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| Jackie Collins was born in London. Her father was a theatrical booking agent and intended both daughters to go into the theatre. Jackie and Joan grew around the enterteinment business and they both were encouraged toward acting career. But when Joan Collins established herself as a star in Hollywood, Jackie found her talents in popular fiction. However, her novels THE STUD (1969) and its sequel, THE BITCH (1979), were later made into films starring her famous sister, and CHANCES (1981) and LUCKY (1985) have been made into television mini-series. The Stud and The Bitch were British-based novels, but later the scene changed from the clubs and discos of London to California. In The Stud the narrator says, "Yeah, I'm very popular now, everyone wants to know me. Funny thing isn't it? I'm the same guy, talk in the same voice, the clothes are a little more expensive, but that's about the only difference. You wouldn't believe it though, the ladies practically fight to climb in the sack with me. You would think I was doing them a big favor, and listen, they way things have been going I think I am!" Collins started to write at the age of eight. During a rebellious adolescence she was expelled from school at fifteen. In 1959 she married Wallace Austin - they divorced in 1963. In 1966 she married Oscar Lerman. Like her sister, she went to Los Angeles in search of a film career. In 1968 she made her first bestseller, THE WORLD IS FULL OF MARRIED MEN, achieving overnight success. At the time of the publication the book was considered shocking because of its sexual content. "It's a nasty book, filthy and disgusting" said Barbara Cartland, famous for her popular romantic fiction, and continued: "I hardly slept after reading it." In Australia the book was banned. Since the 1960s Collins has steadily published romance fiction- the manuscripts she had done by hand instead of typing. After the death of Jacqueline Susan, author of Valley of the Dolls, Collins followed her as the "Queen of Trash Lit" - or the soap operatic romance with much sex. "I write very raunchy books, but they have a good moral in them," has Collins said in an interview. The French film director Louis Malle called her once a "raunchy moralist". Collins has described herself as "an insider who can write like an outsider about the inside". Though the formula is still the same as at the beginning of her career, Collins's stories from the glamorous world of Hollywood are immensely popular. Collins's style is fast-paced and draws on her own or her sister's experiences in the film industry. During the years, the quality of her writing has improved, scenes with sex or drug abuse are closely woven into the plot, and the novels have much greater depth of characterization. Collins has also uses tongue-in-cheek humour - there are characters like Dick Cockranger. In HOLLYWOOD HUSBANDS (1986) Collins covered the sinful lives of the rich and famous, who cruise the town in Ferraris and Rolls Royces. The central male characters are three friends - Jack Python, one of the most famous talk show hosts in America, Howard Soloman, the head of Orpheus Studios, and Mannon Calble, movie star, director, producer, hot property - "in Hollywood when you're hot you're hot - when you're not you may as well be dead". They have gone through expensive divorces and a number of affairs but the competition becomes serious when Jade Johnson enters the scene. "Jade Johnson was twenty-nine years old. She had shoulder-length shaggy copper hair, gold-flecked, widely spaced brown eyes, a full and luscious mouth, and a strong, square jaw that saved her from being merely beautiful, and made her face challenging and alert." THE HOLLYWOOD KIDS (1994) focused on the spoiled, aimless children of the rich, powerful, and famous. HOLLYWOOD WIVES (1983) was made into a television mini-series. Collins's FAMOUS series heroine is Lucky Santangelo, who appeared first in CHANCES (1981), in which Collins established the family feud between the Bonnattis and the Santangelos. Lucky's adventures continued in LUCKY (1985), in which she was married three times, LADY BOSS (1989), depicting how she became the head of Panther Studios, and VENDETTA (1996), in which she struggled with her arch-enemy, the Bonnatti family, and got back her kidnapped husband Lennie Golden, the handsome Hollywood writer-director. DANGEROUS KISS (1999) developed further the saga of the street-smart Lucky. "Well, to me, Jackie's Hollywood is the 60's with money," wrote Michiko Kakutani in his review of the book (The New York Times, June 15, 1999) "Free love still reigns in Jackie Land: people are still having promiscuous sex with many anonymous partners without protection, while at the same time experimenting with mind-expanding drugs in a consequence-free environment." In the story Lucky's supermodel goddaughter, Brigette Stanislopoulosis, is raped and force-fed heroin by her vicious Italian husband Carlo. But this is not all: her sister-in-law, the actress Mary Lou Berkeley, is murdered in a carjacking. LETHAL SEDUCTION (2000) and DEADLY EMBRACE (2002) dealt with the loves and sins of the dangerous Castelli family. Madison Castelli's father, Michael, is accused of a double murder, and Madison's wonderful, sexy boyfriend is missing. Madison herself was first introduced in the L.A. Connections series. She is a well-respected journalist, "who specialized in insightful profiles of the rich, famous, and powerful." In Deadly Embrace Collins doesn't waste time in starting the action. Already on the page four three men burst into a restaurant, where Madison is sitting with her friend, and one of the men shouts: "Don'tcha move, assholes, or I'll blow your mothafuckin' heads off." |
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