Joan Collins on Piers Morgan Life Stories - Sunday 20 June

Pamela_E

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But the producers were willing to pay for a big female star like Elizabeth Taylor (who didn’t want to do episodic television) or Sophia Loren (who’s salary demands were too high) but couldn’t afford it over a full season. So it wasn’t the man gets paid more than the woman scenario.

They settled for Joan Collins as she was the poor man’s Elisabeth Taylor and came with a salary that matched.

Joan was given a raise every year as her popularity grew. She was just resentful that she was paid less than John and Linda.

Why would she be happy about that? If you equate that to other jobs, it would seem unfair wouldn't it?

Would JF be right to have an issue if Joan and Linda got more than him? I would say yes.

I'm not clear why it's a problem that she has taken issue with not getting equal pay.
 

Alexis

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But the producers were willing to pay for a big female star like Elizabeth Taylor (who didn’t want to do episodic television) or Sophia Loren (who’s salary demands were too high) but couldn’t afford it over a full season. So it wasn’t the man gets paid more than the woman scenario.
If they had have gotten Elizabeth or Sophia the part would have been as it was originally intended, I think maybe 12 episodes or something and they would have been credited as special guest star. It would have been temporary, not 8 seasons. And John would have been the highest paid regular cast memeber.

I just watched the interview, and really Joan is saying that she sees no reason why she as a woman shouldn't be paid the same as a man. She is talking about all men, and all women, regardless of the career. She said she believes women are equal to men in all areas except for physical strength. She is talking about parity for both sexes. They were both doing the same job, both doing the heavy lifting on the show. In fact anyone who saw Dynasty would probably say Joan did most of the heavy lifting.
They settled for Joan Collins as she was the poor man’s Elisabeth Taylor and came with a salary that matched.
They settled for her I think because they wanted something more than a short guest stint. The show probably would have died on it's arse if either of those big stars took the role for that short amount of time. I have seen an interview with Sophia Loren, I think speaking to Wogan where she basically says that the role of Alexis was never even seriously considered by her. It could never have been viable.
Joan was given a raise every year as her popularity grew. She was just resentful that she was paid less than John and Linda.
Why should she have been paid less than them when she was the break out star, and she was the one keeping them in steady employment, as well as a lot of other cast and crew.
 

Alexis

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Anyway, I like how she answered Piers' question, how would you like to be remembered? She replied, "That I gave a lot of pleasure to a lot of people".

That will do for me. I have never agreed with everything she said, or her political opinions or whatever, but Joan Collins has given me a whole lot of joy in my life. And for that I am thankful.
 

Willie Oleson

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If you equate that to other jobs, it would seem unfair wouldn't it?
I agree with this.
It's not like the others had been doing Dynasty for 10 or 20 years, something that would justify a financial advantage over newcomers.

On the other hand, she could have refused the offer because it wasn't the same as John and Linda's.
All things considered, she's got more mileage out of Dynasty than any of the other actors since "Alexis" never really went away.
 

Alexis

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I think her comment about John was meant to be a bit flippant, but just didn't come off that way. I don't think they really liked each other but were professional enough to make the show work. I think there's a lot going on there, the disparity in their pay, how he reacted when she did the Playboy thing etc. She feels a certain type of way about it and has let it be known before. I probably wouldn't have used those words, but she is Joan Collins...
 

Snarky Oracle!

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People, people... Contracts matter. The only way they could have paid Joan more without being sued is to bill her as 'Special Guest Star' which would have been tricky to switch her billing to that after the show's popularity really took off.

Again, that's why Locklear had the billing she did on MELROSE for 7 years; she was a late entry, and they had to get around the original cast's contracts.

 

Julia's Gun

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I'd put most of this down to provocation by evil Piers. They edit these things down on these shows and it looks like he was deliberately pushing her buttons on 'equal pay' to get her to say negative things about John, especially as the guy is no longer here to defend himself.

It's headline grabbing tabloid trash - look back at that awful homophobic article PM once wrote at the top of this thread. That tells you how the mind of this 'interviewer' works.
 

Rove

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I think her comment about John was meant to be a bit flippant
Flippant or not words can harm. I would have thought Dame Joan being the professional she is should have worded it better. A "misogynist prick" is a disgusting remark to make when a deceased person is unable to respond. So John 's contract was created in such a way he was to be the highest paid actor on Dynasty. I'd argue John had a very good agent. Joan's issue here is with the producers of Dynasty. Did she say harsh words against Richard and Esther Shapiro? Of course not. They'd probably have lawyers onto Joan so fast she wouldn't have time to select a wig. All Dame Joan had to do say here was she had argued for more money but was denied.
 

Tony

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Another myth that was perpetuated on Piers Morgan last night by Joanie and her children is that she saved the show.

Her contribution to Season 2 undoubtedly made Dynasty a top 20 hit but for the suggestion she did it single handedly is an insult to the rest of the cast and crew.

Dynasty started being noticed when Joan joined because Mash was no longer against it in the scheduling; plus the more soapy writing and brilliant casting kept viewers watching. To say it was all Joan minimises the contribution of John Forsythe, Linda Evans, Pamela Bellwood, Pamela Sue Martin, Al Corley, Heather Locklear and heck even James Farentino.

Joan benefited from the old adage that playing the villain is always the best part but for her to say she saved Dynasty is delusions of Grandma.
 

Pamela_E

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Another myth that was perpetuated on Piers Morgan last night by Joanie and her children is that she saved the show.

Her contribution to Season 2 undoubtedly made Dynasty a top 20 hit but for the suggestion she did it single handedly is an insult to the rest of the cast and crew.

Dynasty started being noticed when Joan joined because Mash was no longer against it in the scheduling; plus the more soapy writing and brilliant casting kept viewers watching. To say it was all Joan minimises the contribution of John Forsythe, Linda Evans, Pamela Bellwood, Pamela Sue Martin, Al Corley, Heather Locklear and heck even James Farentino.

Joan benefited from the old adage that playing the villain is always the best part but for her to say she saved Dynasty is delusions of Grandma.

It's one of those things you can't prove or disprove. With Dallas I think we can certainly say that without JR Ewing the shows success would have been very different.

With Alexis, she was always seen as the female JR. So she was always given immense gravitas.

But as we saw With Dallas, when all the players were not in place even JR wasn't enough to keep the success going. A lack of creativity perhaps as the old formula had to change.

In the same way its stated Abby Ewing saved Knots Landing. We don't know.

But personally I would say it was the Producers and writers that increased viewers. It's a bonus if you get the perfect actor in the part, but it's those who decide the creative direction that make or break a show.
 

Angela Channing

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How tragically sad that is to see again, a reminder of how things were. Sadly it wasn't Morgan who sets the agenda, his whole agenda is based on how he perceives public thinking, so he plays into that.
I don't agree with your defence of Piers Morgan. He had 3 choices (1) to contribute to the homophobia that existed at the time, (2) to ignore it or (3) to challenge it, and he chose the option to stir up as much hate as he could against gay people because he thought it would help his career.

The argument that he was just using the language and attitudes of the time doesn't hold water either. Mr Morgan is a few years older than I am but we are from the same generation. Speaking about gay people in a way that would encourage hate towards them would have been an anathema to me in the 1980s and 1990s. Mr Morgan plays to right-wingers who hold homophobic and racist views which is not the same as how the public as a whole think. He is not a nice person and he has some vile hateful views.
 

Angela Channing

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John Forsythe was a high profile actor in the USA so of course he was able to negotiate a better deal than Joan Collins. She was playing parts in soft porn films based on books written by her sister when she got the Dynasty gig so she was a cheep option compared with some of the names that the producers originally wanted for the role. As the seasons went on and her character became more significant on the show the producers were already committed to making Mr Forsythe the highest paid actor on the show. It would have been the same if she had played the part in Falcon Crest, no matter how significant her role or how popular she was with the public, she wouldn't get paid more than Jane Wyman. He lower fee wasn't down to Mr Forsythe's alleged misogyny, it was his star power.
 

colbyco

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at least Joanie still knows how to make headlines even I don´t like the words she said about Forsythe
both were divas but without Forsythe & Evans there would have been nothing Collins could have rescued ...
they were perfect cast and all 3 were the backbone of the show
 

Jimmy Todd

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"Alexis" has been a cash cow for Joan that she has ridden for the last 40 years. If it wasn't for Dynasty, all her interviews,guest appearances on shows like Roseanne, her books, etc would be non-existent. If she didn't have such wonderful chemistry with JF and LE, Dynasty would not have become a phenomenon.
I don't blame her for squeezing every bit out of the role these past decades, and she definitely was a big part of the shows success, but you don't speak ill of the dead, especially when it's really just to generate publicity. I'd like to think even Alexis would find that distasteful.
 
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