People

By Sara C. Medina

The last time Joan Collins saw Paris was during the winter of '86 in the CBS mini-series Sins, which TV Guide last week dubbed the worst in its category last season. Undaunted, she is returning to France in the four-hour World War II melodrama Monte Carlo for the same network. This time she plays a Russian- born singer out to avenge her slain husband. She becomes a seductress-spy, inducing enemy generals to reveal war secrets. Not content with being the star and co-executive producer, Collins, 53, makes her singing debut, rendering The Last Time I Saw Paris in her patented libidinous tones. "I chose the song because it was the most popular number in 1939," says Collins, nostalgically if not accurately (the song was written in 1940). "It was especially apropos because it has a double meaning." Seems that despite the efforts of a writer (George Hamilton), Collins remains loyal to her dead husband, whom she had last seen in the French capital. He is played by her real-life husband Peter Holm.