EVENT UPDATE : THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES SCREENING / Q&A .. PICTUREHOUSE CENTRAL LONDON .. MARCH 30TH 2017 ..

Joan attended a screening of 'The Time Of Their Lives' earlier at Picturehouse Central in London to take part in an exclusive Q&A along with director Roger Goldby and Empire magazine's Chris Hewitt..

TV UPDATE : GOOD MORNING BRITAIN .. WEDNESDAY MARCH 29TH 2017 .. ITV1 ..

Joan with Susanna Reid & Piers Morgan / Richard Arnold

Joan made an appearance on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday morning to talk about her new film 'The Time Of Their Lives'.. Here are some super photos with thanks to Alyn Waterman..

PRESS UPDATE : TRAVEL WEEKLY .. MARCH 30TH 2017

Following Monday's christening ceremony in Paris, Joan appears on the cover of the latest issue of 'Travel Weekly' the popular trade magazine..
Check out the issue here!
TRAVEL WEEKLY DIGITAL!

EVENT UPDATE : LUCIA MAGNANI SKINCARE LAUNCH .. THE ITALIAN EMBASSY .. MARCH 27TH 2017 ..

Joan with Lucia & Marc Rosen

Joan was guest of honour at the launch of luxury skincare designer Lucia Magani's new range at The Italian Embassy in London..
Packaged in suitably Hollywood style bottles with tortoiseshell lids, the range – available exclusively at Harvey Nichols, starts at £90 and goes up to £590 for the entire collection, packaged in a stunning satin and gold coffret. The creams are on sale at the Knightsbridge store and online at harveynichols.comfrom today luciamagnani.com.

Lucia at Harvey Nichols

The creams combine science and nature with CoenzymeQ10, Vitamin E, Vitamin C and Alpha Lipoic Acid, in conjunction with Rock Crystal (Quartz), Gulf Stream Sea Water and extract of Chardonnay grape. Lucia asked international award-winning designer Marc Rosen to create the beautiful graphics, jars and bottles. "I wanted to combine the contemporary, feminine oval shapes that are ergonomic to touch with the tortoiseshell caps chosen by Marc as an expression of long life and Italian style," says Lucia.

TV ALERT : GOOD MORNING BRITAIN .. WEDNESDAY MARCH 29TH 2017 .. 8:15AM ITV1 ..

Tune into Good Morning Britain from 8:15am on Wednesday March 29th on ITV1 as Joan will be the special guest with Piers Morgan & Susanna Reid and will be talking about the success of 'The Time of Their Lives' and other exciting projects..

Joan's last appearance on the show with Piers, Susanna & Richard Arnold

EVENT UPDATE : UNIWORLD BOUTIQUE RIVER CRUISE CHRISTENING 'JOIE DE VIVRE' .. PARIS .. MONDAY MARCH 27TH 2017

Joan enjoyed a joyous Mother's Day in Paris, where she had dinner aboard the Fabulous new River Cruise Ship 'Joie de Vivre' as a

prelude to this morning's christening ceremony where Joan was named Godmother of the new luxury cruiser.. Joan was joined by Brother Bill and his lovely wife Hazel. Joan commented...
''Paris is the most elegant and most cultured destination. We are standing between the Eiffel Tower, the sign of progress and the Lady Liberty, the sign of freedom, celebrating Joie de Vivre, the joy of living! Last night I was blown away by the beautiful decor of the ship and the fantastic food, I had the best venison I've ever had. Thank you for inviting me. I already have 13 godchildren, now I have 13 godchildren and one ship!''

Joan with Uniworld River Cruise founder Stanley Tollman

Joan & Percy enjoy the surroundings by capturing the moment

One of the fabulous cabins

Joan with Bill & Hazel

EVENT UPDATE : THE 2017 EMPIRE AWARDS.. THE ROUNDHOUSE LONDON .. MARCH 19TH 2017 ..

Joan with Felicity & Gareth 

Joan presented the Best Film Award to Felicity Jones & Gareth Edwards for the film 'Rogue One', during the Empire Awards 2017 held at The Roundhouse earlier this evening..

Joan with Felicity & Gareth..

EVENT ALERT : THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES SCREENING / Q&A .. PICTUREHOUSE CENTRAL .. MARCH 30TH 2017 ..

For those in the London area, you can catch an exclusive Q&A with Joan and director Roger Goldby following a screening of 'The Time Of Their Lives' on Thursday 30th March at 6:30PM at PictureHouse Central..
Check out the following link to book!
TIME OF THEIR LIVES SCREENING & Q&A .. BOOK HERE!!

TV ALERT : PASSIONS WITH JULIAN CLARY .. SKY ARTS .. TUESDAY MARCH 21ST 2017 ..

Tune into Sky Arts on Tuesday March 21st for an exclusive new series called 'Passions' which features Julian Clary and his passion for Noel Coward..  

Julian Clary has much in common with his idol, Noël Coward – not least that both grew up in Teddington and that for the past decade Julian has owned Goldenhurst, a country pile in Kent once home to the writer, performer and all-round wit, who died in 1973.

In this airy, amusing doc, Julian goes on a quest to find out more about Coward the man. He natters with Joan Collins at the Ivy, Twiggy at the Savoy, and meets Lucy Fleming, daughter of Celia Johnson, at Carnforth railway station, the setting for Brief Encounter. He also jammily wangles a trip to Firefly in Jamaica, Coward’s final resting place, where he pays a touching tribute. 
Passions - Tuesday 21st  9pm
                 Wednesday 22nd  1am
                 Thursday 23rd  8pm

Julian with Twiggy

PRESS UPDATE : MY WEEKLY .. MARCH 14TH 2017 ..

The latest issue of 'My Weekly' magazine features this super cover with the following 1 page feature inside...

PRESS UPDATE : YOURS MAGAZINE .. MARCH 14TH 2017 ..

Joan features in the current issue of 'Yours' magazine which includes the following two page interview..

PRESS UPDATE : THE DAILY MAIL .. MARCH 11TH 2017..

When Michael Buerk interviewed Dame Joan Collins about her age and wealth, her reaction was icier than Siberia. Here, dripping with Vitriol, she takes revenge on an 'ageist misogynist'.

By Joan Collins

To quote Britney Spears’s immortal words: ‘Oops! I did it again.’ I put my foot in it this week because I said that I’m not wealthy or, to be exact, not as wealthy as wealthy people are nowadays.

But I’m not going to moan about it. As Alexis Carrington, my alter ego in the hit Eighties TV series Dynasty, would say: ‘Regrets are for dinner parties.’

It’s true, I do not suffer fools gladly. And sometimes it gets me into trouble — especially when some man patronises me with that ‘Haven’t you done well, little woman’ attitude and immediately asks why I’m not retired or ‘putting my feet up’ or some such archaic nonsense.

You will have deduced that I’m referring to 71-year-old Michael Buerk — Buerk by name, Buerk by nature — who stitched me up royally this week in an interview for the Radio Times.

The interview — which I agreed to do to promote my new film, The Time Of Their Lives, about a woman who escapes from a retirement home to attend the funeral of a former lover — was meant to discuss the broader theme of the movie. Namely, spirited women undefined by age.

Clearly, it’s a subject Michael Buerk struggles with. For when he asked me what drives me, he could not resist the snide remark: ‘After, all, you’re rich.’

His misinformed harping has since triggered an outbreak of scorn, mocking my statement that being rich is having enough money to say ‘F*** you’ to the world and claiming that, since I have £24 million in the bank, I should eat less caviar, sell my furs, seek financial advice or give up all my wealth and become, as the Saviour said, richer for being poorer.

All helpful advice, I admit, except for one fatal flaw: I do not have £24 million in the bank. If I did, I’d have all the ‘F*** you’ money I’d need and perhaps, just perhaps, I’d reconsider my attitude towards enjoying working.

But anyway, that’s all pie in the sky because I don’t have it, not even a fraction of it, and the erroneous belief that I have royalties streaming in from Dynasty and my other pursuits is frankly laughable.

I admit I have done well — for a ‘little woman’. I am property rich. I have four beautiful homes in St Tropez, London, Los Angeles and New York, and I count myself very lucky. That’s it. Property costs money to maintain so I’ve worked to support bricks and mortar.

Have I been lucky? Yes. Have I worked hard? Yes. Should I be scorned and ridiculed for doing well? I would say that here the country is split, just like Brexit.

Thomas Edison said: ‘Genius is one per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration.’ And it’s true. It’s hard work that keeps a career spanning over six decades.

As for the money I’ve made, I earned it myself, and saved it and invested it.

I didn’t inherit it; I wasn’t given it in a divorce settlement; I didn’t even raid a pension plan.

What I did not do, which so many of my fellow thespians have done, was employ an army of press agents, business managers, theatrical mangers, stylists and security guards, who soon suck the life out of whatever salary you earn.

My brother works hard, my sister worked hard, my father worked hard, so what exempts me?

Not all the ‘F*** you’ money in the world.

I intend to depart this world, like the fabled general, with my boots on. I hope the British state is happy that I’m not a burden on them and that I continue to employ people and contribute to the economy.

It’s frankly embarrassing to have to divulge my finances publicly like this, but given the whopper of the lie, I’d better before Chancellor Philip Hammond comes knocking on my door.

It’s also downright unacceptable to have to defend my continued desire to work.

Not that I’m comparing myself to the Queen, but who would dare say to Her Majesty: ‘You’ve done enough now, dear, why don’t you put your feet up, relax and enjoy your success?’

Surely the guillotine would be swiftly oiled up and come down upon their neck.

It’s as if being old is as bad as having an infectious disease and I’m simply not going to accept that. Yet I am asked that question every single time I give an interview, and I think it conceals an insidious undercurrent of ageism and misogyny.

Incidentally, Mr Buerk has some history with misogyny. In 2014, the BBC had to apologise for his comments on the Ched Evans rape case when he criticised the female accuser of the footballer, who was later acquitted.

In 2005, he asserted in the Radio Times that ‘the shift in the balance of power between the sexes’ had gone too far and we need to ‘admit the problem’ that men are now little more than ‘sperm donors’.

I can smell a chauvinist a mile away. Always have. In the heyday of Dynasty, when I thought I deserved a pay rise, I marched into producer Aaron Spelling’s office and put a figure in front of him. ‘I can’t pay you that!’ he said flabbergasted. ‘Why not?’ I replied. ‘I’m worth it.’

‘Because I’d be paying you more than John Forsythe [the male lead in the show]. He’s an actor and you’re only an actress,’ he retorted.

So, I went on ‘strike’ and stirred up an immense amount of flak, which cemented my reputation as a ‘diva’ and a ‘bitch’ and all the other pejorative terms that men, and sometimes women, bandy about when they feel threatened by someone who sticks up for themselves.

But I stuck to my guns and finally won — though it was something of a Pyrrhic victory as my rise triggered a contractual bump in John Forsythe’s salary, which he, understandably, was thrilled about.

I never achieved parity with John, and it’s something that sadly continues to exist today between actors and actresses.

As for the criticism that older actresses attract, if I had a farthing — and here I am getting ahead of all the predictable jokes about the monetary currency in my lifetime — for every time someone comes up to me and says grudgingly ‘You still look so good!’ or querulously ‘Are you still working?’ or even ‘My grandmother still admires you’, then I’d have enough ‘F*** you’ money to say ‘F*** you’.

But I don’t and besides I wouldn’t, because I know they mean well. So, I just smile and say thank you.

But when someone like Mr Buerk compares the date of my birth with the rise of Hitler to power and says that I’ve spent a ‘quarter of a century . . . being a pensioner’ (which I’m not, by the way. I don’t receive a penny of pension), you don’t have to be a genius to know what they mean.

It’s easy to make fun of older people. It’s rife with potential and one of the last refuges of the politically incorrect. But it is ironic that Mr Buerk feels the need to do so when discussing a movie about second chances in life after a certain age. The Time Of Their Lives has a life-affirming and hopeful message yet he dismisses it as ‘oldies-on-the-lam’. God save me from grumpy old men, the only ageist cliche I will support.

Perhaps that’s the problem: despite being a 71-year-old himself, Mr Buerk feels the need to demean a woman for being vital and happy in later life because what’s good for the gander is not to be touched by the goose.

Time and time again this attitude finds itself insidiously prevalent.

Men regularly marry someone younger than them without a peep being said, work into their 90s or continue to have sex and sire children well into their dotage. It doesn’t seem fair to me.

After all, as Sophie Tucker said: ‘20 goes into 80 a lot easier than 80 goes into 20’. And she was the ‘last of the red hot mammas’. Not bad for a ‘little woman’.

EVENT UPDATE : NICHOLAS COLERIDGE 60TH BIRTHDAY .. THE RAPHAEL COURT @ THE V&A .. MARCH 9TH 2017 ..

Joan, Percy & Elizabeth.

Joan a vision in silver attends President of Conde Nast International Nicholas Coleridge's 60th birthday, held in the Raphael Court of The V&A on Thursday evening.. Elizabeth Hurley also attended the event..

Joan with Nicholas at Amanda Wakeley's 25th Anniversary dinner at Harry's Bar

RADIO UPDATE : MAGIC RADIO .. MARCH 8TH 2017 ..

Joan dropped into Magic Radio to chat to Nick Snaith.. Click the

following link for the interview!
Listen to Joan with Nick on Magic Radio!!

DVD ALERT : THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES DVD / BLU-RAY ... JULY 3RD 2017 ..

Order The Time Of Their Lives Blu-Ray here!!

You can now pre-order both DVD & Blu-Ray editions of The Time Of Their Lives, which will be released by Universal on July 3rd..

Pre-Order The Time Of Their Lives DVD here!

PRESS UPDATE : THE TELEGRAPH .. MARCH 9TH 2017 ..

Franco Nero: 'As you get older, you want a quiet woman - not one who yells'

By Victoria Lambert
He may have a reputation as one of cinema’s original monosyllabic tough guys, playing Django in Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 iconic Spaghetti Western of the same name, but today actor Franco Nero couldn’t be more warm and charming. 
Dressed in a white towelling dressing gown, longish hair slung back over his shoulders, Nero is sipping a coffee between takes at a smart St Albans hotel. It’s a setting vastly more in keeping with his role in new British movie Time of Their Lives as the love interest Alberto; all rich and raffish artist rather than grizzled gunslinger.  

In the film, Nero is torn between two women: faded glamourpuss Helen, played by Joan Collins, and Pauline Collins as dowdy Priscilla. Does he think men change in their attitude towards women as they age?

“Well it depends,” he says thoughtfully. “Of course, men appreciate beauty still. But as you get older you like calmer women. Not the ones who are a pain in the ass.”

He continues: “At a certain point you want a quiet life; a gentle way. Friends of mine – they have women who yell. One uses ear plugs. He puts them in” - Nero mimes reaching to his ears– “and he doesn’t hear a thing. He pretends nothing is happening. A quiet woman as you get older is nice.”

But, hang on, Nero is married to his long-time love, the firebrand actor Vanessa Redgrave – she of political rallies and matriarch of the extended Redgrave-Richardson acting dynasty. Quiet? 

“Oh yes,” says Nero, feigning surprise. “Vanessa is much calmer at home.”

Franco with Vanessa & Joely

Nero and Redgrave’s love story is the stuff of silver screen folklore. The pair met on the set of Camelot in 1966, when he played Sir Lancelot to her Guenevere. He recalled some years later: “I see this woman with blue jeans with holes, no makeup, glasses. I asked the director, ‘Are you sure you made the right choice?’”

But when Redgrave invited him to dinner, Nero, then aged 24, could not resist meeting her and found his mind was quite changed. “A beautiful lady opened the door, and I told her I was invited by Miss Vanessa Redgrave. And this beautiful lady said, ‘I am she’.”

Vanessa was mother to two young girls Natasha, then three, and Joely, one, by director Tony Richardson, but the couple began a relationship that only ended after the birth of their son Carlo in 1969.

At a certain point you want a quiet life; a gentle way... A quiet woman as you get older is nice

In the Nineties, after many years apart and other liaisons on both sides, they gradually rekindled their romance, and pledged their love by marrying on the last day of 2006 - 50 years after they first met. The couple now split their time between his farm near Rome, and her London home.

“We have an incredible relationship,” says Nero. “We talk every day, discuss the family, even when we are doing different things. “And then we get the whole family together in Italy. It is a great and large family.”

Their blended clan includes Carlo, a screenwriter, his wife and child, plus Joely and her daughter Daisy Bevan who also acts. Then there is Micheál and Daniel Neesom – the sons of Natasha, who died in a tragic skiing accident in 2009 aged just 45.

When Natasha had married fellow actor Liam Neeson in 1994, it was Nero who walked the bride down the aisle, and he says now, “I consider her sons my grandchildren.”

Joan onset with Joely

The extended family all enjoy the Roman farm, where they work in the fields and harvest pears, lemons, prunes and pomegranates. If it seems a long way from the high octane buzz of the film set, it’s even further from Nero’s childhood as the son of a Carabinieri police officer in Parma. 

“I love the life of farming and fishing, cutting back to get more olives,” he says. “But we also have a swimming pool, a tennis court, we play bocce [an Italian game similar to boules], we play cards.  “I taught Vanessa to play briscola” – a card game. “She has to tell me what she has in her hand, making signs very quickly with her mouth.” He mimes their secret code with amusement.

Redgrave’s daughter Joely also appears in Time of Their Lives. “It was so good to spend four or five days with her. We had lunch and dinner together and she bought me two very nice blue shirts for me.”

Nero’s character in the film, Alberto, is a reclusive millionaire widower, and sharp eyes will spot that the framed photographs dotted around his villa are, in fact, of Nero with real celebrities over the years. He has met almost everyone, it seems, including Yugoslav statesman Marshal Tito who invited a young Nero to the country to help kick-start a film industry there.

Vanessa & Franco in Camelot

He has known Joan Collins since the Sixties too, first meeting her when he was filming Camelot. “She was married to Anthony Newley. She was so nice. We have been in contact for many years.”

Nero himself has had the good fortune to work with many fine directors over the years, including John Huston (The Bible: In The Beginning…), Guy Hamilton (Force 10 From Navarone) and more recently Quentin Tarantino, making a cameo in Django Unchained.

Is there anyone he still wants to work with? “I would like to do another movie with Tarantino. I like him. He’s a genius. And Oliver Stone – I know him well. And Alejandro Iñárritu who directed Birdman.”

What sort of films interest him?  “I hate movies with special effects,” he says decisively. “Sincerely, I can’t stand them. Now it is all computer special effects, but I like the stories of human beings and relationships. That is cinema for me.”

Franco with Joan & Pauline and Sarah Sulick

Currently, Nero is working on the true story of a blind man from Turin, who was able to draw an accurate face from listening to a person’s voice and become a “hostage to TV – the sort of talent show circus. I want to show how television takes advantage of the misfortune of people to draw an audience.”  

He is also pessimistic about the state of Italian cinema. “We were the first; now we are the worst. The world used to learn from Italian cinema and directors, but now we only have a few. People used to go to the movies but television has ruined everything.”

Would an Italian audience even watch a movie like Time of Their Lives which has an older cast?  “No, they wouldn’t accept old people. They just want cheap comedies.

“It’s not really a comedy – more a road movie and a little bit sad and bitter. But we hope we will make you laugh and maybe shed some tears, too.”