the 1960s British pop star. Can you give me an update on her career and personal life?
Rose Mary Sleeman, Bennington, Vermont

A: Petula Clark, 66, who won Grammys for "Downtown" and "I Know a Place," has spent the last thirty years as a nightclub headliner and musical-comedy star. Her most recent London triumph was as Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Boulevard." Clark now is recreating the role of the silent film legend who falls for a much younger man in a 47-city U.S. tour, scheduled through April, 2000. Three songs from the show are included on Clark's latest CD, "Here for You," released last October. The mother of three (Bara, 37, Kate, 33, and Patrick, 26) and a recent grandmother, Clark says she avoids loneliness on the road by listening to Italian lessons on tape. She and her husband of 37 years, Claude Wolff, a French businessman, have homes in London, Miami and Geneva, plus a chalet in the French Alps.