Daytime's Steamy New Soap

By Gerald Clarke

Dabbing tears from her eyes, Joan Collins was the perfect picture of the wronged woman. "I never met a man yet who was able to take care of me," she said sadly. "I've been taken advantage of by men since I was 20." Then, staring across the courtroom at her estranged husband, she added, "Men have a tendency to change when they get married." Collins was not rehearsing Dynasty, but the lines she spoke last week sounded as if they came from a soap opera -- The Bold and the Beautiful, perhaps.

The beautiful was, of course, Collins, who at 54 can still turn a few heads. In fact, the 45-seat courtroom was not big enough for the many reporters, European as well as American, who wanted to cover the best show in town, and crowds gathered outside the door to watch the drama on TV monitors. In many newspapers and on some TV news shows, it threatened to upstage the Iranscam hearings.

The bold was Husband No. 4 Peter Holm, 40, a onetime Swedish pop star who, after being kicked out of their former home, picketed Collins in protest. JOAN, YOU HAVE OUR $2.5 MILLION, 13,000-SQ.-FT. HOME WHICH WE BOUGHT FOR CASH DURING OUR MARRIAGE, read his long-winded placard. I AM NOW HOMELESS. HELP!

As part of the divorce settlement, Holm expected about a million dollars, along with $80,000 a month in temporary support, including $16,500 for rent, $12,000 for clothing and accessories, $6,000 for entertainment, $7,000 for household help and $4,000 for travel. "Peter just broke down what they spent in the marriage, $160,000 a month, and divided it in two," explained Holm's lawyer, Frank Steinschriber. "They lived a lifestyle you'd expect Joan Collins to have."

The lady's calculations resulted in a different conclusion. She said she married Holm, her live-in lover for 2 1/2 years, only so he would not feel like a dog trailing behind her. Even so, Collins testified, she had made him sign a prenuptial agreement giving him only 20% of her earnings during their marriage and nothing more in case of divorce. Not so, answered Holm. He claimed the document merely signified their mutual respect.

At the end of the third day, Collins' lawyer, well-known Palimony Specialist Marvin Mitchelson, brought in a pretty scene stealer: Romina Danielson, 23, an Italian-Iranian who said she had been Holm's lover through much of his 13- month marriage to Collins. While Collins glowered, Danielson testified that Holm had called her "my little passion flower" and had murmured, "You're not only sexy but young." Having divulged her story, the little passion flower suddenly wilted and fell to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. Denying . her tale as "absolute rubbish," Holm said he still loved Collins and hoped for a reconciliation.

At week's end Judge Earl F. Riley rang down the curtain on that possibility, ruling that the prenuptial agreement was valid: Collins won her point. (Riley will take up the issue of temporary support in August.) "I'm very sorry it had to end like this," said Collins. "I'm very happy justice has been done." What would she expect in another relationship? she was asked. "Freedom, thank you very much," she replied. "Complete freedom from all entanglements."

With reporting by Elaine Dutka/Los Angeles