The Private Life of Elizabeth Taylor

Read "My Love Affair with Jewelry" or whatever in the hell it's called. You'll be appalled by her shallowness. (And I'm a big fan who thinks she was an incredible presence.)

The children adored her, but they all had difficult childhoods. I remember the oldest boy once explained he joined a commune in the late 60s "to get away from all those diamonds." They've said they loved her deeply, but they also felt they had to take care of her rather than vice-versa.

[quote]They've said they loved her deeply, but they also felt they had to take care of her rather than vice-versa.

That's true for anyone with a narcissistic parent. My SO began to parent his mother when he was 8. Some people just shouldn't have children.

She was very shallow and not very smart, but she was very charming, personable, witty, giving, and proof positive that beauty and being nice goes a long, long way.%0D %0D If she had been a bitch on wheels, she wouldn't have been nearly as successful off the screen. Of course, having boatloads of self-confidence helps.%0D %0D I am also a huge fan, but recognize her limitations.

E. Taylor got along fine with her parents. What she meant was the fact she was a child star and didn't get to have a normal childhood because of it.

[quote]That's true for anyone with a narcissistic parent. My SO began to parent his mother when he was 8. Some people just shouldn't have children.

Remember when Prince William was small, and a member of the press asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up? He said he wanted to be a policeman, so he could protect his mother.

Elizabeth and her mother Sara had a very rocky relationship. Her mother pushed her into the limelight at a young age, yet was very cold towards her, often bordering on jealous and resentful. It was said that the mother wanted Elizabeth to have the career she wanted, and once Liz did, she couldn't handle it.%0D %0D Liz wanted to quit at an early age, but Sara told her she was ungrateful to even think of it.%0D %0D Stardom is all she knew, but despite setbacks and rocky marriages, her children have all turned out to be very stable.

She treated her children like her pets: they were amusements, diversions. She was NOT a good parent. She was too involved with herself.%0D %0D I have her book "My Love Affair With Jewelry (I got for for less than $5 at a book sale)."%0D It's pretty funny. Lavishly illustrated with color photo of her and her jewels, it's also full of the prattlings of a woman who is accustomed to receiving obscenely expensive trifles as a matter of course. Here's a typically nauseating passage: %0D %0D "I was in the pool, swimming laps at our home and Mike (Todd) came outside to keep me company. I got out of the pool and put my arms around him and he said "wait a minute, don't joggle your tiara." Because I was wearing my tiara in the pool! He was holding a red leather box, and inside was a ruby necklace, which glittered in the warm light. It was like the sun, lit up and made of red fire. First, Mike put it around my neck and smiled. Then he bent down and put matching earrings on me. Next came the bracelet. Since there was no mirror around, I had to look into the water. The jewelry was so glorious, rippling red on blue like a painting. I just shrieked with joy, put my arms around Mike's neck, and pulled him into the pool after me."%0D %0D "It was a perfect summer day and a day of perfect love."

So she wrote a book about jewlery. That makes her a bad parent?%0D %0D %0D %0D

[quote]She was very shallow and not very smart, but she was very charming, personable, witty, giving, and proof positive that beauty and being nice goes a long, long way.

You are so full of shit it's coming out of your eyeballs. She was a very smart businesswoman, and co founded Amfar, not exactly someone who was "not very smart".

[quote]She treated her children like her pets: they were amusements, diversions. She was NOT a good parent. She was too involved with herself.

And? She wrote a book about her jewelry and the stories behind the pieces she owned. She wasn't a bad parent.

If you remember what Elizabeth looked like as a child and especially as a teenager you will realize that even if she left show biz she couldn't possibly have lived a normal life.

Went to see her jewels at Christie's-unbelievable! This speaks volumes about who she really was: Not only did she steal her best friend's hubby; she accepted a gift of $3,000,000.00 canary yellow diamonds from Eddie Fisher, while he was a deadbeat dad, who didn't pay Debbie a dime in child support. You'd think Liz would forego the jewels for the children; it's not like she needed them. What about the children? The children!

Elizabeth had no idea what a normal life was and was a superstar from the time she was a little girl. There's no way she had time to be a good parent and never had to think about anything but herself.%0D %0D She loved her kids, but the idea that she was a good parent is laughable.

I'm just an American who never met her, so I can't help you.

As far as suggesting an autobiography for your edification, I don't know how the word of a person whose life was based on repeated self-branding for purposes of maintaining income and fame would be worth any more than mine on the subject, except for the quality and kind of lie being told.

Elizabeth was all about Elizabeth. Children, husbands, charities, dogs, etc. were all accessories along the way for her.%0D %0D She loved jewels, art, food, sex and pills. That's about it. And she died an addict, so don't be fooled.

[quote]She was a very smart businesswoman, and co founded Amfar, not exactly someone who was "not very smart". Oh honey, honey, honey, honey. She was granted the figurehead title of Founding National Chairman for AmFar because she was a well-known movie star who could drum up a lot of international attention. Did you really and truly think she served in that role because of her head for business. Perhaps you believe she actually drafted the articles of incorporation herself with her vast knowledge of non-profit businesses. "Stand back, ladies and gentlemen... I'll devise the tax structures for this organization myself!"

[quote]Not only did she steal her best friend's hubby; she accepted a gift of $3,000,000.00 canary yellow diamonds from Eddie Fisher, while he was a deadbeat dad, who didn't pay Debbie a dime in child support. You'd think Liz would forego the jewels for the children; it's not like she needed them. What about the children? The children!

Actually those were given to her right before she and Eddie split up, and she ended up getting a bill from Cartier a few months after she got the diamonds.

[quote]She was granted the figurehead title of Founding National Chairman for AmFar because she was a well-known movie star who could drum up a lot of international attention. Did you really and truly think she served in that role because of her head for business.

Sweetie reading comprehension isn't your forte is it cupcake?

Lets see she was smart enough to know that her name and image would sell a lot of perfume and was able to sell more bottles of perfume then any other celebrity and made a fortune doing so. Despite the fact that her film career was all but over by the late 60's she died with a nearly $1 billion fortune. Not exactly a poster child for someone who isn't smart now is she?

From the Amfar website

[quote]In 1985, Ms. Taylor joined with Dr. Mathilde Krim and a small group of physicians and scientists to form the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR). As amfAR%E2%80%99s Founding National Chairman, she became the new organization%E2%80%99s principal spokesperson and titular head.

What a pitiful and pathetic queen you are.

>>>Went to see her jewels at Christie's-unbelievable! This speaks volumes about who she really was: Not only did she steal her best friend's hubby; she accepted a gift of $3,000,000.00 canary yellow diamonds from Eddie Fisher, while he was a deadbeat dad, who didn't pay Debbie a dime in child support. %0D %0D %0D %0D How did Eddie have that much money? I have always wondered how Richard Burton had so much money to buy her such extravagant jewelry. Was he from a wealthy family?

[quote]As amfAR's Founding National Chairman, she became the new organization's principal spokesperson and titular head.

Yes, she was its spokesperson and TITULAR head. She had nothing to do with the actual day-to-day running of the business itself: she was just a pretty and well-known face for the organization. So you've just provided evidence of exactly what I argued at r16.

Maybe you shouldn't be on a forum for grown-ups. You sound mentally challenged.

As for her fortune when she died: her father was a well-known art dealer and had left her with millions and millions of dollars worth of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. Plus she had the large diamonds (like the Krupp diamond) and other jewels her husbands and boyfriends had given her over the years.

As for the money she did indeed make from her perfumes: businesses came to her and offered to make them and market them for her based on her public image. You didn't really think she went into the laboratory herself and concocted them from her vast knowledge of chemistry, did you?

I have a friend who met her a party.%0D %0D My friend became ill (not drunk, just not feeling well) and went to lay down. After about an hour nap, she rolled over in bed and there was Elizabeth Fucking Taylor leaning over her and feeling her forehead.%0D %0D ET had the host heat up some chicken noodle soup and took it in to my friend.%0D %0D She said ET was funny and very warm and maternal.%0D %0D My point is this: if she was like this with a stranger at a party, I think she was probably a loving mom.

She was loving and lovable, but I suspect BORDERLINE. For instance, her son's marriage to Aileen Getty. Aileen cheated on her son and was a heroin addict and that's how she got HIV (Aileen is still alive I think). Anyways, Liz was one of those who liked to rescue fucked up people types I think, and how do you think her SON felt about her closeness with Aileen, whom he divorced? BTW, I don't know but I do know that son went & lived in the UK, so figure it out yourself.

Aileen is the reason she started AmFar btw.

Also decades ago I read that Liz never went to an ATM, never went to a drugstore, nor to a grocery store, nor to the bank in her life. I mean she lived THAT kind of a life, which is not normal. FFS, we even saw pix of the Duchess of Cambridge going shopping a few weeks ago, but not Liz. She never did anything NORMAL like that. That's got to be weird.

Then hilariously, John Waters wrote about meeting her and telling her that he loved BOOM! the best...lol...you can imagine how that went down with her.

She was a wonderful mother. I taught her everything she knew.

Elizabeth Taylor did write an autobiography in 1965, but it was never published director, Martin Scorsese is going to make film about Elizabeth Taylor based on love letters between Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor and that unpublished autobiography. %0D %0D %0D Elizabeth Taylor in the early years of the AIDS crises, gave 300 million dollars of her own money to set up hospitals in Africa before anyone would even touch the subject. Also, she went to President Regan to discuss the AIDS crises before anyone would even remotely talk about the disease. Frank Sinatra said to her, Elizabeth, are you sure you want to talk about this because it could hurt your image. She said look! I'm loosing my friends to this disease and if it wasn't because of gay people I wouldn't have a career, the fashion industry wouldn't have very talented designers, and the makeup and hair industry wouldn't have talented men making we women look good. so do I care if it will hurt my image? hell no!%0D %0D Also, she auction off a part of her jewelry collection all proceeds went to AIDS research and in her will she stated she wants her jewels and other items to be auctioned off to be given to AIDS research as well, and an animal non profit organization. Also, she may sound shallow in her book about her jewels, but the subject is about her jewels. What else would she be talking about? %0D %0D Elizabeth Taylor hated the film industry for various reasons, but stayed because she loved the money that was the only reason. %0D %0D She finically supported both of her parents and they sponged off of her. She was their meal ticket. When Elizabeth Taylor was first born, it took awhile for her eyelids to open up and her mother was worried. The doctor said not to worry and told Elizabeth Taylor%E2%80%99s mother wait a bit longer. When newborn Elizabeth opened her eyelids for the first time, her parents including her doctor's mouth dropped wide open. Her eyes were incredibility beautiful. They were violet and she was born with double eyelashes. Form that point on Elizabeth%E2%80%99s mother was going to get her daughter into show business and she saw an opportunity to exploit her daughter. Elizabeth Taylor%E2%80%99s father was wimpy and her mother wore the pants in the family and whatever her mother said the father followed. %0D %0D Elizabeth%E2%80%99s father was very knowledgeable in art and taught Elizabeth what to invest in which help build a priceless collection. Also, Elizabeth Taylor had an idea back in the 70%E2%80%99s to have a perfume line because she was savvy that her image would be a tremendous plus, and she knew this would be a smart business move. Her perfume line didn%E2%80%99t materialize until the 80%E2%80%99s. %0D %0D

Elizabeth Taylor did more good for more people than most other celebrities. It is too bad that she will be unfairly remembered for the wrong things about her life. She was a very talented actress and a very intelligent and witty woman. The many friends she had are a testament to her decency and thoughtfulness.

%0D I read the garbage magazine Globe. They had an article that came out shortly after Elizabeth Taylor%E2%80%99s death. Which indicated that Elizabeth Taylor kept a diary. They said in the diary Elizabeth said she had sex with Marilyn Monroe in the early 60's at a big birthday party for someone in Los Vegas. The article claims that Elizabeth said in the diary that Marilyn gave this special tingle when she touched her, and Marilyn exuded this sexual energy. The two of them left the party and went to the ladies bathroom and had sex? The Globe also claimed that the diary states that Richard Burton beat her up, and she had black and blue marks all over her body. They said that is just the tip of the iceberg. Supposedly the Globe Mag, claims Elizabeth Taylor%E2%80%99s diary will be revealed to the public soon. Has anyone heard or read anything about this?

That's good dish r26, but what about the dish that was posted by the Daily Mail about her bisexual servants that had to fuck her nightly and wrote about it, called her "the old mattress".

R27, that is right I remember that.

Her kids were never in school or never living in a stable residence. They were yanked from place to place, like the Jolie-Pitt crew. They competed for affection with their parent's huge entourage. They saw Burton and Taylor get into some horrible drunken fights. Burton records it in his diary -- regrets being abusive and mean to his stepdaughter Liza Todd.

I am sure Ms Taylor was kind to them but their upbringing was kinda nuts.

Showing kindness to a stranger at a party does not indicate being "a loving mom." The easiest thing to be is nice to someone you don't know.

Trolldar R2, what a fucking loon.

She co-founded Amfar you shitstain. Taylor listened to scientists, doctors, and other medical experts and co founded Amfar. They didn't ask her to just lend her name to the cause, she was actively involved in Amfar. Are you really this dense? You do realize that the people that have managed the financial aspects and day to day operations of Amfar were brought in or connected to Taylor.

[quote]As for the money she did indeed make from her perfumes: businesses came to her and offered to make them and market them for her based on her public image. You didn't really think she went into the laboratory herself and concocted them from her vast knowledge of chemistry, did you?

Again you are a fucking moron. Taylor turned down many things that would have used her name and image to sell various products. Why? Because she knew what would sell and what wouldn't sell and knew the value of her name, image, and brand. You do know that most people that have a perfume know very little about chemistry don't you? Taylor (and every other celeb or company that makes perfume) picked the notes, and knew what would sell and what wouldn't.

[quote]She said Michael Jackson had the worst childhood she'd ever been privy to. Oh for fuck's sake. Children in war, children sold into sexual slavery. Babies being raped, are all a walk in the park to living in Beverly Hills and traveling first class in private jets all over the world, making millions. I hear one night the Four Seasons actually got Michael's dinner order wrong! Can you imagine the pain.

The best part of DL is when sad cubicle queens make pronouncements about the personal lives of celebrities as if they know or knew them personally. And by "best" I do, of course, mean "most mind-shatteringly pathetic."

"Lets see she was smart enough to know that her name and image would sell a lot of perfume"

If this the definision of real smart -- THANK YOU ALL!!!!!! :)

"Elizabeth Taylor in the early years of the AIDS crises, gave 300 million dollars of her own money to set up hospitals in Africa before anyone would even touch the subject."

Meanwhile, in the real world . . .

What the hell did this overpriviledged bitch have to kick about. She was rich, pampered, adored and led an interesting life, in fact several lives. So what if she didn't have a "normal" childhood. I would have clawed my best friend to death to have the opportunities she did. And to be honest, if anyone asked her I'm sure she wouldn't have traded what she had for any other life.

Apparently, her children are getting $100m each and the balance of her estate goes to AIDS research.

Wow, what a bitch she was.

"the old mattress"%0D %0D whoa!

"You didn't really think she went into the laboratory herself and concocted them from her vast knowledge of chemistry, did you?"%0D %0D A Vanity Fair article said she was very hands-on with picking scents, selecting packaging colors, etc.

if the sages ask thee why

This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,

Tell them, dear, that, if eyes were made for seeing,

Then beauty is its own excuse for Being;

If I was Elizabeth Taylor I'd swim laps wearing a tiara too, because, well, because I'd be Elizabeth Freaking Taylor and I could!

One does wonder if Mike Todd hadn't died, would that marriage really have lasted?

Local usher woman told me Liz story from the time she was doing "Private Lives" on Broadway. Liz was drunk, going down the stairs and started to stumble. The usher woman grabbed her and Liz shouted "Take your hands off me!" The woman was shocked and said "I was trying to help you." She said Liz was always drunk, but she liked Richard Burton who used to apologize for Liz.

"One does wonder if Mike Todd hadn't died, would that marriage really have lasted?"

In a word: NO!

I loved Mike so...

[quote] she accepted a gift of $3,000,000.00 canary yellow diamonds from Eddie Fisher%0D %0D Is that the value of the diamonds then or now?

"So she wrote a book about jewlery. That makes her a bad parent?"%0D %0D No, dummy. She was a bad parent because she gave her children little attention. They were very comfortable in a materical sense, but that doesn't make up for lack of parental interest. How could Taylor give her kids much attention anyway? What with her career and her illnesses and her constant affairs and marriages and her traipsing around the world living in extravagant luxury, who has time for kids?%0D %0D That story at R21 about Liz Taylor ministering chicken soup to an ill guest at a party sounds like a big pile of bullshit. In a Vanity Fair article someone claimed that Liz also played nursemaid to victims of 9/11. I don't believe that, either.

After their divorces Richard Burton generously let Liz have just about everything she wanted in terms of property; jewels, artwork, homes, etc. She wanted just about everything. And got it.%0D %0D She was always trailing after Burton. Her fans would like to believe that she left him due to his alcoholism (she was an alcoholic too, and a prescription drug addict) and that he pined after her until his death, but the fact is that he couldn't handle the chaos of living with Elizabeth Taylor anymore. He married twice after divorcing her and was very happy with his last wife. Taylor wanted to be buried next to him, that's how much she still wanted to possess him. But thankfully his wife prevented that final selfishness from happening.

"She was a bad parent because she gave her children little attention."%0D %0D Where are the stories by her children stating this? Links please.%0D %0D Stupid does have links, now doesn't he?

LINKS R47%0D %0D Stop rambling. We know you're not bright. So put up or shut the fuck up.

For the LaLiz experts. Why did she stop appearing in films after the early 70s? I can't imagine the offers ever stopped coming in as she WAS Elizabeth Taylor, yet she did very few films after the early 70s and did primarily did tv work. I would think by her name alone she would have had her choice of scropts. %0D %0D I also tend to think of Liz and Natalie Wood as the opposite sides of the same coin. Both were the final stars of the Studio system, both child stars, both great beauties (though Natalie not the legendary beauty Liz was), both with very public private lives, and despite being the same age as actresses like Fonda, Clayburgh, Burstyn etal, were considered of a completely different time. Yet Natalie seemed to crave normalcy, while Liz craved the opposite. Also, I imagine that Natalie would've aged a lot better than Liz.

You must be very young r50. Liz went through most of the 1970s as an overweight national joke and has-been and was considered very out of touch with the mores of Hollywood in that rebelious and wild decade.

Elizabeth Taylor's look became passe when the sex goddess ideal of the 1950s gave way to the waif-like 1960s look. She was getting older and putting on weight just when being boyishly skinny came into vogue again for the first time since the 1920s, and it made Elizabeth look matronly and middle-aged in comparison despite the fact that her face remained extraordinarily beautiful and photogenic.%0D %0D I also think Elizabeth Taylor just lost interest in acting, period. Most of the films she did with Richard Burton were terrible. Her chronic lateness and the hoopla surrounding Liz and Dick's jetset lifestyle and entourage made her something of a pain in the ass for producers to take on. After their relationship ended Taylor had aged out of leading lady roles, and in any event she would have found it difficult to get cast without losing a lot of weight (something she always struggled with).

She also inherited Todd A.O. A film process similar to Technicolor that earned her zillions.

I never particularly liked Taylor, but do admire the way she soldiered on despite spenting a good part of her like battling against so many illnesses.

I recently read "Furious Love," which was the biography of the Liz/Dick marriage. While it went over a lot of familiar ground, it also depicted the relationship in the light of its times, and their respective careers. They worked their asses off to live a VERY high life style, and Burton spent huge amounts of money on jewelry for Liz.%0D %0D And, Taylor was a very good businesswoman, or had very good money managers, and they paid very little in the way of taxes, because they never stayed in one place long enough to be taxed as residents.%0D %0D The sense I got is that Liz did the best she could by her children, and you'll note that they've all gone on to become functional adults (and all of them were with her when she died).%0D %0D It's a good read.

She was a pillhead and an alcoholic...everyday you think, will this be the day she overdoses?

[quote]After their divorces Richard Burton generously let Liz have just about everything she wanted in terms of property; jewels, artwork, homes, etc. She wanted just about everything. And got it.

She had more $$$ then he did and was a bigger star. Burton gave her the jewelry, he wasn't being generous, it belonged to her. Please provide the links where any of her kids have ever said publicly that she was a bad parent or that they felt neglected.

R50 both Wood and Taylor were considered "old studio Hollywood" by the end of the 60's and lumped in with stars that were 10-20 years older then they were and considered passe. Taylor has made no secret of the fact that a lot of what she took after "Virginia Woolf" was for the paycheck only, and for the most part it all bombed. Both Taylor and Wood made dreadful choices project wise during that time as well. Shirley Maclaine to a lesser extent was lumped in with Wood and Taylor but was able turn it around with "The Turning Point" and "Being There" in the late 70's.

Wood took off a lot of time for her family but also had some mental health issues during that time. Also Wood turned down Bonnie and Clyde, The Towering Inferno, and The Great Gatsby. Towards the end of her life she wanted to reclaim the movie star status but by that time the actresses that had eclipsed both her and Taylor (Dunaway, Fonda, Burstyn, and Clayburgh) were now being eclipsed by Keaton, Streep, and Field.

Natalie Wood signed on to The Mirror Crak'd in 1980 but once she saw the script of being an over the hill actress with a alcohol problem she balked. Elizabeth Taylor ended up taking the part.

R48 and R49 know a thing or two about stupidity; they epitomize it, the pathetic Liz-worshipping queens. %0D %0D Those two asshole idiots should read (could it be that they CAN'T read?) a few biographies of their idol. That would enlighten them about the fact that La Liz was always so busy leading the glamorous life of a pampered movie star that there was little time left for parenting. Or better yet, read a biography of Richard Burton. A good one is "Richard Burton: A Life", by Melvyn Bragg. That biography portrays Burton as he was...and Taylor as SHE was.

R58 is deranged.

[quote]That would enlighten them about the fact that La Liz was always so busy leading the glamorous life of a pampered movie star that there was little time left for parenting.

However, there was still tons of time left for her work in the chemistry lab perfecting her perfumes.

R18, I have no idea how Richard Burton paid for the diamonds he gave Liz, but I do know that he did not come from a wealthy family. His father was a coal miner with 13 kids & his mother died when Richard was a baby. He was raised by female relatives whose families were also coal miners -- a teacher became his guardian after he left school in his late teens. Most actors in Britain don't earn a lot & he wasn't really famous until his affair with Liz during "Cleopatra". Maybe he paid for the stones with a check drawn on a joint account with his rich new Hollywood wife.

I wonder how many times R60 has cleared his cookies and re posted on this thread? The yellow diamond set that Fisher bought then stuck Taylor with the bill cost nowhere near $3,000,000 when he bought them nearly 50 years ago. That is what they are appraised for now. Burton paid $305K for the Krupp diamond in 1968 that was 33 carats and $1 million for a 70 carat pear shaped diamond a year later.

R59 is a psychotic fangurl.

For someone who was so famouse, her passing was remarkably low key. Many of her films will be remembered, but will Taylor become merely a symbol of living on a grand, self indulgent scale? It's certain seems that way right now.%0D

In spite of her being one of the most famous (and dare I say, beloved?) women in the world, she'd been in ill health for so many decades, I think it took some of the drama away from her death.

[Quote]Did she ever write an autobiography? She said Michael Jackson had the worst childhood she'd ever been privy to.

Well, being a black child raised in an outhouse in Gary must have been pretty bad.

Trolldar R63, pumpkin you are the psychotic on this thread. Now run along, I'm sure your latest trick is waiting to chilidog you.

What a lot of people may not realize is Liz ended up paying for most of her jewels herself. When Burton or Fisher didn't pay the balance, the jewelers would call her up and she would pay them off.%0D %0D She was a very savvy woman when it came to money, something she learned from her uncle, Howard Young, and later, Mike Todd as well. Many of her investments in the 50's and 60's in California real estate paid off big, as did her inheritance of the patents to Todd AO after Mike died. She made millions on that alone.%0D %0D

I wish Elizabeth Taylor had been as savvy in the way she lived her life, specifically her relationship and marriages with Richard Burton.

I recently read a book recommended by a poster on DL containing interviews with older Hollywood stars. One of the interviews was with Joan Blondell, someone I have always liked.

One quote stands out and certainly applies to this thread.

Joan Blondell was the wife of Michael Todd before he married Elizabeth Taylor.

According to Blondell, during their marriage Todd was in trouble financially and to help him through that trouble, Blondell gave him her jewelry.

Blondell's quote:

"The next time I saw that jewelry, Elizabeth Taylor was wearing it."

Puts a different picture on the story about Todd giving jewelry to Taylor.

One of the greatest things I ever saw on TV was the night Elizabeth won the Oscar for Butterfield 8. You must remember that she had been called out by just about everyone for her behavior on the Cleopatra set. She was condemned by the Vatican, for God's sake.

They called her name and she arose with the help of her then husband, Eddie Fisher, and she slowly made her way to the stage, looking absolutely gorgeous. But, the thing was that she was bare necked and the trach scar was gleaming under the lights. That tracheotomy had saved her life when she almost died from pneumonia. She was every inch the movie star as she acknowledged the standing ovation she got from that audience. She shyly and modestly accepted the statue and whispered thank you.

What a fucking performance it was.

In back of her in that Oscars clip are DL faves, Sal Mineo with his 'date' Tuesday Weld.

When she won that first Oscar, Liz was only reviled for breaking up the Debbie/Eddie family. %0D %0D The Sybil/Richard family was still a year or so off in the near future.%0D %0D And yes, her eyes were violet!

"pumpkin you are the psychotic on this thread. Now run along, I'm sure your latest trick is waiting to chilidog you."%0D %0D Honeypie, get a life. Your insane worship of Liz Taylor reveals that you don't have one.

R71: I remember watching that Oscar show live on television when I was in high school.%0D %0D Yes, it was touching and Taylor was very gracious.%0D %0D But, your post has elevated those minutes into supposedly one of the greatest moments in TV history. You do need to get a life.

That Oscar clip is difficult to watch knowing Elizabeth will soon leave Eddie Fisher for Richard Burton. I am not making a moral judgment, just feel sorry for Fisher.

R73/63/46/47 go back and read your replies. You are coming unhinged over a person you don't even know. You are also spouting out claims that you don't back and when asked to do so you get your shitstained panties in a twist.

BTW psycho,

[quote]This is how you quote

not

"this"

Like Judy, she used illness (real or imagined) to slow the demands made upon them from being movie stars. It's the only tool they had to avoid being taken advantage of.

"You are coming unhinged over a person you don't even know. You are also spouting out claims that you don't back and when asked to do so you get your shitstained panties in a twist."%0D %0D I suppose YOU were a warm, close, personal friend of hers. Well, in your fantasies, anyway. %0D %0D It's not hard to find information on the selfishness and self-absorption and bottomless greed of Elizabeth Taylor. Look it up, asshole. That is, if you can stop pulling your inchworm while gazing at a picture of Liz long enough to do that. %0D

Elizabeth Taylor was an early reality star. She was a "starlet" and not a serious actress. Like most lesser acting talents, she segwayed into charity work because she needed something "to do".

"That Oscar clip is difficult to watch knowing Elizabeth will soon leave Eddie Fisher for Richard Burton. I am not making a moral judgment, just feel sorry for Fisher."

It's called karma.

And just how many marriages did this woman break up? I didn't know about Todd.

"she segwayed into charity work" Pity that work hadn't been teaching homosexuals to spell . . .

""she segwayed into charity work"

Pity that work hadn't been teaching homosexuals to spell . . ."

Honey, it's an internet board. I'm not writing a thesis here.

[quote]Honey, it's an internet board. I'm not writing a thesis here.

Poor grammar and spelling bespeak a person of very little quality. One imagines you also leave skidmarks in your shorts.

I take my leave of you, rube.

Poor R78/73 etc... he keeps clearing his cookies and talking out of his ass. Dear I know you are bitter about being a partial birth abortion survivor but don't you think it's time to do something productive with your life?

Lets see, Taylor is giving her kids $100 million, and the rest is going to charity which is roughly around $500 million dollars, what a greedy and selfish woman.

Liz (who was only a babe in 1943) did not break up Joan Blondell's marriage to Mike Todd. That was Miss Gypsy Rose Lee. %0D %0D Or wait...did Joan break up Gypsy's affair with Mike? I do get confused sometimes.%0D %0D In any case, Mike was producing a flop play, The Naked Genius, that Gypsy wrote and George S. Kaufman ghostwrote and starred Miss Blondell (who was apparently no wilting flower, herself).%0D %0D When Mike Todd crashed his plane The Lucky Liz" and died in 1957, Gypsy locked herself in her East 63rd St. brownstone and cried for three days. Joan, OTOH, was quoted as saying: "I hope the son of a bitch screamed the whole way down!"

For someone who lived a very eventful life, including more marriages than I can count & children I can name, Taylor's will only signifies a very small part of who she was.%0D %0D Nice try though.

R86 quit talking out of your ass dear. Something you wrote

[quote]That Oscar clip is difficult to watch knowing Elizabeth will soon leave Eddie Fisher for Richard Burton. I am not making a moral judgment, just feel sorry for Fisher.

You actually wrote that you felt SORRY for Eddie Fisher? By all accounts, including the ones by his children he was a awful person. Then in the post before, you told someone to get a life yet you are all over this thread.

Then this odd gem.

[quote]I wish Elizabeth Taylor had been as savvy in the way she lived her life, specifically her relationship and marriages with Richard Burton.

Really? You're not making "judgments". I'm sure she was very upset that a dried up old queen's criticisms of her.

Let's look at this with some objectivity, R87. How many decent films (beside "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf") did Elizabeth Taylor make once she met Richard Burton? My count is: other than "Woolf"...zero. %0D %0D That's my basic point in my posts.%0D I am at fault for not just writing it in my first post...I would have saved some important space for others on DL.%0D

Elizabeth Taylor=One of the best actresses of all times.

She will be as famous as Cleopatra was, forever. Hundreds of years will pass and Elizabeth will not be forgotten. She had the quality of a star and she was a magnificent, gutsy actress, a ravishing beauty, a humanitarian and AIDS activist like no other.

I love her so. She had that kind of energy...

swiming laps wearing a tiara should be on everyones bucket list

Miss Violet Eyes

No one like you

Lovely Elizabeth Elizabeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeth love you!

Beautiful, capricious, witty Elizabeth

You had a diamond heart capricious lady.

Are you happy where you are Elizabeth? You are free of your pains? Are you still mischievous and kind? Just wonder...

I can't watch the innumerable tributes that there are on YouTube for you. They are entirely heartbreaking. I thought that you were going to live more Elizabeth, you always had your way to escape death. How selfish of me Liz.

Horrible shallow bitch.

She was no better than Lindsay Lohan ie marrying 8 times just for publicity. Seriously, who marries 8 times?

Her friendship with Michael jackson tells you everything about what she valued in people.

She was a horrible actress with a Minnie Mouse voice. Her turn as Cleopatra is a total embarrassment. She looks like a Frau playing Cleopatra Barbie set.

I know a lot of queens would have loved being around her but for me I would have hated to be in the same room as her. She was a black hole of superficiality.

R95, you are wrong. If you don't know it by now, you'll realize that later.

She was a generous, giving lady and she had a big sweet heart.

[quote] She was no better than Lindsay Lohan ie marrying 8 times just for publicity. Seriously, who marries 8 times?

One of her quotes was that she married every man she had sex with. Which probably isn't literally true, but it might've been largely true.

She had way more money then I thought she did if what's been said in this thread is true. $300 million to AIDS, and $100 million each to her 4 children, plus more to charities left in her will? How, the perfume? She hadn't been a true movie star since the 60s. I know she was the highest paid movie star for a time, but that was still only a million per picture.

"he keeps clearing his cookies and talking out of his ass. Dear I know you are bitter about being a partial birth abortion survivor but don't you think it's time to do something productive with your life?

Lets see, Taylor is giving her kids $100 million, and the rest is going to charity which is roughly around $500 million dollars, what a greedy and selfish woman."

Oh go fuck yourself, you pitiful Elizabeth Taylor worshipping moronic queen. Your blind worship of a dead celebrity indicates a deformed mind. I think you should try to do something prductive and positive with your sad life, instead of collecting Elizabeth Taylor memorabilia and spending hours alone fantasizing about what it would be like to hang out with or fuck Liz.

For such an obsessive fangurl, you are a clueless fucktard. Innumerable biographies have documented Elizabeth Taylor as a bottomless pit when it came to material possessions. Nothing was enough for her, especially garish, obscenely expensive jewelry. That was one of definitive qualities. You obviously love her madly but know nothing about her.

As for leaving money to her children and charities...well, what was she going to do with it after she died, take it with her? All that shit about her doing charity doesn't change the fact that she WAS greedy and avaricious and spoiled and selfish and immature. Rich and famous from the time she was a child, she was used to getting her way and had threw tantrums when if she didn't get it immediately. And THAT is the truth, asshole, so deal with it.

R98 you seem a very negative and sarcastic person. I don't believe in your point of view. It's unfair and of course it's infertile. Such negativity for a dead star, it's out of the blue! You are disrespectful and mean. I hope you do it for fun(although it's not even funny) and not because you believe in your dirty and fucked up critic for real.

You distort things. Don't worry about my admiration about Elizabeth. It is not unjustifiable. I have read about all of her frailties and caprices but i also was capable of seeing through her big childish heart.

Most people who have money are stingy. Look at Madonna for example. She is a great entertainer but she is not generous to people at all. Elizabeth was generous and not only after her death. She was very rich, but she wasn't stingy with her money unlike many if not most of other rich people are.

Well R1, considering the fact that she was praised for beauty above all else, including any semblance of acting talent, would cause you to be pretty vapid as well. I'm not surprised. She's no different than 90% of today's Hollywood starlets in that regard.

R98 hasn't been fucked in a very long time

Don't forget to add novelist to her resume. She apparently wrote books. I was skimming through Netflix one day and found a period drama called Angel and it was based on an Elizabeth Taylor novel.

Academy Awards are not a charity organization. Of course, i believe that many brilliant actors and actresses who did not win an Oscar are worthy of many. Nonetheless, Elizabeth won 2 Oscars as best leading actress and was nominated 5 times for best actress in a leading role because she really worth it.

Elizabeth was not honored only by the Academy. She had being given many other awards for her acting. She was a brilliant actress, cut the crap Elizabeth Taylor haters.

R102 that was the other Elizabeth Taylor, not the Elizabeth Taylor we are talking about now. Hehe.

:)

Thanks R104 I didn't know that. I saw the name and quickly moved on. Much as I have fond memories of Liz I don't think she would have been a great novelist.

She might've been able to give Jackie Collins or Jacqueline Susann a run for their money, but luckily we'll never know.

Elizabeth!

In some biography there was a hilarious passage about Liz. IIRC, it was Heymann's bio of Jacqueline Onassis.

They were talking about JFK's speed doctor and Eddie Fisher (who went to the same doctor) was quoted as saying that Liz would get so hot she get down on all fours like and moan like a cat in heat. He'd fuck her for hours to cool down her red hot crotch.

R101 has never been fucked. Obsessive, retarded celebrity fangurls tend to make people flee from their unbearable presense, so he'll die a virgin alone with his Liz Taylor memorabilia.

Liz showed up at a Harlem charity event in the 70s, after Diana Ross refused to return the organization's phone calls. To me, that is class. (p. 61 of the article in EBONY)

Again, I refer you to Darwin Porter and his new bio of Liz. First time I've seen Debbie Reynolds's fondness for girls in print.

My ex became friends with one of her grandkids. He went to the house and was very excited to touch the Van Gogh. Didn't meet her, though...apparently stayed in her room a lot.

That picture had to be $50 M, right? She got it from her father.

My ex had an affair with Michael Wilding Jr. He was a mess, on quaaludes, and one night he crashed through a glass coffee table. That was the end of their fling.

[quote] First time I've seen Debbie Reynolds's fondness for girls in print.

Kitty Kelley mentioned it in her Liz bio. She quoted Eddie Fisher as saying that he left DR because Debbie was having an affair with Agnes Morehead.

"I AM Iseez!"

I thought SHE left HIM because of Liz Taylor? I heard rumors about Debbie and Agnes and I cannot believe them...

R109, i feel sad when i read posts so mean and so pathetic like yours. You should feel ashamed for yourself.

R101, didn't trash a famous person from his/her easy chair like mean people like you do.

Ok, to trash jerks and assholes like Sean Penn or Paris Hilton for example, but to trash a dead person who was a true star, a great actress, an AIDS activist and a woman who was very protective of her gay friends...well that is pathetic and wicked and i don't understand it.

I remember years ago they held a DC-10 full of people in Denver for Miss Taylor to make her connection from Aspen. When she finally boarded she went into the bathroom and primped for 15 minutes oblivious that 250 were waiting for her to take her seat so they could depart. Very charming but very self absorbed.

Looool!

Loool!

My my my!

I had no idea for the existence of these dolls

Lol, cute but silly

The Butterfield 8 doll is a pure "dialling the phone with a pencil" prop.

R123 hahahahahahahaha

Sexy Liz

She took my breath away in 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf'

'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'

Martha...

Elizabeth with Richard Burton

GORGEOUS ELIZABETH TAYLOR

Beguiling Cleopatra

Almost at the beginning...

Liz with her son

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton Attend Liz's Son Michael Wilding Junior's Wedding, October 1970

Elizabeth Taylor's...seeds!

Elizabeth with her son Michael Wilding Jr. in an older age

“Liz’s sons, Michael and Chris Wilding, feel there are many other actresses who are far more qualified to play their famous mother. They think gorgeous and talented stars such as Cate Blanchett or Emily Blunt should have been short-listed for the role. Liz’s children feel their mom deserved better! Liz was not only a great movie star, but a great philanthropist, and it’s a slap in the face to her memory to have this errant party girl play her. She’d be screaming bloody murder over this whole fiasco!”

“My mother was an extraordinary woman whose life touched so many, most of whom we will never know.” — t Michael Wilding Jr.

Elizabeth with her sons, Michael and Christopher Wilding

Elizabeth with her sons, her lil dog and with... Eddie Fisher

Christopher and Michael Wilding

A bit shocking!

I don't think she was a had mother just inconsistent. Alternately ignoring the kids for the newest conquest then showering gifts upon them. Leaving them with her parents/father/boarding schools then dragging them across the globe. As for the jewels she didn't just get them from men she demanded that each director give her an expensive piece before she would agree to a film. She also demanded jewelry from guests. Ted Casablanca revealed a blind about her dissing a probable Tom Cruise because she didn't like the jewelry he presented her with. She kept the jewels but refused to meet him.

Those eyes even in black and white spoke volumes

R142 Elizabeth had many sides and many of them were lovable and positive. C'mon, stop focusing on her caprices.

I wonder what she's reading. Can you discern the title of the book?

A lovey-dovey moment

Momma and children

Elizabeth Taylor and daughter Liza on the cover of Esquire Magazine Nov. 1964

Elizabeth Taylor with daughter Maria Burton and son Micheal Wilding Jr.

Elizabeth with her daughters Liza Todd and Maria Burton

Elizabeth with her family (The Burton years...)

“None of the children think of him as their stepfather, he is their father. He’s great with all of them.” Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor with daughters Liza Todd and Maria Burton

Elizabeth Taylor with her daughter Maria Burton, 1964.

A beautiful photo of Elizabeth with her daughter Maria Burton (1960's)

Liz with daughters again, Maria Burton and Liza Todd

Remembering Elizabeth Taylor, one of the fiercest, most loving mothers, on Mother’s Day.

September, 1967: Taylor and five-year-old daughter Maria Burton on vacation at La Fiorentina, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

Burton with the kids

What a vulgar cow - "demanding" diamonds from everyone. Cheap, vulgar trash.

The family goes out together.

R160 hush tom cat.

Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Boom, with her daughters Maria Burton and Liza Todd, and husband Richard Burton.

Elizabeth and Maria on the the set of The Sandpiper

Elizabeth with her daughter Maria Burton

Elizabeth with daughter Maria again

Elizabeth and daughters Maria Burton and Liza Todd.

Elizabeth with her baby doll Maria Burton

Elizabeth driving away

I've noticed lately that whenever someone starts a thread about a classic movie star, the conversation eventually gets shut down by some rabid fan who does nothing but post dozens of pictures and adding "Screen Confidential"-style captions to them. Is this all the same OCD fan in all of these threads?

Elizabeth with Richard and her daughters. The one in the background is Liza Todd. The other who is between Elizabeth and Richard is Maria Burton.

R169 you want me to give you my email and start a friendship with you? I dare you to insult me in personal. I have the mood to put you in your place by knowing you.

Elizabeth was very sweet as an old lady. Totally kissable!

Elizabeth with her mother

Baby Elizabeth Taylor in her mother's arms

I believe my questions have just been answered.

R169 i'm almost sure that you are a silly tom cat. Go to scratch your nails somewhere else. Shoo!

Cuckoo!

Elizabeth with Princess Diana

The thread is awash in lemon yellow!

r152 the girl on the right (Burton's left) I think is his own daughter Kate. She was often with the family when on break from school. Did she stay close with Liz and did she attend her funeral? I think she's based in NYC these days, she married an American theater director didn't she?

I think she's also in the center of the photo at r159 as well.

R179, i'm sorry i don't know the answer to your question. Interesting your remark, i plead ignorance, forgive me.

I'm reading this on a small screen, but that sure looks like camel toe at R153.

No Elizabeth Taylor thread of this length and breadth would be complete without her early 1950s appearance as the Mystery Guest on What's My Line?

She is adorable and outrageously funny....what a shame she never got to use any of that comic talent in any of her films roles!

Is she pregnant here with second son Christopher? Or is that just the fashion?

The book she is reading in r145 is about the Barrymores. The cover has a picture of Ethel,John and Lionel.

In one of the autobios of Shelley Winters, she goes into good detail about finding the Wilding kids running around the hotel in London that both Shelley and Liz and Eddie were staying in while they were making movies there. She discovered that the kids had been left with various nannies and staff while Liz and Eddie went back to the states for her health problems. The nannies were completely negligent with the kids and preferred to toss big parties in the hotel suite while the kids more or less fended for themselves. Shelley writes that she took them in and cleaned them up and fed them and finally got in touch with Liz in America who was grateful for the way Shelley took charge of the situation.

R183, thanks a lot R183! You surprised me positively by figuring that out.

In spite of Elizabeth quickly having two children with Michael Wilding, there seems to have been persistent rumors that he was gay. Were there particular stories of his liaisons with any famous actors?

What did Elizabeth say about her marriage to him in later years? Did he marry again? Did he die relatively young?

R185 Michael was married 4 times.

Spouse Margaret Leighton t(10 July 1964 - 13 January 1976) (her death)

Susan Neill t(12 February 1958 - 23 July 1962) (divorced)

Elizabeth Taylor t(21 February 1952 - 30 January 1957) (divorced) 2 children

Kay Young t(1937 - 18 December 1951) (divorced)

There are indeed gay rumors about him. Actually it is mentioned plenty of times that his relationship with his best friend Stewart Granger was homoerotic, in other words homosexual.

From that link at r186 it sounds like Michael Wilding was the only one of Elizabeth's first 5 husbands who didn't hit her.

"Remembering Elizabeth Taylor, one of the fiercest, most loving mothers, on Mother’s Day."

Oh, please! She treated her children pretty much the same way she treated her pets; she enjoyed playing with them, dragged them all over the world with her, but for the most part let other people take care of them. She didn't give them a lot of attention. How could she? She spent the bulk of her time making movies, having affairs, going to parties, buying and getting gifted with jewelry, and basically leading the life of a pampered, spoiled movie star.

R187 it's difficult to tell truth from lies when there is so much stuff written about stars like Elizabeth Taylor.

Anyway, here is something more solid as evidence.

I remember someone here linking to a soap she appeared on. She could not get her lines right at all.

R190 hmmm....

:)

"I remember someone here linking to a soap she appeared on. She could not get her lines right at all."

She did a well-publicized stint on "General Hospital." I saw a video of her flubbing her lines repeatedly; seems she kept pronouncing the name "Cassadine" wrong. She was doing the scene with Tristan Rogers, who was not amused at all. Liz was; she was giggling and seemed to regard the whole soap opera thing as a lark. Rogers looked like he wanted to smack her. She was probably drunk or stoned at the time.

I remember the tabloids at the time trumpeting her torrid affair with...Anthony Geary! Yes, the tabloids claimed that she and the very gay Geary were hot and heavy for a while, until she got tired of him and dumped him. He denied the stories. I believe him.

'The Girl Who Had Everything'

Whoa! This photo is full of stars!

On November 1969, Elizabeth Taylor attended Grace Kelly’s 40th birthday party in Monaco. After the event, Grace wrote her friend Judy Balaban Quine that she found it hard to take her eyes off Elizabeth, whom she described as being “unbearably beautiful”.

James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Giant, photographed by Sanford Roth.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton leaving Tre Scalini in Rome, 1960s

Lol! Look how this couple in the background is looking at Elizabeth!

Elizabeth Taylor with books.

Hmmm....ok.

Sleepy, playful, beautiful violet eyes of Elizabeth

Unique: three Hollywood icons in one picture! Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn and Natalie Wood dancing with their partners.

It's funny that some people write as if they knew Elizabeth. They say she was a bad parent because she was beautiful and owned nice jewelry. I wonder what kind of person you? You think it's OK to write bad blogs about dead people? You sound like a jealous nasty person. I hope you don't have children or pets.

I agree with you R202.

Elizabeth with Grace again

Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly celebrate The Actors Fund's Centennial at Radio City Music Hall during 1982's nationally-televised Night of 100 Stars.

Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, and Raquel Welch. Paris, 1972.

My father was a US Customs inspector in the 60's. Liz and Richard were flying back from Puerto Vallarta in a private plane and needed to stop for inspection. My dad was a big Liz fan but was sadly disappointed. He said Liz was short, fat and very,very rude. Richard, OTOH, was very charming, inquisitive and could not have been friendlier.

So who is that at the second table at r194?

I recognize Grace Kelly, Janet Leigh and... well, it's actually driving me crazy who the brunette is right there in the center! Is it Ann Blyth....she looks so thin!!

At the back table I recognize Elizabeth and perhaps that's Louis Calhern on the right. But who else is there?

R207 sweetie, in that photo Grace Kelly is eating with Janet Leigh and yes with Ann Blyth in a canteen, circa 1954. Elizabeth Taylor and Stewart Granger are at the table behind them. In 1954, Granger starred with Liz in Beau Brummell and Grace in “Green Fire”. I'm sorry, i can't figure out the other faces that sitting at the back table.

:)

Is it Richard Burton in the khaki number?

Liz, Richard and Ava Gardner

Great picture, r210. I wonder if this was during the filming of Night of the Iguana.

R211 yes it was during that. Bingo!

All these photos more or less prove that there is very little to say about Elizabeth Taylor.

But, it is fitting that people ran out of things to say on about page 3.

Yes, Elizabeth Taylor does rise above all snark and transcends a stoic image for eternity.

One of the last, great celebrities.

Colin Farrell Reveals Origins Of Friendship With Elizabeth Taylor

Guys you can download this rare Elizabeth Taylor movie now!

I'm talking about Night Watch (1973)

Guys, for those who have seen 'Night Watch', do you happen to know what is the music that was played when Taylor can't sleep and she gets up and goes to the living room and looks out the window at the storm. She puts the record on the record player just as she enters the room. The music is classical music, not listed in the credits of the movie though.

Elizabeth Taylor, clowning between scenes of 'Rhapsody', gives hairdresser Annabella Levy professional dismay pretending to give a poodle cut to costume designer Helen Rose

You can watch 'Ash Wednesday' with her and Henry Fonda in Youtube.

Unfortunately, there are no english subtitles, sorry.

However, that's better than nothing, isn't it?

Helena Bonham Carter and Dominic West to play Taylor and Burton

Bonham Carter to follow in the footsteps of Lindsay Lohan for BBC4 drama about Elizabeth Taylor's final break with Richard Burton during a stage production of Private Lives

You are one of the people i miss crazy, beautiful, unique Elizabeth

I love Elizabeth too. A true star.

She was not as slutty as Grace Kelly and still people call Elizabeth a whore and Grace Kelly a princess.

People are and will always be so superficial.

I like Grace Kelly a lot but Elizabeth had more soul obviously!

I remember the day Elizabeth died i fall on that tribute (the link down below)for her. I couldn't stop from crying and it was so natural to cry for this gutsy fragile and childish woman. What a star, what a beauty, what eyes full of expression ...what else can i say for her? She was so big, people tend to trash her because she had her little caprices, but she was indeed so big. Her movie presence gives chills to the viewer still.

As much as I like Elizabeth, she only made a few good films after she met Richard Burton. And she made very few films in the last twenty-five years of her life. Great life though, even if she was not a great actress.

"How many decent films (beside "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf") did Elizabeth Taylor make once she met Richard Burton?"

WAOVW is a *DECENT* film???

"I couldn't stop from crying... Her movie presence gives chills"

MAARRRYYYY!

I never met Elizabeth Taylor in person, but I did speak with her once on the telephone. I was visiting the actress Maureen Stapleton at the time at her home in Lenox, Massachusetts. We were having a glass of wine (or glasses I should say) after lunch, when I noticed a picture of Maureen with Elizabeth hanging on her kitchen wall. It was taken during the time they worked together on Broadway in "The Little Foxes."

I remarked to Maureen what a great photo it was, and she started singing Elizabeth's praises -- what a great friend she was, and how she she really enjoyed working with her, etc. The next thing you know, she asked me to grab her personal address/phone book and to "just go to the T's" and get Elizabeth's #. I gave her the #, she called Elizabeth, and then after a short while, handed me the phone to "say hello to Elizabeth." She was gracious and charming and we had a nice chat. After it was over, and Maureen hung up the phone, she turned to me and said "I did that just for you." That was Maureen.

Cool R228. Lucky you!

:)

Elizabeth was brilliant behind the camera mostly by instinct. A sparkling star!

R228: Thanks for posting. I envy you. And I am not surprised she was so nice.

R231: She (Elizabeth Taylor) could not have been nicer on the telephone. She really loved Maureen (Stapleton) and she conveyed that to me during the conversation we had. Maureen felt the exact same way about her. They had a great time together while appearing in "The Little Foxes" on Broadway back in 1981. They went out on the town with each other quite often during that time and really raised some hell (in a good way)...They were kindred spirits. They remained great friends right up until Maureen passed away in 2006.

She was very hairy.

She liked her men hot, hung and hairy. She was hairy too.

Where she was hairy??????????????????

Give me details or shut up.

[quote]And I read that her 4 kids each got a $100 million from her estate, but what was her relationship with them?

She was their mother. Was that a trick question?

Apparently Liz used to shave her face with shaving cream and a man's razor from early on. It wasn't full grown beard hair, but a peach fuzz. It helped to exfoliate as well. Marilyn did it as well.

There were articles written about how hairy she was. Lots of facial hair etc. Ew.....

Beautiful photo of Elizabeth with Richard Burton

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Elizabeth Taylor and Marlene Dietrich on the set of 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'

Another record auction of Elizabeth Taylor’s rarest art collection bought around $21 million. Three masterpiece paintings from her private collection were auctioned at Christie’s International in London.

Taylor truly had great taste and Vincent Van Gogh, Camille Pissarro and Edgar Degas’s paintings from her exclusive collection straightly spoke this.

Read more in the link below

October 11, 1956: Eddie Fisher shares a drink with Elizabeth Taylor and her soon-to-be husband Mike Todd

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Dietrich privately hated ELizabeth Taylor with a passion. The two of them shared three men - Michael Wilding, Mike Todd and Eddie Fisher - and Dietrich thought Richard Burton riveting (although from all accounts they never had an affair, which is shocking considering Dietrich). As reported by her daughter in that wonderful biography of her mother, Dietrich once said she wished Taylor would "choke on all those diamonds".

Lol R245 and Omg! Really she said that? That Dietrich dame! What a nerve!

*sighs

Informal Judy Garland being visited by Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher

Swathed in a bathrobe, Judy Garland chats here with newlyweds Eddie Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor in her dressing room at the Metropolitan Opera House, after her performance. The Fishers were scheduled later to fly to Spain for a honeymoon on May 15th, and they were reportedly heading for Barcelona.

Elizabeth with soon-to-be husband No. 5, Richard Burton on set of Night of the Iguana 1963.

It took you 18 months to reply to R84,R98? Why so bitter? Did your mother pimp you out to old men that pinched loaves in your mouth or something?

Naughty Elizabeth, naughty Richard

Sexy Elizabeth

When a photo seems cache or forbidden, color the address of the link which is at the top of the page and then press the button ENTER. Then the photo will appear.

A true star.

The sad part of the Taylor/Burton relationship is that Burton had to sacrifice his talent to keep Liz in diamonds. It was his fault and hers. If acting wasn't important to her why couldn't she see it was to him, that he needed the acting challenges that she did not seek or want?

The diamonds were pretty. Their supposedly grand love hardly lasted a dozen years with a lot of time and energy wasted on public show.

R253, she played in a couple of wonderful movies with Richard Burton. The main reason of their breakup was Richard's heavy drinking and the womanizing complex that followed him throughout his entire life.

I don't understand the people who don't recognize how great an actress Elizabeth was. She was really so natural and moving.

The fact that she loved jewelry and diamonds doesn't mean that she was shallow. It was a caprice of her. She was a woman full of sensitivities and i believed that most people trash her because she was very rich and she needed constantly to be taken care of. Her health was always fragile but she was a woman who loved life and people and she was anything but shallow. You can't judge a person only from some bad moments they had been exposed to. Yes, Elizabeth made some mistakes in her life(as we all inevitably did) but she did a lot of wonderful things too. She was pampered as most rich people are, but she was also a tremendously generous woman.

I didn't say she wasn't a good actress but she wasn't interested at that point - after Woolf - in proving herself or testing herself as an actress.

There was an interesting article in The New Yorker about the filming of "Spy Who Came in from the Cold." It illustrated perfectly the way that the public commotion and the daily drama of their relationship interfered with their work, separately and together.

Taylor was a woman of great gifts and talents. If she had been only a pretty face and nice tits she wouldn't have lasted or even have become a big star ever. Her "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" performance is amazing.

But she was a relationship mess especially her need to marry everyone she was involved with.

Is there a list of great film roles that Liz turned down? Roles that might have indicated her lack of interest in acting challenges?

Photographer Cecil Beaton called Liz "vulgar" and "crass." My sentiments exactly!

257 posts and no evaluations/judgments of her grandsons' looks? I'm afraid DL is slipping!

[R18] Richard Burton came from absolutely nothing. He was dirt, dirt, dirt poor. He never forgot it and that's why he took every awful movie anyone offered him.

[R26] [R27] The operative term there is "after she died" - so they could write whatever they wanted without fear of a libel suit. It sounds like Darwin Porter garbage to me.

Vanity Fair (I think) had a wonderful article about her from a woman who knew her in the Cleopatra days. ET sounded very earthy and likable and a very caring person.

[quote]Perhaps you believe she actually drafted the articles of incorporation herself with her vast knowledge of non-profit businesses. "Stand back, ladies and gentlemen... I'll devise the tax structures for this organization myself!"

You mean she didn't?

.

.

.

I think I'd like my money back.

Judy looks great in R47.

R247.

I'm not getting any younger myself. Can you enlarge the font on this site?

I love what Carrie Fisher said about Eddie and Elizabeth.

"When Mike Todd died, Eddie rushed to Liz's side. Eventually he made it around to her front."

This is an incredibly interesting thread with so many heretofore unseen (at least by me!) photos of Taylor.

Bravo DL!

We love Elizabeth. She was lovely. I can't stand sarcasm about her. She was so generous anyway!

In Kitty Kelly's ET book, she said Michael Wilding Jr. was disgusted by Taylor's and Burton's lifestyle and all the diamonds. "That's not me," he said. Meanwhile, he didn't mind living off their money. Wilding, Jr. took off with a girl to go live in a Welsh commune, but ignored her. After she had a baby, Taylor was in heaven and gave her money, completely supported her, until she refused Taylor's offer to raise the child for her. Then she was cut off. Michael Wilding Jr. ended up back in LA in the late 70s, early 80s and was bisexual. He dated my ex, who said he was a total mess, that even the fact he was Elizabeth Taylor's son couldn't erase. After he got so loaded one night and crashed through a glass coffee table, my ex dumped him.

R258, what I see are fellows with no financial worries who still do not know how to find and use a proper tailor.

In Patricia Bosworth's biography of Montgomery Clift she speaks of how Taylor and Clift resembled each other, right down to the "oddly hirsute bodies." In other words, they were both hairy.

As for Taylor, let's not lose sight of what she really was: a pampered, demanding, immature, selfish, argumentative, booze and drug addicted, wildly materialistic movie star who was used to getting her own way all the time. She wanted what she wanted when she wanted it, and that included other women's husbands. It wrong to portray her as some kind of wonderful, sweet, darling person. She wasn't that, not by a long shot.

Interesting how Marlene Dietrich visited the set of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in r241's photo, knowing that Liz would be padded and made up to look dowdy.

[quote]Richard Burton came from absolutely nothing.... He never forgot it and that's why he took every awful movie anyone offered him.

No he didn't, not by any account.

Bang on, R268.

R-268 - How vicious you are. Why do you hate Elizabeth Taylor so much? Did you know her personally to make those nasty statements? This woman stood in the forefront in the battle against AIDS. She left $300 million of her estate to AIDS related foundations. She was a humanitarian and a vocal, supportive, friend of the gay community at a time when it was taboo. She was not perfect and neither are you and I. She left this world a better place. She'd be the first to admit she had alcohol and drug addictions, and she bravely entered the Betty Ford Center, the first major celebrity to do so. Does it make her a rotten person for having an addiction problem? I suggest in lieu of judging others, start judging yourself and try to improve your own imperfections. Perhaps you are afraid to admit to yourself? I'm not sure if you are a gay man, but if you are, her efforts made yours and my life easier, while living under this plague.

DataLounge can certainly drag in the dreggs some nights as R268 exemplifies.

I wonder what they'll say about R98 after HE dies!

R17, it is queens like you who say things like "Hon" and "cupcake", and then turn around and accuse other people of being queens that makes the straight world hate us.

Butch-up, hon!

Elizabeth Taylor defended Michael Jackson...and he was a child molester. For that alone, she makes me sick.

[R270] Untrue, he always talked about how poor he was growing up. I can't blame him. It was awful. He was afraid of being poor again and did a lot of things for many. By every account.

Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift lovers? Debbie Reynolds says it’s “obvious” they had been intimate

I grew up in the 60s and saw her in fan mags before I ever saw her in a movie. I only remember a handful of performances: Taming of the Shrew (a beautiful harridan), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (an ugly harridan) and X.Y and Zee (a devious harridan). Other recollections are of John Belushi impersonating her on SNL ripping apart a whole roasted chicken; the Blackgama, perfume and diamond ads; the embarrassment that was Larry Fortensky; the defense of Michael Jackson and the AIDs work with Matilda Krim. Then all the stories about her demanding jewelry from all who met her. Kind of hard to find her likeable although her charitable side was admirable. She was a voluptuary on the order of Orson Welles minus the genius.

Oh please, R-279, spare us from your pretentious bullshit. Have you ever met Miss Taylor? Were you there, personally, when she received gifts of jewelry? You even state she demanded jewelry "from all who met her." That's absurd! You then mention three movies that you only remember, thereby discounting her other marvelous performances from the 1940s until her retirement. She won two Oscars! As for her marriage to Larry Fortensky, how in the hell was that an embarrassment? Was it because he was a blue collar man? Who the fuck are you to be so judgmental? She supported gays and lesbians, long before it was popular to do so. She was in the forefront of the battle against AIDS and ultimately left $300 million dollars of her estate to AIDS related charities. It's sad that you "kind of hard to find her likable" as she was a humanitarian. Your final statement about her being a "voluptuary on the order of Orson Welles minus the genius" is supercilious and vacuous. Before making any judgments, learn about Miss Taylor's life and legacy.

The screaming Liz fangurls (R272, R273, R274, R280) don't know what the fuck they're talking about. They're blinded by their adoration of a someone who was every bit as fucked up as any other pampered, demanding narcissist movie star who expected her every whim to be catered to at all times. She was used to getting what she wanted when she wanted it, be it jewels or other women's husbands.

Doing charity work doesn't automatically make you an admirable human being. Jerry Lewis has helped raise God knows how much for the MDA, but by all accounts he's an incredible SOB. So to make her into some of kind of saint because she raised money for AIDS is stupid. LOTS of people did that, but few of them were as feted and fawned over for their efforts as La Liz. I'm sure she enjoyed every bit of the attention.

It is the Liz worshippers who need to "learn about Miss Taylor's life."

280, you're wacked. I was giving my honest opinion and it's your problem if you find it pretentious yet limited at the same time. I don't have to see all of her movies or read biographies to form an opinion of her. I'm not writing a treatise. The business about demanding jewelry is well-documented and is referenced earlier in the thread. The woman I heard about ad nauseam as a kid had her best work behind her and yet more failed marriages ahead. Fortensky is an embarrassment because it's generally not a good idea to marry a rehab buddy and yes, he was worlds apart from her. Why am I explaining myself to a fangurl idiot?

Then just why are you explaining yourself, 282? Did I hit a nerve?

I haven't read this thread - was Michael Wilding mentioned? Was he bi/gay?

Michael Wilding was straight.

[R-279] and [R-281] likely haven't been fucked in a thousand years and who are in desperate need of it.

Do you think she ever tried anal?

Yes, R287.

"R-279] and [R-281] likely haven't been fucked in a thousand years and who are in desperate need of it."'

What does getting fucked have to do with not worshipping Liz Taylor, you stupid cunt?

Well 289, thou doth protest too much!

I did get to meet and talk to Elizabeth Taylor. (Not sure I may have already posted this on DL.) I'm pretty lucky - getting to meet Marilyn Monroe as a girl and then Elizabeth Taylor much later. Totally different kind of meetings though.

It was at the first Reagan Inaugural Ball. At the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It was the ball for Virginia, Texas and some other state. It was packed with rich Republicans. A very drunk Robert Goulet was up on a small stage singing from Camelot - but he was so sloppy drunk no one was paying much attention to him. A few people were dancing. Most just milling around trying to look important.

There's really not much to do at those things but wait for the President and First Lady to arrive. My husband was off getting us a drink in a very long drink line. When in came Senator John Warner and his wife Elizabeth Taylor. She looked wonderful; she wore a pretty kind of shimmery dress. They didn't look real happy -but she was smiling at people as they passed. People were excited to see her but it was a cold, political crowd. Then people started to just stare at them. Or her I should say. They just stood there as the crowd kind of formed a circle around them - just staring. It was incredibly awkward. Then Elizabeth sweetly looked at John Warner and said : dance with me. He looked at her like she was crazy, barked something at her like - I'm not dancing with you and off he walked. Left her standing there all by herself. She was furious - he had very publicly and loudly rebuked her. She wasn't hiding how mad she was, and the crowd around this circle grew deeper and everyone seemed to be enjoying just looking at her. I felt really bad for her. It went on for awhile. So - I left the crowd and went over to her and said something about my husband never dancing with me either. She laughed but told me in uncertain language that she was pissed! I can't remember exactly what we talked about - I think poor Robert Goulet was mentioned - but I kept her company. She didn't seem to want me to leave one bit. Of course, I noticed her beautiful eyes. And what a voice. And she seemed much smaller than I ever would have thought. I was with her a good 10, 15 minutes. My husband returned, saw who I was talking to - and stayed away. Finally John Warner returned, he had her coat in his arms, she thanked me for talking to her. With the now huge circle of people staring at them - they left.

I think the announcement they were splitting was not too far after that. I wasn't surprised when I heard it.

John Warner would never have been elected that first time without her. He got the R nomination because of the death by airplane accident of the Republican nominee - Elizabeth spoke about dealing with sudden loss in a surprise press conference with John Warner after the news of the place accident - and suddenly, overnight, he was the Republican nominee. He used Elizabeth. I hope at least at first he loved her.

R291 thank you for taking time to write all this. :)

I'm with Elizabeth's fans. There is no point in trashing Elizabeth Taylor, or other people who were so generous with other people. It's psychotic and it makes you feel smaller. Why some of you keep on focusing on Elizabeth's caprices, making them seem as if they were something monstrous? This woman was much more than what you implied that she was. Stop being so nasty and unfair!

LOVE your recollections, misfit girl! Thanks for posting.

She is burning in hell right beside her pedophile friend, Michael Jackson

Do you have firsthand knowledge of this, 294? How wonderful to have a pipeline to God. I certainly would not expect such hellfire and damnation antics on DL. Of course, too, I'm not sure if you're using sarcasm....what's the deal?

A lovely photo of Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Taylor and Esther Williams get together in 1993

I do wonder why certain celebrities attract certain types of fans? Apparently, there's a theory they attract people like themselves.

For whatever reason "St. Liz"'s fans all seem to enjoy being deliberately blind to her faults. (The screaming JUDY! QUEENS aren't dissimilar.)

Odd. Liz was an awful person. Don't spoil your children, parents!

R297 enough of your prejudice! Yes Elizabeth had weaknesses like every human being. Being a star, she couldn't avoid them, her life was exposed all the time, so it was inevitable to make many mistakes. Fortunately, she managed to do some really good things during her life. Why do you stuck on her weaknesses?

Burton and Taylor with Liza Todd in Mexico, swimming in the ocean, 1963

Elizabeth Taylor and her pal Roddy McDowall hit the beach in 1945.

Director Mike Nichols and Elizabeth Taylor discussing "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Liz autographed a picture of her in a slip from "Butterfield 8", for me, about 1990. I still have it on the wall.

R301, you are very sweet. :)

"Burton and Taylor" is pretty much a standard BBC show biz biopic, but I think it's very well done. Dominic West and Helena Bonham Carter deserve their BAFTA nominations. It's definitely slanted towards a more sympathetic portrayal of Burton struggling to keep it together while dealing with Taylor's toxic narcissism, but it's the BBC so they would naturally side with the Welshman against the American.

Frank Langella knew her briefly in her final days; the portrait he paints of her life then is really, really sad.

What did Langella say about Liz?

Katharine Hepburn “attacking” Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Suddenly, Last Summer.

Richard Burton (wearing Taylor’s wig) and Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

I'm more interested in what's going between those two men behind Hepburn and Taylor in R306.

That one guy in the background is Montgomery Clift and he seems to be getting strangled by the director of the film, Joseph Mankiewicz.

At least I think it is the director.

It's funny because Mankiewicz really did give Clift loads of heartache during the filming of the movie and Hepburn, after getting assurances that filming was complete, went up to Mankiewicz and a producer and literally spit on them for the way they had treated not only Clift, but herself as well.

Read Richard Burton's diaries to get a good idea of exactly how empty, self-indulgent and booze-filled their life together actually was. He says how bored they are at least a thousand times. The few pages about the monster named Lucille Ball are priceless.

R291, what was your encounter with Marilyn?

@R145 - The title of the book is "The Barrymores"

@R162 - That's not Maria. It's Taylor's niece on the set of "Boom!" Taylor's brother had a bit part in the film. He's the driver of the small boat which takes Burton to the island at the very beginning of the film.

Elizabeth had no private life.