I’m not exactly wealthy, insists Joan Collins (worth £24million)
DAME Joan Collins has blasted a sugges- tion that she is rich, insisting she should not be described as such because she has no ‘f*** you money’.
In one of her frostiest interviews to date, the 83-year- old actress – who has a reported net worth of £24.5million – scolded BBC journalist Michael Buerk for a throwaway comment about her wealth.
The Dynasty star has homes in London, New York, Hollywood and St Tropez, and has sold 50million books on top of her acting career, but does not consider herself to be ‘rich’.
When Buerk asked what motivates her – adding ‘after all, you’re rich – she snapped: ‘What’s rich? I’m not exactly rich, no. Rich, as Robert Wagner said to me, is having f*** you money. I don’t have that and I’ve a lifestyle to support.’
The interview, in the Radio Times, was intended to promote Dame Joan’s forthcoming film The Time Of Their Lives, which centres on an aged Tinseltown star who escapes from an old people’s home to go to the funeral of an ex-husband.
But when Buerk, 71, used the theme of the film to ask about her age, Dame Joan chided: ‘Everybody’s so incredibly ageist in this country! Anyway, how old are you? What have you got that’s wrong with you?’
Buerk noted that Dame Joan, who has been married five times, was ‘not in the best of moods’ after her Belgravia flat was flooded, but he also asked her: ‘Has age made you calmer?’ The wellpreserved actress bluntly replied: ‘Certainly not. Not when my f****** ceiling’s fallen down.’
And when asked if she might be searching for a last adventure in her life, she insisted: ‘Is that a question? You’re bumbling! I am a big squeezer of life. I couldn’t squeeze more out than I do.’