Ep. 103 – JACKIE COLLINS – STEREO
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Jackie Collins, the legendary novelist who redefined Hollywood glamour, joins Christopher and Eric for this fabulous livecast, and the guys are practically besides themselves with excitement the whole time. Jackie shares her advice on writing, social media and meeting men on Grindr. Critic-at-large Jordan Ampersand tries to get in on the action as well.
I’ve had so many people say to me, “Oh, you taught me everything I know about sex.” And I think my books were very sexual before women were writing about sex at all.
Jackie Collins
The Dinner Party Show Podcast — Ep. 103: Jackie Collins Interview Transcript
{This transcript is the Jackie Collins interview portion of Episode 103}
{This transcript is provided as a courtesy and was transcribed as best as possible. Any errors or omissions in the transcript are unintentional. The recorded audio file of the podcast episode is considered the master of what was said.}
Announcer:
You are listening to The Dinner Party Show with Christopher Rice and Eric Shaw Quinn. Let’s Dish.
Christopher Rice:
Welcome back to The Dinner Party Show. I’m Christopher Rice,
Eric Shaw Quinn:
And I’m Eric Shaw Quinn.
Christopher Rice:
And our guest has sold over 500 million books in-
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Today-
Christopher Rice:
Over 40-
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Just this afternoon, when they heard she was going to be on the Dinner Party Show. 31 consecutive New York Times bestsellers. Jackie Collins, welcome to the Dinner Party Show.
Jackie Collins:
It’s so good to be here. You guys are great.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
It’s such an honor to have you.
Jackie Collins:
Hello, Eric. Hello, Chris.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
The place is more glamorous just because you’re here.
Jackie Collins:
Aha.
Christopher Rice:
During the break, you were already called a bad boy by Jackie Collins, which is very exciting.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
I didn’t get it on tape. I’m just broken hearted.
Jackie Collins:
I said he deserved a spanking.
Christopher Rice:
Because he did not record Graham Norton.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
I didn’t record Graham Norton.
Jackie Collins:
I know. And everybody loves Graham Norton. It’s the best talk show on television.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
It is so funny. It is so funny. I wish there were more. Although I have to say, I think Jimmy Fallon is actually doing-
Jackie Collins:
No, no. Jimmy Kimmel. Jimmy Kimmel. It’s all about Jimmy Kimmel.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Nice job. I love all of those games that Jimmy gets-
Jackie Collins:
Oh my God.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Jimmy Fallon gets-
Jackie Collins:
No, Jimmy Kimmel. You have to… That Jimmy is the one you have to follow.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
The one where Matt tied him to a chair.
Jackie Collins:
Yeah, that was very, yeah, that was great.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
That was insane.
Jackie Collins:
Did you see Jimmy Kimmel’s acting school after the Oscars –
Eric Shaw Quinn:
No.
Jackie Collins:
Why? What’s wrong with you? You’re not watching the right television.
Christopher Rice:
Eric. Do what Jackie says.
Jackie Collins:
It’s a fantastic show.
Christopher Rice:
Do what Jackie says.
Jackie Collins:
He did an acting school.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
I will absolutely do it. I will. Absolutely, I will watch it. I will watch him.
Jackie Collins:
He was fantastic. He had a black beret and black glasses and he had all these actors and he was hitting Sean Penn over the head with a rubber thing.
Christopher Rice:
That’s fantastic.
Jackie Collins:
And then he was telling Jennifer Aniston what to do, and they were all an acting school. It was great.
Christopher Rice:
This is wonderful.
Jackie Collins:
You can catch it on YouTube.
Christopher Rice:
This brings me to my first question.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
I’ll look for it. I will change my ways, I promise.
Christopher Rice:
You are a big Twitter user.
Jackie Collins:
I am. Yes.
Christopher Rice:
You love Twitter and you are very generous and positive on Twitter, which is not something I can say for everyone. You talk about what you like, you talk about what you enjoy seeing, whereas most people on Twitter, maybe sometimes me included, are very snarky and we go after people we don’t like and blah blah blah. But you’re very sort of supportive. I love that. It’s like-
Jackie Collins:
Well, I said something today and I try to do this once a week. I say something about bullies because I hate bullies. And whenever I do, I get such a huge response. I think one of the things I said today was, “If you’re a bully, you’re a coward.” And I get this huge response from it because it’s so shocking that people are bullied. And I traveled around the country a couple of years ago with one of my books, Married Lovers, in a bus, a rock and roll bus.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Oh, how excellent.
Jackie Collins:
And I went to all these casinos, all the Indian casinos, and I went to like 24 different places, but the audience would be fantastic, but there would be young boys who would say, “I don’t fit in here and I’m bullied, because I’m different from the other guys”, and stuff like that. And I realize that they need people to be supportive of them.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Champions, absolutely.
Jackie Collins:
Yeah. So if I can give them a little, because I get so many 14, 15 year old boys writing to me and going, I love your books. Yeah.
Christopher Rice:
Why do you think that is? Do you think they gravitate towards your books?
Jackie Collins:
Well, interestingly enough, I was at the Vanity Fair Oscar party the other night, and I was talking to Baron Sasha Cohen. She said, name-dropping immediately.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Oh my god, the most glamorous sentence that’s been uttered on the show, maybe ever.
Jackie Collins:
And Isla Fisher, his wife was there, who’s lovely and a wonderful actress.
Christopher Rice:
She’s so funny.
Jackie Collins:
Very pregnant. And she said to me, she said, “I’m from a little town in Australia.” She said, “And we had nothing there.” She said, “Except I got your books and I read your books. And I said to myself, Isla, you got to get to Hollywood.”
Christopher Rice:
Oh, wow.
Jackie Collins:
I know. That’s fun.
Christopher Rice:
Absolutely.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
You inspired her journey.
Jackie Collins:
I Inspired her journey.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
How marvelous. Yes I guess that’s a wonderful part of writing.
Jackie Collins:
I find I do get emails from people all the time saying that, that they are inspired because I write all different colors, all different sexual orientation, all different ages. And that appeals to everybody. There’s something for everybody in my books. And I think that’s why I’ve been lucky enough to be so successful for hundreds of years.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
How many books is it? It’s so many.
Jackie Collins:
32 books.
Christopher Rice:
32. This must be Outdated Wikipedia Numbers. 31 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, but now it’s 32.
Jackie Collins:
32. Yeah.
Christopher Rice:
I was listening to another interview with you just because I had to look more prepared than Eric. And when you started, you wanted to write sexy books, but when you looked out at what was going on with books that were focused on sort of various sexual relationships, it was Harold Robbins and Sidney Sheldon. And you said in those books, the women were either in the kitchen or the bedroom.
Jackie Collins:
Absolutely. So it was a question of sex or cooking. And I thought, well, my women are going to be fantastic women. They’re going to be strong. They’re going to be sexually equal. They’re going to be out there and they’re going to do whatever they can do to be that way. And so I’ve created some very strong heroines over the years. And the strongest of course, is Lucky Santangelo.
Christopher Rice:
Of course.
Jackie Collins:
Which I did two miniseries for NBC about, which I wrote and produced. And nine books about Lucky now and The Santangelos comes out in June.
Christopher Rice:
Wonderful.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Lucky 10.
Jackie Collins:
Which is a epic story and one of the family dies. I’m not going to say who. But I know everybody will be furious. However, I don’t know what my characters are going to do. I sit down with a pen. I have no outline.
Christopher Rice:
That’s the other thing that I was hearing is that you have no outline. You just sort of go with it. And you write out entirely by hand.
Jackie Collins:
Yes, I do. It’s so old-fashioned, but I love it.
Christopher Rice:
But I think there are a lot of writers who do that. Nelson DeMille, I believe, writes out entirely by hand.
Jackie Collins:
Oh really?
Christopher Rice:
Yeah. There’s a whole school of thought that it allows your mind, I don’t do it, so I don’t know why I’m speaking with this authority about it. But it allows your mind to sort of slow down and live in the book more, as opposed to your keys can sort of get away from you.
Jackie Collins:
Absolutely. My characters take me over. When I’m writing Lucky, I become Lucky. I’m writing an autobiography and the opening line of the autobiography is something that was actually said to me is, “Don’t move bitch, or I’ll blow your fucking head off.” And that was said to me by a robber with an Uzi in my face.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Oh my God.
Jackie Collins:
But I was writing the Lucky miniseries at the time, and so I went straight into Lucky mode. I thought, fuck you. How dare you speak to me like that with all that hate in your voice. And I was in a car. I was able to take off and escape.
Christopher Rice:
Good for you. Was this in Los Angeles?
Jackie Collins:
It was.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Oh my God.
Jackie Collins:
Yeah. It was about 15 years ago.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
You were just driving and it was like somebody came up to your car?
Jackie Collins:
No, I was trying to enter somebody’s house and we were laughing and the beautiful Joanna Poitier, Sidney’s wife was with me. Another name drop.
Christopher Rice:
That’s all right, we name-drop all the time. That’s why we started the show.
Jackie Collins:
Thank God for that.
Christopher Rice:
That’s all we do.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Well it’s a dinner party.
Jackie Collins:
Yeah, it’s a dinner party.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
We’re all here to talk about who we know.
Jackie Collins:
Yeah. We can talk about all kinds of things.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Absolutely.
Jackie Collins:
Yes.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Absolutely.
Jackie Collins:
In fact, there’s a fab picture of me and my sister in People Magazine this week, chatting away to Benedict Cumberbatch. At the Vanity Fair party.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
I love Benedict Cumberbatch so much.
Christopher Rice:
How was the Vanity Fair Party?
Jackie Collins:
It was so much fun.
Christopher Rice:
Now it last year it was moved, right? It was moved from Sunset Tower to the parking lot.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Did it leak?
Jackie Collins:
To a fabulous tent.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Well, they needed more space. I love the Argyle but it’s-
Jackie Collins:
It’s always great.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
It’s such a small building.
Jackie Collins:
Graydon puts on a fantastic show.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
I figured they just had to expand.
Jackie Collins:
I got to meet Lady Gaga who was completely lovely and charming.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Did you see the ring?
Jackie Collins:
She showed me her ring, and we discussed her fiance because I happened to watch Chicago Fire every week.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
He’s so spectacular.
Jackie Collins:
He is spectacular.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
He was also, I loved him as the werewolf.
Jackie Collins:
Oh, I never saw him as the werewolf.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Oh yeah, on Vampire Diaries. He was a werewolf on Vampire Diaries.
Jackie Collins:
Well, I’m behind on Vampire Diaries. But I love Vampire Diaries.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
And then that the series that he did with Bo Derek on My TV, I think it was called Fashion House.
Christopher Rice:
Oh, yes. They were trying to do a telenovela, a daily soap opera.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
All right. It’s a TV war between Eric Shaw Quinn and Jackie Collins.
Jackie Collins:
It’s a TV war.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
TV off with Jackie and Eric.
Jackie Collins:
‘Cause as I told you before, I’m a TV addict. So I can tell you anything about any program. I give every show a chance. But then if I don’t think it’s going to work, I abandon it.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
I always say I’ll watch one episode of anything, the premiere of everything.
Jackie Collins:
I’m watching Allegiance. Are you watching Allegiance?
Eric Shaw Quinn:
I tried.
Jackie Collins:
Oh, it’s good.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Didn’t work for me.
Jackie Collins:
Oh, it’s good.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
I lasted three episodes.
Christopher Rice:
I’m starting to feel like you two have different TV tastes.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
I lasted three episodes.
Jackie Collins:
I think we probably do. Just listen to me, Chris. Don’t listen to him.
Christopher Rice:
I’ll listen to your Twitter feed.
Jackie Collins:
I will tell you, I think I should have been a TV critic.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Yeah, absolutely.
Christopher Rice:
Well, you still could be. I think people would listen to pretty much whatever you wanted to talk about.
Jackie Collins:
Well, I do. That’s what I do on Twitter. If I go to a movie, I’ll talk about it. I’ll say if I like it or not. I saw a wonderful movie today actually with Kevin Costner. He is such a good actor.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
McFarland?
Jackie Collins:
Yes. Have you seen it?
Eric Shaw Quinn:
No, I haven’t. But it looks really wonderful. It looks very simple and very sort of-
Jackie Collins:
It’s very simple. It’s a true story, and it makes you feel good. It’s a really feel good movie. And I also saw him in last week, Black and White.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Did you?
Jackie Collins:
Black or White.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Did you like it? It looks amazing.
Jackie Collins:
I loved it.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
I don’t think it’s performed all that well, but it looked like a really sharp piece of work.
Jackie Collins:
They’re two great movies. And he’s fantastic in both of them. He’s fantastic. He’s just a very underrated actor.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
I love him.
Christopher Rice:
Okay. Well, we do have a question for you from the party line.
Jackie Collins:
Oh yes, I get so carried away.
Christopher Rice:
People are actually-
Eric Shaw Quinn:
The other party guests.
Yes. Now’s your big chance.
Christopher Rice:
This is from our party line, and I think this is a question about one of your characters in particular.
Jackie Collins:
Okay.
Caller 1:
Hi, Eric Shaw Quinn and Christopher Rice. And Jackie Collins, I love your books, Jackie.
Jackie Collins:
Thank you so much.
Caller 1:
My question was, what inspired you to write Chances and Lucky Santangelo novels? And I absolutely love the Dinner Party Show. I’ve binge listened to this show since January, so I’ve heard every episode so far. Thank you.
Jackie Collins:
Well, we’re going to be the best episode. So there you are. Now, I’ll tell you what inspired me. I wanted to write a really, really strong heroine, and I wanted her to have a battle with her father. In fact, I think it was CNN that called it “the Godfather Goes to Bed”. And it’s very sexy. And it’s the first book about Lucky Santangelo and Gino Santangelo. He comes to America at the beginning of the last century and he becomes one of the biggest gangsters in America. And then he goes legitimate. And he builds hotels at the beginning of Las Vegas. And then Lucky is born and she wants to follow her father because her brother is gay and he does not want to get into the business. And of course, Gino being a kind of very macho man, cannot accept the fact that he has a gay son. But Lucky is very supportive of him. Dario. Unfortunately, Dario gets, no, I better not say what happens.
Christopher Rice:
Don’t say.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert.
Christopher Rice:
I’m already hooked. I’m already hooked.
Jackie Collins:
But that was the inspiration.
Christopher Rice:
So you said that while that was CNN’s quote, “the Godfather goes to bed”, were you influenced by movies? I think I read an interview where you said you were. You were the person who was always in the movie theater.
Jackie Collins:
I was influenced by The Godfather, which I think is one of the best movies ever. And the Book of The Godfather, which I absolutely loved.
Christopher Rice:
You can sit with my mother. My mother reread that book this year and says, it’s just one of the most influential works of popular fiction.
Jackie Collins:
It really is.
Christopher Rice:
She gave me a first edition for my birthday this year, a hard cover.
Jackie Collins:
How fabulous. That’s so great. Yeah. It’s a fantastic movie, a fantastic book. And I always say it’s my favorite because there’s so many scenes in it that are so memorable. So when you read the book, you can almost envision what’s going to happen. And then of course, Al Pacino walks into the movie and you’re just, you have to fall in love with Michael Corleone.
Christopher Rice:
Yeah. Right, right. Absolutely.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Yes. Such an amazing… And it really did sort of begin an entire different approach to telling those kinds of stories.
Jackie Collins:
Exactly, yes. I wanted to write a gangster with a heart of gold, and Gino has a heart of gold.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
And from a personal sort of perspective as opposed to just sort of postage stamp monsters on the side of the… Much the same way that your mom has made the vampire-
Christopher Rice:
That’s what Mom said the impact of it was. It was an interior story about the mafia told from the point of view of the insiders.
Jackie Collins:
By the way, your mother is fabulous. I love her books.
Christopher Rice:
And she thinks the same thing about you. You all met recently-
Jackie Collins:
We did.
Christopher Rice:
At the reading of Rob Ross’ new play.
Jackie Collins:
Yeah, and I loved her. I thought she was fantastic.
Christopher Rice:
It was wonderful. I wish I’d had a picture of it, but it was the type of event where I didn’t want to be snapping a lot of pictures. It really made me look like a-
Jackie Collins:
I snap pictures wherever I go. I’m doing a book called Hollywood Snaps and I’m opening it with, my sister at one point was engaged to Warren Beatty, and so I was like 15 and I was staying at the Chateau Marmont sleeping in Warren’s room because he was sleeping down in the suite with Joan. And I took these great photos of them, black and white photos of the two of them doing the three monkeys.
Christopher Rice:
Excellent.
Jackie Collins:
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. So I’m going to open the book Hollywood Snaps with that.
Christopher Rice:
Oh, wonderful.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Oh that’s perfect.
Christopher Rice:
We’re going to take a short break here on The Dinner Party Show, and then we will be back with more with Jackie Collins.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
So excited he can hardly speak.
Christopher Rice:
I’m so excited, I’m mumbling. We’re talking about all the TV shows we love, all the books we love, all the movies we’re ever going to see, ever. And we’ll be back here on The Dinner Party Show after this short break.
Announcer:
Tired of Dining Alone? Enjoy The Dinner Party Show with friends. Like us on Facebook and become one of our party people. Then during our live shows on Sundays at 8:00 PM Eastern, 5:00 PM Pacific, you can join the conversation and post questions for Christopher, Eric, and their guests. During the week, drop in for tasty side dishes, show updates and fun with the other party people. The Dinner Party Show, you are the life of our party.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
I’m Eric Shaw Quinn. And on behalf of everyone here at The Dinner Party Show, I’d like to congratulate my co-host Christopher Rice on the publication of his first full length erotic romance novel, The Surrender Gate. It’s the latest installment in his brand new series, The Desire Exchange, which began with his novella, The Flame last year. Both books are now on sale at thedinnerpartyshow.com. And if you buy them there, a portion of your sale supports the operation of this show. Congratulations, Christopher, and happy reading everyone. Sounds like you might want to read this one alone.
Announcer:
You are listening to The Dinner Party Show with Christopher Rice and Eric Shaw Quinn, where dessert is the most important meal of the day.
Christopher Rice:
Welcome back to The Dinner Party Show. I’m Christopher Rice.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
And I’m Eric Shaw Quinn, I almost forgot. I’m was thinking of my next question for Jackie.
Christopher Rice:
We are so excited about our guest, we are just losing ourselves. Jackie Collins is here. We’ve been talking about the TV shows that we love, the movies that impacted us, the books that we love.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
I would like to ask a question ’cause we were talking when we left off. We were talking about how influential The Godfather was on the way in which popular fiction and popular entertainment took kind of a new avenue. Recently, there has been a very new sort of development. I don’t know that it’s that new, but certainly much more popular development in and around women owning their sexuality, a great deal more. The 50 Shades of Gray as sort of, not necessarily as the flag bearer, but it is sort of the where it is around. I’m wondering, did Jackie Collins begin sort of this journey when she decided that the heroines of Sidney and Harold were just a little too housebound for her.
Jackie Collins:
I presume that she read Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. Those kind of books have been around forever. I remember when I was a kid going to the South of France on holiday. Yeah, Emanuel. I mean, Emanuel is sexier than anything that’s out there now. And I remember going to the South of France and they were banned in England. And so I would be in the South of France as a teenager, and they had this big bookstore there by a restaurant called Pam Pam. And I would get the books and I’d hide them in my suitcase and smuggle them back to London. And my father kept beside his bed in a brown paper wrapper, Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Yes. But I think this was kind of created by the media because The Today Show had two segments in a row about Shades, and they said, “mommy porn”. Now to me, mommy porn sounds totally disgusting.
Christopher Rice:
It is.
Jackie Collins:
I don’t like that.
Christopher Rice:
I’ve been working in romance and I have a lot of colleagues who just hate the term because they say what I’ve put into the book in terms of story and content is more than you’re going to find in your average porn film or porn story. And I have nothing against porn. I consume a fair amount of porn.
Jackie Collins:
Do you now, Christopher? Confessions of Christopher we’re getting, I like it.
Christopher Rice:
I tweet about that late at night while you’re tweeting about the TV shows, I tweet about the porn.
Jackie Collins:
Oh, I’ll be following you on Twitter now. I’m jackiejcollins on Twitter. You can follow me.
Christopher Rice:
Or maybe come up with a secret Tumblr name and then we can share pictures. But anyway, we also have a listener, Alan Fog on our Facebook page who said he’d never had to ask his parents about the birds and the bees because he read your books.
Jackie Collins:
I have had so many people say that to me. I’ve had so many people say to me, “Oh, you taught me everything I know about sex.” And I think my books were very sexual before women were writing about sex at all. They were writing about women going and having nervous breakdowns in Macy’s and things like that.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
That’s what I was-
Jackie Collins:
And shopping.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
That was what I was sort of teasing. Maybe it’s a rediscovery, but I think you’ve sort of reopened that door if you will, to say-
Jackie Collins:
My women have always been sexy. And as for role playing, in Hollywood divorces, there’s a lot of role playing. Because I think that’s really sexy. I think role playing is much more sexy than being tied up and beaten with a leather spatula or whatever.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Absolutely. That’s the sexy thing, a little game of, we’re going to be different characters because it’s sort of cheating on each other without cheating.
Jackie Collins:
Yeah, well I have these two gay friends and we would go away for the weekend to Santa Barbara or something just to have a nice weekend away. And I would say to them, we’d have dinner and I would say to them, “I’m going to give you your roles for tonight. Now you are going to be a postman and you are going to be the delivery guy.” Then they’d come down to breakfast the next morning very happy.
Christopher Rice:
Okay. I’m just going to say, you know how authors are always asked to give away prizes for various charities. I think you should give away that. You will come to your house and decide who’s going to be who-
Eric Shaw Quinn:
You will cast your role play-
Christopher Rice:
In the marriage, that night.
Jackie Collins:
Oh my gosh.
Christopher Rice:
No more naming characters in books for people. That’s what I would bid on in an auction.
Jackie Collins:
Things have changed, sexually. Very much so with Grindr, for instance. Another friend of mine, we were in a restaurant one night and we said, “Are you on Grindr?” A friend of mine from New York, a woman was in, and we said to him, “Are you on Grindr?” And he goes, “No, I’m not.” So we grabbed his phone, we put him on Grindr, right. Much to his fury, and up came this gorgeous black guy, fabulous looking guy. So we said, “Oh yeah, you’ve got to”, and the guy said, “I’m like 500 yards away.” So I hand the phone to show my friend from New York, and she looks at the picture and she goes, “Holy shit. That’s my chauffeur.” He was her driver sitting outside the restaurant.
Christopher Rice:
That’s fantastic.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
That’s brilliant. I love that.
Jackie Collins:
You can’t make up stories like that because they’re just so funny.
Christopher Rice:
Yeah. But we were talking about that idea, the term “mommy porn” doesn’t really seem to get at that idea.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
It’s dismissive.
Christopher Rice:
It’s not about women claiming their fantasies. It’s about demeaning them for having them.
Jackie Collins:
No, it’s not about women claiming their sexuality at all.
Christopher Rice:
Yeah, exactly. Right, right. Absolutely. Well, we have some more questions for you from our loyal listeners on the party line. We call them our party people. Let’s see what’s up first.
Caller 2:
Well, hello. This is Talika, the crazy cookie lady. I wanted to call and ask Jackie a question. I wanted to know if she ever actually had Joan as one of her characters in her books. All right, boys, take care. Love you guys. Bye.
Jackie Collins:
That is a very good question. And as a matter of fact, not only did I write about her in a book I wrote called The Stud, and that was followed up with The Bitch, and Aaron Spelling saw these movies because I wrote the books and I made the movies, and he saw these movies, and he said, “This character is a fabulous character.” Her name in the book was Fontaine Khaled. She was this fabulous jet set nymphomaniac married to a very rich man.
Christopher Rice:
Every boy’s dream.
Jackie Collins:
Every boy’s dream. And Aaron saw the character and turned her into it Alexis Carrington Colby, in which she was fabulous.
Christopher Rice:
Wow. Brilliant.
Jackie Collins:
But I always feel it was my character. I didn’t base it on Joan, but it had elements of Joan in the character.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Absolutely.
Jackie Collins:
So it was really fun.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
You knew what her strengths were.
Christopher Rice:
We were talking about this recently that you can go back and watch shows like Dynasty. Because of the sort of streaming revolution that we’re in. And Dynasty before Joan, was not really Dynasty, the show really didn’t become what it is.
Jackie Collins:
It took off when Joan came on. But the interesting thing about Dynasty was that they would follow my plot lines. As I wrote a new book, they would follow the plot lines on Dynasty. Where do you think Diahann Carroll came from? Lucky suddenly discovered she has a black brother, and then the next season on Dynasty, Alexis has a black sister.
Christopher Rice:
And you were okay with this, or was it-
Jackie Collins:
No. And then they brought on-
Christopher Rice:
Today this would be an epic lawsuit.
Jackie Collins:
I know. And then they brought on a sister for Joan who was a trashy novelist. And I said to Joan, “What the fuck?” And she said to me, “Oh, I have nothing to do with the writing.”
Christopher Rice:
Oh, I see. I see. That’s wonderful.
Jackie Collins:
But we are the best of friends. In fact, we went to the movies together today and she’s fantastic. She’s really a character.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Is she in town? She lives here as well?
Jackie Collins:
She’s in town. We’ve been out, I think 16 nights in a row. Her, me and her fabulous husband. I think he’s her fifth husband, but he’s the best one yet.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Oh well you know, you’re bound to get it right eventually.
Jackie Collins:
I know.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Practice makes perfect.
Jackie Collins:
No, he’s great.
Christopher Rice:
Another question from our party line. I think this is from one of our loyal listeners, Mr. Justin Simpson.
Caller 3:
Hi guys, this is Justin Simpson. I was so excited to hear that you were going to have Jackie Collins on the show. So Jackie, if you’re there, I just want to say hi. Thank you so much. You’ve been a real influence on me as a writer. If it were not for your book, Poor Little Bitch Girl, I probably wouldn’t have gotten back into reading and writing the way I did. So I just wanted to thank you for writing that. And on that note, I actually had a couple of questions regarding one of my favorite characters, Annabel Maestro. I like her so much. She really embodies to me what it means to be a celebrity in this day and age. And I think that’s why I like her so much. So my two questions regarding her were this. One, will you be writing any more books with Annabel Maestro? And two, just out of curiosity, if Annabel had not met Frankie, would she have still gone down the route of running a business of Call Girls, or would she have done something else? I’d love to know. Thank you so much.
Jackie Collins:
Oh, Justin. I love your questions and I’ll tell you why I love them so much because Annabel is back in The Santangelos. And you’ll see what happened to her-
Eric Shaw Quinn:
This June.
Jackie Collins:
Yes. This June. June the 16th. Anabel is back with a vengeance, and Frankie is back too. I brought back a lot of old favorites in The Santangelos, and I think everybody is going to be pleased about this because they’ll find out what happened to them. But thank you so much. You sound adorable.
Christopher Rice:
I think you just made Justin’s day.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Absolutely.
Christopher Rice:
And that’s it. Now we just get to talk to you because those were all the questions we allowed in from our party line.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
To hell with them. So now it’s just all about us.
Jackie Collins:
Oh, all about us. Okay.
Christopher Rice:
Now it’s just all about us. But people are asking us on the Facebook page, where do you get your inspiration from? And it sounds like you just sort of look around you. You live in Hollywood. This is where you are.
Jackie Collins:
Before I lived in Hollywood, my husband owned nightclubs in London. He owned a nightclub, which was very famous called the Ad Lib, where all the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton used to hang out. So I would watch all of that. And then he owned a club called Dolly’s, and then he owned Tramp, which is still in the news today. Something happened there the other day, I can’t remember. Oh yeah, I think it was Prince Edward was there or something.
Anyway, I would sit there and watch what goes on, and you would be amazed what goes on in nightclubs. And then we opened Tramp in Los Angeles, and then I really got to see, because you have everybody from the sports stars, to the movie stars, to the singing stars, to the drug dealers, because the singing stars will bring in the drug dealers. And although it’s an exclusive club, it’s a huge star saying, “You got to do me a favor and give this guy a membership”. And so it all spiraled out of control. We left it after a year, but the things that I saw, that was one source of inspiration. But I came to Hollywood when I was 15 and I saw so much then. I was thrown out of school, came to Hollywood, met this group of girls, who very interesting.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
I love that you were thrown out of school.
Christopher Rice:
And you were thrown out of school for truancy, is that it?
Jackie Collins:
Oh, no. I was thrown out for waving at the resident flasher. And what is good about this story is, I have a goddaughter who called me up the day other day, and she said, “Jackie, I just got flashed.” And I said, “Well, that’s nothing new. Everybody gets flashed.” She said, “No, no. You don’t understand. I was walking out of my apartment and this guy comes up to me with a cell phone and he said, can you help me with my phone?” And she said, “I took his phone and there were the crown jewels in my face.” So it’s flashing by phone.
Christopher Rice:
It’s the modern flashing.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Flashing in the 21st Century.
Christopher Rice:
It’s the new digital flashing.
Jackie Collins:
Yes, I know.
Christopher Rice:
Digital flashing, you heard it here first folks.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
But there’s no way, that’s so hard to verify. That could just be anybody’s picture.
Christopher Rice:
He could be showing anybody’s crown jewels.
Jackie Collins:
Oh well of course, yes. And we see enough of them. It could be Anthony Wiener.
Christopher Rice:
Yeah, right.
Jackie Collins:
You never know.
Christopher Rice:
But, back in the days of traditional flashing, you waved back at the resident flasher.
Jackie Collins:
Yes. I waved back at him. I also played truant most days to go to the movies because I was crazy about Hollywood. And I think I was caught smoking in my school uniform more than once. And then I decided, my parents actually said to me, and this is the title of my autobiography, “Reform School or Hollywood”, and I thought for a few minutes and I said, “You know what? I think I’ll take Hollywood.” Because Joan was making movies with Harry Belafonte, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward. She was doing really well. People know Joan from Dynasty, but she had a huge career before Dynasty.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
A long time.
Jackie Collins:
She does a one woman show, which is spectacular because she shows all the clips from all these movies that she did with Bette Davis and people like that. It’s amazing.
Christopher Rice:
That’s wonderful. So really the choice was Reform School or Hollywood.
Jackie Collins:
Which would you take, Christopher?
Christopher Rice:
I think I would take Hollywood. I think I would.
Jackie Collins:
And so I did.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Do we know anybody who would pick Reform School?
Christopher Rice:
Well, what I was thinking when I was listening to the story is that the Jackie Collins today, they would try to medicate you and put you in therapy for all those things.
Jackie Collins:
Oh, probably. Who knows?
Christopher Rice:
And I still hope you would escape to Hollywood in that scenario as well. Hollywood or, you know.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
But what was going on at that household? You all have become remarkable women. What was happening at home that inspired you to become the sorts of people that you all are?
Jackie Collins:
Well, my father was a very, very handsome, very macho man. Bit of a chauvinist, and I’m sure he was very unfaithful all the time. And my mother was a beautiful blonde, very soft, kind woman who was a stay-at-home mom, but we were a show business family. So I went to a very proper girl’s school. But they never said to me, “Do you have homework? Do you want to go to one of those parties? Should we come and see the headmistress?” They couldn’t care less. So I couldn’t care less. So I buried myself in books. So that was my part of it. I think Joan just wanted to get to Hollywood and make movies-
Eric Shaw Quinn:
And be a star.
Jackie Collins:
Yeah. So she was off to Hollywood when she was like 20, and I was still in school thinking, why can’t I go there too? So I think I worked on getting myself expelled so I could follow her.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
So that’s why the choice was Hollywood or Reform School. It was the showbiz influence from home. So there were parties at the house? It was a sort of wild environment?
Jackie Collins:
Yeah, there were a lot of parties. Our house was always full when I was growing up with actors and singers and musicians and jugglers. And then I went out.
Christopher Rice:
Jugglers. Wow.
Jackie Collins:
Well, my father was a variety agent. I went actually out on the road when I was 16 and compered a variety show right across England. I was the compere. I would have to come on and introduce everybody. What do you call it in America? What is a compere?
Christopher Rice:
I guess the host, or the majordomo
Eric Shaw Quinn:
MC-
Jackie Collins:
I was the host of the show. There I was 16 years old, going out and going, and now we have-
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Presenting the-
Jackie Collins:
“Mrs Shufflewick, who’s a fabulous comedian.” It was crazy.
Christopher Rice:
That’s fantastic.
So this is all going into the autobiography I assume?
Jackie Collins:
Oh, yes. Absolutely.
Christopher Rice:
And when can we expect this? I know the next Lucky book is in June.
Jackie Collins:
I’m writing two books at the once now. I’m writing Flynn, who was in The Power Trip, and women love Flynn. He’s just like a real macho, fabulous guy. The book was The Power Trip, and it was a yacht filled with famous people that gets pirated, owned by a Russian billionaire and his supermodel girlfriend. It is a Jackie Collins book after all.
Christopher Rice:
After all. Yes. I’m in.
Jackie Collins:
So there’s a cheating politician. There’s a black football star, there’s a gay South American singing star and his horrible English boyfriend, all based on real people. There’s a 50-something movie star with his 22-year-old waitress girlfriend. So they’re all having this fabulous cruise. And then they get pirated by Somali pirates. Flynn saves the day. Flynn is a fabulous journalist who really doesn’t want to be there, but the Russian, he’d done a favor for the Russian, and he’d just seen his friend blown up in Afghanistan. So he decided he would go on the trip just to relax and ended up saving them all.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
And ended up being pirated by Somalian pirates.
Jackie Collins:
So now I’m writing about him again because he’s just such a sexy, dynamic character. And I don’t know what he’s going to do next, but I know it’s good.
Christopher Rice:
As we already talked about, you never know. You like to just go in.
Jackie Collins:
I never know.
Christopher Rice:
You’re in the writing conferences they would call you a pantser, you do by the seat of your pants as opposed to having an outline.
Jackie Collins:
Exactly.
Christopher Rice:
I love that. And do you write every day? I have to ask that.
Jackie Collins:
I write every day.
Christopher Rice:
Every day?
Jackie Collins:
Every day.
Christopher Rice:
Every day of the week. Holidays, July 4th, Christmas?
Jackie Collins:
Yeah. If I can, if I’m not going anywhere. My life is really very much about my work and my family. My family comes first, my work comes second, but I love what I do. I have a passion for it. And I’ll 106 sitting there writing, and then-
Christopher Rice:
We hope.
Jackie Collins:
“He ripped off her clothes.” Oh yeah, because I love what I do, and I try to encourage writers too, as I’m sure your mom does. I’m always saying to people, “If you want to write, don’t talk about it. Do it.” and they find this very encouraging. And I find that-
Christopher Rice:
Because there’s a lot of, as great as the internet is for writers and for all of us, there’s a lot of discouraging information on the internet. There are a lot of people making lists of things you have to do to be a writer or things you’re doing wrong.
Jackie Collins:
Oh, please.
Christopher Rice:
And I think if you’re in a doubtful early period of your development as a writer, you can attach to that stuff too strongly-
Eric Shaw Quinn:
It’s so easy to become discouraged-
Christopher Rice:
And become discouraged. Plays into your fears.
Jackie Collins:
What made you want to write?
Christopher Rice:
They wouldn’t let me act, really. I went away to college and I auditioned for everything, and I didn’t get a single call back. And in high school, I had been the theater guy, and I said, “Writing is something nobody can stop me from doing. You can take the stage away from me. You cannot allow me on this stage. But I can go to this stage in my head.”
Jackie Collins:
I’m going to Tweet that tomorrow.
Christopher Rice:
I’m pointing to my head, people at home. So that was really how I started. But I truly thought I’d never write a novel. I thought I would write screenplays or plays, something that I would try to get back to-
Jackie Collins:
Was that because you were intimidated by your mom?
Christopher Rice:
Yes, absolutely.
Jackie Collins:
See, I have a daughter who’s written a wonderful novel called Playing Along. Rory Samantha Lerman. And she self-published because she happened to give it to an agent, and it was bought out at the time that they said chick-lit is over. Forget about it. So she got the most beautiful rejection letters that I’ve ever seen. “This book is going to be huge. This book is this and this”-
Christopher Rice:
But we can’t publish it as-
Jackie Collins:
“But we can’t publish it at this moment because our team doesn’t feel that those books are selling anymore.” But I feel so bad for her. And I was having dinner the other night with Julie Andrews, another name drop, and she said her daughter has done the same thing, self-published. And Rory’s done very well with her book.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
The world of publishing is changing so much.
Jackie Collins:
Absolutely.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
If the traditional publishing houses aren’t interested, there’s no reason for that to be a barrier between you and-
Jackie Collins:
And one of the things that I’ve done is I’ve taken all my early books, which I still hold the e-rights to, and I’ve done it myself.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Good for you.
Jackie Collins:
And they’re doing fantastically, everything from the World is Full of Married Men, which was my first book, to Hollywood Kids, to Chances, and it’s so much fun because I get to design the cover myself. I work with my assistant, and she sources out fabulous covers, and it’s just great fun.
Christopher Rice:
You have a degree of control that’s unheard or ten years ago, it would’ve felt like, you would’ve thought, oh, I don’t want that degree of control. But then when you get it, you’re like, oh, I can actually make all these decisions. I don’t have to be stuck with a horrible cover that’s about appeasing a certain segment of a sales force I’ve never met.
Jackie Collins:
Exactly. Exactly.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Yeah. With the Digital Revolution, content is king.
Christopher Rice:
It really is.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Or queen.
Christopher Rice:
Totally.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Or, Queen.
Christopher Rice:
Or this queen. He pointed to me, Dinner Party Show.
Jackie Collins:
Yeah. No it’s true.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
It really has given the writer so much more access to his own juju, his own sort of mojo, or whatever you want to call it. You can create your own sort of world and environment. And it’s nice if publishers want to go along-
Christopher Rice:
There are these prejudices about the-
Eric Shaw Quinn:
E.L. James has gotten publishing now-
Christopher Rice:
Oh, yeah. That’s a classic example.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
But she was a huge hit before anybody ever-
Christopher Rice:
It was called Master of the Universe, and it was selling well, and I had friends who were waiting for the next installment to appear on the site of this Australian digital publisher so they could download it and read it in one night. But it is a great leveler for the prejudices that develop among the executives and the agents and the editors, where they start to believe things about the audience that aren’t really true. And they never see the women. That’s what we’re seeing with 50 Shades. We saw it with the first Sex and the City movie. They were both these explosive hits. And you’ve got this huge audience out there that is starved for good, juicy stuff. And then when you do make it for them, it explodes.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
And the executives always act like, well, this is such a fluke. And it’s like, no, not really. Actually, women buy books, and read, and go to the movies, and any other-
Jackie Collins:
Well, that’s because most of the studio executives are male. They’re usually in their forties, and they’re usually got into the business to get laid. So, there you go.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
One of my favorite Hollywood stories is about a producer who every time he broke up with his girlfriend, he would send out the casting call for his type, and then he would literally audition the new girlfriend.
Jackie Collins:
The casting couch is alive and well and living in Hollywood, very heftily. People say, “Oh, that didn’t…” Actresses will say, “Oh, I never saw the casting couch.” Meanwhile, they’ve slept with everybody on their way up.
Christopher Rice:
Right.
Jackie Collins:
It’s true.
Christopher Rice:
Now, I heard you say once in an interview that you had a book of secrets somewhere. And only you knew where the key was.
Jackie Collins:
Oh, the book of secrets.
Christopher Rice:
Or maybe one other person knew where the key was, and if anything bad ever happened to you, they would be able to take that. It sounded like the plot of a Jackie Collins novel. But you were saying it by your pool. I think you were being interviewed by E! and I thought, that is a brilliant plan.
Jackie Collins:
I think I should definitely publish it one of these days
Eric Shaw Quinn:
When you just don’t give a damn about what anybody thinks-
Jackie Collins:
Exactly.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Or when they’re all dead.
Outlive them all and then publish.
Jackie Collins:
Oh, yes. Exactly. I know. That’d be good.
Christopher Rice:
I could do this all night, but we have only a few minutes left. I literally, we could have done a two… You must come back.
Jackie Collins:
I would love to come back.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Yeah. When The Santangelos is coming up in June.
Jackie Collins:
I would love to come back.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
We can talk about that.
Jackie Collins:
That would be great.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Get all kinds of-
Jackie Collins:
In June. Yes.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
June is busting out all over with Santangelos. Yes, absolutely. That would be wonderful. Or any other time you damn well feel about-
Christopher Rice:
If you’re in the neighborhood, just come on over on a Sunday night.
Jackie Collins:
Well, I must say you guys are fantastic. We’ve had tea, sandwiches, fabulous cookies. Cup of tea and I had a Cointreau on the rocks, which was delightful.
Christopher Rice:
Excellent. Eric Shaw Quinn bakes our cookies. Our good friend Bobby Lee makes our finger sandwiches.
Jackie Collins:
The finger sandwiches are to die for, they’re so good.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Yeah, Tiny Kitchens is his, the caterer.
Jackie Collins:
But it’s so nice of you to have actual food for people when they come here.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
It’s a dinner party, but you know we’re on the air, so we didn’t want turkey legs or something. Nobody wants to listen to that, but we thought little finger sandwiches and little cookies-
Jackie Collins:
Well you guys are so much fun to talk to and I really enjoyed it.
Christopher Rice:
You make it easy.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
You’re an inspiration.
Jackie Collins:
Thank you so much.
Christopher Rice:
Absolutely. Well, next week we will be joined by Heather Graham. The novelist, not Heather Graham, the actress.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Unless she wants to come by too. Which would be fine with us.
Christopher Rice:
That would be fine. Heather Graham has published over a hundred books. I don’t know how she did it, but we’re going to find out.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
I can’t even imagine.
Christopher Rice:
And it will be a topic show and we will be discussing how to age passionately, not gracefully, but passionately.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Absolutely.
Christopher Rice:
How to keep the fire alive after writing a hundred books. Until then, we want to thank our guest tonight, Jackie Collins, thank you so much for coming.
Jackie Collins:
Thank you so much.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
Thank you so much.
Jackie Collins:
I had fun. Really.
Christopher Rice:
I’m Christopher Rice.
Eric Shaw Quinn:
And I’m Eric Shaw Quinn.
Jackie Collins:
And I’m Jackie Collins.
Christopher Rice:
And she will be coming back to The Dinner Party Show.
Jackie Collins:
I’ll be back.
Christopher Rice:
Goodnight.
The Dinner Party Show with Christopher Rice & Eric Shaw Quinn podcast
