Why Joan Collins Called Out Harry Styles Over the 2019 Met Gala
Hollywood legend Joan Collins just wants to watch Cher sing — and won’t let Harry Styles get in her way.
Collins, 90, recounted Styles’ alleged behavior during the 2019 Met Gala when Cher, 77, performed at the event.
“Cher left after her first number then came back wearing her original Bob Mackie–style sleek black embroidered bodysuit and a massive black curly wig to sing ‘Believe,’” Collins wrote in her new memoir, Behind the Shoulder Pads: Tales I Tell My Friends, which was released on Tuesday, October 24. “Harry Styles jumped on the table in front of us, obscuring our view, and took no notice of our entreaties to ‘get down, we can’t see.’”
Collins wrote that “the sophisticated crowd went mad” for the performance, noting that she “boogied” with Bette Midler and Julianne Moore while watching Gwyneth Paltrow and Katie Holmes enjoying the performance as well.
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Despite the alleged snafu with Styles, 29, Collins had a great night at the star-studded event.
“I loved my first Met Ball, and I would certainly go again in a heartbeat,” she wrote. “Although at $30,000 a seat, I’ll wait to be invited!”
The 2019 Met Gala had the theme “Camp: Notes on Fashion” and was hosted by Styles alongside Serena Williams, Lady Gaga and former Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele.
When choosing an outfit for the event, Collins opted for a white Valentino gown — she was named as a face of the brand that same year — and channeled her Dynasty character, Alexis Carrington, for the event. She recalled working alongside Valentino to design her outfit and told Vogue in May 2019 that she “insisted on more and more feathers.”
Collin wanted to channel the portion of Susan Sontag’s “Notes on Camp” essay that partly defines “camp” as “a woman walking around in a dress made of three million feathers.” Of her accessories, the actress noted, “What’s more camp than a tiara?”
Before going head-to-head with Styles inside the event, Collins recalled the “surreal” moment of arriving at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that night, telling Vogue it was “very hard to maneuver 50 pink steps in a massive skirt and five-inch heels.”
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While she’s best known for playing Alexis Carrington on Dynasty from 1981 to 1989 (the show was rebooted for The CW from 2017 to 2022), Collins has also become a fashion icon throughout her time in the spotlight. In fact, she has a deep-seated hatred for jeans.
“I really hope that people will spend more money on clothes because nobody dresses up anymore,” Collins told Vogue in November 2019. “If you do, then people stare at you, or make cutting remarks … well, maybe not cutting, but they’ll say something like, ‘Oh, look at you! You’re all dressed up.’ I find that very sad, because it will be the end of women buying elegant clothes in stores. Everybody’s going to end up in jeans and T-shirts, which I think is tragic.”
She continued, “I hate jeans. I hate them, they’re so unflattering. And I hate jeans with holes in the knees or holes anywhere. … I’m not keen on T-shirts with logos, either. I like to be comfortable, but I want to be elegant too.”