NAMES IN THE NEWS : Extremes in Costume Attitudes

Kirstie Alley couldn’t care less what she wore. Shelley Long was a perfectionist who spent hours getting fitted. And Joan Collins took some of her costumes home for “long-term borrowing,” their costumers say.

Robert Tanella, costume designer for “Cheers,” said the female stars of the TV series couldn’t have more varied views on clothes.

“Kirstie Alley couldn’t care less,” Tanella said in the Aug. 4 issue of TV Guide. “I’m lucky if I can get her for four minutes.”

But Long required three-hour fittings every Friday afternoon.

“She was a perfectionist, with very definite opinions, but she knew her character, and her instincts were right,” Tanella said.

Nolan Miller, who designed for “Dynasty” from 1981 to 1989, said most TV stars are permitted liberal borrowing privileges, but some take liberties.

Collins “owns quite a few of her things (from ‘Dynasty’) on permanent loan, shall we say,” Miller said. “By the time she’d worn some things a couple of times and been photographed in them, she would return them and get something else.”