Jackie Collins's Blog

LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 24: Author Jackie Collins signs and discusses her new book “The Santangelos” at Barnes & Noble bookstore at The Grove on June 24, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Vincent Sandoval/Getty Images)

 

Long before the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills came to town, there was the original gold standard of glitz, glamour and scandal: Jackie Collins’ Hollywood Wives, her best-selling novel that was turned into a magical 1985 TV series and Aaron Spelling-helmed ratings hit. Read more at People Magazine…

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Sitting down with People just days before her death, the beloved author revealed her diagnosis – and spoke of her resolve to live joyously until the end. Read full interview below…

 

 

 

 

 

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Jackie Collins Has Died of Breast Cancer at 77

People Magazine has the Exclusive Story: CLICK TO READ

Family Statement:

It is with tremendous sadness that we announce the death of our beautiful, dynamic and one of a kind mother, Jackie Collins, who died of breast cancer today. She lived a wonderfully full life and was adored by her family, friends and the millions of readers who she has been entertaining for over four decades. She was a true inspiration, a trail blazer for women in fiction and a creative force. She will live on through her characters but we already miss her beyond words.

 

For inquiries re services and donations:

For USA – Services will be held privately for family. In lieu of flowers please send a donation to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Organization.

For UK – Services will be held privately for family. In lieu of flowers please send a donation to Penny Brohn Cancer Care.

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The novelist admitted she would love the Maleficent star to take on the role if another adaptation was made.

Jackie Collins thinks Angelina Jolie would be a perfect fit to play the lead in an adaptation of her Santangelo book series.

The novelist opened up about her steamy series, and named the Maleficent actress as her dream star because she’s experienced so much.

Speaking on ITV’s Loose Women, she explained: “She’s done it all – been there, done that.

Would Angelina Jolie work in this kind of role?

“I think women should have interesting lives and do everything they want to do before they get married.”

The writer also joked about the raunchy scenes in her novels, and teased that she did her research by trying “every” sexual position she includes in the books.

She laughed: “Absolutely, every one – that’s why I’m exhausted today.”

However, Jackie dismissed the fever surrounding Fifty Shades of Grey and hit out at the double standards around the phrase ‘mummy porn’.

The writer isn’t a fan of Fifty Shades of Grey

Although she conceded it did get more people reading, she criticised the big-screen adaptation and the Christian Grey character.

She argued: “The movie wasn’t very sexy, because the guy…you just saw him as [a] serial killer… It’s got an old fashioned feel.”

The post Jackie Collins wants Angelina Jolie for dream book adaptation and jokes she tries ‘every’ sex position she writes (Daily Mirror) appeared first on Jackie Collins.

The Bachelorette
Jackie Collins is back! Cleo Glyde has a gossip with the original (and the best) bonkbuster author about men, marriage and her new Lucky Santangelo novel.

“I was sitting next to this huge movie star the other night at a party,” confides the husky, cut-glass British voice down the phone. “He is notorious in this town for hitting on every woman he comes across — at whatever age. I whisper to hi, ‘How does this work? Do you use a condom?’ And he goes, ‘Oh nooo.’ ‘Why not?’ I reply, horrified. He turns to me and says, ‘Because it’s worth it!'”

We both laugh down the phone line at the sheer wrongness of this. It’s high-octane girl talk time as I grill Jackie Collins, the Hollywood-based author who took sordid sexual gossip, sprinkled it with glitter and conquered the world with 500 million book sales — and counting. Collins, now 77, is just as camp and fun as I knew she would be and I’m having a ball.

The author’s fame and fortune is based on a daring that was way ahead of its time. It was 1968 when she debuted The Word is Full of Married Men, her ‘raunchy’, ‘racy’ ‘bonkbuster’ about cads and the women who love them. This was the book that got me in trouble when I was caught sneaking it home form the library as a schoolgirl in the pre-internet era — back when smut was still under lock and key.

“Oh wow, did I teach you everything you know about sex?” laughs Collins.

The R-rated, jet-set shenanigans in her books may get all the attention, but her knack for painting a picture is the bedrock of her appeal. As a reader, your nose is pressed up against the glass like a Dickensian orphan’s. The peccadilloes, motivations and highly visual characterisations of a ruthless starlet, all lithe body and polar-bear-white crop; a bored kleptomaniac Hollywood wife whose youth is starting to curdle; a shambolic, sex-addicted pop start who can’t remember the last time he kissed a woman he slept with…

Collins is one of the world’s bestselling authors. Her back catalogue has never been out of print, and her contemporary readers clearly couldn’t care less that porn is now a mouse-click away. Sex scenes with characters you are fascinated by — rather than anonymous set-ups — can still be way hotter.

“You bet,” she says. “If you don’t care about the characters, why the hell would you care about their sex lives? Internet porn is so boring! The women look totally miserable, whereas in books you can become that person and your own erotic fantasies take over. I just get you to a certain point; you do the rest.”

Like the dark shadows in a horror movie that let our own primal fears scare us…

“Exactly! The power of imagination. That’s what’s so great about reading — I’m a television addict, but a great read is even better, because you can see the cast in your mind’s eye and feel their feelings. If it was just the raunch, people wouldn’t still be reading — it’s the characters.”

And now an all-time favourite is back — Collins’ ultimate sexually empowered, smart heroine, Lucky Santangelo. She’s the alpha female Collins adores writing — with a panther-like sexuality that slays men, a vulnerability kept in check and a matriarchal strength that holds a whole crime family together. Collins’ latest novel The Santangelos follows other Lucky volumes such as Vendetta: Lucky’s Revenge (1996) and young-adult prequel Confessions of a Wild Child (2013).

And strap in: there’s a new character, Willow, who has been instructed in the dark arts by a bisexual drag queen. “I love Willow because she is so real!” says Collins. “She is out there working in this city. I based her on several young girls that I know, all the young models and actresses. Everyone’s playing musical beds.”

You can’t help smiling at the worldly cynicism of Collins, who’s nobody’s fool. She says she learnt about men literally and figuratively at her father’s feet. Joseph Collins was a London theatrical agent, and Jackie remembers hiding under the table on card nights as a kid, hearing how men objectify women. “Women were sisters, mothers, daughters or sluts. My father was just like Mad Men‘s Don Draper — nice suits, very handsome, always a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other — and woman galore.”

Collins says he was confronted by her burning so brightly as an unapologetically sexy author. “As a total chauvinist, my father was shocked by my books. He had a fit when he saw the four-letter words and sexual situations — I don’t think he read any after the first one. I guess he was proud of me,” she shrugs.

In her fictional universe, however, he heroines are having none of that. Her Hollywood novels satirise a culture that prizes messed-up goddesses for the beauty. Steel magnolia Lucky has that very ’80s brilliant-in-the-boardroom-and-bedroom erotic edge.

Women with traditionally male qualities like control, power and corporate strength resonated early with Collins. “I grew up reading Mickey Spillane and adventure stories — Women were stuck in the kitchen or bedroom; men just clicked their fingers to have a fabulous orgasm. I thought, “I don’t think so! My heroines are going to really kick it, be strong, have fabulous careers and become wonderful mothers. At the same time, they’ll be wild, strange and wonderful.'”

Any family that could produce one feisty Collins woman is remarkable. The fact that the ultimate card-carrying showbiz diva, Joan Collins is a sibling is camp squared. The sisters’ relationship is part of the Jackie legend, along with her passion for animal prints, her tawny mane and the fact she still writes her books in longhand.

My all-time favourite Jackie Collins character is Fontaine Khaled, from the 1969 classic The Stud – played on-screen by none other than big sis Joan. Fontaine cheats on a boring, rich husband, orders her toyboy around and spits out lines like, “I thought I’d f*cked the working-class taboos out of you, Tony.” I once made the pilgrimage to London’s Sanctuary Spa (recently closed) to see where the fruity orgy scene had been filmed.

When I tell Collins that, she shares, “I said to Joan the night before they shot that scene, “We’re going to make it very subliminal; you think you see something, but you don’t really.’ ‘Yes darling, I totally agree,’ she said. When I saw the dailies the next day, there they all are, stark raving naked and going at it. ‘What the hell happened here?’ I said. ‘The tequila came out,’ the crew told me.”

As much as the press love to hint at a sibling rivalry, Collins asserts that the sisters catch up regularly. “Joan was here last week, so I planned a girls’ night out. Me, Joan, Melanie Griffith and Kris Jenner. How’s that for a group! It was a fun night, I can tell you. I love a survivor. Melanie and Kris are both in their late fifties — Melanie survived fame and her crazy Hollywood childhood with all those lions and tigers. Look what Kris is going through with Bruce at the moment [Kris Jenner’s former spouse made her worldwide debut as a woman on the cover of Vanity Fair]. If I put a husband’s gender transition in a book, who would believe it?”

Collins finds the flak Kris Jenner gets for being Hollywood’s pushiest ‘momager’ sexist. “Oh, please. Ryan Seacrest created the Kardashian reality show with her and people just think, ‘Good old Ryan, look at the all the money he’s made.'”

Collins tells me that while The Stud still sells strongly on DVD, it’s a nightmare to get her feisty divas onto the big or small screen in today’s superhero-dominated movie market. “Apart from a few creatives like Tarantino, accountants run Hollywood now. My books were made into three of the most successful mini-series ever. I’m pitching a 10-part series of The Power Trip, but I’m in development hell because the posers that be are more interested in movies about 17-year-old boys than women-focused projects,” she laughs.

But no bean-counting mogul will ever get to sign off on Collins’ most fabulous creation: her own life. For someone so clued into the perils of Hollywood, she has enjoyed solid, long-lasting relationships (after a brief, ill-fated first marriage) with husband Oscar Lerman, 10 years her senior, who died in 1992 of prostate cancer, and her later love, LA exec Frank Calcagnini, who died in 1998 from a brain tumour. “I had a wonderful long marriage, a loving fiancé and have three beautiful daughters [Tracy, 54, Tiffany, 48 and Rory, 46] who are my best friends and never got into drugs or Hollywood bullsh*t.”

Her own wild streak remains a mile wide. “Try juvenile delinquent. Joan was a star in Hollywood and my parents always wanted a boy, and got my younger brother — so I was the pushed-aside middle child who snuck off at night and created my own life. As a kid reading my father’s Playboy magazine, I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I want to have a fabulous car, great apartment and fantastic stereo equipment. Now I’m here, doing exactly what I want.”

Collins happily inhabits the role of Merry Widow with nothing left to prove. “I nursed two men through terminal illnesses, but that made me realise I don’t need to be in another permanent relationship. I want to control the remote, darling — I don’t want a man wrestling control out of my hands!”

(Reposted from Sunday Style)

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Jackie Collins talks Caitlyn Jenner, Grindr, and her anticipated new novel, ‘The Santangelos’.



June 11, 2015

By: Lawrence Ferber

Author Jackie Collins may kick ass and take names, but she knows how to keep those names secret—or at least thinly veiled. “I heard there are two very handsome leading men married to beautiful women who are very into getting it on the side,” she says on a call from her Los Angeles home. “As long as I change the names to protect the not-so-innocent, I can basically write about anything. I know where a lot of bodies are buried because people tell me things! Drivers, makeup artists, stylists—they’re always ready to spill the beans on who’s getting a blowjob on set while their wife is in the dressing room. And I mean a male blowjob!”

The über-successful Collins has mined Hollywood’s secrets, scandals, and gays while writing her catalog of 30-plus books. Her latest, The Santangelos, hits shelves June 16, and she’ll be appearing at the Bryant Park Reading Room here in the city on June 18. The Santangelos marks the ninth entry in her series revolving around the fictionally fabulous Lucky Santangelo and her mobster family.

“It’s a very epic book because it brings one of the characters to a gruesome end and it sets up Lucky’s children as my new heroes,” Collins says. That’s the thing about big families: there’s always material for the sequels! While there are no new LGBT characters, Collins promises more in her next. Perhaps a thinly veiled version of Caitlyn Jenner?

“I think it’s great she feels free enough to come out,” Collins says of the famed Olympian. “It’s sad she didn’t do it maybe 20 years ago instead of hiding her real self but I think it’s a very brave thing to do and I think the Vanity Fair photos are majorly glamorous and look like something out of a Marilyn Monroe pin-up. In fact, I think I’ve seen Marilyn Monroe in that outfit!”

A believer that truth is stranger than fiction, one story Collins admits she couldn’t make up involves playing wing man for a gay friend on Grindr. “We were at a restaurant with a woman friend of mine from New York and we put it on his phone and he scrawled through and sees this gorgeous guy,” she recalls. “The Grindr guy goes, ‘I’m very close,’ and we’re all excited so I hand the photo to my woman friend and she goes, ‘Holy shit, that’s my driver—he’s right outside the restaurant!’”

When it comes to a night in New York, though, Collins hardly relies on the tricks of the digital age to have some fun with her devoted gays. She ponders playing it old school during her upcoming visit to the Big Apple with a stop at real-time hookup bar, The Cock. “I’ve heard about The Cock and I’ve not been there,” she admits. “I think I should go this trip.”

Reposted from Next Magazine

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Jackie Collins On Meeting The Beatles
Advice from Marlon Brando & Male-Dominated Bestseller Lists

June 15th, 2015

We’re pretty honored to start this week with legendary author Jackie Collins – whose new book The Santangelos hits bookstores tomorrow. But what’s happening to bookstores really? As Collins notes, there are less and less every year and self-publishing is on trend, while getting published gets harder and harder. We discussed these industry changes with Collins – that and the fact that she’ll never write about child porn, the time Ringo Starr presented her husband a cigar and why Hollywood is just a fantasy world…

From start to finish, what would be your ideal food day?

Green tea in the morning, smoked salmon sandwiches for lunch, more green tea and chocolate cookies in the afternoon, caviar, shrimp and steak for dinner, followed by peach pie and ice cream!

What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in the publishing industry from when you first started?

Big changes. It’s all about eBooks now. I find that fifty percent of my sales are online. Unfortunately, every year there are less and less bookstores – and it is very hard to get published. Self-publishing is definitely on trend.

Can you tell us a bit about your new book?

The Santangelos is the ultimate book about the Santangelo family: Lucky, Gino, Lennie, Max and Bobby. They are all part of the epic story, which includes murder, love, sex, revenge, passion, and assassination. A wholesome family story, with Lucky at the forefront.

When and how do ideas usually come to you when you’re writing?

Ideas are all around me. I love listening to people, reading newspapers and trolling the Internet, but I was basically born with the gift of telling a story about anything!

Do you think it’s important as a writer to not be worried about being offensive or controversial? Are there ever topics you feel you need to avoid?

I would never write about child porn or disgusting pedophiles. As a writer, I write about characters – good and bad – that I find interesting.

What’s your favorite outlet on social media and why?

Twitter and Facebook are fun. I love to interact with the people who read my books. And Instagram is the best! Pinterest is fun.  Checkout my board –“Smokin’ Hot!”

What has social media done for authors?

It’s given them access to their readers. I love hearing what my readers have to say.

Did you at first like or hate the idea of being limited to 140 characters on Twitter?

It enables one to be concise. If I wish to say more, I post a blog on my website at jackiecollins.com.

What types of books do you see being on the New York Times bestseller list in fifty years?

Mine I hope! And more female authors. Right now, males seem to dominate the bestseller lists.

Advice to authors just starting out…

Keep at it!  You never know when lightening will strike. If you are a true writer, nothing will stop you.

Do you have a memory of when your Father worked with The Beatles? What was it?

Kind of not! But I met all the Beatles at my husband’s club Tramp in London. In fact, Ringo [Starr] presented my husband with a cigar when I gave birth to our first baby!

A childhood recipe you’ll never forget and why…

Roast lamb, roasted potatoes, gravy and peas. My mother cooked it every Sunday. You can find the recipe for my roasted potatoes in my cookbook – The Lucky Santangelo Cookbook. Amazing cocktails too! And my favorite – the Santangelo salmon.

Your books give people an insider’s view of Hollywood. How has Hollywood changed since you first started writing? For better or for worse?

Hollywood is really a fantasy world that drives people to L.A. It’s changed over the years because the players have changed. I love writing about the real nitty gritty disguised as fiction.

Advice you’d give to your 16-year-old self…

Buy property. Save money. Write more books. And never do drugs!

Best advice you ever received and from who….

Marlon Brando once told me, “Whatever you do, do it with passion.”

What is your all-time favorite book?

The Godfather by Mario Puzo and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

What are your favorite restaurants in New York and LA?

In L.A., Craig’s, Mr. Chow and Cut. In New York, Orso and Nobu.

Do you like to cook? What’s a go-to recipe you love?

Shepherd’s Pie. Totally delish! Ground beef mixed with herbs, peas, onions and carrots. Boil it for twenty minutes, then put into a dish and add mashed potatoes on top. Then bake until potatoes brown on top.

What won’t you leave the house without?

My cell phone, credit card, a bottle of water and sunglasses.

In the same vein as ‘what is the new black’ in fashion, what’s ‘the new potato’ in publishing right now? 

I never believe in following trends. Some writers think that if they follow a big bestseller and write something similar, it’s going to happen for them too. But it never does. Stick to what you know, and write from your heart. Happy writing!

Reposted from The New Potato

*Jackie Collins, photographed at Craig’s in Los Angeles, CA by Danielle Kosann.

If you liked reading about Jackie, read these interviews with Linda Rodin, Diane von Furstenberg, and Donna Karan. 

 

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I have made two NBC mini-series about The Santangelos, which I wrote and executive produced. What fun! What a trip! I love making movies of my books and watching the characters come alive.

The first mini-series was Lucky/Chances — a combination of the two books ‘Lucky’ and ‘Chances’. We shot in and around L.A. and everyday was a new set up, creating L.A. back in the 30’s all the way to the 80’s. I was happy to be working with actors and a crew who knew exactly what they were doing.

The very beautiful Nicolette Sheridan played Lucky in a dark wig, and I thought she did a great job. Gino was played by the charismatic and undeniably handsome Vincent Irizarry. He did an amazing job of aging almost 30 years!

And the love of Gino’s life, the lovely Maria, was played with style and grace by a very young Sandra Bullock.

Shooting the movie was great fun. I was on the set from the moment we started in the morning to the moment we wrapped.

Lucky/Chances was a ratings winner, so I followed it with the mini-series of ‘Lucky Boss’. This time Kim Delaney played Lucky. She had the character down and was a pleasure to workwith.

I have six more Santangelo novels I would love to bring to life (and I hope to do so one day). In the meantime, keep on reading.

The Santangelo’s live on!

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January creeps up on us before we know it, and then it’s the start of a New Year, and most people are full of resolutions that they fail to keep. I know that every year I resolve to write two books–not one! Unfortunately that never happens, as I write my books in long-hand, and that takes time. Oh yes, I know I could write on the computer, but it wouldn’t be the same. I connect with my characters in a very special way, and I can only do that by actually writing them. There is nothing like sitting down at my desk with a blank sheet of paper and a fresh Paper-mate pen.

Last week I finally finished my latest book, “The Santangelos.” Yes, it was a labor of love, because the Santangelo family are the most interesting and unpredictable characters to write about. Especially Lucky—the fierce and fabulous, wildly beautiful, and extremely smart Lucky Santangelo. She goes where a lot of women do not dare to go. She does things her way, and acts accordingly. She’s strong and loving and takes no prisoners. She is the woman I would love to be in another life!

This summer “The Santangelos” will be out, and I can only hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Bobby Santangelo—Lucky’s Kennedyesque handsome son is back and in big trouble. Max, Lucky’s teenage daughter is becoming a successful model in Europe, hanging out with Athena—the current “it” girl—darling of the tabloids. And then there is Alejandro Diego—the son of Colombian drug lord, Pablo Diego. Alejandro parties hard and runs a sleazy nightclub. Then there is his famous-for-being-a-bad-girl, lover, Willow Price—a young actress on a steady climb to nowhere. Nothing stops Willow from getting what she wants.

Have I intrigued you? Are you ready to take the trip?

“The Santangelos” is full of passion, sex, lust, revenge and murder. Read it if you’re not easily shocked!!

Now I will start writing a new book. I am thinking it will be about Flynn—my macho hero from “The Power Trip.”

A lot of you are always asking me when the next movie or mini-series will be made of one of my books. Believe me I try—but getting something off the ground in Hollywood is called “Development Hell!!” Most of the so-called executives who make the decisions about whether to green-light a project or not, are all about movies featuring adolescent boys jerking off, or “serious” movies about politics or spy thrillers. Not so thrilling! Anyway, I’ll keep on pitching, because I know “The Power Trip” could be a fantastic limited series. We shall see . . . . .

I wonder what this year will bring. More corrupt politicians? Cheating husbands? Scandals? Surprises that shock? People say to me—“Where do you come up with all your ideas?” and I say—“Read the papers, check out the internet.” Stories abound. I write them, and I tone them down, because sometimes the truth is just too unbelievable.

Like everyone out there, I wish for peace and understanding, and for an end to cruelty, senseless violence and terrorism.

Let’s hope that 2015 is a year filled with positive vibes and most of all love.

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January creeps up on us before we know it, and then it’s the start of a New Year, and most people are full of resolutions that they fail to keep. I know that every year I resolve to write two books, not one, unfortunately that never happens as I write my books in long-hand, and that takes time. Oh yes, I know I could write on my computer, but it wouldn’t be the same. I connect with my characters in a very special way, and I can only do that by actually writing them. There is nothing like sitting down at my desk with a blank sheet of paper and a fresh Paper-mate pen.

            Last week I finally finished my latest book, “The Santangelos.” Yes, it was a labor of love, because the Santangelo family are the most interesting and unpredictable characters to write about. Especially Lucky—the fierce and fabulous, wildly beautiful, and extremely smart Lucky Santangelo. She goes where a lot of women do not dare to go. She does things her way, and acts accordingly. She’s strong and loving and takes no prisoners. She is the woman I would love to be in another life!

            This summer “The Santangelos” will be out, and I can only hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Bobby Santangelo—Lucky’s Kennedyesque handsome son is back and in big trouble. Max, Lucky’s teenage daughter is becoming a successful model in Europe, hanging out with Athena—the current “it” girl—darling of the tabloids. And then there is Alejandro Diego—the son of Colombian drug lord, Pablo Diego. Alejandro parties hard and runs a sleazy nightclub. Then there is his famous-for-being-a-bad-girl, lover, Willow Price—a young actress on a steady climb to nowhere. Nothing stops Willow from getting what she wants.

            Have I intrigued you? Are you ready to take the trip?

            “The Santangelos” is full of passion, sex, lust, revenge and murder. Read it if you’re not easily shocked!!

            Now I will start writing a new book. I am thinking it will be about Flynn—my macho hero from “The Power Trip.”

            A lot of you are always asking me when the next movie or mini-series will be made of one of my books. Believe me I try—but getting something off the ground in Hollywood is called “Development Hell!!” Most of the so-called executives who make the decisions about whether to green-light a project or not, are all about movies featuring adolescent boys jerking off, or “serious” movies about politics or spy thrillers. Not so thrilling! Anyway, I’ll keep on pitching, because I know “The Power Trip” could be a fantastic limited series. We shall see . . . . .

            I wonder what this year will bring. More corrupt politicians? Cheating husbands? Scandals? Surprises that shock? People say to me—“Where do you come up with all your ideas?” and I say—“Read the papers, check out the internet.” Stories abound. I write them, and I tone them down, because sometimes the truth is just too unbelievable.

            Like everyone out there, I wish for peace and understanding, and for an end to cruelty, senseless violence and terrorism.

            Let’s hope that 2015 is a year filled with positive vibes and most of all love.

 

Have a great one.

JACKIE

 

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