Fox News Flash top entertainment headlines of November 8
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Joan Collins isn’t keeping her lips sealed when it comes to her on-screen lover.
The "Dynasty" star has written a new memoir, "Behind the Shoulder Pads: Tales I Tell My Friends" in which she kisses and tells about her decades-long career in Hollywood.
In it, she details working alongside "Dynasty" co-star Michael Nader, who played Farnsworth "Dex" Dexter on the hit nighttime soap. His character was the third husband of Collins’ Alexis Carrington Colby.
"Michael loved kissing scenes," the actress gushed to Fox News Digital about the late star, who died in 2021 at age 76.
Joan Collins told Fox News Digital "Dynasty" co-star Michael Nader loved filming kissing scenes. (ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
"At one point, he was so enthusiastic, he bit my lip and drew blood," she recalled. "The blood was trickling down. I said, ‘You drew blood, Michael.’ He said, ‘No, it’s lipstick.’ "I said, ‘That’s a color I would never wear.’"
In her tell-all, Collins wrote that Nader got "carried away by the passion" during "an amazing love scene." He kissed her so forcefully that when he bit her lip, blood was smudged on both of their chins.
The rough smooching didn’t go beyond the set, Collins insisted.
Despite the sizzling on-screen chemistry between Michael Nader and Joan Collins, the actress insisted it was purely platonic. (ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
"Despite some ribbing from several of the cast and crew that our relationship was more than friendship, Michael was married, and I was married, so it was purely platonic," Collins wrote. "However, on the set, it sizzled! I loved our scenes in the bath together where I would be covered in soapsuds protecting the bare necessities. When the director yelled ‘cut!' Michael would try to scrape the suds off me, but it was all done in good fun."
Collins and Nader starred on "Dynasty" until the show’s finale in 1989. Now 90, she played Alexis for eight of its nine seasons.
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"I loved Michael," Collins told Fox News Digital. "I thought he was great. I was very sad when he died. We had loads of laughs. I have so many wonderful memories. My favorite memory was when he stood in front of me, and he was telling me seriously how much he loved Alexis. He then took off his shirt and he was wearing a white WonderBra. That wasn’t [in the series], of course. That was in one of the outtakes. But he made me laugh so much."
Linda Evans (left) and Joan Collins fighting in the Carrington lily pond during season 3 of "Dynasty." (ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
While Collins was all for lip-locking, she wasn’t a fan of her legendary fight scenes opposite co-star Linda Evans (Krystle Carrington).
"I’m not a fighter," Collins explained. "I don’t believe in fighting. I don’t believe in violence at all. I wasn’t brought up with it. My parents never allowed me to see any movies in which there was violence. I think there’s too much violence in the world. And I just didn’t like it.
"But we did it," she added. "And it was popular. I got on with it. It was part of the job, so I did it. Well, I didn’t do all of it. I had a stand-in, a double, to do a lot of it. I remember when Gene Kelly gave me some advice when I first went to Hollywood. He said, ‘Don’t do your own stunts, honey. You’re putting a stunt gal out of work, and you could get hurt.' He then cited some examples of actors who have done their own stunts and got seriously hurt. He was a very wise man."
Joan Collins is kissing and telling in a new memoir, "Behind the Shoulder Pads." (Permuted Press)
In the book, Collins said she filmed the famous lily pond scene in which Krystle pushes Alexis into it.
"Because the director didn’t know how many takes would be required, wardrobe made four identical frocks – each more hideous than the last," Collins wrote. "It was very unusual to see these limp rags hanging in my dressing room, as the quality of my costumes had always been first-rate.
"As the dress material was so cheap and the wardrobe department hastily slung each dress into the dryer after each take, naturally all the polyester garments shrunk. They came out two sizes smaller and shriveled. After four takes, we ran out of fresh dresses, so for the close-ups in the pool, I had to squeeze myself into a frock that would fit an eight-year-old."
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Michael Nader died in 2021 at age 76. (ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
Collins insisted that while she doesn’t do stunts, that scene was all her.
"When [Linda] pushed me and I went flying into the lily pond and my hat flew off, that was me," Collins boasted. "It was difficult keeping our footing because it was slimy. But Linda and I were used to all this by now. And it was a bit of a laugh, really."
Collins appeared in the 1991 miniseries "Dynasty: The Reunion." She previously turned down a role in "The Colbys," a "Dynasty" spinoff. In the book, Collins wrote that she was "loyal" to "Dynasty" and didn’t want fans to get confused.
"The Colbys," which starred Charlton Heston, Stephanie Beacham and Barbara Stanwyck, ran for two seasons from 1985 to 1987.
From left: Linda Evans (Krystle), John Forsythe (Blake) and Joan Collins (Alexis) in the glitzy '80s soap opera "Dynasty." (Bob DAmico/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
Collins, who still has great love for Alexis, said it always felt good to be bad.
"I love her," said Collins. "I think she’s a great character. During the COVID lockdown, we pulled out an old box set of ‘Dynasty’ and started to watch it because I hadn’t watched a lot of the episodes. … I was fascinated by her. I think she was right to go on a vendetta against [her ex-husband] Blake Carrington (John Forsythe). He was a horrible man. And a lot of people have realized that now.
"And I think some of the fashion was great," she chuckled. "Some of it was very stylish and sexy, and there were a few outfits that were a bit over the top."
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Joan Collins still has great love for Alexis and her fashion. (ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
Collins was so convincing as Alexis, many fans have wondered if she was just as vicious when cameras stopped rolling.
"I was sad for them," she admitted. "It was sad for me, too. Because one is an actor. If you play a murderer, an ax murderer or a serial killer, which so many actors do today, are you that character? I don’t want to be immodest, but I was very good at playing Alexis. I think I inhabited that character. And I think that’s why a lot of people feel that Joan is Alexis, and Alexis is Joan. But I’m not. If anything, I wish I’d been more like Alexis.
Joan Collins attends a party in London June 21, 2023. (Karwai Tang/WireImage)
"I enjoyed her," Collins shared. "I enjoyed all the scenes. I relished them, and I thought they were really good. And I’m glad that I contributed to the success of ‘Dynasty.’ … And I don’t really think about misconceptions [people have of me]. There are so many keyboard warriors. I never read the comments.
"I don’t Google myself. I have no interest in what people’s perceptions of me are. I know I have a core group of fans and people who love me. That’s the only thing that matters.
"It doesn’t matter if you’re Mother Theresa. People will always have something bad to say about you."
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