From the Editor: The last of the vamps

This week in MCV we feature actress Joan Collins in one of a handful of interviews she'll be doing ahead of her Australian tour this year.

At 78, Collins is a survivor in an industry that chews up and spits out the kind of ingénue she was when she went into movies as a girl fresh out of London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She's even survived the softcore porn versions of her sister's schlock novels, The Stud and The Bitch.

She may be still bitter about the way she was treated at that time, and honestly, the critics have been less than kind to Collins. Very early on in her career it was pointed out in various bitchy magazines that her acting skills were not up to scratch. Then there were accusations that she was a cougar, seducing poor, little 20-something Warren Beatty, for example. She became known as a "vamp", and it's an image that's stuck, even carried over into her off-screen persona. (When I told my 70-something father I was going to interview Joan Collins, he replied, shocked, "But she's a bitch!" – as if I were somehow in danger of being corrupted by The Queen of Sin!)

It was her role in Dynasty that saved Collins from being a footnote in the history of popular culture. By the time that came along she was doing guest appearances in Starsky and Hutch, Police Woman and Fantasy Island, but she credits the last of these as the reason she got the role as Alexis Carrington in the first place – as she elaborates in our interview.

Collins is bringing a lifetime's worth of Hollywood gossip, encounters with the rich and famous, stories from the set of Dynasty – it promises to be a wonderful night. Just don't ask her what it was like starring in (B-grade sci-fi flick) Empire of the Ants...

Elsewhere in MCV this issue, we talk to the effervescent Thomas Banks, a young, gay playwright and performer. I met Banks at the launch of the Fringe festival recently in Fitzroy. He doesn't have a show in Fringe, but that's because, as he told me, "I'm too busy". He's working on expanding a 12 minute solo performance about falling in love (called The Power of Love) into a longer piece, and he's also attending a youth theatre summit – Totipotent – happening this week at the St Martins Youth Arts Centre in South Yarra. Apart from theatre, Banks talks about relationships and why some bar staff might benefit from a bit of disability awareness training.

I'll be on holiday for the next three issues of MCV, leaving you in the capable hands of acting editor Garrett Bithell. I have an idea of some of what Garrett's going to be putting into the paper in my absence and it's looking good.

Enjoy!