A True Hollywood Beauty
They made a song celebrating the deaths of Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens – The Day The Music Died. Elton John wrote a song honoring Princess Diana when she was killed in a car accident, A Candle Blowing in the Wind. They dimmed the lights of Broadway for the likes of Paul Newman and Natasha Richardson , Ron Silver and Jill Clayburgh. When Michael Jackson died, his music was aired both on radio and TV for days.
What will they do to honor Elizabeth Taylor?
She was a star for over 50 years and that’s a hell of a long time to be in the public eye. As a child actress, she was as good as Margaret O’Brien and Shirley Temple BUT she was able to make the seamless transition into adult roles.
She was beautiful that goes without saying; She had a luscious curvaceous body, an exquisite face with the forever-famous violet eyes. She could embody the role of a country girl, a vamp, a drunken sot, a conniving bitch, a regal empress – you name it, she probably played it. Clearly a Hollywood legend.
Loved and admired by her fans and friends, Elizabeth Taylor was known to be a kind, honest, generous and a loyal friend. We all know about her steadfast relationships with both Rock Hudson and Michael Jackson proving just how loyal she could be. She was also an entrepreneur who knew way back when before the term branding was being tossed around that she herself was a brand to be marketed; White Diamonds made her a fortune.
On the other hand, she was self-indulgent, a drunk, a junkie, guilty of at least 5 of the 7 Deadly Sins, a heart-breaker, a home-wrecker and 8-time divorceé, proving either she was not a good wife or she made very bad choices or perhaps she was incapable of truly loving another person. She was condemned from the pulpit of Catholic churches for her roles in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. I remember sitting in Sunday Mass at St. John’s RC church in Middletown, CT when Father Miller delivered a hell fire and brimstone sermon condemning Cleopatra and warning parishioners that going to see “that movie which was playing down the street ” would be a sin!
When it’s all said and done and “at the end of the day” as my daughter, Chiara, likes to say; Elizabeth Taylor was a legend, a title appropriately conferred and not lightly given. Thank God, for the preservation of films and let’s hope (if they haven’t already planned it) that TCM has a week of Elizabeth Taylor films.
Related Articles
- Remembering Elizabeth Taylor Through Madonna (perezhilton.com)
- Elizabeth Taylor pictures: The Hollywood legend at her glamorous best (mirror.co.uk)
- Elizabeth Taylor: The Original Hollywood It Girl (popsugar.com)
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
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