Superstar sisters, Joan and Jackie Collins inspire this year’s Diabetes Mystery Theater podcast entitled “Suspect Boulevard” which debuts on Tuesday, September 13, 2016, 6 -7 PM, EST.
Although neither Joan or Jackie is or was living with diabetes their sensational lives and complicated relationship sparked enough interest in me to want to write about it.
Early on in my research I learned that Joan was responsible for introducing Jackie to Hollywood. While living in the hills above Sunset Boulevard, Jackie collected the knowledge and experience to write her most commercially successful novel, Hollywood Wives (1983), which hit The New York Times best-seller list at number one. Marketed as a “scandalous exposé”, the novel sold over 15 million copies and placed Collins in a powerful position, making her a celebrity of near equal status to her sister Joan, whose own career had taken an upwards direction with her role in the television drama Dynasty.
It’s interesting to note that Jackie, in turn, is credited for reigniting Joan’s acting career in the late ’70’s.
“I was happy to pay her back because she looked after me when I came to Hollywood,” said Jackie Collins.
Joan starred in two softcore pornographic films based on best-selling novels by her younger sister Jackie Collins: The Stud (1978) and its sequel The Bitch (1979). Her work in these films reportedly moved her name to the top of Aaron Spelling’s list when he was casting the role of Alexis Carrington Colby, the vengeful ex-wife of John Forsythe‘s character, in the 1980s television soap opera Dynasty.
Recently Joan Collins has opened up to the Daily Mail about her complicated relationship with her sister Jackie following her death from breast cancer . Although Jackie battled breast cancer for six years, her older sister only learned of her sister’s illness three weeks before she died.
The actress said their relationship at one point had been ‘estranged’ – but quickly changed her choice of words and said they had simply not been as close. She put their distance down to her relationship with a man who Jackie had ‘loathed’!!!
I don’t know about you but I feel there’s more than enough romance, glamour and jealously in the Collins bloodlines with an added dash of diabetes self-care advice to fill an delicious hour of podcasting!
TUNE IN: Suspect Boulevard on Tuesday, September 13, 2016, 6-7 PM, EST starring Mr. Divabetic. Also featuring USA Today Best-Selling author, Tonya Kappes, Catherine Schuller, Asha Brown, Peter Arpesella, Patricia Addie-Gentle RN, CDE, Susan Weiner MS, RD, CDE, CDN, Mama Rose Marie and Lorraine Brooks.