Goodbye Elizabeth Taylor

So sad to hear about the loss of Elizabeth Taylor. Sure she was a drama queen, she was OTT, she was camp as hell and that voice of hers sometimes resembled one of those screeching, caterwauling cats that keeps you awake in the middle of the night and irritates the hell out of you ... but she was also a lady with integrity, emotion and guts (and before you say anything that isn't a reference to her weight problem, even though I acknowledge that was a problem for her). She also was also a strong advocate of gay rights and was majorly involved in the fight against AIDS and lent her support (and money) to many charities. At the 8th International Aids Conference in 1991, she said of the first President Bush: "I'm not even sure if he knows how to spell AIDS." Classic!! She raised millions.

Oh. And she was a pretty good actress. I concede, not everything Liz did was good, particularly her output in her latter years, but who can forget "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof"? "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf"? I've got "Cat" on DVD and another movie she did based on a Tennessee Williams play, "Suddenly Last Summer", and I love 'em (I'm a big fan of Mr Williams' writing too, and have recently been teaching "Streetcar Named Desire" to my A Level students - I adored it, and they do too). In fact I'm gonna rewatch these films in a day or two, to celebrate the life of this special lady.

And here's a few clips to remember her by...

"Aaaah feel....like....like a cat on a hot tin rroof!!" Doesn't she look stunning here?



Hilarious trailer for "Suddenly Last Summer" (this film is as camp as knickers - and it's not just Liz's presence that guarantees that):



Taylor and Burton getting nasty in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (art very much imitating life). Couldn't resist putting up a couple of clips here. Love Liz's line in the first one ("I swear if you existed, I'd divorce you".) Then doing the "public display of our bad marriage" thing in front of friends - soooo embarrassing. Liz seems to hit the booze with remarkable...conviction.





RIP Elizabeth!