Tasteful Friends -- Elizabeth Taylor's House at 700 Nimes Road, Bel Air, Los Angeles

Seeing all her hoarded junk and white shag carpeting everywhere just reinforces my lifelong dislike of her.

What does this say? I think it should read I have one also but it looks like I am one also....maybe Bette wrote 'ave like she was mocking La Liz's accent?

Those pics don’t really convey the house’s most interesting feature - which is that the entire upstairs is an enormous bedroom suite, with large dressing room and bath. I think that’s where she really spent her time.

The wall to wall lavender shag carpet is unfortunate.

More interesting than the house which is an odd mix of comfortable, frumpy, and Hollywood boudoir is her art collection -- not the vanity pieces like the Warhol portrait of Taylor or the especially showy choices like the Van Gogh or Renoir, but the Franz Hals, for instance, only vaguely attributed as a Dutch Master before the attribution was firmed up and the painting sold at $2.1M.

She'd been living there since 1981 so some of it looks dated.

The garden and pool are very nice.

Lots of photos of herself around.

It's a very nice, comfortable home.

I like what she attempted to create. It's very, very cozy and feminine. Grandmotherly. High/low. Love the gardens and the pool. A wonderland for children.

Shag carpet and wood paneling are always going to date a pad. But it's a wholesome, tidy and very sentimental REAL HOME. I imagine the entire grounds smelling of lilacs.

Yes, I was surprised to see the Frans Hals above the fireplace.

R5 Jinx!

It's very understated, I like that. But what I've ALWAYS wanted to know: how and where did she store her jewelry collection? How much of it was stored at the bank (offsite), and how much (and what specifically) was stored on site, and how? Safe? Vault?

I purchased her "My Love Affair With Jewelry" book upon release, and have always been fascinated. As a costume designer, nature lover, and immense Elizabeth Taylor fan, I'm THAT gay.

I miss her so much. Genuinely.

R9, I was surprised to see the jewelry out on the counters. I'm guessing she stored a lot of her jewelry off-site.

It is what I expected of Liz Taylor and I'm not mad at it.

Shag carpets are all over the Hamptons! A pretty modest home considering she was worth north of 500 million. Her "hoarded junk" included European masters (her father was a very successful art dealer). These pics and the copy that accompanied them were part of an article in Architectural Digest not long after she died. Elizabeth did not care what people thought about her taste, or her beauty or how fat she was or was not. She cared about her family and friends and pets. She had a very good understanding of her huge celebrity. Apparently she knew where all the bodies were and are buried but essentially never gave away to the public anything about her real life adventures aside from what the public knew of her multiple marriages. I recall her saying she that she finally found a good use of her celebrity with her HIV activism and philanthropy saying she could raise millions by appearing in person at events because people will pay thousands to see if she is fat or not or ogle at her jewels, the gaudier the more effective. Asked by an interviewer if she thought her ring was vulgar she replied, "would you have me any other way?" In the last 5 years of her life she slipped in the side door of one of LA's gay bars and held court cackling with the boys. God I loved her. Couple times I saw her in person (she was in svelt condition) she was ravishing and yes, gaudy. Her coloring and the perfection of the eyes, nose, mouth was something no surgeon could create. More beautiful than any picture I ever saw of her.

[quote]Seeing all her hoarded junk and white shag carpeting everywhere just reinforces my lifelong dislike of her.

What makes you dislike her so? Her lifelong support of gay people and AIDS? when no one else did.

[quote]R9 what I've ALWAYS wanted to know: how and where did she store her jewelry collection?

A lot of it was just stuffed up her twat.

god knows there was plenty of room - -

Beautiful house, beautiful garden,expansive and expensive, but very livable. Nice hardwood accents, too, and I suspect there isnt a dressing room upstairs, but a series of rooms - a dressing suite!

A little redecorating, the removal of several truckloads of knickknacks, and it'll be just glorious! Because have you ever seen so many knickknacks? And with cats around to break them, too.

Those are probably special cats, shipped in from wherever it is in the world where cats know not to fuck with expensive shit.

Does the family still own the house? Does anyone live there?

I'd imagine that she was barefoot a lot and shag rugs feel nice.

Imagine living in that house. I'd just sit by the pool and sigh all day and night.

"... the removal of several truckloads of knickknacks..."

You heathen.,

I love those old Hollywood places. The rich weren’t so very, very much richer than regular people in those days. And I love single story houses

I know she has a second story bedroom on part of tg3 house, but the rest is single story I love rambling ranch homes. It looks like there’s a greenhouse, too.

Who’s seen the more recent photos?

A celebrity home that looks real and not some sterile piece of junk that's cold and uninviting.

This home radiates Taylor's personality to a T.

R2, the gift that Bette Davis gave was a fan, and her note says "I am one, too", meaning that she (Bette) is a fan of Elizabeth, too. That's a nice gesture.

It would have been great if the two of them appeared in a film together, but I don't recall that ever happening.

"I love those old Hollywood places. The rich weren’t so very, very much richer than regular people in those days."

Taylor probably could have afforded a massive mansion, and undoubtedly lived in huge mansions during her lifetime. I think that when her kids were grown she decided she didn't want a huge mansion, she just wanted a really nice homey house for her golden years, with a lovely garden for the grandkids to play in and a whole suite of dressing rooms for herself. If I'm right she chose well, the place strikes an excellent balance between luxury and comfort, with only a little touch of ostentation.

Lovely house, I'd kill all you bitches for the right to move in myself. Gawd, what a battle royal that would be, if the Tasteful Friends had to fight over this place...

What r6 said.

There’s something about her place. Part of it is how the light hits it and illuminates. The backyard is wonderful.

I like that her red jewelry cases are used and ripped.

[quote]Lovely house, I'd kill all you bitches for the right to move in myself. Gawd

Very isolated - you have to drive a long way to get anywhere. They don't even have sidewalks up there.

You can see the photographer's reflection in the mirror in one pic. What a hack!

R26, isn't that what Charlie Manson said to Tex Watson?

Fantastic house. The dated stuff is charmingly dated, not worst in class 1970’s monstrosities.

Good bones. While I don’t love the shag carpet, I assumed that it would cushion the fall of an elderly woman, and area rugs can be a risk for a trip and fall.

The decor is comfortable and looking at it makes me feel peaceful and comfortable.

The cowboy boots surprise me. But I love them.

Her parents were very attractive - she got the best of both sets of genes. I blew up this pic, and I see clearly that she really favored her father.

[quote]The cowboy boots surprise me.

She loved dressin' up as a cowboy

[quote]R26 Very isolated - you have to drive a long way to get anywhere.

Well, that’s all relative, in Hollywood terms. You have to drive everywhere, anyway.

Bel Air is basically by UCLA; it’s not like you’re stuck in the middle of a desert.

[quote]R31 Her parents were very attractive - I see clearly that she really favored her father.

Why did she always avoid discussing that he was gay?

Shame but it most likely will be considered a tear-down for the recent property investors and will be replaced with a white, multi-story box.

[quote]Why did she always avoid discussing that he was gay?

Gee, i wonder.

I mean after both parents DIED.

Gee, i wonder.

I agree with several of the posters above -This was her home, not just a house. The decor reflects her personality, rather than the work of some Hollywood interior designer. Seeing the place actually makes me like her more -Particularly the way her awards were all displayed in the midst of other knickknacks, as opposed to an ostentatious display that drew attention to the statuettes.

I never really thought much of her as an actress, but she was a wonderful human being.

Why is it described as a ranch if it has a second story, ranch styles don't.

[quote]She loved dressin' up as a cowboy

Probably from her filming "Giant" days.

[quote]Probably from her filming "Giant" days.

Yes. Probably.

Having a gay parent is hardly a taboo topic for enlightened people; it would have been interesting to hear of her experiences with that.

She wasn’t exactly a deep thinker, though. So I guess she just never examined it.

I still love her. She's my favorite old Hollywood celebrity. Her acting was good, I don't really care, but her celebrity persona is so fun to read about on DL. I loved her 60s style with the longer hair, the tan, and eye liner.

That tan took WORK.

I love the shag carpeting, especially the lavender. Very fun.

As beautiful and talented as she was, Liz was a tacky woman.

[quote]As beautiful and talented as she was, Liz was a tacky woman.

She'd be the first to agree - on some levels. She knew her jewels were vulgar and didn't give a shit.

r47 these days she would be Kim Kardashian. Honestly, they were very similar. Both entered into the public sphere due to films.

She showed Princess Margaret her famous Burton diamond. PM said "How vulgar!" and ET replied "Yes, isn't it!"

Nearly everyone who knew her, liked her and found her to be warm and generous. She was a good person. Her beauty came from within.

Her mother, Sara Taylor, stated "It's true. She (Elizabeth) has no idea just how beautiful she is."

Are we certain that her father, Francis, was gay, or are we just spouting off with the Darwin Porter shit? Link?

Let's be honest. If she were not so beautiful, physically, very few would give a shit how beautiful she was on the inside.

I do like her (what I think I know about her).

What I like about the movie star houses of past eras is that they were just that: houses. Garland, Monroe, Bogart and Bacall, all lived in simple, roomy but practical places that took advantage of California;s light and climate. And Liz's place has the effortless, unpretentious look of that era at its best. The carpets are a bit frou-frou, likewise some of the knicknacks, but overall this is a comfortable, airy, spacious-seeming house that is pleasant without being overly fussy. The gardens are lovely.

I took a look via Google Earth and it looks as if many of her neighbors' houses have recently met with the wrecking ball. Nowadays in Bel Air unless you have 40 rooms of Fifth-Wave Modernist bullshit or Tuscan ticky-tack you're not a stahhhhh.

I blame that arrogant, uninteresting, talent-free whore Candy Spelling.

It's a very lovely and comfortable home, I like it a lot.

[quote]I love those old Hollywood places. The rich weren’t so very, very much richer than regular people in those days. And I love single story houses

That's very true. Movie stars from the classic Hollywood era lived what we would call a more upper-middle class lifestyle than the mega-lavish lifestyles movie stars live today. Even the really big stars like Clark Gable, Lucille Ball, Joan Crawford etc. didn't live on compounds that were a million square feet like the big stars do now. Their houses were large, but not enormous. And they spent most of their time in LA, they didn't travel around the globe every five minutes.

It’s an all-American house. It’s not a Tudor or colonial revival or bastardization, it’s not a faux Tuscan McMansion. It’s honest.

[quote]She showed Princess Margaret her famous Burton diamond. PM said "How vulgar!" and ET replied "Yes, isn't it!"

The story I've always read is that it was the Krupp Diamond, the big ice cube at R10. Supposedly Marge sniffed, "That's the most vulgar thing I've ever seen!" Liz replied, "Wanna try it on?" She did and was mesmerized. Then Liz cooed, "See? Not so vulgar now, is it?"

Rupert Everett was in some interview recently and was talking about Hollywood, that he had some picture book about Hollywood in the '70s, and how cool and low key were the houses of the stars then and how nowadays, in contrast, the lowest Hollywood movie editor (or something like that) lives in a vast mansion.

[quote]R51 Her mother, Sara Taylor, stated "It's true. She (Elizabeth) has no idea just how beautiful she is."

Yeah, right. Every person she ever met telling her this, and every review of her films harping on this (not to mention the type of roles in which she was cast), somehow just went RIGHT over her head!

When ET gained weight, Joan Rivers was merciless about how fat ET had become. I admire how ET paid no mind to Rivers. ET still went out in public, dressed up, etc.

There is simply no way that ET did not realize how beautiful she was. But she did seem very secure and graceful as her looks changed and as she got older.

Very surprised. I like it. The gardens are beautiful, the interiors very nice.

[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.]

[quote]these days she would be Kim Kardashian. Honestly, they were very similar. Both entered into the public sphere due to films.

Bitch please, Elizabeth Taylor is a two time Academy Award winning actress who raised hundreds of millions of dollars and awareness of AIDS. Kim Kardashian is a plastic Barbie doll who can barely put five words together to form a sentence and the only thing she has achieved with her clothes on is batting her eyelashes to Trump and getting a drug trafficker out of jail. They couldn't be more opposite.

[quote]r63 Elizabeth Taylor is a two time Academy Award winning actress

The only reason she got her first Oscar is because everyone thought she was going to die.

BUTTERFIELD-8 is hardly art!

Liz was only beautiful for about a minute and a half. The only thing you can count on is gin and dogs honey.

[qoute] The only reason she got her first Oscar is because everyone thought she was going to die. BUTTERFIELD-8 is hardly art!

What's art have to do with anything?

I like the small, cozy rooms and lots of windows. No wonder she liked it; it seems like a happy place with no doubt lots of memories for her.

[quote]R66 What's art have to do with anything?

Um, because awards are supposed to be given for artistry. And in that film she displays NO artistry.

Critic James Agee was wowed by Taylor’s looks but picked up on her minimal actual talent.

He wrote, “I wouldn’t say she is particularly gifted as an actress. She seems, rather, to turn things off and on, much as she is told, with perhaps s fair amount of grace and with a natural-born female’s sleepwalking sort of guile. but without much, if any, of an artist’s intuition, perception, or resource.”

By the way- this was not her only home although it is the only one she owned in the last 10 years of her life when ironically she was at the peak of her great wealth due to her perfume business.

Regardless if it's a bit dated, it's a Hell of a LOT better than that minimalist nightmare that Kim Kardashian (who should NOT be mentioned in the same sentence as Liz!) and Kayne West claim to live in.

R1 = The Ghost of Debbie Fisher R27 There aren't a lot of vampire photographers who are willing to work in the daylight.

R65, Liz was beautiful for 30-40 years, from childhood until middle age. Naturally beautiful, too! And oh yeah, in later life she had a period of looking pretty damn gorgeous, although by that point nature had nothing to do with it.

Few of us were ever beautiful as long as she was, and none of us were that stunning.

Saw her on Broadway in "The Little Foxes" and she was still gorgeous. She was a little older than my Mother and she was an idol to her generation and I am happy she was thrilled to see her in person on stage.

It was absolutely fantastic what she did for gays and AIDS. So many (in fact, most) Hollywood actresses have tons of gay friends and they did nothing.

And she kept up the work until the end.

If anyone deserved a damehood it was her.

I'm not sure what Julie Andrews did to deserve it.

Did anyone notice "the quest for Japanese beef" written on the mirror in lipstick? She wrote her grocery lists a la Butterfield 8.

Bette gave her a fan, R2. You can see it to the right. Bette's note was basically saying "here is a fan, and I'm a fan of yours, too!"

Carole Bayer Sager & Burt Bacharach were her neighbors. Wonder where they lived.

- as Bitchy Burt once said "They even began to look alike..when Carole copied her hairstyle".

Obviously a teardown. Absolutely nothing worth saving in that house. Probably has Cheetohs and bottles of vodka and pain pills stashed away in every nook and cranny,

Michael Jackson probably fucked boys in there on the sly and wiped his dick on the curtains.

[quote]Um, because awards are supposed to be given for artistry. And in that film she displays NO artistry.

Happy day late Birthday, you obviously were born yesterday.

R72 I saw that play, too. 1981. God, was I excited! I distinctly remember a huge collective GASP from the audience when she first walked on stage. Who else would get that reaction?

Deb Messing’s costar Sean Hayes may have been going for this vibe in one of his early houses, but his furniture looked like it was purchased by the suite.

The furniture groups are perfect for gathering too many people in a room.

And you know many drunks have pissed in that pool.

Elizabeth's entrance starts @ 2:15

On February 21, 1992, just 3 months before he ended his stay on The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson (after many years of trying) was finally able to get Elizabeth Taylor as a guest. This was a week before her 60th birthday. I remember seeing this show as a teen, and I thought she was so beautiful. Johnny looked so happy to have her on, that he interviewed her for almost 20 minutes, double the time of what a usual first guest got on the show.

Her beauty opened many doors for her, but did not seem to get in the way of being a normal person. She had her demons inside as she mentioned in the interview, but she remained a gracious, civil, and generous woman. Johnny also went into her friendship with Michael Jackson, which she explained quite openly to him. It must have hurt her deeply to hear about the abuse charges. She remained a friend until the end.

Even though I have seen few of her films, I do count myself as a fan, because of her humanity and generosity especially during the AIDS crisis.

You can cue in at the 13:10 mark to watch the interview.

Great interview! Thanks so much for sharing that.

She was definitely not beautiful for 40 years. More like 15. Eldergays are delusional. Liz was bloated and slovenly by her late twenties. R72 is not a 'gorgeous' woman. She's a short fat broad with no neck, a puffy face and tacky makeup. Taylor had lush coloring and beautiful features - when she was VERY young. But she was always deformed looking from the neck down and she had to shave her face several times a day. She was overly sexualized with the whispery voice alternating with hysterical shrieking. Very BAD actress. She did some good humanitarian works. From private jets.

Her house was nice. Cozy like a caftan.

God Johnny Carson was an awful interviewer, he asks her a question and then answers for her like she's retarded or he makes it about himself over and over.

God knows why he was such a success.

Kim isn’t worthy of wearing Liz’s used week old maxi pads.

"Her house was nice. Cozy like a caftan. "

And that's why we love it!

Seriously, it's a place an eldergay could see himself and Liz hanging out in caftans, and trying on Liz's earring collection.

Here's the entire bedroom (vignette of sitting area at R5 ). This photo is from a Business Insider article. I like the vignette much better. The bedroom reminds me of Sue Ann Niven's bedroom in Mary Tyler Moore.

Here's the kitchen table, also from the Business Insider article (original source: the 700 Nimes Road book).

R10 As fabulous as it is to imagine a museum-quality subterranean vault (the woman could afford anything she wanted), I imagine she stored most of it off-site as well. I read in the linked article that she kept things at a safe at home (obviously), & that it was the Taylor-Burton Diamond that was the subject of the Princess Margaret "vulgar" comment. But it also states that the diamond could be worn as a brooch (it was set & worn solely in a ring setting at that time...BEFORE they commissioned Cartier to create an $80,000 diamond necklace from which to suspend it).

But, nonetheless, here's the article...

I love it.

"What makes you dislike her so? Her lifelong support of gay people and AIDS?"

Yeah, but her long-time support of a pedophile because he gave her jewelry was more than problematic.

There are no saints in real life, hon.

All human beings are horribly flawed.

[quote]All human beings are horribly flawed.

Stop projecting.

[quote] Yes, I was surprised to see the Frans Hals above the fireplace.

Her father was an extremely high-end art dealer, and she inherited a fabulous collection of paintings from him.

Elizabeth's favorite diamond was the Krupp Diamond, and she wore it to as many places as she could. She never sold it. It's the one Lucy gets stuck on her finger on the famous "Here's Lucy" episode with Burton and Taylor. (The photo linked is of Taylor wearing the Krupp. Today it is known as the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond, and is over 33 carats.

The more famous one back in the day was the even larger diamond Burton bought for her for a cool million, which was displayed at Cartier's after he bought it. It was twice as large (at 67 carats), and was made into a necklace made so the diamond hid her tracheotomy scar. It's now called the Burton-Taylor Diamond. She was not as fond of it a=s she was of the krupp diamond, and sold it during her lifetime,.

^ It's ugly. And so is the ring.

This is a good documentary about those fucking jewels that she got for fucking. Lots of context and great footage, interspersed with the auction. She was tacky but some of those jewels were impressive.

R93 She really knew how to rock a caftan.

Really: Caftangate:

I remember seeing her (shot in [italic]very [/italic]soft focus!) in THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT when I was little, and her voluminous caftan made her seem sadly...large.

Yet now that I’m older she just looks normal to me.

But good GODDESS, that’s a lot of yardage!

It's a dump. No warmth.

Marilyn Monroe commented on ET's hands, said she had short, fat fingers or something like that.

In Cecil Beaton: Portraits & Profiles, Beaton (photographer) said about ET:

[quote] She wanted compliments. She got none. ‘Don’t touch me like that,’ she whined!

[quote] Her breasts, hanging and huge, were like those of a peasant woman suckling her young in Peru. On her fat, coarse hands more of the biggest diamonds and emeralds…

IMO, she had a good neck/chest/face to display those necklaces, but her hands did look kind of stumpy.

For all the talk of Kim Kardashian in this thread. Little do you queens know, Kim was actually the very last person to interview Elizabeth Taylor over the phone for a Harper Bizarre magazine interview, in 2011, Elizabeths last interview before she died.

Yep, Kim Kardashian!

Kim K is quite exquisite looking, from the waist up. She could wear big rocks on her neck, ears and fingers with more beauty and elegance than Taylor did. Thankfully that kind of tacky has gone out of style. Kim K invented the new kind of conspicuous consumption and self absorption. She's a good mom too. Beautiful, sweet and sober. Kim is a respectful person. I bet old lady Liz would like her.

I read some where that Mike Todd gave her the Franz Hals. There was an interview somewhere and he’s quoted as saying that she was crazy about it.

She actually looks relatively skinny in that caftan at R101 . I actually love that caftan.

The replica rock in the [italic]Here's Lucy[/italic] episode was supposed to be the Cartier-Burton Diamond.

R92, thank you for sharing that site. As a high school teen, I worked at a fine jewelry store (just cleaning up the place afterschool). This jeweler had some of the finest stones I have ever seen. The best being estate jewelry that he had purchased and was reselling. With that in my system, I was a big fan of Elizabeth Taylor's jewelry collection. My biggest favorite was her pearl, La Peregina. It's size, beauty and storied past made it my favorite. Even Taylor contributed to it's history in the puppy story. To have a pearl who's history was so well documented over the centuries just made for total fascination. It was a sad day when it was auctioned off to some anonymous person after her death.

Absolutely! The necklace designed for Le Peregrina seems to be polarizing. In discussions I've had, folks seem to think the last diamond and ruby drop overwhelmingly detracts from what is the star of the necklace. But to own something with that much historical provenance...I can't imagine. She said in an interview with Barbara Walter's (of whom I've never been a fan) that she didn't tell Burton until WEEKS after the incident. I don't blame her. Had they been full grown dogs, and not puppies, it would've been destroyed practically as soon as she got it!

I have no single favorite piece. Among my favorites are the Jean Schlumberger brooches, the Van Cleef & Arpels Daisy Parure, & the coral, amethyst & diamond pieces. I find it odd that we didn't see her in amethysts more often, given her eye color, and the fact that it was her signature color.

R110 Here!

*Barbara Walters (autocorrect is a bitch)

*R109 That reply was for you, in case that wasn't obvious.

*I hate not being able to edit here.

"All human beings are horribly flawed," sez I.

"Stop projecting," sez you.

So then I sez to Mabel, I sez, "What is up with these pedophile supporters? I mean, they're assholes, right?"

Jesus, they put the Perugina Pearl on a hideous necklace! Tasteless, ostentatious, vulgar, and intended to drop the pearl right into the cleavage.

Quite literally, if she pushed her boobs too far up.

Liz Taylor wasn't grotesque. But that deserted bird nest too dark hair and crazy dated makeup with sharpie eyebrows and always with the prominently displayed tits made her look mostly fucking ridiculous. Cheap. Don't say it was the fashion. That tacky bitch was never in fashion. She wore fashions, terribly. Combined with million dollar jewels - it's lucky that she had a sense of humor. She just wasn't in on the joke.

Must've been nice being a great international Movie Star, with hundreds of millions of dollars in jewelry, and a successful perfume business that generated the $$$ that made so many of her dreams a reality.

What a life.

That Peregrina pearl necklace had no focal point. Huge choker, huge cluster of diamonds, huge pearl (the one at the very bottom). Bad design, IMO.

She went caftan crazy in Zee & Co. (1971)...kaftans and hot pants in fact..

Zee & Co # 2

Zee & Co. # 3 ...KaftanLand.

Oh, dear God - the shop where she bought her kaftans in the movie was even called Kaftan (click on the pic)

That's her in the red car, getting ready to make a purchase.

In her review of the above film Pauline Kael said Taylor was "Beverly Hills Chaucerian...and that's as high-brown and as low-brow as you can get."

I have a feeling she wasn't just referring to that one movie.

Well, when you have hundreds of millions of dollars at your disposal, I guess there's no such thing as to many caftans.

I did think that she was spellbindingly beautiful up until the sixties. Then too much sun and booze and food. It ruined her looks.

[quote]R121 Pauline Kael said Taylor was "Beverly Hills Chaucerian...and that's as high-brown and as low-brow as you can get."

It must be said; racist!

Who is Pauline Kael?

The most respected American film critic America ever produced.

Kael isn't as fashionable as she once was. Lots of homophobia in her writing, and dated opinions.

Elizabeth Taylor was basically the very definition of hedonistic living. She put Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton to shame in that department.

'Short stumpy fingers' are a piscean trait, R103, among others that Taylor had.

Elizabeth Taylor, One of Hollywoods last real Movie Stars from the golden era of film.

Pauline Kael, Nasty, Ugly Crone only remembered by a few elderly gays

Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise are the last real movie stars. Love them or hate them. Truth.

Elizabeth Taylor was the last ridiculous movie star. She's never memorable. Cat on A Hot Tin Roof and that one scene with Monty Cliff in black and white are very nice scenery. Beautiful men and women costars. One iconic closeup. Liz Taylor was not an actress. Burton is magnificent in WAOVW - Liz just put a grey wig on at home. Did she even know she was in a film?

R132, that is untrue. Based only on the three films you reference from 1951's A Place in the Sun to to Virginia Wolf (1967) she handled the material as the pro she was (no, artist). During Cat she lost husband #3 Mike Todd yet was able to finish that movie and went on to receive industry nominations and awards. I would recommend to anyone the film adaptation of T. Williams short plays (cowritten by Tennessee and Gore Vidal, and directed by Joe Mankiewicz), Suddenly, Last Summer. Some of her other performances might fool some - like you - as being unsubstantial but that's because she made them look effortless. In SLS her performance, commitment to the material AND her talent are apparent. And stunning.

And just b/c Roberts and Cruise are movie stars doesn't mean the should be, and certainly doesn't ensure (to date) we'll be talking about them in 50 yrs.

PRICK!

Liz looks drugged in r113, and the Peregrina necklace is loathsome.

This is a bizarre interview she did with Dinah Shore when she was married to Sen. John Warner. You can tell how unhappy she was during that marriage.

Dinah is really kissing her ass and Liz is treating her like she's the maid. I'm embarrassed for poor Dinah.

The looks on Liz's face while chatty Dinah goes on and on over the phone are priceless.

Liz is like, "Hurry up, bitch! I got things to do."

Liz was indecently beautiful in ELEPHANT WALK and THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS.

One of my favorite Elizabeth Taylor films is "Night Watch" from 1973. I know it's not one of her well known films, but I really enjoyed it when I saw it for the first time in either 2018 or 2019. It aired on TCM, and I'd never seen it and watched it and it became an instant classic film favorite for me.

Liz was one of those people who thought she was a lot smarter than she was. She’s embarrassing in the Dinah Shore interview (also high AF)

The exterior and the yard REALLY remind me of the Sharon Tate house.

Exactly R139. She's such a sheltered woman and not at all elegant or sophisticated. Too much everything to look at and she could barely string a sentence together. She spoke in fake lady platitudes but it couldn't hide her essential coarseness and bovine stupidity. A woman who was complimented her whole life and told she was far more interesting and amusing than she really was. Her later interviews with Barbara Walters and Larry King were just embarrassments. Her brain was more fried than Liza. She would speak about dear Rock and Monty and James Dean. Always the same canned responses in that whispery voice that manages to shriek. And Richard or course. The great love of her life. Well I guess. She fucking destroyed him with her love of excess and 'playful' ways of humiliating men. She's not even that good looking. Liz should have played Sante Kimes.

She would have been great at Sante Kimes. But not good looking? No, in her prime (early 20s) she was a goddess, unmatched by any other female of her generation. And... her acting is good too, when she doesn't try too hard.

R141, shit on your mother!!!

[quote]One of my favorite Elizabeth Taylor films is "Night Watch" from 1973.

I love that movie. If you haven't seen it, and most people haven't, it's a real underrated gem. It reminds me a lot of Hitchcock's later films.

Laurence Harvey died a couple months after the movie was released. They had to shut down production halfway through while he underwent treatment for cancer. Taylor gained weight during the hiatus and they had to drape her in flowing caftans to hide it, but it's very noticeable in her face. In some scenes she's thin and in others she's bloated. Her clothes were designed by Valentino.

r141 Richard Burton would've destroyed himself ALL BY himself, even if Liz had never been in the picture. The man drank from morning till night and smoked four packs a day.

I loved both Liz and Burton in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, although I sensed that at that point they were kind of playing themselves.

Sandy Dennis was also excellent and I think her character is treated unfairly by the playwright and Dennis makes her more sympathetic than she is written. Honey is the loneliest of the four.

Honey’s a controlling little FRAU!

Anyone see the Burton and Taylor movie that was made a few years ago, that centered on them appearing in Noel Coward's "Private Lives" on Broadway in the early 80s? Dominic West was Burton and Helena Bonham Carter was Liz. It was quite good.

Where did the proceeds from Elizabeth's jewelry auction go too? Her jewelry bought in over $116M. Did her children pocket that money, or did it go to some kind of AIDS fund?

Is it any of your business?