Dishing the dirt on Hollywood: JOAN'S SAUCY TELL- ALL

SHE DODGED THE CASTING COUCH BUT NOT MARRIAGE!

There’s no denying it – Joan Collins is a great dame. As a 21-year-old, she was told her acting career was all but over, but she didn’t accept it for a moment. Instead, this year the Dynasty actress marks 70 years in movies.

The 87-year-old remembers with a wry smile the day she was chased off the 20th Century Fox lot in 1954 by an older, married actor who was outraged that she’d turned down his amorous advances.

“He followed me at high speed in his car, screaming at me to wind my window down,” recalls Joan. “And when I did, do you know what he said? ‘By the time you’re 23, you’ll be a washed-up old bag!’”

Now, with a career spanning almost three-quarters of a century, a successful marriage to a man 31 years her junior, a Golden Globe on her mantlepiece and a damehood awarded by Prince Charles himself, Joan is most definitely having the last laugh.

It helps, of course, that she was no wilting wallflower to start with. It was her childhood in London during World War II that prepared her for the hurly-burly world of acting.