By JOAN COLLINS at dailymail.co.
At first I didn’t register who the nondescript blonde sitting alone at the bar was. I had only arrived in Hollywood a few months earlier and was still finding my way.
After a few moments the woman turned to me and said rather sadly: ‘They wanted me to play the lead in The Girl In The Red Velvet Swing, but I’m too old.’
The film she’d mentioned was my first starring role since arriving in the US aged 20. It suddenly dawned on me that this pale-faced woman was the fabled Marilyn Monroe.
She was extremely friendly, so we started chatting. After a couple of martinis, she warned me about the harassment in Hollywood and the ‘wolves in this town’.
I replied that I was well used to them after several years in the British film industry.
‘All of us had to put up with having our bottoms patted and men leering down our cleavage,’ I told her.
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