Joan Collins’s notebook: Fighting libel and rude houseguests

I recently had to spend a great deal of time attempting to clear my name from a ludicrous assertion in an actress’s memoir that I and my then husband Anthony Newley had invited her and her then husband to strip off and watch some porn together.  She continued that I had very kindly presented the couple with chicken, steak and fish for dinner, all of which, due to the convenient absence of my maid for the evening, I had single-handedly concocted. I’m no Nigella in the kitchen and allergic to seafood, so I wouldn’t know how to cook a fish if it stood up on its fins and issued instructions. Now, my culinary talents were the least of my concerns with the offending mention, and I’m pleased to report my name was immediately removed from the story. But I was stunned that her publishing company — a major one at that — had not instructed their lawyers to run through the manuscript with a fine-toothed comb before publishing it, which by contrast my publisher has done extensively with my next book, Passion for Life.