EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Dame Joan Collins’s former art dealer love Robin Hurlstone dies
HE has long fascinated generations of men, at least all five of her husbands, but Dame Joan Collins’s tumultuous 13-year affair with Old Eton art dealer Robin Hurlstone is what many remember.
As I can explain, it will be sad for him to learn that his family announced on Monday that he died “peacefully in London” and was “loved by all who knew him.”
Indeed, Dame Joan and Robin remained friends after their separation in 2001 and were photographed together in Saint-Tropez in 2008.
In her memoirs, Dame Joan recalled his great eye for aesthetics and his sharp tongue.
He wrote: ‘Robin considered herself an expert on all things aesthetic; I couldn’t deny that he had exquisite taste either.
‘We spent hours together exploring antique shops to find furniture and paintings for my flat in London. His most frequent comments were ‘disgusting’ and ‘horrible’.
Joan Collins pictured in 1990 with her then long-time friend, former Etonian antique dealer Robin Hurlstone
The relationship wasn’t easy at all, as the 93-year-old Dynasty star also wrote that Hurlstone could spoil her look a bit, writing: ‘He didn’t like it when I wore my hair down, he insisted I wear my short wig from Dynasty; ‘He liked it but I didn’t.’
Their love worked out and Dame Joan met 61-year-old Percy Gibson, to whom she was married for nearly 25 years. He once joked that Robin and Percy’s first meeting felt like ‘two deer in the corner’.
He recalled: ‘Robin gave me a beady, accusatory look. ‘This guy Percy, you seem to talk about him a lot. ‘Did you fall in love with him?’
‘Love? ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ I stammered, but I literally felt my face on fire. I don’t think I’ve blushed since I was a teenager.’
Life imitates art for Ellie and Derek
It didn’t take long for Ellie Bamber and Sir Derek Jacobi to convey the close bond between Kate Moss and Lucian Freud in their new movie Moss & Freud.
Even though there is a 58-year age difference between them, the duo says their chemistry on set was ‘immediate’.
87-year-old Sir Derek Jacobi and his leading lady, 29-year-old Ellie Bamber, at the premiere of the movie Moss & Freud
Miss Bamber, 29, stars as a model in the James Lucas drama, while Sir Derek, 87, plays the late artist.
‘We hit the ground running, went out for nice lunches and had some fun,’ Ms Bamber told me at the London premiere of Selfridges Cinema.’
Meanwhile Sir Derek added: ‘We probably giggled and giggled more than anything else and the players need to giggle too. ‘We trusted each other and loved each other.’
King’s gentlemen’s club is feeling the excitement
Despite their uncompromising traditionalist ways, I hear the rule-makers at The Travelers Club in London’s Pall Mall eventually caved to the pressure.
As temperatures soared into the mid-30s in the capital this week, the gentlemen’s club has temporarily relaxed its rule requiring members and guests to wear jackets at all times on the premises.
Club secretary Conrad Winter told members, including King Charles and the Duke of Edinburgh, “Given the high temperatures and humidity, members wishing to remove their jackets in Carlton Garden may do so, except for members wearing short-sleeved shirts.”
Sir David Jason thinks his career might have looked different if he had gone by his birth name.
The 86-year-old actor admits: ‘When I got my Equity card the name David White was already registered. I chose Jason because when I was at school the teacher read Jason and the Argonauts to us. It was lucky for me.”
Jodie: I definitely grew up with bullshit
Former Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker says she grew up on cheese and onion chips
Former Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker has issued a brutal review of the food she received from her mother Yvonne as a child.
‘I’m going to throw my mother under the bus here; “I grew up in complete filth,” says the 43-year-old actress.
Recalling the inadequacy of packed lunches, he says: ‘I was given white bread; ‘I would crush cheese and onion chips in the middle and it would be a sandwich.’
He adds: ‘I love my mother so much, she’s amazing, she’s not a cook.’
Barry’s talent was praised
Oscar Nominee Barry Keoghan shocked audiences by dancing completely naked in Murder On The Dancefloor in Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, and now he’s set to shock audiences once again.
The 33-year-old Irish actor stars in Kantemir Balagov’s gripping coming-of-age drama Butterfly Jam, which had its world premiere in 2011. Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Actor Barry Keoghan, 33, has been described as ‘one of the greatest actors of his generation’ by the director of his latest film
Keoghan and Riley Keough in Butterfly Jam, the English-language debut of award-winning Russian director Kantemir Balagov
The Russian director praised Keoghan’s fearless determination, especially in the heartbreaking and graphic scene depicting a homosexual sexual assault.
‘He handled the scene very delicately and was very rude,’ Balagov told me at the Croisette Theatre. He wanted to embrace the weirdness in the scenes because we think weirdness is a form of intimacy.’ Of Keoghan he adds: ‘He is one of the greatest actors of his generation.’
