Star Quality - Hardcover

Joan Collins has appeared in over 55 films, dozens of television shows, and plays in Hollywood, the West End, and Broadway. Internationally renowned for her role as Alexis Carrington Colby on the cult TV series Dynasty, she has also published three bestselling novels and six lifestyle books, and was recently honored with an OBE (Order of the British Empire) by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II. She has three children, Tara Newley, Sacha Newley, and Katy Kass. She is married to Percy Gibson and they split their time between London and New York.

Like mother, like daughter, like granddaughter-the notion of history repeating itself functions as both plot frame and theme in Collins's latest novel, a multigenerational saga that spans a century of family triumphs and tragedies set against the backdrop of the ever-changing entertainment industry. Millie McClancey is just a na ve Irish lass when, having been compromised by a roguish nobleman, she takes to England's music hall stages, wowing London and New York. In the 1940s, Millie's illegitimate and far more sophisticated daughter, Vickie, becomes a Hollywood sensation. And Vickie's wild child, Lulu, becomes a supermodel in the '80s before turning to the soaps. Through it all, most of their misfortunes may be attributed to Patsy, an enemy Millie made in her youth, and Patsy's grudge-carrying descendants. Like overteased hairstyles and television programs about oil barons, this benign offering has a pass feel. Derivative of just about everything-Moll Flanders, The Godfather, Funny Girl, Valley of the Dolls-it even has Bugs Bunny gangsters ("Yeah, boss, yeah, good idea"). For readers who make it to the closing curtain of this sprawling camp extravaganza, the ultimate message-while years and fashions may be different, "nothing changes"-will come as no surprise.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.