THE 25TH BEST-SELLING SHOCKER
It’s hard to accept the fact that my British friend, Jackie Collins has produced 24 New York Times bestsellers that have sold more than 400 million copies in over 40 countries.
Now comes her 25th—Drop Dead Beautiful—and this weekend she’ll launch it here because her latest tale of sex, lies, scandal and intrigue, with signature heroine Lucky Santangelo, is set right here in Vegas with the opening of a new casino and luxury high-rise condo complex known as The Keys. Just how up-to-the minute can she get?
It all began back in 1968 with The World is Full of Married Men and literally every year since then she’s turned out a new steamy sizzler. Jackie will do the first-book-signing at the Range steakhouse in Harrah’s from 1-3 p.m. on Saturday, and then have a VIP Q&A with a meet and greet cocktail reception starting at 7 p.m. in the Improv Theater at Harrah’s.
Said Don Marrandino, Harrah’s President: “Without question, Vegas has become the exciting playground for the rich and famous—as you well know, Robin. So it’s the perfect setting for her latest book. She is a true literary icon, and we are delighted to celebrate this impressive milestone with her and host the launch of her new novel.”
I’d hoped to MC the event for her, but because of a birthday conflict in Laguna Nagel I had to do my Luxe Life interview for you with her in advance. So from her Beverly Hills mansion, here’s the full transcript of our early morning chat over a pot of English tea:
RL: You must even scratch your head and wonder why this success has lasted so long.
JC: You know Robin; I think it is because I am doing something I am totally passionate about. Time just goes by, but who gives a sh*t. I never really think about that. I am so enthused about what I do. I have already started the next book and I love my characters and I love writing about them.
RL: So they do continue on even after this new 25th book?
JC: I think I will bring back Lucky’s daughters, Max and Bobby, they are too delicious not to. They are two interesting characters and I love them.
RL: Jackie, you live with a family like this, so intimately over a period of time. Are they real to you, do they become real to you?
JC: Oh yeah, they absolutely have. Lucky is a character that I know so well. Women love her, because she does all the things they would love to do and don’t have the courage to do, and she does say all the things they would like to say. So I could live with her and Gino, I can see Gino as this old guy and I can see Bobby. Yeah I live with them. I know them all intimately.
RL: Let me ask you a funny question. You and I in our age perspective look at modern Hollywood with the behavior and antics of Paris, Britney, and Lindsay. We did not have this when we were younger. You then say to yourself, ‘you know, Hollywood scriptwriters could not write this.’ So how do you as a writer stay ahead with the antics in your book?
JC: Yeah well, here is the thing. I think the only reason it is much more attention-getting today is the paparazzi and cell phone cameras. We have cell phone pictures of stars snorting coke, scraping knives across their throats in pseudo lesbian S&M orgies. We have all of these pictures that are taken and all of these people selling stories to blogs on the Internet. There is nothing you can do that is not going to get attention. I think that you were probably just as wild when you were their age; I know I was.
RL: We weren’t this wild.
JC: Speak for yourself. I came to Hollywood when I was 15, and I was a wild one.
RL: So you don’t think that today’s behavior is any worse than it’s been - it is just more in the public view?
JC: I think it is just more in the public eye. These girls are attention-getters. I think they want it. Britney knows she is going to be photographed and she is crawling through her car with her backside in your face with or without underwear. Did you see the pictures? Maybe she was annoyed that Paris got all the headlines.
RL: When you sit and write Is it a tougher challenge to say, ‘how do I shock more than what is in real life?’
JC: No, I have never written to shock. I enjoy my characters. Now for instance, in Lovers and Players, which is my previous book, there is a character called Birdie Marble, and if you read Birdie she is very like these girls and you can capture it without shocking people. If they are shocked, so what, but I don’t write with the intention of putting in some drug scene or sex scene and shocking people. I write the stories I want to write, the characters I want to write. I think that is why I made Lucky to be successful for so long. I am not making up stuff, I am writing what I see and I am changing names to protect the not so innocent.
RL: You are still the confidant to everyone in Beverly Hills and Hollywood?
JC: They do tell me a lot of stuff.
RL: Are you still told more surprising things that we don’t know and you can’t touch because it is too hot to handle?
JC: Yeah, I am told things all the time. I don’t even ask, they tell me. The limo drivers, the hairdressers, the makeup artists. They know everything; who’s the diva, and who is screwing whom. It will just come out of the blue. Stuff that never makes the papers, but I know it. The producers, the directors they all tell me stuff.
RL: Nothing surprises you.
JC: No. You know everything too. Information just comes to you.
RL: The reason I ask that is because I don’t think that we would have seen a star sprawled drunk in a gas station. There were insiders back then and people that kept it quiet.
JC: Today though, the reason that picture is even being seen is they were following her every step. It is a shame. I look at what is going on and I am not that surprised. It is the stuff that is happening with Paris that’s an absolute disgrace. They are treating her like the most famous girl in the world. I think she is getting the rotten end of the stick anyways.
When Phil Specter is allowed to go to court in a Rolls Royce chauffeur driven limo, and he is accused of murder, and she is accused of driving on a suspended license. What about the Mel Gibson driving mess? They are really beating her up just to show that they’re doing their job for once. She’s just too easy of a target to attack.
RL: Let’s jump to Vegas. This is the first time you have adventures in Vegas. What has changed in Vegas that made you pick it?
JC: Vegas right now is where it is. It is bigger, better, great restaurants, great shopping, and you have both ends of the spectrum; you can go to some sleazy whorehouse or you can go to the best strip club in the world. It has everything. It’s very sexy and the gambling is seductive. I love to gamble. I wrote about Vegas in the first Santangelo where I created the hotel called the Mirage way before Steve Wynn, thank you.
RL: Did Steve ever acknowledge it?
JC: No, and now I cannot mention it because now it exists. That was the first hotel that Gino built with Bugsy Seigel.
RL: So you had to change the name?
JC: I didn’t change it, I just don’t mention it. He built another hotel called the Majoriano, so I use that. I wanted to bring Lucky back to Vegas; she owns a movie studio, and this is the 6th book about her, and I just thought, ‘what do I want to do with Lucky now?’
On the website, people are always saying, ‘bring back Lucky!’ Nicollette Sheridan played her in the series I produced. So I thought, ‘I am going to bring her back to Vegas, Vegas is so hot now and she is going to build the hottest hotel complex that Vegas has ever seen.’
RL: Vegas has always been a backyard playground for folks in Hollywood, why now more than ever before?
JC: I think that young Hollywood comes all the time to Vegas, which they didn’t for awhile, and now they do come to party. It is like spring break for the girls all year long - they come to party at the pools, and they are here, there, at every nightclub and restaurant - and they even go to the boxing matches.
RL: So a different era from the rat pack days?
JC: They were partying hard, too, but in a different way. This is a younger element who really feel they can come here to Vegas, and they believe that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. I’ve just completed a treatment for a new TV drama series called Rich Girls for the American Idol people, and the idea is that we do it in some 10 other countries in different languages with different casts all at the same time.
The interest in young rich headline-girls at play in Hollywood and Vegas is a worldwide phenomenon. Drop Dead, for instance, is already the #1 best-seller in Australia.
RL: I think there are no rules here, so it is more forgiving.
JC: It is more forgiving. I think people love to have the glamour. It is a Disneyland for adults. I know when I come to Vegas, I can see the glam side of Vegas and all of that, but I can also sit in one of the hotel lobbies and watch real life America pass me by.
RL: While you were organizing the book, did you come and immerse yourself in Vegas as part of your research?
JC: I did come and spend a few weekends there. I like to watch. I went to some restaurants and shops and went to a few shows. Also I have seen a lot of TV about Vegas. I like the Ryan Seacrest program, Paradise City. I always come back and forth to Vegas. I just love it. It is just fun. Everything ceases to exist when you are in Vegas. I just came back from Australia, and when you talk about Vegas there, it is the place they want to go more than any other place in America. It is the same way with Hollywood. They are both magical worlds.
RL: Except Vegas is tangible. You can’t really put your arms around Hollywood.
JC: You can put your arms around Vegas, it is the Strip. It is a physical thing.
RL: What do you think about the changes? If you were in Hollywood when you were 15, you must have been in Vegas before you were 21.
JC: I was, and it has changed considerably; more hotels, more glamour, bigger structures, the fabulous restaurants, the chefs and the shopping.
RL: Play philosopher for a moment, but using the context of the books. How has life overall changed and are we dangerously near an implosion of Sodom and Gomorrah? Deterioration of morals and conduct? Your characters are characters, but they are mirror images of real life.
JC: The mirror images that we see are what is thrust upon us, not what is really going on. You take an actress like Mandy Moore. She has done great things, she has made CD’s and movies and she is a really pretty girl who lives a clean life. She is not in the headlines. There are people out there not getting the headlines, but they are living normal lives. It is a minority who are getting all the headlines. They are not shaping my life, so people shouldn’t let them shape their’s. They, however, are the ones who sell the papers, or the tabloids would not be doing this. The tabloids are a sad situation. You saw how truly close Brad and Angelina were at the Ocean’s Thirteen premiere—but for the past few months, there have been front-page covers that say they are breaking up, he is running back to Jen, secret meeting with Jen. It is all bullsh*t. The tabloids make these things up. I want to write a book about an editor and reporter at a tabloid.
RL: That would be an interesting one. Maybe Lucky should own one and deliberately put it out of business.
JC: Ooooh…that is a good idea. I like that. I have an optimistic view of the world. If you want to believe these girls rule the world, you have a pessimistic view of the world. I don’t think they do. I think they are simply having their 15 minutes of notoriety.
RL: Jackie, how do you physically write a book, what is the birthing time and do you do type or write with pen on a pad?
JC: I use my computer a lot, but not for writing. I like to write in longhand. I always have and I always will. I have a black felt pen, and a yellow legal pad. I can write anywhere. I use my computer for iPhoto and iTunes, and so I can keep up on all of the tabloid papers. Writing to me is something very personal and I like to write in longhand, and at the end I have all the pages bound and leathered for my bookcase. The original pages, I give to my assistant, she puts them on the computer, and I get the original pages back. Fortunately my handwriting is fabulous. I love my handwriting. Do you remember when I did that interview for you for another one of your shows after you and I did Lifestyles together? You sent this reporter called Matt Lauer.
RL: Matt Lauer: That was for a show called “Preview” when he worked for me. I had hired him to be one of the seven rotating anchors. He’s always kind enough to acknowledge that it was the show that eventually led him to NBC and the Today Show.
JC: I remember saying to him, ‘you know what, you are going to be very big.’ He had a lot of charm.
RL: Yeah, I thought he had the looks, the attitude, the ability and the charm. His success is great. I am very happy for him and I think his coup with the two British princes is brilliant… But here is an intriguing question for you; so much success with so many books, when do you fear that the next one may not be a successful or as exciting, and what keeps you writing more?
JC: I never think about whether a book is going to be successful. I remember Rod Stewart saying to me when he had one especially big hit album. He said, ‘oh damn it is so bloody successful, how am I going to top this?’ Then he said, ‘I am never going to try.’ So I never try. I love writing. I love what I do. I can’t be number one forever. I have been up there for a long time and I think it shows I have a passion for it. The second thing is I keep going on and doing what I do because I can’t even imagine a morning getting up and not wanting to write. It is just a passion.
RL: Are you still British enough to have a cup of tea while you are writing?
JC: I love a nice cup of tea. Of course it is green tea now. Nothing like going to the Dorchester and having a cup of English tea with scones and cream.
RL: After you have produced all the notes in long hand, the book is then technically finished, how long before you start writing the next?
JC: I went to Australia to launch Drop Dead Beautiful and I started Married Lovers on the plane. I am 20 pages in—so the next book is already underway. It’s due out a year from today!
RL: So this weekend you’re here in Vegas –will you have any free time other than the book promotion parties?
JC: I am going to go see The Beatles LOVE show, and I’m going to try and do dinner at RAO’s and Bradley Ogden at Caesars, since that’s where I am staying.
Jackie’s new sizzling novel hits bookstores nationwide as of next Tuesday, but meantime you can get the jump by purchasing an advance copy and have her sign it for you tomorrow.