(Via Getty Image)
There are four reasons I’m covering this story:
1) Because there are precious few stories about 79-year-old TV icons accusing 80-year-old TV icons of being four-way-loving, porn-watching swingers — as Shirley Jones (The Partridge Family has done to Joan Collins (Dynasty) in her new book — and I feel like we shouldn’t take them for granted when they pop up on our radar.
2) Because, specifically, the book makes Joan Collins’s husband Tony Newley sound like a guy who really knows how to liven up a dinner party:
According to the book, Shirley and her then-husband Jack Cassidy were at the home of Joan Collins and Tony Newley for dinner … and after dinner, Tony proposed they all get naked and watch porn together.
3) Because, man, poor Joan Collins. She was just minding her business, probably zipping around Southern California in a Cadillac and enjoying a nice glass of wine in the evenings while watching Turner Classic Movies on her couch, when out of nowhere KABOOM the mom from The Partridge Family releases a raunchy tell-all that accuses her of being a smut-loving sex freak. Collins and her lawyers have claimed the story is a complete fabrication, and sent a cease and desist letter to get the book taken off shelves, but Jones is sticking to her story, and to a large extent, the damage has already been done. It’s just like, geez, be cool, Shirley Jones.
4) Because it made me realize that 40 years from now we’ll probably be seeing stuff like this about stars from today, when one of them tries to grab the spotlight by writing a juicy memoir. Assuming books still exist in 2053. My money’s on one of the Big Bang Theory guys.
