Monday, September 23, 2024
TV CATCHUP! THE ONE SHOW / LOOSE WOMEN ..
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Joan made appearances on BBC 1 on Friday 20th on The One Show and todays Loose Women on ITV1 to promote her One Night Only performance of Behind The Shoulder Pads at The Adelphi Theatre in London on Oct 22nd.. You can catch up with both shows at the following links!
TV ALERT : ELIZABETH TAYLOR - REBEL SUPERSTAR ... BBC 2 .. SEPTEMBER 27TH 2024 ... 9PM..
Actor, feminist, business mogul, activist: Elizabeth Taylor broke the mould and re-wrote the rules of celebrity.
In BBC Arts’ new 3-part series we hear first-hand testimony from those closest to Elizabeth, from family members to her inner circle of friends and those she inspired - revealing Taylor not only as a great actress, but a free spirit, entrepreneur and groundbreaking activist.
With access to never-before-heard audio tapes, interviews and unseen TV footage of Elizabeth herself.
Watch Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar on BBC iPlayer and BBC Two on Friday 27 September at 9pm.
Dame Joan Collins is one of the last surviving stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
A contemporary of Elizabeth Taylor, the two young women met on the studio lot, crossed paths frequently throughout their careers and developed a friendship which would last many decades. Having found fame within the studio system they starred in some of the era’s biggest productions - eventually competing for the iconic role of Cleopatra.
Dame Joan is an authority on the world Elizabeth inhabited from childhood and has rare insight into the person she was away from the spotlight.
The two actresses shared the screen in what would be Elizabeth’s final film role in These Old Broads - a film written by Elizabeth’s one-time stepdaughter, Carrie Fisher, and based in part on the turbulent relationship between her mother, Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth.
Growing up, what did you think of Elizabeth Taylor?
I adored her, as did all my school friends. She was part of our lives as young girls. We basically grew up with her, with Elizabeth Taylor. She was a real icon.
Do you remember the first time you saw Elizabeth on screen?
It was the first one I ever saw, A Date With Judy. I just remember it was so full of youth and Technicolor, and this was in a rather dim period in England when everything was grey, and we still had rationing. So, it was a burst of colour and light.
What was your experience of the studio system like?
I was bought. I was under contract to J Arthur Rank in England from the time I was 17, then Darryl Zanuck saw me and bought me for 20th Century Fox. I went under contract for seven years. As soon as I arrived, they rented me a car. They rented an apartment for me. They rented the furniture. They told me what to do, what to wear, where to go, who to go out with. I was completely at their mercy.
What was Elizabeth like as a person?
I always found her to be a very interesting woman, ever since I first met her.
I met her when I first went to Hollywood, and we got along really well. She was a real girl’s girl as well as being a man's girl. She was very vibrant, and she had a great laugh, a great sense of humour. And we talked about, you know, all sorts of things that young girls talk about: clothes, hair, makeup, boys, movies.
When I got my fourth divorce, Elizabeth sent me a present. I can't remember what it was, it was something silver, a frame or something with a little note saying, “I'm still ahead by three!”
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| Joan with Elizabeth in 1984 at a Hollywood Event |
Why did Elizabeth get married to her first husband, Nicky Hilton, so young?
She got married at 18 because she wanted to get away from home, which is why I got married at 18. And well, because, you know, the different laws and morals - if you were involved with a man, you know, intimately, you had to marry him. That was the way it was. And I think Elizabeth liked the idea of marriage.
Elizabeth’s love of jewellery is well-known, did that come across in your interactions with her?
One day, I was standing outside the set of These Old Broads waiting to go on when Elizabeth said, “I love your bracelets”. And I said “Yes”. She said, “You wear them a lot” and I said, “Yeah, I never take them off, even when I go through customs”. She said, “Let me try them on” and I said, “No, Elizabeth, no, they don't come off.” I was lying. They do come off. But I didn't want to lend them to her [she previously explains Elizabeth had a habit of borrowing people’s jewellery and not giving it back].
She didn't mean to do it. She just loved to be acquisitive. She just loved things. She admitted it, but she did it in such a sweet way.
The press wasn’t always kind to Elizabeth… tell us about that.
They said horrible things about Elizabeth. Horrible, horrible things. I mean, you know, she was this icon. She was, you know, the last great star. But the way she was massacred in the press was pretty shocking.
Why did Elizabeth attract so much attention?
Apart from her beauty and fame, I think that having this really - not scandalous, but very interesting private life that everybody was interested in - gave her an edge. Most actors, film stars that people are interested in have a kind of racy private life. And I think that was part of it.
Do you think Elizabeth liked being famous?
Elizabeth had [fame] for a long time. And I think maybe deep down, there was something about it that she enjoyed. I think she enjoyed being a star. I mean, who else would have a brain operation, have their head shaved and be photographed by the top photographer of the day to be on the cover of Life magazine? I certainly wouldn't. And I don't think you'll find many actresses who would want to do that. But I do think she enjoyed the spotlight.
What was it like making a film together?
During the making of These Old Broads we all got along like a house on fire. Elizabeth, Debbie Reynolds, Shirley MacLaine. We were just all of us really great pals.
How would you sum up Elizabeth’s legacy?
Without question she was one of the last great stars. Who today comes anywhere close to having her glamour, her charisma and her talent? Elizabeth was one of a kind.
We were all really sad when we knew Elizabeth was dying because she was part of our lives since we were young girls. She was a real icon. You know, they bandy that word about, 'icon', you know. There aren't that many.
Friday, September 20, 2024
TV ALERT : THE ONE SHOW .. BBC1 .. FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20TH 2024..
Joan will be on The One Show this Friday evening at 7pm where she will discuss her latest one woman show at The Adelphi Theatre on October 22nd. Tune into BBC 1 at 7pm.
TV ALERT : LOOSE WOMEN .. ITV 1 / VIRGIN ONE IRELAND.. MONDAY SEPTEMBER 23rd 2024 ..
Friday, September 6, 2024
PRESS UPDATE : HARPERS BAZAAR ARABIA .. MEET THE DESIGNERS!.. SEPTEMBER 5TH 2024
Meet The Arab Designers Who Dressed Dame Joan Collins For Bazaar Arabia’s September 2024 Cover Shoot.... by Sophia Serin
With their artistic flair and more red carpet appearances that one can count, meet the creatives behind the making of each Dame Joan masterpiece..
From Georges Chakra to Saiid Kobeisy, Bazaar Arabia is delighted to introduce the six talented designer who created custom pieces for Dame Joan Collins’s September cover story..
Azzi & Osta
With a serendipitous start (George Azzi and Assaad Osta met at design school in 2004), the Lebanese pair have gone on the create fashion magic. After the duo both graduated top of their class at Esmod Beirut, they went on to intern with Elie Saab.
So impressed with their work, the designer hired the twosome as assistant designers at their internship end. In 2010, George and Assaad launched Azzi & Osta which (now) includes haute couture, bridal and ready to wear lines. Known for their classic designs but always with a twist, the brand is a heady mix of Carrie Bradshaw meets Amina Muaddi.
Georges Chakra
Next time you watch a re-run of The Devil Wears Prada or Gossip Girl, look out for Georges Chakra designs. A Hollywood go-to, Georges first started out as an interiors design student, but soon discovered his love for design leaned more towards fashion than furniture. To make it official, Georges jetted across the globe to get a degree in fashion design at the Canadian Fashion Academy.
Post-graduation, the designer moved back to his hometown of Beirut and set up a working studio in where he began sketching (and making) a wardrobe for himself. In 2002, the designer upped himself and moved his workshop to Paris to debut his first couture collection and was soon dressing the world’s most talented A-Listers including Helen Mirren, Rihanna and Andra Jay.
Rami Al Ali
Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, Aishwarya Rai – the world’s most accomplished women are wearing Rami Al Ali, securing him the spotlight on the world’s fashion stage. The Syrian-born designer established his eponymous label in 2001, and quickly went on to dress women-about-Dubai town along with regional celebrities.
In 2012, Rami Al Ali Couture debuted at Couture Fashion Week, launched a ready to wear line in 2014 and went on to launch a bridal line, Rami Al Ali White in 2020. His natural talent and flair for designing original creations to suit every woman has made him one of the most acclaimed designers in the Middle East.
Reem Kachmar
to always make a statement. Her custom-made corsets are at the heart of her designs and favoured by clients who adore a frilly, feathery, feminine frock.
With a studio located in downtown Beirut, her ingenious evening wear and wedding dresses are made by hand, and are famous for their delicate and intricate embroideries that make each gown a glamourous masterpiece.
Saiid Kobeisy
Saiid’s father owned a boutique that sold evening gowns and was a place where the designer would love to spend his time as a teenager and interact with clients purchasing their dream dress.
Fast forward a couple of decades and Saiid Kobeisy gowns are sold in over 35 countries and available in over 130 points of sale. Needless to say, Saiid is a pretty big deal when it comes to dressing women around the globe. With haute couture, ready to wear and bridal lines, the Lebanese designer opened his first atelier in Beirut in 2010 and now has showrooms in Dubai, Beirut and Paris.
Rami Kadi
In 2011, Rami Kadi was 25 when he opened his showroom and first atelier, Rami Kadi Maison de Couture in downtown Beirut. It didn’t take long for the beautifully detailed wedding and evening dresses to start making their way into the wardrobes of the world’s most stylish. In 2014, Rami started showcasing his collections at Paris Fashion Week, and had his first show in 2019.
With a commitment to sustainable fashion, the designer was designated as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Regional Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Fashion in 2020. Always making a grand entrance, Rami Kadi gowns are a constant on the Cannes, Venice and Red Sea film festivals, not forgetting the Grammy’s, Emmy’s and Golden Globe Awards.
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
PRESS UPDATE : HARPERS ARABIA EDITORS BLOG ... SEPTEMBER 2024 ..
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| Olivia Phillips with Joan |
Viva La Diva: A Letter From Our Editor | Harper’s Bazaar Arabia September 2024
By Olivia Phillips
Bazaar Arabia’s Olivia Phillips met one of her heroes: the iconic Dame Joan Collins, who was dressed entirely in custom Middle Eastern couture for our September 2024 cover story..
Meeting your heroes is a complicated business. To paraphrase the old adage, you should actually go out of your way to avoid them if at all possible – such is the risk of them falling in your estimations once tainted by the unvarnished mundanity that is *shudder* the real world.
It becomes even more complex when your hero is arguably not of this mortal plane anyway, but a beacon of glamour so blinding that she may have invented the very concept itself. Case in point: our September cover star, the incomparable Dame Joan Collins.
“Low expectations, high serenity,” Penelope Cruz once told me (although that’s a name-drop tale for another day), so that’s the philosophy I’ve tried to employ whenever I’ve been lucky enough to meet someone iconic. It’s worked like a charm so far. Well, apart from Quentin Tarantino which – full disclosure – did not go well.
With Dame Joan, however, going in with low expectations was tough. How could the last living legend of Hollywood’s golden age; the original diva herself, be anything other than magnificent? To think so would be like expecting Marilyn Monroe (who Joan was friends with, by the way), to not be beautiful.
The bar, then, was set impossibly high. But one does not remain an icon for over seven decades by being a bit average in the flesh, darling. No – Joan is exactly who you want her to be, and that means she is exactly who she wants to be; unapologetic, patrician, the first word in glamour and (has) the last word in… well, everything. And thank God for that. We wouldn’t want our divas any other way!
PRESS UPDATE : HARPERS BAZAAR ARABIA ... SEPTEMBER 2024 ...
Styled in All-Arab Designers, Dame Joan Collins Shares Her Thoughts on Fame, Fashion, and Living Life to The Fullest
By Olivia Phillips.....
Joan Collins is reclining on a bed overlooking the bay of St Tropez. Dressed in a cloud of cream ostrich feathers, such outrageous plumage would – under normal circumstances – threaten to totally obscure the wearer. Not so with Dame Joan. She couldn’t be obscured if she tried..One of the last living legends of Hollywood’s golden age, everything about Joan is larger than life – the diamonds, the stories, the withering, devastating wit… she is a force. A supernova. The very definition of ‘they don’t make ‘em like they used to’. And boy, has she still got it. Even after seven decades in the spotlight – or perhaps because of them – she can still command a room like no other. To find oneself in that room, then, is somewhat startling. Many have said that they’ve had to fight the instinct to curtsey. I now understand this on a deep level.
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| À Cheval 5-row Necklace, transformable into Bracelets in Rose Gold with Diamonds, POA, Van Cleef & Arpels Dress, POA, Custom Azzi & Osta Couture “If the champagne is too burned for your taste, don’t drink it,” Joan purrs for the benefit of our cover-shoot videographer, repeating her most iconic Dynasty line in that famously curtsey-inducing, thespian voice. “The caviar, however, is cooked to absolute perfection,” she riffs, imperiously raising one eyebrow, a smirk crossing her lips. Somewhere at the back, even a security guard claps. It sets the tone. After all, above all else, Dame Joan is a performer – and today, she’s brought her A-game. What fun. “Ellen [von Unwerth, our photographer] had me doing things I’ve never done before,” she tells me a few weeks later over Zoom. “I was just behaving like a very, very outrageous person.” Considering we’ve seen Joan scrapping in a lily pond and careering down a mudslide dressed in a power suit, to hear her say this is quite an achievement. But it’s also testament to a few things. One, that while she may be famed for playing the ultimate diva in Alexis Carrington (a career- and era-defining role with which she’s often conflated), the reality is that she’s also a really, really good sport. And two, that her joie de vivre remains totally undiminished. “It’s innate,” she tells me, having once described herself as being born with the happy gene. “According to my parents, I had a huge love of life from the very beginning.” Neither of those attitudes should be sniffed at. “I never think about age, and I never want to be defined by it,” she insists, by way of explanation.  Joan’s feelgood philosophy is contagious, as our crew can testify. The set feels less like work and more like we’ve been welcomed into Joan’s hyperreal world; one where she playfully scolds the butler (our male model, Pascal), and spontaneously regales us with God Save The King from a stage that just happens to be there. Perhaps stages just manifest themselves wherever she goes? Joan spends every summer in the South of France, her home playing host to a revolving door of meticulously picked, equally jet-set pals from around the globe – some of whom popped in to our shoot to say hello, have a glass of bubbles (not burned) and just generally add to the fun. And fun is very much key. As a result, her summertime Instagram account, which she manages herself, is a heady mix of headscarf-wearing Riviera glamour, rosé and dancing on yachts. The rest of the year it’s peppered with Alexis Carrington memes and Joan inadvertently out-glamming famous friends over the decades. A recent example is a picture of her and Liz Taylor with the caption, “I always adored Elizabeth Taylor – we had a lot in common, particularly our love of evening gowns… and getting married.”  As if to prove my point, we wrap our interview as Joan has to run. She’s got another famous Liz over for lunch – Hurley. It’s non-stop, but perhaps that’s her secret. After writing 19 books, winning a Golden Globe, having three children, getting married five times, starring in countless movies and still selling out one-woman stage shows (the next one is in London on 22nd October), slowing down doesn’t seem to be in Joan’s vocabulary. “Well, I’ve done nothing for two months,” she points out, as if that’s an unreasonably long break. I daren’t bring up the word ‘retirement’, but I do venture that a summer holiday is more than acceptable – especially when many younger celebrities are moving at a comparatively glacial pace. It transpires that she may be doing one more book, as well as her aforementioned show, One Night Only. “I still have one big goal,” she says energetically, “and that’s to do a movie that’s been written for me called American Duchess. It’s about the last 20 years of Wallis Simpson’s life after King Edward dies… horrendous years. It’s a great script.”  Regular red-carpet invitations also remain no stranger to Joan’s inbox. Earlier this year, she attended both the Vanity Fair Oscars party and The Emmys, where she received a standing ovation from an (understandably) adoring crowd of A-listers. Alex, her longtime friend and publicist, also tells me that Joan would love to keep all the couture gowns that Bazaar has had bespoke-made for her. “She’s already got events planned in that she wants to wear them to.” Of course she does. She’s Joan Collins and she’s going to outlive us all. So between a zest for life, a foot placed firmly on the accelerator and a flat refusal to acknowledge age – “Everybody’s gotten older except me,” she once said – have we cracked the code? I’d wager humour has a great deal to do with it, too. When questioned about the 32-year age gap between her and 59-year-old husband, Percy Gibson, she quipped, “If he dies, he dies.”  But one does not maintain such a tongue without keeping one’s mind just as razor-sharp. “I read voraciously. I read five newspapers a day and I’ve read 10 books since I’ve been in the South of France,” she tells me. I ask what the last book she read was. She shoots back, “Do you really think I want to give oxygen to another writer?” There she is. The diva herself. It’s thrilling to see her in action. As quickly as Joan might deploy a pithy put-down, however, she can switch into quite a surprising vulnerability, openly sharing her highs and lows. That light and shade is quite something to witness. While we all contain multitudes, Joan has lived a lot of life to boot. From marrying four men whose treatment of her beggars belief, (from swindling and adultery to the most heinous of all, rape), to relentlessly making her way to the top. “I worked very hard to get where I am – and I was brought up to think ‘no handouts’. No one is going to just give you everything. I loved movie stars but I never wanted to be one – I wanted to be on stage. I think people that nowadays just want to be famous for fame’s sake are pathetic.” Not only this, but how many people can still recall discussing predatory men-filled, casting-couch horrors with Marilyn Monroe, or what it was like to date Marlon Brando – or Warren Beatty? It’s little wonder she’s written 19 books – she’s lived 19 lives.  Monroe and Brando were the level of icon Joan was rubbing shoulders with back when she moved to Hollywood in her 20s, getting signed under contract by 20th Century Fox. “You’re not aware that you’re living through an iconic era at the time, though. And you’re also not aware that people like Elvis Presley and James Dean, who were around when I was around, were iconic at the time, either.” What about today’s icons, I ask. “Oh dear,” she says. “It’s hard to answer.” Then, after some thought, “I’m way past having fan crushes on people like I used to, but I suppose Taylor Swift is iconic. She’s a good example of clean living. She doesn’t do overly suggestive things which, quite frankly – and I’m not naming names here – a lot of performers do these days. But who else is iconic? Oh my God…” she trails off, struggling to suggest anyone else. “It’s very difficult to be iconic under 40,” she settles on, before turning the question on me: “Who do you think is iconic?” “Er, Keith Richards?” I splutter, very much meaning it, but also not really reading the room/ audience. She does, however, namecheck Mick Jagger later on, so maybe I wasn’t too far off after all. But what about back in those halcyon days? “Marilyn Monroe, absolutely. Marlon Brando, who I find extraordinary that a lot of people don’t know who he is. Our late Queen Elizabeth, without question, who was just fantastic and a role model in every shape and form. And Ava Gardner, who was a beautiful woman and somebody who I emulated a lot physically when I played Alexis.”  It was largely thanks to Alexis that Joan became the poster girl for the Gekkoesque decadence of the ‘80s; a decade that she answers was “definitely” the best to live through. (“Yes, I’ve been famous for many years. Let’s not do ages,” she laughs.) Playing the role of everyone’s favourite Machiavellian ex-wife, Joan was introduced in the second season of Dynasty in a bid to revive the show’s dwindling numbers. Less than two seasons later, it was the most-watched show in America. “I just loved the clothes that everyone was wearing in the ‘80s. Everybody just wanted to look good, not only in Dynasty, but also in Charlie’s Angels and, oh… what’s the other one? Help me out, Alex…” Could it be that Joan Collins, decades on, is still throwing shade at Dynasty’s arch TV rival, Dallas? It’s too delicious to be true – but then, Dame Joan doesn’t forget a thing. “Dallas?” Alex offers, bravely. “Dallas! Yes, I think everybody was so well-dressed in all of those shows and that filtered down to women [in real life].” It’s little wonder they were inspired. Dynasty’s famed costume designer, the great Nolan Miller, had an alleged budget for clothes that was $30,000 per episode. $100,000 today. That’s a lot of shoulder pads.  “If you look at women in newsreels back then, they’re all very well-dressed, they all have very good hair… and they seem to care, you know? They were more individual.” She pauses, “I don’t mean to mock women today. I mean, it’s a different life. Life is much tougher now, I think, but we all have to contend with it. So yes, I loved the clothes in the ‘80s but I also loved everything about it. Although my personal life was terrible, because I went through two divorces and a very serious accident with my youngest daughter. But I had become very, very successful and I can’t say I didn’t enjoy all the dressing up.” Predictably, Joan is on a roll when talking about fashion, animatedly sharing tales of creating her dolls’ clothes as a child, drawing the costumes for her sister, Jackie’s, books before they were published, and even having her designs made for her mother and aunt. “They both had a dressmaker, so I used to design things for them around the time of the New Look, and they would often have them made.”  Her affinity with fashion is still in full force, with Joan giving feedback on every sketch our Middle Eastern couturiers presented. “What I like about the Emirates and Saudi Arabia is that women there like to be able to dress up, even when they don’t have to. I have friends from there who love to be beautifully dressed. I respect that,” she tells me. “Sometimes I get mocked for it. Percy and I will get into an elevator somewhere and we’ll be wearing blazers, shirts and chinos, and I’ll be wearing a straw hat and people get in, look us up and down and say [disparagingly], ‘Ooh, you’re so dressed up.’” Who would dare mock Dame Joan Collins, is what I want to know. “Well, they don’t necessarily know it’s me…” she laughs. As we draw the interview to a close, I ask if she has a motto she lives by. “Yes,” Joan answers without skipping a beat. “Every day, I want to learn something, achieve something and enjoy something,” she says, quite possibly articulating the secret to happiness. “Another is, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. I wish I’d said that.” She may not have said it, but she certainly lived it.  Editor-in-Chief: Olivia Phillips. Photographer: Ellen von Unwerth. Art Director: Paul Solomons. Stylist: Sascha Lillic. Hair & Make-Up: Alyn Waterman. Senior Producer: Steff Hawker. Local Producer: Filipine Guyonnaud. Dresser: Chrissy Maddison. 1st Assistant: Frederic Trohler. 2nd Assistant: Octave Monteiro De Oliveira. Digital Technician: Ovidiu Oltean. Styling Assistant: Celeste Pettorelli. Male Model: Pascal L. Seamstress: Myriam Savarese. Photographer’s Agent: 2B Management. Personal Stylist to Dame Joan Collins: Rene’ Horsch. Special thanks to Alex Silver and Le Beauvallon, Bay of Saint-Tropez From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s September 2024 issue. |
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