What were Elizabeth Taylor’s fat years?

She did say - stress, depression, addiction issues.

Even when she was a kid she always looked one doughnut away from joining weight watchers.

Why don’t we hear anything about her kids?

I know she's beloved around here, but the way Joan Rivers treated Liz was horrifically cruel.

Perhaps she had quit taking amphetamines and barbiturates?

Elizabeth Taylor got fat when she was married to Senator John Warner. Up at Washington, she was isolated from her Hollywood friends and was bored and miserable in that marriage, turning to food, pills, and alcohol for comfort.

The fat years started with the introduction of elastic waistbands on women's slacks.

Oh honey, a better question is did the S.S. La Liz ever have any non-fat years???

[quote] turning to food, pills, and alcohol for comfort.

Why don't these people ever read a book, go to a museum, make some friends? She was in DC, not a tiny town in Kansas.

R9, museums give comfort? Museums can’t fuck you.

R4 I wonder how beloved Rivers is, in retrospect. She was a canny businesswoman, but her comedy was based in saying the meanest things imaginable about everyone and going for their spots of vulnerability (even herself, early in her career). She could be somewhat clever and she did make her own way (and was better educated than many of her peers), but she really began to seem like she liked to be vicious for its own sake, rather than to try to be clever or witty, and based entirely on people's physical flaws. I grew to dislike her--and her daughter comes across as an even less talented entitled nepo baby. Today she wuld be a full-on Trump supporter (like Judge Judy). A terribly unhappy woman who seemed to want everyone to be as miserable and self-loathing as she was.

She discovered the little Safeway store in Middleburg, VA. The story goes she’d never been in a grocery store before. Liz was miserable on Warner’s farm and didn’t quite fit in with Middleburg crowd. So she bought groceries and went to town on them.

EAT!

The juxtaposition of the silver tumblers and the paper Coca-Cola cups is so later-era Liz Taylor.

Every woman wanted to look like Elizabeth Taylor, and now they do.

biggums thought she was going to be first lady

She was clearly gaining weight in the 60s when you see her in “The Sandpiper” and into the early 70s with “X, Y, and Zee” aka “Zee and Company” but it was nothing drastic, just a few pounds, and she looked stunning in “Ash Wednesday”. But the late 70s were a whole different story.

Working on Here's Lucy was probably when she hit rock bottom

She started to pack it on when she was with Burton.

I liked Taylor and Burton together, there was some real chemistry.

yeah like gin and vermouth.

Taylor was a 5'2" and busty. The slightest overindulgence made her look squat. Her weight fluctuated so much during the lengthy filming of Cleopatra that there are times where she's svelte and kittenish one minute then an overstuffed hen the next.

I like the idea of Liz going to a local Safeway and buying ding dongs. And yes, the poster is right about Joan Rivers being the ultimate vicious so called comic.

Her husbands suicide made her so angry and mad, as it would to anyone . So she channeled all this anger and became even more vicious.

I remember she threw an over the top wedding for her daughter and the marriage lasted a couple of weeks.

The John Warner years were depressing and she was her heaviest

Taylor openly addressed her weight gain and subsequent weight loss in her 1987 book, "Elizabeth Takes Off: On Weight Gain, Weight Loss, Self-Image, and Self-Esteem."

Don't talk about the boy, Martha.

Elizabeth Taylor has more chins than a Chinese phonebook

At least Elizabeth Taylor won Oscars. How many phone books have you won lately?

I took Elizabeth to get her ears pierced and gravy came flooding out.

r27 her blood type is Ragu

Was Fat Elvis’ death her wake up call?

Elizabeth Taylor is so fat that she asked for second helpings of her third servings!

Making fun of someone's weight is about as deep as a puddle. People come in all shapes and sizes, and honestly, their weight shouldn't be the punchline of your jokes. Try a little originality, darling.

If I had to be around politicians every day I would drink and do drugs too.

Enjoying food is about savoring the taste, texture, and aroma of the food. It's about feeling satisfied and nourished. Emotional eating, on the other hand, is about using food to cope with emotions like stress, sadness, or boredom. It often leads to overeating and feeling guilty or ashamed afterward.

I think in her Intimate Portrait interview she said she ate a plate of chicken every night.

Fried chicken? A plate of roast chicken every night isn't enough to get fat.

She said that fried chicken was her favorite food.

She put mayonnaise on an aspirin

If you're going to steal from Joan Rvers, at least credit her.

Oh wait, you did. I can't see small.

[quote]Elizabeth Taylor got fat when she was married to Senator John Warner.

She also got her U.S. citizenship back.

She was born in London to American parents, so had dual UK/US citizenship.

When she was around 7, WWII broke out, so her parents moved them back to the US, which is when she began her acting career.

After she married Richard Burton in the mid '60s, she renounced her U.S. citizenship although she and Burton didn't settle in the UK. They were jetsetters during their 10-year marriages (they divorced and remarried in between).

She married Warner the same year that she divorced Burton for the second time.

She also got her citizenship restored and thereafter resided in the US for the rest of her life.

Liz Taylor was so fat, one day when she was standing on a corner alone, a cop came by and told her to break it up.

She got fat and bloated when she stopped controlling her drinking.

She went to get fried chicken, and when they asked her what size she said "the one on the roof".

R23, Joan started the Liz is fat jokes a decade before her husband’s suicide.

R43, that was a Charles Pierce joke.

R11 I agree with most of what you said, but I bet Joan would go after Trump and Melania, Ivanka, Jared and the boys, Donnie Jr. and Eric better than anyone now living. The Trumps are comedy gold. Would she go after Biden too? Probably. I see her as being offensive to both, but really going after Donald John Trump...and all his MAGAs supporters. Maybe wishful thinking on my part. Can you imagine what she would say about Marjorie Taylor Green? Or Thomas and Alito?

Elizabeth had serious back problems. Constant pain. And she took pain meds that were addictive. Would not surprise me to learn she was a Sackler victim like thousands of others. She was a big drinker too. But it was also her Hollywood days, when the moguls wanted their stars voluptuous but not fat. That mythical "hour glass" figure. I always found her marriage to Warner sport of strange. I remember watching the movie, Rhapsody, one of my favorites, with Elizabeth and Vittorio Gassmann and it was there I noticed how tiny her waist was . We laughed when Jane FOnda came along in the 70's and preached fitness and vitamins, etc. but Jane definitely swam against the tide of Hollywood as a break away from their diet pills culture.

^^Joan Rivers made no qualms about being a Republican, but l also wonder if she would have supported Trump.

During Liz's voluminous years Joan made the following comment - She's so big that one day, she wore a Yellow dress and 40 schools kids tried to board her! - Not sure if that's the exact content but I do know Joan made that remark (among countless others). Another was 'her thighs are so big she went condo!'

Jane Fonda has written about having a serious eating disorder (bulimia) beginning in her adolescence. The compulsive exercise was an extension of disorder.

Did she really need to live in Washington if she was so unhappy and depressed there? Most Congressional spouses don’t live there.

Someone who has been married 8 times has serious mental problems. Disordered eating habits were to be expected.

Everyone's ragging on Joan and not a word about John Belushi?

She started to plump up in the late sixties/early seventies. Your metabolism slows down when you hit your forties. She wasn’t really exercising and she and Burton both drank like fishes. She also ruined her alabaster skin with too much sun. I think she was a smoker as well. And she was always getting sick.

It started with her movie, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Ham?" She was not.

Eating drunk , that will make anyone fat.

Everybody made fun of Taylor’s weight gain - she was considered one of - if not the - most beautiful women of that era and she seriously let herself go. Like it or not, that makes many humans either delighted or upset - either way it becomes part of the cultural conversation. For every JR joke there were a dozen “concerned” articles in the woman’s & gossip sections of newspapers and magazines. And Hollywood Babylon II. Joan didn’t drive the conversation, but she did make it funnier.

I wouldn't say Joan Rivers was beloved by the public, but comedians loved her because she said whatever the fuck she wanted. She called Michelle Obama a tranny, for god's sake.

When Liz was at SeaWorld she asked if Shamu came with a side of fries

At SeaWorld Liz asked if Shamu came with a side of fries

I don’t know why Joan Rivers seems to have taken over this thread but Joan was a hateful New York Republican who drove her husband to kill himself and thought nothing should be off limits in comedy, except for her Nepobaby daughter Melissa. Everyone who defends Joan mentions her philanthropy and and generous spirit, which everyone is intimately familiar with because Joan made sure to mention it, often.

John Belushi as Taylor will never get old.

Taylor stands in front of the microwave and screams HURRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

R59, your post reminded me of this observation from Divine:

"All my life I wanted to look like Elizabeth Taylor. Now Elizabeth Taylor looks like me."

She was always super into food. It caught up with her in middle age, like a whole lot of us.

Elizabeth Taylor was the last true movie star, and one like no other. I think the fatness and the drunkness are all part of her story. She was beautiful, had a heart in the rignt place and still feels somehow underrated as an actress (outside datalounge).

Re the fat jokes, yes, they were cruel but i think we are all more conscious and sensitive now on making jokes about fat people that a few year ago.

I read about ET having chili prepared by the restaurant Chasen shipped overseas to a film set, she was decadent and it showed up later in life in excess weight and multiple stays in rehabilitation facilities along with the outrageous jewelry collection.

I remember an interview clip from when she was married to Warner where she discusses her weight, which must have been an awful position to be in. She probably mentioned fried chicken, and I think she mentioned loving potatoes.

Joan Rivers seem to think it her duty to shame Elizabeth Taylor into losing weight.

The joke was on Joan who ended up being ridiculed for her excessive plastic surgery.

Joan didn’t seem to care about being ridiculed for her plastic surgery.

^Obviously. She looked absurd.

here's Liz looking good at 49 married to John Warner and appearing in The Little Foxes

Liz has more chins than a Chinese phonebook!

She had the kind of hourglass figure that generally only lasts until you hit 30 or from your first baby. She was a German figure. Short with big breasts and curvy.

[quote] Joan didn’t seem to care about being ridiculed for her plastic surgery.

Watch her documentary. Oh boy, did she care.

[Quote] Elizabeth Taylor was the last true movie star, and one like no other

some might disagree: Sophia Loren, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, Faye Dunaway, Julie Christie, Tom Cruise.

And Julia Roberts, R79.

Taylor was already starting to gain in “Suddenly, Last Summer”. She looks gorgeous in the white swimsuit but that’s no anorexic figure she’s sporting.

Sorry, but I loved Joan Rivers’s joke: “What does Liz Taylor say when she’s standing in front of the microwave? ‘…HURRY UP!!’”

R80 I swear I thought of Julia and meant to include her but realized I left her name off after I posted.

I took Liz to Krispy Kreme for the first time and told her to grab a number, bitch grabbed ALL of them!!!

R78 - Joan's documentary was surprisingly good for someone who's always been somewhat neutral about her (neither hate nor a fan). I did admire her courage at the start when she appears completely without makeup on camera, in a close up no less, and applies her face to show the transformation.

I loved her even fat and looking like a floozy. I read that she g ained the weight in her 40's and was 180 at her worst. Then she went on some kind of diet and dropped to 122. She even wrote a book about it called,"Elizabeth Takes Off" so even with the public ridicule and the cruelty, she handled it like a pro, owned it embraced it and did not whine or complain and play victim. I love her.

Didn’t Andre Leon Talley say she showed up to a photo shoot demanding fried chicken?

Liz always seemed very real in her public person. She knew nothing different, so lived her life for public consumption, long before Instagram.

Her weight loss book is very grim from a food perspective, but of the (initial WW) times though, as it used a lot of artificial sugars, etc. She maybe just could’ve hired a great chef and swam a lot to lose weight I would have thought raising a finger with a 14 carat diamond would’ve burned some calories.

Available to borrow on archive.org

I just ate a whole pan of lasagna and all I can is "What a dump!"

The Oinkties.

That’s a great pic, R89

I hate that image r92. I think ET looks high. But I love the book for the diet she offered, the diet is joyless and very old-school.

Her lifespan’s dates.

All the Joan Rivers jokes and nobody has mentioned -

Liz was asked what do you want on your hamburger?

A hot dog!

Elizabeth was a hedonist, and she always loved food. When John Warner was campaigning in Virginia for the Senate seat, Elizabeth accompanied him at many campaign events through the state, and Virginia food is delicious.

Joan Rivers was one of the funniest and wittiest comics ever. A treasure really. Her standup was brilliant and he wit on talk shows a gas.

ITA R97

Joan used to say that Liz is the only person who looks at the microwave and screams: "HURRY!"

she puts mayonnaise on aspirin.

She goes to McDonald's to watch the numbers change. She got stuck between the golden arches.

Asked in an interview about picking on Liz, Joan said, 'she's one of the most beautiful women in the world; fine, I'll leave the poor slob alone."

R82 meet R65. And maybe review a thread before you stupidly blunder in with a comment.

Idiot.

Why has this thread been overtaken with posts about that ugly, unfunny bitch Joan Rivers? She was godawful in eveything she did.

R53 and R97. Virginia is beautiful and does indeed have great food. We used to travel from MD to VA for Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house every year when I was little. I remember my parents talking about being near Elizabeth Taylor's house on the way there. I don't remember the house specifically, but it was a gorgeous area with mansions.