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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Lisa McLoughlin

Dame Joan Collins reveals she scolded Harry Styles at 2019 Met Gala over Cher performance

Dame Joan Collins has recalled scolding Harry Styles at 2019’s Met Gala in her new memoir.

The British star, 90, reminisced about attending the fashion event for the first time in her new autobiography, Behind The Shoulder Pads: Tales I Tell My Friends, where music icon Cher, 77, performed for guests.

In an extract from her book, which was released on September 28, she writes: “The sophisticated crowd went mad for [Cher], standing up, whooping and cheering.

“Bette Midler, wearing a top hat and tailcoat in glittery black sequins, came to our table and boogied with Julianne Moore. And I glimpsed Gwyneth Paltrow and Katie Holmes doing the same.

“Cher left after her first number then came back wearing her original Bob Mackie sleek black embroidered bodysuit and a massive black curly wig to sing Believe.”

It was at this point, however, the TV star claims she became frustrated with Styles after he kept blocking her view of Cher.

Collins pictured at the Met Gala in 2019 (Invision/AP)

Adding: “Harry Styles jumped on the table in front of us [those sitting on her table], obscuring our view, and took no notice of our entreaties to ‘get down, we can’t see’.”

Despite her obstructed view, Collins recalled having a fantastic time at the star-studded event and admitted she’d go again – if invited.

She pens: “I loved my first Met Ball, and I would certainly go again in a heartbeat, although at $30,000 [£24,700] a seat, I’ll wait to be invited!”

Also in her book, Collins suggested the number of predatory “wolves” on film sets has fallen over the years.

Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain (GMB) last month, she recalled meeting US star Marilyn Monroe, who warned her against the “wolves in Hollywood”.

“I said, ‘I can handle wolves, we have those in the English film industry’, and she said, ‘Not the Hollywood kind. If they don’t like you, if you don’t come through for them, they’ll cancel your contract. It’s happened to lots of young girls’, she said.

“So I said, ‘I’ll just avoid them’. I was good at avoiding them because my father, who was an agent, told me one of the best things to do to avoid a predatory man – laugh at him. And it worked – quite a few times.”

The Dynasty star, who made her name at 17 in the film I Believe In You, said a “sisterhood of young actresses” had to put up with unwanted advances on film sets but banded together.

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