A COURTROOM battle has begun between actress Joan Collins (62) and publishing giant Random House, which is demanding a $1.2 million refund for a manuscript it said was unfinished and unpublishable.
Collins, best known for playing the scheming Alexis Carrington on the TV series Dynasty, is fighting back. She has countersued for $3.6 million she claims the publishing house still owes her.
One Foot In the Grave star Richard Wilson has won the Academy Award for pensioners the Oldie of the Year. He beat Hollywood actor Sean Connery and prison rights campaigner Lord Longford to the title organised by editor of Oldie magazine, Richard Ingrams.
Wilson joins previous winners Judge Stephen Tumin, businessman Denis Thatcher, writer John Mortimer and comedian Spike Milligan.
A British television version of Gulliver's Travels has proved a giant hit in the US.
Fifty million people tuned in for the first part of the £13 million mini series on NBC, dwarfing ratings for other Sunday night programmes.
Ted Danson plays Gulliver in the Channel 4 version of the Swift classic, due to be shown in Britain later this year.