Tinseltown lives, Hollywood wives

Cheryl Saban started her career as a lifeguard and followed that with brief stints as a model and disco singer.

At 36, and still a brunette, with two failed marriages and a stalled career behind her, she took an ad in the Hollywood Reporter and found herself working for Haim Saban, the wealthy chairman of Fox Entertainment. They were married shortly after. That was 14 years ago. Now she is blonde and her job is being full-time Hollywood wife, a role which takes up every waking moment.

Slim, organised and perfectly manicured, Cheryl has just published her second book, 50 Ways to Save Our Children, an off-spin from her website, www.50ways.org, which lists children's charities (essential reading for other Hollywood wives).

She's written screenplays and scripts for Power Rangers, the show that made her husband rich (he's worth about $1.5 billion), and in her spare time dreams up steamy fiction books.

Then there are the four children to maintain and her reputation as Hollywood's hottest hostess to keep up. On top of that she must squeeze in sessions with her yoga teacher, manicurist, personal shopper and hair stylist.

Life has changed for women in Tinseltown since Jackie Collins wrote her 1980s blockbuster Hollywood Wives. This month, their glittering, fairy-tale lives return to our bedside tables with Collins's latest novel, Hollywood Wives: The New Generation.

Long gone are the days when these women with thin legs and fat bank accounts spent the morning stalking Rodeo Drive before whiling away an afternoon on the analyst's couch. Today, they will get their personal shopper at Neiman Marcus to choose their wardrobes so they can spend more time with their political and charitable adviser.

According to the LA Times, Hollywood wives in the 21st century are: "Confident, smart women who generously and energetically support worthy causes, gaining influence, access and ego gratification in the process."

They are women like Cheryl and her friends, Carol Biondi, Wendy Goldberg, Wanda Ruddy and Sandra Rapke, who are all perfect examples of this "new generation". Along with keeping fit and looking young, they must be productive and charitable. This is what decides their position in society. Sandra, for instance, runs her own skincare line, Paradiso 920; Carol is a children's rights advocate; Wendy is a marketing consultant and Wanda is head of PR for Giorgio Armani.

Their husbands are very successful - read stinking rich - film producers and CEOs. Not that everybody appreciates their charity. Some detractors say that such women overpower their causes, "taking the focus off the organisations's mission". They told the LA Times: "They alienate old, established donors," muscling in with money and personal agendas.

After all, it's not like they need to work. In between power lunches, they use their private jets to fly to holiday homes in Martha's Vineyard, Miami, Paris and New York. They think nothing of spending $50,000 on a holiday wardrobe, or $500,000 on interior design for a single room. At Christmas, their husbands will repay their loyalty with a pair of flawless diamond earrings from Harry Winston, a snip at $750,000.

This all sounds a little mundane for a Jackie Collins book. However, she swears (above company excluded), there are still plenty of Hollywood wives who are ruled by greed and sex, the staple motivation for any of her heroines. Jackie says that all her characters are based on real people - not that she's mentioning any names. The Collins creation Taylor Singer, for instance, was inspired by a Hollywood wife who really does sprinkle Viagra into her husband's drink so that he always feels like a stud when he's with her (but not otherwise).

According to Collins, some of them think nothing of cheating on their older husbands: "They have got everything they want," she explains, "but they want sex, and they'll get it anywhere ... from the massage guys to the personal trainer." The wife will still have the nips and tucks, but these will be supplemented by Botox and collagen injections, plus vegetable or diamond face peels. And she won't want to ruin her body by giving birth, so she will opt for a Caesarean or, like another Having just moved to LA and found the city a little more pricey than I had bargained for, I?m beginning to think snapping up a Hollywood husband is a good option. Jackie thinks Hollywood husbands are easy to snag.

?They are insecure,? she explains. ?A woman must have beauty, and then smarts (sic) ? but she shouldn?t be an actress. Or she?s been one and now is a political activist. She works on the guy: ?Your first wife didn?t understand you,? etc. She?ll do the famous hooker thing and concentrate on one feature of his and flatter the crap out of him and boost his ego. And before the guy knows it, he thinks, ?Here?s this beautiful woman who?s younger ... I?d better marry her.? Of course, that?s after she brings in a younger actor to flirt with her. Or she?ll send herself flowers. That old trick.?

Right, then. I think I?ll be leaving that bit to the pros and move on swiftly to the fun bit ? shopping. I ring Armani on Rodeo Drive and ask to speak to Wanda about borrowing a dress for a party. Wanda doesn?t return my calls. Wanda has much bigger fish to fry, what with the Emmys, etc. So it?s time to call Catherine Bloom, personal shopper at Neiman Marcus. This woman is all charm. She picks out a Dior fur and lambswool coat ($2,845) and Manolo Blahnik ankle boots ($650), plus a Chloe suit ($1,170).

?People are so busy these days,? she says, squeezing me into a Chloe jacket ($2,505), ?that having a personal shopper is essential. It?s not just a black-tie thing, they come in for outfits for a book reading, a trip to the White House, a charity function, a holiday.?

Many of her customers come in once a week: ?We source everything, underwear, gifts, shoes.? And the average size of her customers? ?Oh, six, naturally.? That?s a British eight.

Dawn Moore at jewellers Harry Winston, is a short drive away. Within minutes she has me loaded up with $2.5 million worth of gems. Immediately I slip into the Hollywood role. Life seems so much easier with hundreds of carats of glitter wrapped around your neck. According to Dawn, the trick is to wear as many diamonds as possible. ?This isn?t London,? chips in her assistant Kate. ?Here, you want to show everyone exactly how much money you have.? Sadly, the head of security isn?t letting me out of the door with that little pile of fabulousness. I console myself by cruising in my rented limo, gazing at the houses I can?t afford. Being a somebody in La La Land, I am discovering, takes a lot of serious money. So how does a Hollywood wife really feel? It?s obvious really. As Cheryl told the LA Times: ?I wake up every day with a smile on my face.?

HOLLYWOOD-WIFE CONTACTS LIST

Personal shopper: Catherine Bloom, at Neiman Marcus, 001 310 550 5900 Skin guru: Sonya Dakar, 001 323 655 3061 The maitre d?: at Ago in West Hollywood, 001 323 655 6333 Wash and blow-dry: Kay Lee, Beverly Hills Hotel, 001 310 276 2251 Hair colour: Lisa Oliver at John Frieda, 001 323 653 4040 Mari Winsor at Winsor Fitness in Santa Monica (she teaches Pilates to Sharon Stone, Melanie Griffith and Meg Ryan), 001 310 442 1030 Eyebrow plucking: Anastasia Soare, 001 310 273 3155 Brazilian wax: Rosa at the Farre Salon, 001 310 493 8744 Cosmetic surgeon: Peter B Fodor, (uses the new power-assisted liposuction technique), 001 310203 9818.