DIARY ALERT! : THE SPECTATOR .. JULY 23rd 2010

In the current issue of "The Spectator" magazine you can read Joan's latest diary entry.. In this issue she discusses fashion at Ascot..Shaking hands with a shoulder pad manufacturer at The Wolseley in London! and how in Little Venice she turned down an opportunity to pose for painter Lucien Freud and much more!   Check it out today!!

PATHE FLASHBACK! : WEDDING OF THE DOLL ...1968

JOAN & ANTHONY ATTEND POLANSKI WEDDING

**CLICK FOR PATHE CLIP        ROMAN POLANSKI WEDS SHARON TATE - British Pathe  ******  

ROMAN & SHARON CUT THE CAKE!

Not quite a TV appearance, but this clip featured in the weekly Pathe News shown in cinemas at the time and now due to the controversy surrounding both Polanski and his court appearances to the murder of Tate by Charles Manson, it is worth featuring.. Joan attended this wedding with then husband Anthony Newley.. Other guests included John Mills with daughter Juliet Mills.. Michael Caine.. Candice Bergen..Lawrence Harvey.. Barbara Parkins..& many more.. click link to watch an official Pathe Clip...

FILM FOCUS : CHARLES CASILLO TALKS FETISH....

CHARLES AT THE LA SHORTS FEST MEETING UP WITH AN OLD FRIEND!

Click for Charles article*****        Partial creation of a FETISH with Joan Collins ********* 

FETISH POSTER

Click link above to read some reflections from Actor/Writer Charles Casillo on working with Joan and filming "Fetish".. Premiering Monday at the LA Shorts Fest...

JOAN & CHARLES in FETISH

PROMO FLASHBACK : JOAN & JACKIE BETWEEN THE COVERS!

Here is a glamorous photo of Superstar Sisters Joan & Jackie in 1983 promoting their best selling books.. Jackie was celebrating her smash best-seller "Hollywood Wives", while Joan was promoting the American release of her updated 1978 auto-biography "Past Imperfect"..

ON THE COVER : MOVIE SPOTLIGHT .. JUNE 1956

This issue of vintage MOVIE SPOTLIGHT magazine features Joan along with Marilyn Monroe and Kim Novak on the cover..with all the usual studio gossip and interviews of the time..

TV FLASHBACK : BATMAN .... 1967

ABC TV Presents

BATMAN

Starring
ADAM WEST
BERT WARD
ALAN NAPIER                                     
STAFFORD REPP        
YVONNE CRAIG
MADGE BLAKE
NEIL HAMILTON

"RING AROUND THE RIDDLER"
Guests
FRANK GORSHIN
PEGGY ANN GARNER
JAMES BROLIN
JOAN COLLINS as THE SIREN..
The Riddler's latest scheme is to control prize fighting in Gotham City and kidnaps current champion fighter Kid Gulliver, to brainwash him into losing his upcoming fight. Riddler then enlists the sexy Siren to help him in his heavyweight plan! But will be pull it off or go down fighting!

"THE WAIL OF THE SIREN"

ADAM WEST FALLS UNDER JOAN'S SPELL!

Guests
Joan Collins
MIKE MAZURKI
CLIFF OSMOND

JOAN HAS A WAIL OF A TIME!

JOAN & BURT WARD HANG OUT TOGETHER!

Lorelei Circe alias Siren, who can sing seven octaves above high, puts commissioner Gordon under her spell in order to discover Batman's true identity. With the commissioner missing, his daughter Barbara alias Batgirl suspects the Siren and eventually finds the minx's hideout. But Siren has hypnotised Bruce Wayne and Batgirl must warn Robin. They arrive at Bruce's office only to discover that he signed over everything he owns to Siren. A scuffle ensues and whilst trying to escape, Siren somehow falls off the roof and is left hanging over the edge. Robin promises to save her if she takes the spell off Bruce and destroys the papers he has signed. She reluctantly agrees and uses her voice way above her range, freeing Bruce, but losing her wail in the process!

DELETED SCENE

When Joan was given the scripts for "Batman", all she was told was that the show was very popular and she should do it.. She thought the scripts were ridiculous but agreed to give her best to the role of the seductive Siren. Writer Stanley Ross  was told by the producers that they had signed Joan for a guest role and they wanted him to write a character especially for her. He came up with a sexy seductress called "The Siren", whose alter ego was chanteuse Lorelei Circe. But according to Adam West, Joan had a hard time during the shooting of the episode "Wail of the Siren", as director George Waggner took a dislike to Joan and made things difficult for her. West could not understand Waggner's actions as he found Joan to be both professional and lovely to work with. Write Stanley Ross later teamed up with Anthony Newley to write the musical "Chaplin".. Apart from Joan's troubles on the set, when the episode was screened, a few of her scenes had been cut, losing some interesting scenes. One of the scenes featured Lorelei returning from her performance at Gotham City Music Center and transforming herself into The Siren. She is seen sitting at her dressing table in her hideout..you can see a shot of the scene here! Joan is both glamorous and funny as the sexy seductive Siren and whatever problems there were on set, she rises to the occasion with great aplomb!

CAMPAIGN TIME.... SPECTACULAR LAUNCH ..SELFRIDGES..1989

 Here is a candid shot featuring Joan at the launch of her own fragrance Spectacular at Selfridges in London in 1989..  plus shots featuring the glamorous display at the time...more on Spectacular in future posts..

TV FLASHBACK : THE VIRGINIAN ... THE LADY FROM WICHITA .. 1967

Universal Television
Presents

THE VIRGINIAN

Starring
James Drury

• 

Charles Bickford
Doug McClure
Clu Gulagar
Don Quine
Sara Lane

THE LADY FROM WICHITA
Guest starring

JOAN COLLINS as Lorna Marshall
Rose Marie as Belle Stevens

Lorna Marshall runs a local saloon bar with her "Aunt", Belle Stevens, but business is not too good and the bills are mounting. The arrival of an unexpected telegram from Medicine Bowl, Wyoming, informs Lorna that she has been left a large sum of money and a ranch by an elusive Carl Crandall, who has just died. Lorna has no recollection of him, but she decides to travel with Belle to Medicine Bowl. But can she keep her life as a lowly saloon owner from the moralistic townsfolk? Or will the past catch up with The Lady From Wichita!!

The series revolves around a character called "The Virginian" played by James Drury, we never find out his real name over the nine seasons the series ran for. He is a foreman who keeps a tight reign over the workers on Shiloh Ranch.. As the series progressed, Trampas played by the late Doug McClure became the shows most popular character.. In this episode he has a dalliance with Joan's character Lorna..




Along with "Gunsmoke" and "Bonanza", "The Virginian" is the third longest western television series of all time, notching up a total of 249 episodes over it's nine seasons.. It also attracted some legendary names such as Bette Davis, Angie Dickinson, Raquel Welch, Greer Garson, Cloris Leachman, Myrna Loy and Joan Crawford and that is just a handful of big names.. Joan is in excellent form as ever as the Saloon girl made good and with always reliable support from veteran Rose Marie, all in all an enjoyable episode of a classic series!

ON THE COVER : RTE GUIDE ... FEBRUARY 1991

This issue of long running Irish listings magazine, features Joan on the cover as she appeared in the RTE series "My Riviera" that week on RTE television, Ireland's national TV station.  This series featured a different celebrity every week including Roger Moore and Charles Aznavour. Will feature more on this series in a future post..
RTE Guide was first published in 1961 and was called RTV Guide, but changed to RTE Guide in 1966, it is still published to this day...

CANDID JOAN : JOAN OUT & ABOUT ST TROPEZ JULY 2010

Here are some new shots of Joan enjoying her summer break in St Tropez before her busy autumn/winter schedule begins!

UNFILMED : COWBOYS FOR CHRIST..

PORTRAIT PRODUCED FOR SET OF "COWBOYS FOR CHRIST"

Last month I featured an exclusive rare photo of a portrait that was produced for the set of the proposed film "Cowboys For Christ", here is the second portrait as promised!    


                                                                                                                                                               Joan has been attached to many projects over the years and more recently she was all set to start filming the long awaited sequel to the cult classic film "The Wicker Man", entitled "Cowboys for Christ". This would have seen her appear with her "Dark Places" co-star Christopher Lee. The film was all set to start filming in Scotland but as is the case in the film business, the money ran out! The film was abandoned and all the preproduction work on sets etc were destroyed. Among the items were two portraits commissioned  for Joan's character Lady Delia Morrison, as she lived in a big country estate. The film is now back on the production schedule under the title "The Wicker Tree", still starring Christopher Lee, but alas not Joan. Watch this space for other movie news regarding Joan!

TV FLASHBACK : STAR TREK .... THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER .. 1967

FAN ART POSTER

Paramount Television
Presents
A Desilu Production

STAR TREK
Starring

WILLIAM SHATNER     LEONARD NIMOY
   DE FOREST KELLEY  GEORGE TAKEI       
     NICHELLE NICHOLLS   JAMES DOOHAN    
           WALTER KOENIG
"THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER"
                 Guest Starring....

  JOAN COLLINS as Edith Keeler    

MONTAGE PROMO CARD

KIRK & SPOCK ENTER THE PORTAL

JOAN as EDITH

JOAN READS HER SCRIPT ON SET

This episode from the classic series "Star Trek", proved to me one of the most memorable episodes ever and a continued fan favourite. Joan plays the role of Edith Keeler, a social worker in the 1930's, who runs the 21st Street Mission, where she dishes up free dinners for the unemployed and the down and outs. But as they say there is no such thing as a free meal!  Edith preaches to the hungry masses about hope and optimism and how she wants them all to hang in there and survive to reach a better future! She eventually comes across Captain Kirk and Mr Spock, who entered a time portal to find a crazed Dr McCoy, who accidently overdosed on cordrazine and then went beserk in a delirious state jumping through the time portal into 30's New York! Now Spock and Kirk must find him and on the way come across Edith after they hide in the basement of the mission.. Captain Kirk eventually falls in love with Edith, but the course of love never runs smooth...    It turns out because of McCoy's invasion of the portal and the fact they had to follow him, has changed the timeline and the course of history. Edith was due to die in a traffic accident, but now she will live in this timeline to preach her message which in turn will delay America's entry into world war two and thus Germany will have time to build the atom bomb first and win the war!  In the end the only way to keep the timeline on course is to let Edith die and Kirk must let her cross the road to her death.!!

KIRK & EDITH FALL IN LOVE

 Joan is as lovely as ever as the saintly Edith and this episode has stood the test of ..dare I say time! Joan as always brings a touch of style and elegance to this one her many guest appearances in many of the world's most popular television series of all time....     

DVD WATCH .. TALES FROM THE CRYPT ...

UK DVD RELEASE SLEEVE

Just recently received a copy of the new UK DVD release of Joan's 1972 terror classic "Tales From The Crypt". This has been available in the USA as a double bill with it's follow up, from the same team.. "Vault Of Horror". This stand alone release is issued by Final Cut Entertainment/ Hollywood Classics Ltd in Association with 20th Century Fox.  This release has no extras, but has an excellent print.
This genre favourite stars Joan along with Peter Cushing.. Roy Dotrice.. Richard Greene.. Ian Hendry.. Patrick Magee.. Barbara Murray.. Nigel Patrick.. Robin Phillips and Sir Ralph Richardson..

TV FLASHBACK : THE MAN FROM UNCLE .. THE GALATEA AFFAIR . 1966

MGM TELEVISION
Presents

THE MAN FROM UNCLE
Starring
   ROBERT VAUGHN as Napoleon Solo

  DAVID McCALLUM  as Illya Kuryakin

  NOEL HARRISON as Mark Slate

  LEO G CARROLL as Alexander Waverly

         JOAN COLLINS as Rosy/ Baroness Bibi De Chasseur

Climax in the wine cellar!

Joan's split personality!

JOAN as Rosy with NOEL HARRISON AS Mark

NOEL HARRISON WITH STEFANIE POWERS & LEO G CARROLL IN THE GIRL FROM UNCLE

                                                                                                                                                                  Joan played a dual role in this episode of the cult classic series "The Man From Uncle" from 1966. This now cult series starred her old RADA mate David McCallum along with Robert Vaughn, although Vaughn only turns up in the opening set-up and closing scenes to whisk Joan's character the Baroness off to lunch. In reality he was guesting on the spin off "The Girl From Uncle", starring an old friend of Joan's, Stefanie Powers. On that show her sidekick was Mark Slate , played by Noel Harrison (son of Rex).. who turns up here to fill in for Vaughn's character who contracted pneumonia in the opening scenes!

JOAN Undercover as Baroness Bibi

Solo (Vaughn) and Kuryakin (McCallum), are in Venice when they spy Baroness Bibi De Chasseur (Joan), passing on a list of the best THRUSH agents to a mystery accomplice in a gondola. After they are shot at by a THRUSH speedboat, our heroes dive into the canal, Solo catches pneumonia and can't continue with the mission and is replaced by agent Mark Slate (Harrison) .  The story sees our agents spot Rosy Shlagenheimer a nude entertainer dressed or undressed as Lady Godiva riding around a sleazy bar.. apart from her heavy Bronx accent, she is a ringer for the Baroness. Their plan is to replace the Baroness with Rosy, after they give her some classes in refinement, a mission in itself! But THRUSH discover the plan and they switch them back to fool our heroes! All in all a fun episode, with Joan in good form in the dual role of the common Rosy and the classy and elegant Baroness Bibi..

Rosy about to be transformed into the Baroness

"The Man From Uncle" ran on NBC from 1964 to 1968.. It feature the adventures of two agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin who work for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement  (UNCLE)...Their enemies whom they fought every week were called THRUSH, an agency set on taking over the world... The series also starred Leo G.Carroll as boss Alexander Waverly, with Barbara Moore joining the team as Lisa Rogers in season 4.  "The Man From Uncle" a definite cult classic...

ON THE COVER : LIVING EDGE .. FEBRUARY 2003 ...

This magazine available in the Manchester, Cheshire and the Peak District features Joan on the cover with an article on style and beauty inside...This issue is from February 2003..

TV FLASHBACK : RUN FOR YOUR LIFE : THE BORDERS OF BARBARISM .. 1966 .. UN..IVERSAL

Ben Gazzara stars in this weekly series for Universal as Paul Bryan, a successful lawyer who is told by his Doctor that he has a form of leukemia and has two years to live. Paul decides to make the best of his time and do all the things he ever wanted to do. This forms the scenario of the show as he sets of on a series of adventures, meeting a variety of characters along the way.. The series began in 1965 and ran for three seasons until 1968 over 86 episodes..

JOAN as GILLIAN WALES with BEN GAZZARA as PAUL BRYAN

Joan guest starred in this episode entitled "The Borders Of Barbarism - (Outside it's Death).. She

plays Gillian Wales, whose late father was associated with Yugoslavian Partisans during World War 2.. Paul is asked by  intelligence agent Mike Allen (Stephen McNally) to escort Gillian (Joan) to Yugoslavia to try and find out valuable information about the cold war from her late fathers friends, residing there..But danger lies in store for both of them!

CELEBRATE!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIAHANN!!

DIAHANN'S 1ST AUTOBIOGRAPHY

DIAHANN AS JULIA

Diahann's official website..

Diahann with cast of DYNASTY

DIAHANN ON THE HOLLYWOOD PALACE

A good friend of Joan's, the legendary Diahann Carroll was born today in The Bronx in 1935... Diahann one of TV's first black American stars for her Golden globe winning and Emmy nominated role in the series "Julia".. Also an accomplished recording artist, Diahann also brought style and glamour to the hit series "Dynasty" where she was constantly at loggerheads with Joan, where she played the role of Blake's half-sister Dominique Devereaux.. Diahann has written two auto-biographies, the most recent "The Legs Are Last To Go!" are a must read!  Still as elegant and gracious as ever, here's to many more birthday greetings for a one of a kind Legend!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIAHANN!! **** CHECK OUT THE OFFICIAL DIAHANN CARROLL WEBSITE.. ******