Now for Some Cabbage ‘Soap’

Excerpts from “The Ruling Passion,” one of two unpublished novels at the center of the legal fight between Joan Collins and Random House:

* “His face was a picture of boyish innocence. ‘What do you think you know, my little cabbage?’

“ ‘Don’t call me your little cabbage,’ she said savagely. ‘I’m nobody’s cabbage. Not yours, not anyone’s. . . . You’re gay, aren’t you, Alain?’ she asked calmly. ‘You’re still gay, after all these years.’ ”

* “What with his amusing chat ups, his long yellow curly hair, and the crinkly gray blue eyes that oozed sexual promise when he wanted them to, Fabio D’Angalis had always been known as an ‘A’ stud in Rome, where good-looking young men with dazzling looks lurked at every open air cafe and corner fountain.”