PRESS UPDATE : WOMAN'S WEEKLY .. MARCH 14TH 2017 ..

Joan graces the cover of the latest issue of Woman's Weekly magazine which is out now!

PRESS UPDATE : THE STYLIST .. MARCH 10TH 2017 ..

Joan features in the current issue of The Stylist Magazine, available now.. Here is a look at the interview!

PRESS UPDATE : ATTITUDE MAGAZINE.. APRIL 2017 ..

Joan features in the latest issue of Attitude magazine in an

Joan with Cliff Joannou

interview with Cliff Joannou, here is a look at the interview!

RADIO ALERT : ANDREW PIERCE ON LBC .. LBC RADIO .. 7PM .. FRIDAY MARCH 10TH 2017..

Joan with Andrew partying!

Tune into LBC Radio from 7pm as Joan joins the witty Andrew Pierce to talk about her new film 'The Time Of Their Lives'..
Click the following links to listen!
LBC Live Radio Player..

TV ALERT : THE NIGHTLY SHOW .... ITV1 10:00PM .. FRIDAY MARCH 10TH 2017 ..

Tune into ITV1 at 10:00pm to catch Joan as special guest on 'The Nightly Show' hosted this week by John Bishop.. Don't forget Joan's fabulous new film 'The Time Of Their Lives' opens today nationwide.. 

RADIO UPDATE : STEVE WRIGHT IN THE AFTERNOON .. BBC RADIO 2 .. WEDNESDAY MARCH 8TH 2017 ..

Joan popped into BBC Radio 2 to record an interview with Steve Wright for his afternoon show.. Looking sensational as ever.. To listen to the interview, click the following link! ....
STEVE WRIGHT IN THE AFTERNOON - DAME JOAN COLLINS

TV ALERT : LORRAINE .. ITV1 .. 08:30AM .. FRIDAY MARCH 10TH 2017 ..

Joan hot foots it into ITV!

As they say better late than never and sure to be worth waiting for! Joan's interview with Christine Lampard will air on 'Lorraine' from 8:30am on ITV1.. Due to heavy London traffic, Joan was delayed getting to the ITV studios, so the interview was recorded instead.. 

TV UPDATE : THIS MORNING .. THURSDAY MARCH 9TH 2017 .. ITV1 ..

Joan & Pauline Collins joined Philip & Holly on This Morning earlier to discuss 'The Time Of Their Lives' amongst other things..

EVENT UPDATE : THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES PREMIERE .. CURZON MAYFAIR LONDON .. MARCH 8TH 2017 ..

Joan with Elizabeth Hurley & son Damien at the after party.

Joan & Pauline with Franco & John Alderton

Joan had a most fabulous evening at The Time Of Their Lives had it's world premiere in London at The Curzon Mayfair.. Joining Joan on the red carpet was costars Pauline Collins & Franco Nero.. An afterparty was held at 5 Hertford Street which was attended by the cast.. The film is on general release from March 10th..

Joan & Pauline with Tim Rice, Sarah Sulick, Franco Nero, Roger Goldby & Sian Reeves

RADIO ALERT : STEVE WRIGHT IN THE AFTERNOON.. BBC RADIO 2.. 2:00PM

 

Don't forget to tune into Steve Wright In The Afternoon today on BBC Radio 2 to listen to Joan discuss her new film 'The Time Of Their Lives' which opens on Friday 10th March..  Click here for details and to listen!
Steve Wright in The Afternoon

TV UPDATE : THE ONE SHOW .. BBC 1 .. TUESDAY MARCH 7TH 2017 ..

Joan with Matt Baker & Michelle Ackerley

Joan was the special guest along with co-star Pauline Collins on Tuesday's edition of 'The One Show' on BBC 1, in which they talked about their new film, 'The Time Of Their Lives' which goes on general release on Friday March 10th..

PRESS UPDATE : TIMEOUT LONDON .. MARCH 7TH 2017 ..

Joan Collins: ‘I don’t consider myself to be that famous’

More than 60 years since she moved to Hollywood, Joan Collins is still an icon. We spoke to her ahead of her new movie ‘The Time of Their Lives’

Joan Collins’s face is Touche Eclat perfect and she’s wearing a huge black-and-white shagpile coat. Sitting across from the actress at Claridge’s, I feel the most drab I’ve ever felt in my life – and I’m even wearing shiny shoes.

In a career spanning six decades and five marriages, Collins has done serious films (‘Decadence’), saucy films (‘The Bitch’ and ‘The Stud’) and is most famous for playing super-bitch Alexis Colby in ’80s TV show ‘Dynasty’. Now she’s taking on another spiky character in ‘The Time of Their Lives’, a film comedy about a former actress breaking out of an old people’s home.

In real life, Collins is like a glam aunt you want to sink a bottle of pinot with. She’s cutting, but in a way that’s an adrenaline rush rather than a kick in the guts. When I ask if we can take a picture together she inspects the photos then insists we do it again on her phone. When I ask how a recent dinner with friend David Hockney was, she simply retorts: ‘He smokes a lot.’ Basically, she’s exactly how you’d imagine – and it’s brilliant.

It’s been two decades since ‘Dynasty’ finished. Is it weird seeing memes of your character Alexis still getting shared online?

‘It’s amazing. I had some fabulous scenes, great fights and some amazing clothes. I think people in their late teens and twenties have discovered that. I get fanmail from a much younger group now.’

Why do you think Alexis has stood the test of time?

‘Well, she’s fabulous. Everyone in “Dynasty” was charismatic. The one thing you could say for the show is it wasn’t dull, compared to something I was watching on TV last night. It was supposed to be a “glam show” but I said: “I cannot believe how boring this is.” The one thing you can say about “Dynasty” is the people weren’t dull. Same with most shows from the same time - “Dallas”, “Miami Vice” - everybody was larger than life. Now it seems unfashionable to be larger than life. People, apparently, want to see actors behave like “real people”.’

What TV do you like to watch?

‘I watched “Homeland”. I thought that was great three or four years ago, it’s changed now. I love “Poldark”. It’s very well acted and everybody is charismatic. That’s probably why people like Alexis, because she’s charismatic... and [same with], er, the President. Although I’m not commenting on that.’

You don’t seem to have aged since ‘Dynasty’...

‘That’s not true. When I got up today I said: “I look so hideous, I can’t see anybody.”’

What are your tips for looking young?

‘First of all, maintenance. I was lucky enough to be given some stuff in the gene pool, but then keeping it up. I believe in eating but not too much. That whole thing about “clean eating” I find ridiculous. I do not have a kale smoothie with mashed pears and lemongrass in the morning, I have a croissant and a coffee.’

You grew up in London. How’s the city changed since then?

‘You mean the dark ages?! Nothing’s the same. I remember being able to walk down Oxford Street. It was always crowded, but there’s a lot more people and the traffic is so bad now. Mummy loved Oxford Street. We used to go to Selfridges a lot.’

Are there any other memories that stand out for you?

‘Going to the park with my sister and baby brother. We lived near Regent’s Park and I loved it there: feeding the ducks, going across the bridge, having picnics... ’

You’ve been a fashion icon for 50 years. What’s your favourite outfit ever?

‘It was a dress that I wore when I became a dame a year and a half ago. Valentino had given it to me 20 years earlier but I’d never worn it. It was beautiful, black with flowers on it and an off-the-shoulder big pink bow.’

What’s the best party you’ve ever been to?

‘Mine. I throw the best parties. I have great guests, I have good food. All the parties that I’ve ever given have been really good.’

You moved to Hollywood during the golden age of film. You must have been to some good parties then?

‘They were drop-dead glamorous. I went there when I was 20 and it quickly spread: “There’s a new girl in town.” It meant every Saturday night I’d be invited to a party and there’d be Cary Grant and Gary Cooper there. All the men would be in black tie, all the women would be in strapless chiffon dresses, fur stoles and glittering diamonds. I remember seeing Rosalind Russell with a big turban on and a cigarette holder and thinking: Oh my God, she’s so glamorous.’

How has Hollywood changed over the years?

‘Back then you’d walk up Rodeo Drive and see Fred Astaire and Bob Hope. Now you just see paparazzi.’

Have you ever had any run-ins with paparazzi?

‘The worst one I had was when I was doing “Dynasty”. I was at home in shorts and a T-shirt, deadheading hydrangeas. I looked up and there was this very famous paparazzo hanging out of a helicopter with his camera on me shouting: “Hi Joan!”’

Do you find fame fun?

‘I don’t consider myself to be that famous. I can walk in a room and I might be recognised but I’m not a reality star. I do find the “can I have a selfie?” thing rather [screws up face] when you’re looking through the nightie department in Bloomingdale’s.’ 

What’s the funniest rumour you’ve heard about yourself over the years?

‘I don’t think there have been any funny rumours. Have you heard any?’

I heard you kept all your engagement rings in a safety deposit box.

‘Haha! That’s true!’

How many are there?

‘Four. One from Warren Beatty, one from Ron Kass that I gave to Katie, my daughter. One from Tony Newley: it was a big diamond. The one from Peter Holm I had made into another ring.’

Why did you decide to keep them all?

‘Well, what else would I do? Throw them away? I don’t need to sell them! Do you want one?’

You’ve been married five times. Have you got any dating advice?

‘Well I understand that young people just “hang out” now, they don’t date.’

In that case, what about chat-up lines. Have you ever had any bad ones?

[Puts on low voice] ‘ “Did anyone ever tell you you’re a very pretty girl?” [Puts on high voice] “Nooo, I’ve never heard that before.”’ 

‘The Bitch’ and ‘The Stud’ were saucy. What do you think about the ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ hype?

‘It’s the most boring film I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t sleep the other night so I was flicking channels and watched it. I thought: This is really dull.’

It’s definitely not as saucy as ‘The Bitch’ and ‘The Stud’...
‘No, it isn’t. It’s because ours was more titillating [puts on American accent] if you know what I mean. It wasn’t “in your face”.’

Your character in 'Time of Their Lives' defies stereotypes of older women. Are there enough roles out there like that?

‘No, but I don’t want to be one of those actresses who moans that there’s no roles for older women because there are if you’re one of the handful of older women who gets offered things. I’m really lucky to have been offered this script because normally the script would go first to Helen Mirren, then to Vanessa Redgrave then to – I don’t know who – then it would get to me.’

What’s the best life lesson you’ve learned?

‘“You’ve got to eat life or life will eat you.” When you’re a teenager or you’re in your twenties, you don’t have any conception of how life’s going to be. It’s tough and it’s short.’

Lastly... Ever regretted anything you’ve said?

‘I’m quite outspoken, I know that, but I try to be like Edith Piaf: “Je ne regrette rien.”’

'The Time of Their Lives' is in UK cinemas from March 10. 

TV ALERT : THE ONE SHOW .. TUESDAY MARCH 7TH 2017 .. BBC1 7:00PM..

Tune into BBC1 on Tuesday at 7:00pm to catch Joan along with her co-star Pauline Collins as they discuss 'The Time Of Their Lives' which premieres Wednesday and goes on general release from Friday 10th! 

The girls celebrate their big launch night!

PRESS UPDATE : WOMAN MAGAZINE .. MARCH 2017 ..

Joan featured in last weeks 'Woman' magazine, here is a look at the article..

PRESS UPDATE : THE SUNDAY EXPRESS S MAGAZINE .. MARCH 5TH 2017 .

The Time Of Their Lives' Joan Collins: I’m quite relaxed

AFTER 70 years in showbiz, Joan Collins still oozes star quality. Here, she talks to our reporter about dressing down for her latest movie.

By John Marrs

It’s no understatement to say Joan Collins is not having the greatest of days. She is jet-lagged after flying back from Los Angeles the previous day, a leak in the apartment above has brought her ceiling crashing to the floor, destroying her beloved London home in the process, and 20 minutes before our scheduled time together I am advised all the stress has brought on a crippling cluster headache.Under these circumstances most celebrities would have brought the day to a premature close. But not Dame Joan. A consummate professional, she hasn’t survived in the fickle world of showbusiness for the best part of 70 years without toughing it out when duty calls.

She emerges from the bedroom and into the lounge of her London hotel suite to greet me with a warm smile. She’s wearing no more make-up than an average woman, but looks 20 years younger.She’s neatly petite and shorter than her big screen presence would suggest, but elevated by a pair of wedged heels. She offers me a handshake and we sink into two sofas opposite each other. Her stare is penetrating, but not intimidating.
The actress is here to promote her latest film, The Time Of Their Lives, in which she plays Helen, a washed-up actress living in a nursing home. She’s desperate for one last shot at fame so she ropes in a stranger (played by Pauline Collins) to assist.

Joan’s appearance in this feel-good comedy drama is a far cry from the glamorous image we have become accustomed to seeing.
“I think it shows a different side to me as an actor,” she says. “I don’t think people have ever seen me walking around in grey, baggy socks, an old raincoat, a plastic hat and with a fag hanging out of my mouth before.
“The only parallels between Helen and I are that we’re both actresses from a certain era, but she’s had a miserable life and I’ve had a great one. She was Hollywood’s bad girl who went off the rails. She didn’t get married, she didn’t have children and her career was over by the time she was 27.
I know people like her who have burned out quite quickly.”
One of the film’s most memorable moments sees Helen removing her wig and wiping the make-up from her face. Seeing the actress’s face completely bare is a revelation.

“I don’t look that bad do I? I’m not a vampire,” Joan jokes. “I suppose people are used to seeing me dressed up, but at home I’m quite relaxed and very comfortable in my bathrobe or my sweats.
“However, in the film I loved scrubbing off the face and getting down to the real person underneath. We used extra hairpins for dramatic effect so I could throw them into the sink, but we didn’t have time to take the false eyelashes off.
It was a horrible wig, though. We lost one of them in the sea and then 15 minutes later it turned up further down the beach – even the ocean didn’t want it.”
Born Joan Henrietta Collins in 1933 in west London, she made her stage debut as a confident nine year old. She trained at RADA and upon graduating found herself quickly snapped up by the Rank Organisation and made a string of successful comedies.
“When the film industry started, most movies were built around the actor or actress,” she explains. “People like Bette Davis, Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr and Clark Gable were massive stars and there was a huge market for fans of a particular actor, even when that film wasn’t good.
Today, we have to fit in with the film.”
An ongoing criticism of the entertainment industry is that it is still weighted more towards men than women when it comes to earnings.
In a recent speech about her own 34-year career in showbusiness, Madonna referred to the sexism and misogyny she still faces.
“All women can relate to sexism, it’s not just in showbusiness – you can be a shop assistant or a secretary,” Joan says. “It’s a fact of life that we have to deal with.

“I know women are fighting, screaming and yelling to be treated equally. I’m not a fighter in that respect, but I will try to get what I feel I deserve. But I still come across older men who ask me what have I been doing lately and I’ll say, ‘I’ve just had a book out and a movie’ and they’ll reply, ‘Well done, little lady.’
“I was never allowed to make more money than John Forsythe [Blake Carrington] when we were in Dynasty. I say this objectively, but I was definitely more popular than he was. However, he had to get certain thousands of dollars more than me.
I didn’t bite my tongue about that, in fact I made a lot of jokes about it. I had a bit of resentment, but not a lot because it’s kind of useless. It was just the way our producer Aaron Spelling expected it. John was a man and even though I became a bigger star than him, John had to get more money.”
It was Dynasty that made Joan a household name for a generation growing up in the 1980s. Flagging ratings had meant the soap was facing the axe until producer Aaron Spelling brought in his old friend to play Blake Carrington’s former wife, Alexis. A combination of glamour, wit and razor-sharp delivery of cutting one-liners made her the biggest bitch on the box – and saved the show.
“Talk about a misogynist, well, John didn’t like me at all,” she continues. “He didn’t speak to me once for a whole season. When the cast was given the People’s Choice award, we all trooped up on stage and the starlet who was handing out the award gave it to me. John was standing next to me. I said, ‘Thank you very much, now I’ll hand it to our fearless leader.’ He replied, ‘She’s said enough’ and that was it. Backstage he even refused to hold the award for photographs.”
Even before Dynasty, Joan had never been afraid of pushing the boundaries, most notably in her role as Fontaine Khaled in box-office hits The Stud and The Bitch. Both films were adaptations of the bestselling novels written by her sister, Jackie Collins, who died 18 months ago following a long battle with breast cancer.
I inquire if I can ask her a couple of questions about her sister. Joan nods, but for the first time in our interview she quietens, her grief visibly raw.
What was it like to lose Jackie?

“Tragic,” she replies, averting her eyes and looking towards the window. “It’s totally unexpected and it’s horrible. I shared the grief with my brother, her three daughters and six grandchildren and it was a very, very upsetting time in my life.”
Jackie told her sister about her illness only two weeks before her death. I ask why Joan thinks that was and whether she’d like to have known sooner. “Jackie didn’t want to make a fuss. It would have been very difficult as I was living in London and she was living in Los Angeles. So I don’t know if I’d like to have known,” she says.
Her eyes come back to mine. “That’s three questions,” she says politely but firmly.
One person to offer her support was husband Percy Gibson. The couple worked together to get funding for The Time Of Their Lives and last month they celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary. It’s her fifth marriage and she believes she has found the recipe for success.

“The secret to making a relationship work is friendship, mutual respect, making each other laugh and love,” she says. Do they still buy each other anniversary gifts? “Yes and I’m covered in them.” She points to her necklaces and jangles the bracelets on her arm: “I’m easy to buy for – just buy me another bracelet and I’m happy.
“But I also collect camels. Not real ones, of course. Pictures, ornaments, mugs, paintings –when I first went to Hollywood I saw my first palm tree and I thought it was the most beautiful tree I’d ever seen so I started collecting things with palms on. Then someone came along with camels and I thought I liked them better than palm trees. I like their ugliness.
They have a strange beauty. Things with camels on are harder to find but now I have a whole heap all over the place. I’ve ridden on the back of one in Egypt, but it wasn’t a very comfortable experience.
I have some camel mugs but no one is allowed to drink out of them but me.”
Joan and Percy like to travel and spend time with their friends. “Not all my friends are in showbusiness, though,” she points out. “They’re in fashion, décor and writing. I’m attracted to people with a sense of humour and a personality like mine.”
And while she uses Twitter, she found even being a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire wasn’t enough to stop her from being trolled: “I no longer do anything that can be remotely taken out of context after once praising some politician’s speech and getting trolled.
After that I thought this isn’t worth it. Now I’m a boring tweeter and just post pictures of views and my friends.”
I finish our afternoon by asking how, as an actress, producer, businesswoman, author, mother and grandmother, she might sum herself up to someone who has never heard of her.
“I can’t put my finger on what I’m like,” she confesses after giving the question some thought. “I’m a chameleon. I’m a Gemini and we have many different sides. So I can’t say I’m one thing over another. But I think I’m a kind, good person. And I can be a lot of fun.”
The Time Of Their Lives is in cinemas on Friday.

PRESS UPDATE : THE EXPRESS .. MARCH 4TH 2017 ..

Joan Collins On Why She's Having The Time Of Her Life!

WHEN Dame Joan Collins was an up-and-coming film star in the 1950s a meeting with a casting director could resemble an encounter with an amorous octopus

By Garth Pearce

“When I was young we all had tales of men approaching us and trying to feel us up,” she says.

“Being ‘familiar’ – but it was something you accepted.

“It was the way of the world and the way certain men treated women, in a kind of grudging ‘Oh, you’re a hot little number’ attitude. I don’t think young women have to put up with that any longer in the workplace – and quite rightly.”

Not that it put off the redoubtable Joan. More than 65 years since she made her first film the glamorous actress is still working at a pace that would put to shame an actress decades younger.

Her latest project is a film, aptly titled The Time Of Their Lives, with her namesake Pauline Collins. They play a pair of older women who set off on an adventure to France.

“It’s a Thelma and Louise for the over-60s,” says Joan, whose last movie role was in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie last year.

“It is an uplifting story and one of hope and much humour – there’s not enough of that around today. There are so many gloomy films. But this new one is about what is possible.”

Joan plays a former Hollywood sex siren who is stuck in a retirement home. When her former lover dies, she heads out to France to be at the funeral, along with the unhappily married Pauline Collins

“There’s a line in the film, ‘I am going to enjoy the rest of my life’,” she says.

“That has been my main aim, although there have obviously been a lot of setbacks along the way.”

Joan's many reverses are a matter of record. There have been very public divorces – and she has outlived her first three husbands, actor Maxwell Reed, actor and singer Anthony Newley and producer Ron Kass.

She had struggles with the youngest of her three daughters, Katy – following brain damage from a near fatal car accident when she was just nine.

There was also a spectacular failure by her business managers and accountant which left her with a huge tax bill at the height of her earning power. It led to her selling her house in Los Angeles.

But she dismisses such things. “I have had so many failures and disappointments,” she says, “but the key is never to dwell on them. If you have something going for you, concentrate on that and enjoy the moment.

“Don’t look back with regrets but look forward with hope. I always see the good side of everything and think I am so lucky in so many ways. I have wonderful children and grandchildren and a career which stretches back more than 60 years.

“It is amazing in this age of reality stars who come and go. What is so weird is that young people who want to be ‘celebrities’ do not want to do the training or go to drama school.

“I am still learning and open to new things. Once you start to think you know all the answers that’s the very moment something will hit you straight between the eyes and you realise you don’t know much at all.

“Also, why do well-known people think it gives them the right to complain about their lives? No one wants to hear that. If you don’t want to be in the public eye, then nobody is forcing you to do what you do.”

Joan has acted with Pauline Collins only once until now, on an episode of Tales Of The Unexpected in 1980, produced by now defunct Anglia Television.

The irony is that when we all met then, at an event to launch the programme, Joan was searching in vain for a new film role. I recall her smoking – you could do it indoors in those days – and looking a little stressed. She had played highly charged roles in The Stud – produced by third husband Kass – and The Bitch, both based on novels by her sister Jackie, which had relaunched her career.

But she was wondering: “What next?” The answer came a year later in the second season of the then struggling glossy American TV series Dynasty. Her role as the beautiful and vengeful Alexis Carrington, whom she played for the next eight years, made her a big star. Yet again. She won a Golden Globe as best actress and posed for Playboy at the age of 50. 

She also moved to Hollywood, dumped Kass and married the much younger – by 14 years – Peter Holm, a Swedish pop singer. It lasted just two years and ended in a bitter divorce battle, with Holm trying to overturn a pre-nup on which Joan had insisted, limiting him to 20 per cent of her earnings during their marriage.

When Joan wrote her second volume of memoirs, Second Act, she referred to him disparagingly as “The Swede”.

“Dynasty was fabulous,” she reflects.

“When I am in any role I do the best I can. Many roles I had were really an empty vessel but Dynasty was a wonderful part. It hit a nerve at the time because I played a woman who empowered other women. She behaved like a man, using her sexuality, her beauty and her cleverness to rise to the top of the heap.

“By that time I understood what it was all about. I put in so many hours on fittings, going out shopping and the clothes. When I first saw what they wanted me to wear, I refused. They wanted me in a tweed suit with a Peter Pan collar.

“I said, ‘This woman is a society jetsetter and I want to wear the latest fashions from Paris, Yves St Laurent or Pierre Cardin’ – big shoulders, tiny waists and big hair.

“I had gained much experience by the time I did Dynasty and that came in useful. I did my own make-up, which I had been doing since the age of 18. I had a great make-up man in Hollywood called Whitey Snyder – he worked with Marilyn Monroe – who taught me to apply it properly.”

And there was very definitely life after Dynasty. Not least a burgeoning career as a writer.

Joan published her first volume of autobiography, Past Imperfect, in 1985 and followed that up with a second, Passion For Life. She delivered her last novel The St Tropez Lonely Hearts Club two years later, when she also became a Dame Commander of the British Empire.

Meanwhile she’s happily married to her fifth husband, theatre producer Percy Gibson, “this one is a success!” – and has never been more in demand for her sellout one-woman theatre show.

And Joan is refreshingly realistic about the ageing process.

“What did Goldie Hawn say in The First Wives Club? ‘First you play a babe, then you are a district attorney and then you are Driving Miss Daisy.’

“In my case that’s almost true. One of my first big movies was Girl On The Red Velvet Swing (1955) – I was on the swing and a babe because I was very young and pretty. And from that moment you are growing up all the time and there has to be an acceptance of it. You will never be as young again as you are today or look as good as you did in your 20s. It’s a fact of life.

“You become a mother, you become a grandmother and the parts reflect that. But you have to believe in yourself. Self-esteem comes from within and you cannot be healthy without a certain amount of self-discipline.

“Do not sit around all day and eat chocolates and doughnuts. All of the women I know who are long-time survivors exercise and watch their diet.”

Joan worked in Hollywood when it was still full of big-time, old-fashioned stars such as Gene Kelly, Marilyn Monroe and Bette Davis.

Her favourite was the late Paul Newman: “An absolute gentleman,” she says. “And the great thing about them all is that they were true stars in every way.”

As is Joan Collins: still having the time of her life…

● The Time Of Their Lives is released on Friday 10th March.