Best-selling author of Hollywood blockbusters Jackie Collins tells Katrina Fox she loves her gay friends - and The L Word.

I'm admiring the huge sparkling chandeliers in the reception of a top local hotel. Several pretty, tall, young women in mini-skirts walk past and smile at me - there's a model casting taking place upstairs - but my mind is on only one woman. Jackie Collins is in town and I'm about to meet her.

Jackie Collins. One of the world's most prolific novelists, with over 400 million copies of her books sold in more than 40 countries, and 23 New York Times bestsellers to her credit. Centred around the glamorous lives of the rich and famous, several of her books have been turned into films (The Bitch, The Stud, both starring her sister Joan), and mini-series (Lucky/Chances, Lady Boss, starring Desperate Housewives' Nicollette Sheridan).

After about ten minutes, Jackie sweeps into the hotel, returning from a trip to the beach earlier in the day, looking a million dollars - which is not surprising really since she's estimated to be worth around $200 million. I'm called over by the publicist and we all travel in the lift together to Jackie's room to conduct our interview.

Jackie's on a promotional tour for her latest blockbuster, Drop Dead Beautiful, which is the sixth in the series following the adventures of mafia princess, Lucky Santangelo. In many of her novels, particularly later ones, the women are portrayed as strong and ensure that the men get their come-uppance, so I dive right in and ask Jackie if she's a feminist.

"I do consider myself very much a feminist, yes," she replies, to my delight. "I think women should be stronger, women should have more to say about things. I say a lot of things that are on my mind in Hollywood at a party; I don't care what I say. I'm outrageous when it comes to speaking my mind."

As well as strong women, there's always at least one gay male and one lesbian character in Jackie's books. "That's the world I live in," she explains. "Some of my best friends are gay men and I go out with them about once a week to this fabulous bar, called O-Bar in Hollywood and they show all these animated Japanese porno movies on the wall; it's fantastic and it's research."

So immersed is she in GLBT culture, in fact, that Queer as Folk and The L Word are among her favourite TV shows. "I love The L Word!" she exclaims, sending a thrill right through me. I hang on for more lesbian titbits. "I had a friend on The L Word - Alexandra Hedison," she continues. "She went to school with my daughter and was Ellen Degeneres' girlfriend before [Ellen] cast her aside. It's such a brilliant show, and the women are so beautiful."

As is Jackie. Without meaning to sound sycophantic, she is, like the title of her new book, drop dead beautiful. She looks at least 20 years younger than her actual age of 70, and while this may have been achieved by a truck load of cosmetic surgery, she'll only admit to being a "make-up junkie" and to taking "tons of vitamins".

At this point, since we're getting along nicely, I decide to tackle Jackie about her sister: Dynasty star and gay icon, Joan Collins and her not-so-successful attempt at writing novels (Random House demanded the return of a $1.3 million advance from her, claiming she failed to deliver completed books as per her contract, although Joan got to keep the money after a lawsuit). "You know, I made a foray into acting and that didn't work out for me and writing didn't seem to work out for her," Jackie says diplomatically. "But I admire her for trying."

Each of Jackie's blockbuster novels features rich and famous characters based on her intimate inside knowledge of Hollywood, so as we come to the end of the interview, I ask her what kind of responses she's got from people who have recognised themselves in her stories.

"When I wrote Hollywood Wives, I had this fading movie star in it, Ross Conti," she says. "This woman came up to me one night at a party and she was married to a movie star. She said to me, 'You've written about my husband', and this didn't come out right but I just looked at her and said, 'You know, there's a lot of faded movie stars in Hollywood and it's not your husband.' I realised how insulting that was after I said it, but it kind of shut her up.

"I generally get very good responses, because people know I'll change their names and they always think it's someone else if it's a really bad character. I get people coming up to me saying, 'I want to tell you about these three girls and me in Chicago' and then of course they say, 'Why don't you write about that?'"

Well, if the person doing the telling is female, why not indeed, Jackie?

Drop Dead Beautiful is published by Simon & Schuster Australia. Visit www.jackiecollins.com for more info.

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