The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Devil Spawns' Special Edition...
Hey, Poll-fans... Back for one that I couldn't resist...
Glenn Beck Contemplates Starting Own Channel
The possibility that Beck-elzebub will exit the Faux News Channel at the end of the year has prompted a big question in media circles: if he leaves, how will he bring his demonically possessed minions with him? Two of the options His Evilness has contemplated, according to people who have spoken about it with him, are a partial or wholesale takeover of a cable channel, or an expansion of his subscription video service on the Web...
Glenn Beck Contemplates Starting His Own Channel - NYTimes.com
What would be an appropriate name for a Beck-elzebub cable channel?
Results Tuesday, March 29... Cut-off 8pm EST Monday (03/28)...
Send your response to
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: Glenn Beck is a message from God (SF Gate)
There is divine meaning, electric significance, cosmic text messaging blasting forth this very instant from all over the world, nay the universe, both negative and positive, radiant and dangerous, Shiva and Shakti, all whirling in a great cosmic dance, from parking space to porn star, Libyan uprising to nuclear meltdown, Wisconsin insult to Indian Holi festival to the very first gasping, sputtering breath of Spring. I am delighted to share this wisdom, this sacred thrust and thrum, with the infamous Glenn Beck!
Froma Harrop: The Madness of Slamming Midnight Basketball (Creators Syndicate)
Eighteen years ago, "midnight basketball" was the big har-har-har on the conservative talk circuit. It was a federal program that sought to coax young men off the late-night mean city streets and onto supervised basketball courts.
Jim Hightower: Don't Mess with Librarians
Public libraries are among the most respected institutions in our society. Beloved even. So why does Rupert Murdoch think he can get away with trying to squeeze them for another nickel in profits?
Erica Payne: Sex, Justice, and the -isms (momsrising.org)
What would you do if you learned that two weeks from now a man repeatedly accused of aggressive sexual misconduct may decide whether women have the power to confront people who discriminate against them?
Scott Edwards: "Florida: Could Photo of Pigpen Get You 30 Years in the State Pen?" (Huffington Post)
You've all heard that a picture's worth a thousand words. Turns out, if a Republican state senator in Florida gets his way, a picture of a farm might also be worth 30 years in prison.
STANLEY FISH: We're All Badgers Now (New York Times)
A conversation about unionization and higher education between Stanley Fish and Walter Benn Michaels, professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Timothy Noah: The Grifter's Hit Parade (Slate)
America's most popular confidence games, 2010.
Artangel: Frontline warriors (Guardian)
In 1991, two young men decided it was time art broke out of the gallery - and become an event in its own right. John O'Mahony meets the Artangel revolutionaries who changed Britain.
Steve Almond: "Presto Book-O (Why I Went Ahead and Self-Published)" (The Rumpus)
To say that I've had a checkered history in publishing would be like saying Elizabeth Taylor had a checkered history in marriage. In the past decade, I've churned through three houses, and twice as many editors. I've pissed off half the agents in New York City, and told the other half (with unreasonable glee) to fuck off. At one point, I actually had to be physically separated from one of my publishers.
'I knew I was HIV positive' (Guardian)
But Nadja Benaissa didn't tell the men she slept with. And in Germany - where she was a member of the country's most successful girl band - that is a crime. Interview by Hannah Booth.
David Bruce has 41 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $41 you can buy 10,250 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
wrote:
answered:
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
An Article of Interest
Reader Question
Re: Moose & Squirrel Information One-Stop
Hi, Marty
What's up with that link? Seems it's been broken for months, or maybe
years.
Just curious,
Leo
Thanks, Leo!
Haven't bumped into Moose in a while, so will drop him a note and ask.
Will keep you all apprised.
BadtotheboneBob
Elizabeth Taylor
Hey, M...
The death of Ms. Taylor has compelled me to write and say that in the movie world of actor/actress combinations that are considered 'Classic' or 'Enduring' there's such as Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, Rock Hudson and Doris Day or Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. People can (and will) debate which is greater. But to me there was none better than Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Notice I gave her first billing. She deserved it...
BadtotheboneBob
Thanks, B2tbBob!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Rainy and cold.
Calculations And Human Shields
Journalists
The tensions and calculations involved in covering a war zone spilled out Tuesday in an unusual dispute between rival American television networks over a trip to assess damage to an attack on Moammar Gadhafi's compound in Libya.
CNN's Nic Robertson angrily denied a Fox News Channel report that he and other journalists were used by the Libyan government as human shields against further attacks against Gadhafi. Fox stood by its report on Tuesday and criticized CNN for taking things personally.
The Libyan government had offered to escort international journalists to Gadhafi's compound after an allied attack. Such government invitations can be common in war zones and are usually done for propaganda purposes; a journalist needs to weigh in individual circumstances whether they are worth the time spent and can provide interesting pictures or details.
On Monday, Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin reported the British military had to call off an attack on the Libyan leader's compound because journalists were there. She mentioned that CNN and Reuters had gone on the trip and said Fox reporter Steve Harrigan did not go because of the concern about being used as a human shield.
A few hours later, Robertson said on CNN that the allegation was "outrageous and absolutely hypocritical." He said that the reporters spent roughly 30 minutes at the compound, and that he was pushed back into the bus to return to his hotel while trying to do a report.
Journalists
Actors Help Katrina Rebuilding
"Days of Our Lives"
Actors from "Days of Our Lives" are helping to rebuild homes for families still displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
On Wednesday, the cast of the soap opera that's been on the air for 45 years will welcome a New Orleans family as they move into a new home and provide furniture for them. On Thursday, the cast members will help rebuild another home and raise money for its construction.
Actors James Reynolds, Kristian Alfonso, Peter Reckell, Joe Mascolo and former cast member Deidre Hall are among the stars on tour promoting the show's book, "Days of Our Lives 45 Years: A Celebration in Photos."
Since Katrina hit in 2005, the St. Bernard Project has rebuilt homes for more than 350 families with the help of more than 32,000 volunteers.
"Days of Our Lives"
Donates $1 Million For Japan
Gwen Stefani
Gwen Stefani donated $1,000,000 on Wednesday to Save the Children's Japan Earthquake-Tsunami Children in Emergency Fund to help in the relief and recovery effort.
"I've been inspired by Japan for many years and have a true love, appreciation and respect for the Japanese people and their culture," the singer said in a statement.
"The disaster in Japan is beyond heartbreaking and I want to do anything I can to help. I would never be able to make a gesture like this without the love and support of all the fans over all these years," Stefani added.
A limited edition Harajuku Lovers T-shirt designed by Stefani will be available next week through www.nodoubt.com, with all proceeds going to the relief efforts in Japan.
Gwen Stefani
'World's Longest Film' Premieres
Helsinki
A Helsinki modern art festival was set to present a film on Wednesday it says is is the longest ever screened.
The 240-hour film titled "Modern Times Forever (Stora Enso building, Helsinki)" was created by a Danish art group called Superflex.
The film shows the Stora Enso headquarters in Helsinki fall into a dilapidated state as time speeds into the future and past the extinction of the human race, leaving the building to be battered by time and the elements.
The movie, which begins at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) will be screened only once on a 40-square-metre (431-square-foot) outdoor screen in central Helsinki, right in front of the original building.
Helsinki
"GMA" Invites Back
Chris Brown
"Good Morning America" has invited Chris Brown back to the show -- even though he stormed off their TV set Tuesday, threw a cooler and allegedly broke a window because he was so angry about being asked about Rihanna.
"I wish him the absolute best," Robin Roberts said on "GMA" Wednesday morning. "We extended the invitation to him (to come back), and sure hope he takes us up on it because I'd sure love to have another chat with him."
Roberts conducted the interview with Brown Tuesday but he stormed off the set after performing a single from his new album, F.A.M.E. She was also one of the first to interview him after he was arrested in 2009 for his altercation with Rihanna.
"Any time we have a guest, we let them know ahead of time the subject matter and the topics. And even right before the interview I let him know," Roberts explained again Wednesday on air. "I was shocked like everyone else, because we've had a wonderful relationship. I've been to his home, he's very gracious, and we've had easy conversation."
Chris Brown
Rejects Plea Offer
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan rejected a judge's offer to end a felony grand theft case early on Wednesday, signaling the actress intends to fight a case filed over a necklace she has been accused of stealing from a upscale jewelry store.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz never publicly detailed the terms of his offer to Lohan, but said if she pleaded no contest or guilty in the case, he would sentence her to jail. Prosecutors are also seeking jail time for the "Mean Girls" star, who was on probation for a 2007 drunken driving case when a store in Venice told police that Lohan had taken a necklace without permission in January.
Lohan's attorney Shawn Holley notified the prosecutor handling the case that Lohan would not be taking Schwartz's plea offer, district attorney's spokeswoman Jane Robison said. Wednesday was the deadline for Lohan to notify Schwartz of her intentions and she will now be required to appear in court on April 22 for a preliminary hearing.
The hearing will be conducted by a new judge - the fourth one Lohan has faced in the past year - who will determine whether there is enough evidence for Lohan to stand trial on the felony grand theft charge.
Lindsay Lohan
Denied In Effort To Stop Arbitration
Charlie Sheen
A Santa Monica judge on Wednesday denied efforts by attorneys for Charlie Sheen to stop a private arbitration between Sheen, Warner Bros. and "Two and a Half Men" producer Chuck Lorre over the actor's firing from the show.
Warner Bros. initiated an arbitration proceeding against Sheen before the actor sued the studio and Lorre for $100 million. The private dispute resolution company JAMS has decided it will move forward with the arbitration and its yet-to-be-appointed arbitrator will decide whether Sheen's contract provides that all disputes between him, Warners and Lorre will be hash out behind closed doors.
Sheen wishes to press his claims in court where the proceeding will be public. So his lawyer Marty Singer filed for an emergency temporary restraining order in a Santa Monica courtroom asking a judge to issue an injunction against JAMS until the court determines whether Sheen's claims can move forward in the public venue.
The judge, after reading the lengthy court papers filed by the attorneys for Sheen, Warners and Lorre, denied the injunction. The matter must be taken up by Judge Allan Goodman, who is presiding over the $100 million Sheen lawsuit.
Charlie Sheen
Burning Man & The Hong Kong Model
Rosemary Vandenbroucke
A Hong Kong model who was arrested twice during a trip to the counterculture Burning Man festival in rural Nevada last year has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge, and won't serve any jail time.
Reno lawyer Tammy Riggs told The Associated Press on Wednesday that 28-year-old Rosemary Vandenbroucke wasn't in court for the Tuesday proceeding in Lovelock.
Riggs pleaded guilty on behalf of Vandenbroucke to misdemeanor obstructing or delaying a police officer. She says the model and singer most popular in Asia and Europe was fined $1,000 and the case is closed.
Rosemary Vandenbroucke
New Book Says Sex Scene Was Real
"Don't Look Now"
Most anyone who saw the 1973 Nicolas Roeg film "Don't Look Now" had to wonder whether Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie were actually having sex while shooting their famous love scene in the thriller set in Venice.
In his forthcoming book, former Variety editor Peter Bart writes unequivocally that they did, according to a story in The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday.
Bart, whose book "Infamous Players: A Tale of Movies, the Mob, (and Sex)" will appear on bookshelves in May, recounted his visit as a young Paramount Pictures executive to the Venice set on that "auspicious day," according to the Reporter, which obtained an advance copy of the book.
Another Bart anecdote recalls a very angry Warren Beatty, who had had a serious relationship with Christie, demanding that the scene be re-edited because it was so graphic.
"Don't Look Now"
Long-Lost Skin Flick To Debut
El Santo
Mexican wrestler El Santo defeated mummies, Martians, werewolves and zombies in dozens of films during a 40-year career that catapulted him to cult status among film lovers worldwide.
But a never-before-seen performance by the popular wrestler debuts next week in Guadalajara's International Film Festival shows him fighting a new breed of villains: naked she-vampires.
The movie, "El Vampiro y el Sexo" (The Vampire and the Sex), is a director's cut of a late 1960s flick, originally titled "Santo in the Treasure of Dracula", that adds scenes where the hero resists the allure of voluptuous, blood-thirsty, in-the-buff temptresses.
It was the first color movie made by Rodolfo Guzman, better known by his stage name of El Santo (The Saint). But the uncut version was locked away by producer Guillermo Calderon Stell on concerns it would taint the wrestler's family-friendly image at a time when even miniskirts raised brows in conservative Mexico.
Die-hard followers of El Santo knew and talked about the film -- stills showing Dracula goggling over a bare-chested woman have made rounds in fan pages for years -- but the entire movie has never been shown before.
El Santo
Return To Italy From Russia With Love
Rare Violins
To music lovers, listening to violin and cello virtuosi play one Stradivarius or one Guarneri instrument would be a touch of heaven by itself but hearing a dozen at the same time is something to die for.
That is precisely what delighted an audience in Rome on Tuesday night when Italian violin master Uto Ughi, Russia's Yuri Bashmet and others performed Mozart, Paganini and Tchaikovsky on instruments from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
The 13 precious instruments -- 7 violins, three violas and two cellos - were borrowed from behind the glass of Moscow's Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture and brought to life.
The instruments included five made by the Stradivari family, two by the Guarneri family, one by the Amati family and others by individual craftsmen.
Rare Violins
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by the Nielsen Co. for March 14-20. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 22.58 million.
2. "American Idol" (Thursday), Fox, 19.57 million.
3. "The Bachelor: After the Final Rose," ABC, 13.96 million.
4. "The Bachelor," ABC, 13.88 million.
5. "Criminal Minds," CBS, 13.73 million.
6. "NCIS," CBS, 12.75 million.
7. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 12.48 million.
8. "60 Minutes," CBS, 11.94 million.
9. "Undercover Boss," CBS, 11.7 million.
10. "Bones," Fox, 11.61 million.
11. "Glee," Fox, 11.15 million.
12. "CSI: Miami," CBS, 10.95 million.
13. "Survivor: Redemption Island," CBS, 10.73 million.
14. "House," Fox, 10.41 million.
15. "Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior," CBS, 10.33 million.
16. "Secret Millionaire," ABC, 10.3 million.
17. "Harry's Law," NBC, 10.16 million.
18. "Amazing Race 18," CBS, 10.14 million.
19. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 9.93 million.
20. "Mike & Molly," CBS, 8.37 million.
Ratings
In Memory
Dorothy Young
Dorothy Young, the last surviving stage assistant of illusionist Harry Houdini and an accomplished dancer, has died. She was 103.
Young's death was announced Wednesday by Drew University, where she was a prominent donor and patron of the arts. Spokesman Dave Muha said she died Sunday at her home in a Tinton Falls, N.J., retirement community.
Young joined Houdini's company as a 17-year-old after attending an open casting call during a family trip to New York. She initially sat in the back because she was too shy to step forward, but Houdini and his manager soon noticed her and asked her to dance the Charleston. They signed her to a contract, and she eventually persuaded her parents to let her join the stage show.
During her year with Houdini in the mid-1920s, she gained recognition for playing the role of Radio Girl of 1950, emerging from a large mock-up of a radio and performing a dance routine. She also performed other roles during the tour, which proved to be Houdini's last in the United States before he died in October 1926, two months after she had left the show .
Young then formed a dance act with Gilbert Kiamie, a New York businessman and the son of a wealthy silk lingerie magnate, and they gained international prominence for a Latin dance they created known as the rumbalero. They later married and remained together until Kiamie died in 1992.
Young went on to perform in several movies and also published a novel inspired by her career. She later became a benefactor of Drew University, endowing it with a $13 million arts center that bears her name. Several of her paintings hang in buildings on its campus in Madison.
She also attended numerous events at the school over the years. One of her last appearances there was in October 2008 for a commemoration of the 82nd anniversary of Houdini's death that featured an inner circle of Houdini enthusiasts and historians.
Young had a son with her first husband, Robert Perkins, who died after 13 years of marriage.
Dorothy Young
In Memory
Helen Stenborg
Helen Stenborg, a Tony-nominated stage, film and TV actress who was the wife of the late Tony Award-winning actor Barnard Hughes and mother of the Tony Award-winning director Doug Hughes, died Tuesday. She was 86.
Stenborg, who earned a Tony nomination for her 1999 role as pyromaniac Sarita Myrtle in Noel Coward's "Waiting in the Wings," died at her Manhattan apartment with her son and daughter, Laura Hughes, at her side, according to press agent Chris Boneau.
Stenborg and her husband celebrated their 50th anniversary onstage in the Coward play and were honored with Drama Desk Awards for Lifetime Achievement in 2000.
Stenborg's last Broadway performance was in 2002 in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" with Liam Neeson and Laura Linney. Other Broadway appearances included the 1995 production of "A Month in the Country," starring Helen Mirren, and Hugh Leonard's "A Life" in 1980-81.
She was a longtime member of New York's Circle Repertory Company, appearing with William Hurt, Jeff Daniels and Judd Hirsch in the original productions of Lanford Wilson's "The Hot L Baltimore," and "Talley and Son," for which she won an Obie Award in 1986.
Her film credits includes the Academy Award-winning short, "My Mother Dreams," as well as the movies "On the Hook" with Frank Langella and Elliot Gould; "Three Days of the Condor;" "Starting Over" with Jill Clayburgh and Burt Reynolds; "Enchanted;" and "Doubt" with Meryl Streep. She also played an evil housekeeper on the soap opera "Another World."
She toured with her husband in the national company of Hugh Leonard's Tony-Award winning "Da," the play for which Barnard Hughes won the 1978 Tony for Best Actor. He died in 2006.
Stenborg was born in Minneapolis and moved to New York a little more than a month before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Before she was out of her teens, she performed in the national tours of "Three's a Family" and "Claudia," both popular wartime comedies. She was also a USO girl and performed for Allied troops in Italy and France.
While rehearsing a veteran's hospital show in 1946, she met her future husband. In the 1950s, they performed together at The Tenthouse Theater, a stock company. For 16 summers, the actress also was a member of the company at The O'Neill Playwrights Conference in Waterford, Conn.
In September 2010, at the age of 84, Stenborg appeared in Morris Panych's "Vigil" off-Broadway with Malcolm Gets, winning The Richard Seff Award for the best performance by a veteran female character actress in a supporting role.
In addition to her son and daughter, Stenborg is survived by her grandson, Sam Hughes Rubin. Funeral services will be held April 4 at The Church of the Transfiguration in Manhattan.
Helen Stenborg
In Memory
Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor, the violet-eyed film goddess whose sultry screen persona, stormy personal life and enduring fame and glamour made her one of the last of the classic movie stars and a template for the modern celebrity, died Wednesday at age 79.
She was surrounded by her four children when she died of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she had been hospitalized for about six weeks, said publicist Sally Morrison.
Taylor was the most blessed and cursed of actresses, the toughest and the most vulnerable. She had extraordinary grace, wealth and voluptuous beauty, and won three Academy Awards, including a special one for her humanitarian work.
Her more than 50 movies included unforgettable portraits of innocence and of decadence, from the children's classic "National Velvet" and the sentimental family comedy "Father of the Bride" to Oscar-winning transgressions in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Butterfield 8." The historical epic "Cleopatra" is among Hollywood's greatest on-screen fiascos and a landmark of off-screen monkey business, the meeting ground of Taylor and Burton, the "Brangelina" of their day.
But her defining role, one that lasted past her moviemaking days, was "Elizabeth Taylor," ever marrying and divorcing, in and out of hospitals, gaining and losing weight, standing by Michael Jackson, Rock Hudson and other troubled friends, acquiring a jewelry collection that seemed to rival Tiffany's.
She was a child star who grew up and aged before an adoring, appalled and fascinated public. She arrived in Hollywood when the studio system tightly controlled an actor's life and image, had more marriages than any publicist could explain away and carried on until she no longer required explanation. She was the industry's great survivor, and among the first to reach that special category of celebrity - famous for being famous, for whom her work was inseparable from the gossip around it.
The London-born actress was a star at age 12, a bride and a divorcee at 18, a superstar at 19 and a widow at 26. She was a screen sweetheart and martyr later reviled for stealing Eddie Fisher from Debbie Reynolds, then for dumping Fisher to bed Burton, a relationship of epic passion and turbulence, lasting through two marriages and countless attempted reconciliations.
She was also forgiven. Reynolds would acknowledge voting for Taylor when she was nominated for "Butterfield 8" and decades later co-starred with her old rival in "These Old Broads," co-written by Carrie Fisher, the daughter of Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.
Taylor's ailments wore down the grudges. She underwent at least 20 major operations and she nearly died from a bout with pneumonia in 1990. In 1994 and 1995, she had both hip joints replaced, and in February 1997, she underwent surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. In 1983, she acknowledged a 35-year addiction to sleeping pills and pain killers. Taylor was treated for alcohol and drug abuse problems at the Betty Ford Clinic in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
Her troubles bonded her to her peers and the public, and deepened her compassion. Her advocacy for AIDS research and for other causes earned her a special Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1993.
The American Foundation for AIDS Research, for which Taylor was a longtime advocate, noted in a statement that she was "among the first to speak out on behalf of people living with HIV when others reacted with fear and often outright hostility."
The dark-haired Taylor made an unforgettable impression in Hollywood with "National Velvet," the 1945 film in which the 12-year-old belle rode a steeplechase horse to victory in the Grand National.
"National Velvet," her fifth film, also marked the beginning of Taylor's long string of health issues. During production, she fell off a horse. The resulting back injury continued to haunt her.
Taylor matured into a ravishing beauty in "Father of the Bride," in 1950, and into a respected performer and femme fatale the following year in "A Place in the Sun," based on the Theodore Dreiser novel "An American Tragedy." The movie co-starred her close friend Montgomery Clift as the ambitious young man who drowns his working-class girlfriend to be with the socialite Taylor. In real life, too, men all but committed murder in pursuit of her.
Through the rest of the 1950s and into the 1960s, she and Marilyn Monroe were Hollywood's great sex symbols, both striving for appreciation beyond their physical beauty, both caught up in personal dramas filmmakers could only wish they had imagined. That Taylor lasted, and Monroe died young, was a matter of luck and strength; Taylor lived as she pleased and allowed no one to define her but herself.
She had a remarkable and exhausting personal and professional life. Her marriage to Michael Todd ended tragically when the producer died in a plane crash in 1958. She took up with Fisher, married him, then left him for Burton. Meanwhile, she received several Academy Award nominations and two Oscars.
She was a box-office star cast in numerous "prestige" films, from "Raintree County" with Clift to "Giant," an epic co-starring her friends Hudson and James Dean. Nominations came from a pair of movies adapted from work by Tennessee Williams: "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Suddenly, Last Summer." In "Butterfield 8," released in 1960, she starred with Fisher as a doomed girl-about-town. Taylor never cared much for the film, but her performance at the Oscars wowed the world.
Sympathy for Taylor's widowhood had turned to scorn when she took up with Fisher, who had supposedly been consoling her over the death of Todd. But before the 1961 ceremony, she was hospitalized from a nearly fatal bout with pneumonia and Taylor underwent a tracheotomy. The scar was bandaged when she appeared at the Oscars to accept her best actress trophy for "Butterfield 8."
Greater drama awaited: "Cleopatra." Taylor met Burton while playing the title role in the 1963 epic, in which the brooding, womanizing Welsh actor co-starred as Mark Antony. Their chemistry was not immediate. Taylor found him boorish; Burton mocked her physique. But the love scenes on film continued away from the set and a scandal for the ages was born. Headlines shouted and screamed. Paparazzi, then an emerging breed, snapped and swooned. Their romance created such a sensation that the Vatican denounced the happenings as the "caprices of adult children."
The film so exceeded its budget that the producers lost money even though "Cleopatra" was a box-office hit and won four Academy awards. (With its $44 million budget adjusted for inflation, "Cleopatra" remains the most expensive movie ever made.) Taylor's salary per film topped $1 million. "Liz and Dick" became the ultimate jet set couple, on a first name basis with millions who had never met them.
They were a prolific acting team, even if most of the movies aged no better than their marriages: "The VIPs" (1963), "The Sandpiper" (1965), "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966), "The Taming of the Shrew" (1967), "The Comedians" (1967), "Dr. Faustus" (1967), "Boom!" (1968), "Under Milk Wood" (1971) and "Hammersmith Is Out" (1972).
Art most effectively imitated life in the adaptation of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" - in which Taylor and Burton played mates who fought viciously and drank heavily. She took the best actress Oscar for her performance as the venomous Martha in "Virginia Woolf" and again stole the awards show, this time by not showing up at the ceremony. She refused to thank the academy upon learning of her victory and chastised voters for not honoring Burton.
Taylor and Burton divorced in 1974, married again in 1975 and divorced again in 1976.
In 1982, Taylor and Burton appeared in a touring production of the Noel Coward play "Private Lives," in which they starred as a divorced couple who meet on their respective honeymoons. They remained close at the time of Burton's death, in 1984.
Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born in London on Feb. 27, 1932, the daughter of Francis Taylor, an art dealer, and the former Sara Sothern, an American stage actress. At age 3, with extensive ballet training already behind her, Taylor danced for British princesses Elizabeth (the future queen) and Margaret Rose at London's Hippodrome. At age 4, she was given a wild field horse that she learned to ride expertly.
At the onset of World War II, the Taylors came to the United States. Francis Taylor opened a gallery in Beverly Hills and, in 1942, his daughter made her screen debut with a bit part in the comedy "There's One Born Every Minute."
Her big break came soon thereafter. While serving as an air-raid warden with MGM producer Sam Marx, Taylor's father learned that the studio was struggling to find an English girl to play opposite Roddy McDowall in "Lassie Come Home." Taylor's screen test for the film won her both the part and a long-term contract. She grew up quickly after that.
Soon after her screen presence was established, she began a series of very public romances. Early loves included socialite Bill Pawley, home run slugger Ralph Kiner and football star Glenn Davis.
Then, a roll call of husbands:
• She married Conrad Hilton Jr., son of the hotel magnate, in May 1950 at age 18. The marriage ended in divorce that December.
• When she married British actor Michael Wilding in February 1952, he was 39 to her 19. They had two sons, Michael Jr. and Christopher Edward. That marriage lasted 4 years.
• She married cigar-chomping movie producer Michael Todd, also 20 years her senior, in 1957. They had a daughter, Elizabeth Francis. Todd was killed in a plane crash in 1958.
• The best man at the Taylor-Todd wedding was Fisher. He left his wife Debbie Reynolds to marry Taylor in 1959. She converted to Judaism before the wedding.
• Taylor and Fisher moved to London, where she was making "Cleopatra." She met Burton, who also was married. That union produced her fourth child, Maria.
• After her second marriage to Burton ended, she married John Warner, a former secretary of the Navy, in December 1976. Warner was elected a U.S. senator from Virginia in 1978. They divorced in 1982.
• In October 1991, she married Larry Fortensky, a truck driver and construction worker she met while both were undergoing treatment at the Betty Ford Center in 1988. He was 20 years her junior. The wedding, held at the ranch of Michael Jackson, was a media circus that included the din of helicopter blades, a journalist who parachuted to a spot near the couple and a gossip columnist as official scribe.
Her philanthropic interests included assistance for the Israeli War Victims Fund and the Variety Clubs International.
She received the Legion of Honor, France's most prestigious award, in 1987, for her efforts to support AIDS research. In May 2000, Queen Elizabeth II made Taylor a dame - the female equivalent of a knight - for her services to the entertainment industry and to charity.
In 1993, she won a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute; in 1999, an institute survey of screen legends ranked her No. 7 among actresses.
During much of her later career, Taylor's waistline, various diets, diet books and tangled romances were the butt of jokes by Joan Rivers and others. John Belushi mocked her on "Saturday Night Live," dressing up in drag and choking on a piece of chicken.
She was an iconic star, but her screen roles became increasingly rare in the 1980s and beyond. She appeared in several television movies, including "Poker Alice" and "Sweet Bird of Youth," and entered the Stone Age as Pearl Slaghoople in the movie version of "The Flintstones." She had a brief role on the popular soap opera "General Hospital."
Survivors include her daughters Maria Burton-Carson and Liza Todd-Tivey, sons Christopher and Michael Wilding, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Elizabeth Taylor
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
