Roll
up for a ringside seat at the scratch match of the year. Right in
your own front room! For this week the war of words between the
snarling Dynasty super-bitches Joan Collins and Stephanie
Beacham turns to gloves-off, talons-out tough action, and neither
star is pulling their punches...
For
weeks the feud between the two rival soap queens has been
festering both on screen and off. It started the second fiery
Stephanie Beacham brought her Colby's character Sable
into the Carrington ring - and said, "I will rip Joan
Collins to remnants and spit her out in little pieces."
Fighting
talk from the challenger in the redhead corner, who admits, "I
knew for a fact Joan didn't want me on Dynasty - she
felt they had enough cast already without taking the leftovers
from The Colbys. But she had to accept that the Dynasty
ratings were dropping and that they needed Sable. My teeth are
sharper. I have never wanted to be a Joan clone and I've got a
whole bag of tricks which will certainly be more than a match
for her."
But
Steph didn't reckon on Joan's own below-the-belt blows.
Determined that her evil Alexis should be the only vicious
British vamp in the show, she turned to Dynasty boss
Aaron Spelling, "I am the star - not that other woman.
There is really no room in Denver for the two of us. The
Colbys is finished now and so is Stephanie Beacham."
Cast
as reluctant referee, Spelling had no choice but to start
counting - in hard cash. When he got Joan's salary up to £70,000
each episode compared with Stephanie's meagre £30,000, an
uneasy truce was finally established. But not for long...
On
screen, Sable's proved herself a worthy opponent for the
scheming Alexis, matching her with insult for insult, spit for
spit. So far they have clashed over men, money and dark family
secrets - and Alexis had to throw in the towel in one round
after being doused in a bottle of bubbly!
Since
then, though, she has been plotting and planning - sharpening
her talons for the final showdown. And this week she will get
all the revenge that she could dream of - as these amazing
pictures show.
Alexis
and Sable's big cliffhanger clash is sparked when a scandalous
society magazine hints at an incestuous relationship between
Sable's daughter Monica, played by Tracey Scoggins, and her own
dashing half brother Jeff (John James). Jeff learns from Sable
that the story was first started up by Alexis' trouble-maker son
Adam. He chases nasty Adam to the restaurant in Sable's luxury
hotel, the Carlton...
"Jeff's
in a mad rage, after Adam's blood. Naturally, he is very upset
that anybody could suggest he is having an affair with his own
sister," reveals veteran Dynasty set photographer
Chic Donchin, a very close friend of all the soap's cast, who
witnessed the big Colby-Carrington battle of the bitches first
hand.
"A
slanging match starts up in the restaurant, then the row spills
into the hotel lobby. Jeff swipes Adam on the jaw, then they
start swopping blows." But the two boy's fisticuffs are
nothing compared to the fighting to come. For then Alexis walks
in - and she's armed with a deadly secret weapon...
"Alexis
saunters up into the hotel lobby, with her chauffeur and bag
carriers. The driver breaks Jeff and Adam apart, and Alexis
demands to know why they are fighting," says Chic. "When
she finds out why, she taunts Sable with her most dangerous
secret - one that blows the lid off the whole Colby clan."
Looking
Sable in the face, her eyes glittering with evil glee, Alexis
fires her first volley. "It's not possible for Jeff and
Monica to have an incestuous relationship," she says
coolly. Sable, realising just what is to come, lunges towards
Alexis, but she can't stop her most secret shame spilling out. "Oh,
have you not told the children, darling?" Alexis purrs.
Then she pulverises Sable's pride with her final revelation -
the truth about Monica's father...
The
fuse is lit, and seconds later all hell explodes, as a spitting
and screaming Sable attacks Alexis and, just like a pair of
wildcats, the two women rip at each other, no-claws barred.
Crash! They tumble on to a sofa, thousand-dollar dresses and all
- in a tangle of arms, legs and snarls. Smash! They roll onto
the floor, still in a frenzied clinch, Sable grapples to pin
Alexis to a coffee table, desperately trying to shred up her
face with razor-sharp nails.
The
chauffeur manages to separate the brawling superbitches, but he
just gets a kick in the shin from Sable for his trouble - then
round two begins. "I felt just like a boxing photographer
poised right above the ring," says Chic. "But there
wasn't a stench of blood and sweat, just the strong whiff of
Chanel!"
Who
wins in the soap showdown, which took over eight hours to film?
Like all star fights, we'll just have to wait and see - although
certainly there was no doubt in Joan Collins' mind when she
waltzed onto the set with her hands over her head like the
winner of a heavyweight bout. But Stephanie was not letting her
get away with that at all. "Not a chance, Joan," she
hissed, as the make-up girls put the last finishing touches to
their feline features.
Yet
again, their off-screen battle was almost as bloody as the one
they were filming. "They tried staring each other out,"
reveals Chic. "Really taunting each other to make the first
bitchy remark."
However
difficult, Joan and Stephanie had to restrain any impulse to
hurt each other badly. "You have to remember the girls are
insured for millions of dollars," says Chic. "The
whole show revolves around them - one bad scratch could hold up
production for days." But one scream from Stephanie
certainly wasn't acting. Clawing at Joan, she bent back a nail
on her left hand, and filming was stopped while she hopped all
over the set. "She was in agony, but after a moment the
show went on. She's a tough cookie.
"Spelling
has proved there's room in Denver for both the lovely ladies,"
he says. "But there can only be one Queen of Dynasty."
Recently the rumours have flown that Joan Collins is leaving the
show, that her death scene has already been planned out, that
she may only do guest appearances in the next series. So could
Stephanie Beacham be the winner of the battle of the bitches?
Like all Dynasty insiders, Chic suspects the war is far
from over yet. "We'll see a lot more poison pass between
them before we know who will sit on the throne. The battle's not
won yet."
