Joan Collins’ Lawsuit Against Random House

Born in 1933, Joan Collins is an established English actress and author.  After first gaining fame in the 1950s in Hollywood roles, Collins’ acting career was revitalized in her best known role in the popular television soap opera Dynasty.  Collins began writing in the late 1980s and published several top-selling books.  Her literary success led to a $4 million book deal with Random House that ended in a high-profile court controversy.

On this day, February 29th, in 1996, Joan Collins was awarded $1 million from Random House Publishing in a court decision.  Random House had given Collins a $1.2 million advance with the intention of paying the rest of the contract after Collins completed two manuscripts.  After Collins delivered the first manuscript, Random House claimed the book was “unreadable” and attempted to sue for a return of the advance.  The court did not side with Random House’s claim and ruled in favor of Collins.

The novel Joan Collins submitted to Random House was never published, but she did go on to publish several other works.  Collins’ later work includes: Star Quality (2002), Misfortune’s Daughters (2004), and The World According to Joan (2011).