From the Archives: Writer Jackie Collins digs up the dirt

Jackie Collins’ novels featured her insider knowledge of Hollywood’s rich and famous. When Collins released a new book, celebrities worried.

This portrait of Collins by Tony Barnard accompanied a story by Nikki Finke in the Aug. 23, 1987, Los Angeles Times.

Underneath the headline “Novelist Stirs Up the Dirt Her Hollywood Friends Dish Out,” the article began:

“A small earthquake registering moderately severe on the Beverly Hills panic scale is rumbling from Malibu to Hollywood. Jackie Collins is finishing her 12th novel in 20 years this month, and her friends already are feeling the aftershocks.

“On this particular night, the epicenter is located at Spago.

“Standing in the garden terrace, a drink in one hand, a slice of pizza in the other, producer David Niven Jr. whispers conspiratorially, ‘People keep saying to me “David, don’t you think you should write a book?” But how can I when everything, everything, I have ever done, said or thought appears in Jackie’s novels.

“ ‘There’s nothing left,’ he laments. ‘I don’t know why the headings on some of the chapters shouldn’t be, ‘I’d like to dedicate this to…’ ”

Read the full story on Jackie Collins.

Collins died Dec. 19, 2015. The L.A. Times obituary on Collins outlines her achievements and history and includes comments from friends and celebrities.

This post originally was published on Aug. 19, 2016.