Jackie Oh!

September 30, 2006

Last weekend, I had the pleasure to chat up author Jackie Collins in front of an audience of gays and gay adjacents at the annual West Hollywood Book Fair. She could not have been more gracious and down to earth. By the end of it, I really wanted to ask, “How have you managed to sell 400 million books, live in LA most of your life and not become a huge, entitled Hollywood asshole?” but I refrained. So cool. She even sent a thank you note the next day.

My favorite only-in-Hollywood anecdote that she shared was about the recently deceased mega-producer Aaron Spelling. Ms. Collins worked with him on the Hollywood Wives miniseries and told a story about going into his office to discuss the project. A few minutes in...

Spelling says, “Do you mind if I get a haircut?” and then a barber magically appears and proceeds to trim Spelling’s locks while he’s giving story notes. I like to imagine him saying things like, “I think we should go after Victoria Principal for the lead and leave the top long.”

Before launching into this story, Jackie, as an aside, asked me if I ever knew or worked with Aaron Spelling. I was a bit thrown by this because most celebrity interviewees aren’t interested in anyone but themselves and they’re certainly not interested in you. But Jackie seemed to think it was entirely possible that I had worked with Spelling, which I loved her for so I refrained from saying, “Are you kidding? I don’t even have an agent and my career’s in the toilet.” If she was going to regard me like a peer, damnit, I was going to act like one.