Dame Joan Collins reveals she rejected Hollyoaks role before soap rival Linda Gray was invited to join the cast
The Dynasty legend reignited one of the soap world's longest rivalries when she said she wouldn't have time for another project on top of film and stage commitments
IF you thought the soap rivalry between Dynasty legend DAME JOAN COLLINS and her Dallas opposite number LINDA GRAY had been left along with shoulder pads in the Eighties, think again.
A fresh catfight is on the horizon after the Hollywood legend revealed she was offered a part on Hollyoaks before Linda was given the role of new character Tabitha Maxwell-Brown.
But the two-time Golden Globe winner rejected the chance to glam up the streets of Chester when bosses made their approach four weeks ago.
Joan said: “I was just asked to be in Hollyoaks but I’m not doing it. You know who is doing it? Linda Gray.
“Between the movie and the new show I wouldn’t have the time for anything else.”
As a result, perhaps awkwardly unknown to Linda, she will now take on the role of Marnie Nightingale’s mother Tabitha, described as a “widow and lady who lunches” in scenes that will air for a week this autumn.
Her storyline leaves the door open in the future for a possible return for Linda, who played long-suffering wife Sue Ellen Ewing in Dallas for eleven years.
Speaking at her one woman show Joan Collins Unscripted, Joan, who played soap’s bitchiest-ever character Alexis Carrington in Dynasty, also referenced her on-screen clash with SUSANNA REID on Good Morning Britain earlier this year, when they donned the same dress.
Joan said: “She could have gone and changed. She’s got a changing room full of dresses there. I wasn’t going home to change.”
Her claws are as sharp as ever.