The night Jack Nicholson 'offered Princess Margaret cocaine'

Salacious claims: Jack Nicholson and Princess Margaret. Photos / Getty Images

Jack Nicholson once offered Princess Margaret cocaine at a dinner party held in her honour, a new book claims.

The actor is said to have pulled her aside at the glamorous event in Los Angeles and made the offer in an effort to get to know her better.

But the princess declined and spent much of the night drinking and dancing with John Travolta instead.

The anecdote is recounted in a new biography of top Hollywood agent Sue Mengers, who hosted the party for the princess in 1979.

The cream of Hollywood attended, including Sean Connery, Robin Williams and Barry Manilow. Nicholson turned up with his then-girlfriend, actress Anjelica Huston - but that did not stop him from approaching Princess Margaret who, in a black and silver Dior dress, was the focus of attention, author Brian Kellow claims in Can I Go Now? The Life of Sue Mengers, Hollywood's First Superagent.

After turning down Nicholson's offer, Margaret stayed at the party until 12.30am, dancing repeatedly with Travolta until her friend Prince Rupert Loewenstein - the Rolling Stones' financial adviser - took her home.

According to Kellow, Mengers was then angry at Nicholson because she felt he had blown her chance to earn an invitation to Buckingham Palace.

The agent, whose brash personality helped her build up a list of star clients including Barbra Streisand and Michael Caine, once said in an interview that she thought the party for Princess Margaret was a rare personal disaster, adding: "Every time she looked my way I curtsied. I was curtsying all night! She thought I was an idiot."

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It was not the first time that Mengers, who died in 2011 aged 79, had trouble with royal protocol when meeting the princess. A decade earlier, their paths had crossed when she visited England with Miss Streisand to promote the singer's film Funny Girl.

At a screening Princess Margaret was due to attend, a Buckingham Palace employee told them everyone had to be seated before she arrived.

But Mengers boldly - and unsuccessfully - tried to argue that the princess should take her seat first, so that Miss Streisand could enter last and get a standing ovation.

- Daily Mail