News

Every good film deserves a sequel. And then there’s The Stud which got one too. Sister act Joan and Jackie Collins followed up their mega-smash with 1979’s The Bitch which continues the bed-hopping adventures of Fontaine Khaled, the glamorous disco-owner still looking for love in all the wrong places. Remarkably, Joan’s star continued to rise; The Stud and The Bitch opened the door to her long-running role on TV’s Dynasty.

Joan Collins in 'The Bitch': Sex tale based on younger sister Jackie Collins' novel. Author Jackie Collins dead at 77: Surprisingly few film and TV adaptations of her bestselling novels Jackie Collins, best known for a series of bestsellers about the dysfunctional sex lives of the rich and famous and for being the younger sister of film and TV star Joan Collins, died of breast cancer on Sept. 19, '15, in Los Angeles. The London-born (Oct. 4, 1937) Collins was 77. Collins' tawdry, female-centered novels – much like those of Danielle Steel and Judith Krantz – were/are immensely popular. According to her website, they have sold more than 500 million copies in 40 countries. And if the increasingly tabloidy BBC is to be believed (nowadays, Wikipedia has become a key source, apparently), every single one of them – 32 in all – appeared on the New York Times' bestseller list. (Collins' own site claims that a mere 30 were included.) Sex...

Best-selling author Jackie Collins, whose novels about the lives of the rich and famous in Hollywood were often inspired by real-life experiences, died today, her family said. Collins, who kept her illness private, died of breast cancer. She was 77. The mid-1980s TV miniseries Hollywood Wives and 1990 Lucky Chances were based on her books. Additionally her novels The Stud and The Bitch were made into movies that starred her sister Joan Collins. She also adapted The World…...

The diva of Dynasty is now a dame. Joan Collins, who played scheming, shoulder pad-wearing Alexis Carrington in the hit 1980s TV show, was made the female equivalent of a knight in Queen Elizabeth II's annual New Year's honors list. The star of potboilers including The Stud and The Bitch was recognized for her services to charity. Collins, 81, is a longtime supporter of nonprofit groups helping children. London-born Collins said Tuesday it was "humbling to receive this level of recognition from my queen and country, and I am thrilled and truly grateful." Actress Kristin Scott Thomas, who is due...

The diva of Dynasty is now a dame. Joan Collins, who played scheming, shoulder pad-wearing Alexis Carrington in the hit 1980s TV show, was made the female equivalent of a knight in Queen Elizabeth II's annual New Year's honors list. The star of potboilers including The Stud and The Bitch was recognized for her services to charity. Collins, 81, is a longtime supporter of nonprofit groups helping children. London-born Collins said Tuesday it was "humbling to receive this level of recognition from my queen and country, and I am thrilled and truly grateful." Actress Kristin Scott Thomas, who is due...

London, April 17: Actress-author Joan Collins says she has never used drugs despite Hollywood stars handing them out at parties.

The 79-year-old claims while partying with the Rat Pack (group of actors) in the 1950s she snubbed cocaine from crooner Sammy Davis Junior.

"Davis Junior tried to give me cocaine on a spoon," thesun.co.uk quoted Collins as saying.

"I said 'No, Davis' and blew the whole spoon all over his blue velvet dinner jacket," added the actress of films like "The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing" and "The Bitch".

The actress stuck to booze and cigarettes instead. "I just think that if you do.

Britons famous, once famous and perhaps to be famous again are beating the drum for the UK in Hollywood this week

For once, there was no shame in being on the B-list: they came from all corners of Hollywood – peaks of fame, foothills of recognition and valleys of the forgotten – to celebrate Britishness.

A female bagpiper in an electric-blue miniskirt summoned the disparate tribe of dames, geezers, toffs and other transplanted Brits to proclaim their success, or mere survival, at a red-carpet gala in west Hollywood on Tuesday night.

It was the launch of BritWeek, an annual series of events co-founded six years ago by Nigel Lythgoe, the Wirral-born producer of American Idol, Pop Idol and So You Think You Can Dance.

"The Brits that weren't very good at what they did went home and complained about how horrible everything was in Los Angeles," said Lythgoe, working his way up the carpet.

Dynasty legend Joan Collins has paid tribute to her friend and former co-star Sue Lloyd, who died on Thursday.

Collins was devastated to learn that British model-turned-actress Lloyd had died aged 72 from undisclosed causes.

The pair became close as young actresses when they were both cast in movie The Stud and its sequel The Bitch, which were both based on novels by Collins' sister Jackie.

Collins tells Britain's Daily Telegraph, "She was the life and soul of parties in the late Seventies when we were working on The Stud and The Bitch. We had a lot of fun filming The Stud when we had to strip for a pool scene. 'Let's get drunk,' Sue suggested, as we were both highly embarrassed about it. So we did and the scene rocked."...

Actor known for her roles in The Ipcress File and Crossroads

The actor Sue Lloyd, who has died aged 72, exuded glamour and sophistication on screen in the 1960s, before finding renewed fame two decades later as Barbara Hunter in 714 episodes of the TV soap opera Crossroads. But it took two attempts by the serial's producers to persuade her to join a programme that was roundly abused by the critics.

"My initial reaction was to be a bit sniffy about it," Lloyd recalled in her 1998 autobiography, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time. "The soap was renowned for its wobbly scenery, bizarre storylines and regular slaughtering by the critics. Why would I, just back from filming [Revenge of] The Pink Panther with Peter Sellers in the south of France and about to embark on the comedy The Upchat Line with John Alderton, want to get involved in a project like that?...

Leicester Square Theatre, London

"I hope she's wearing shoulder pads!" says a woman behind me as we await the first glimpse of super-diva Joan Collins. We were to be disappointed.

When Collins arrived onstage in spangly black trousers – to much whooping – her shoulders were bare.

The well-preserved actor, best known for her starring role in Dynasty, has been in the news recently following the publication of her latest book, The World According to Joan Collins.

In it she catalogued the causes of broken Britain, including bad manners, liberal parenting, benefit scroungers, reality TV and the fat woman in front of her at the cheese counter.

Wisely, her one-woman show did not touch on the political. Instead we were given an abridged version of her memoirs, or perhaps an expanded version of her Wikipedia entry.

"I was born in the second third of the 20th century," she said coyly, as if...

"Dynasty" star Joan Collins, 77, best known overseas as "The Bitch," spoke her mind about the current lack of Hollywood glamour, citing Jennifer Aniston, whom she called "cute."

In a recent interview with a British magazine, Collins said, "I have to say, there aren't that many good looking actresses around today. I mean, there's Angelina Jolie and there's... Angelina Jolie," adding, "Jennifer Aniston is cute, but I wouldn't call her beautiful."

Photos: Jennifer Aniston Through the Years!

Though the headline may come as a shock, it's true... and not unprecedented.

I'm not sure what today's teen and 20somethings know of Joan Collins if anything. Her sister Jackie, the romance novelist, seems to have stayed in the spotlight a bit more this past decade. But anyone who lived through the 80s just heard the opening theme of Dynasty trumpeting in their head. Ms. Collins was a 20something starlet of the 50s who migrated to television, peaking as a 50something with a Golden Globe win as bitchtastic icon "Alexis Carrington Colby" and the series becoming the #1 TV show in the land shortly afterwards. Alexis terrorized the feebler entities (i.e. everyone) on that soap for eight years. She was nominated at the Globes six consecutive times. Emmy voters didn't like the powerhouse serial as much, giving Collins and the show only won chance at the Actress and Series statue...