Live Like Elizabeth Taylor
I’ve always loved Elizabeth Taylor, but in the last three years I became more familiar with her movies because the Portuguese cable company, MEO, played her films all the time. “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” was on a few times a month, ditto “Giant,” “The Last Time I Saw Paris,” “Butterfield 8,” and even some films from her that I wasn’t even aware she had made. I always wondered why the Portuguese were so fascinated with her in particular since there were rarely any Grace Kelly movies on, or Audrey, or Carole, or even Marilyn. Maybe it was the dark hair. After all their version of “Alice in Wonderland” in their parade features several brunette Alices and not one blond.
But then again, how could you not be fascinated with her? I had violet colored contacts in high school and all through college and grad school due to her. Of course with my super dark hair (yes, that is my natural color), violet was the only shade that worked on me, but when I did a makeup segment on the news and someone commented about the young Elizabeth Taylor with the “non-gummy lipstick,” my day was made. I actually worked with a makeup artist who had done her makeup. He did my makeup and I remember one of the girls in the dressing room asking him if she really had violet eyes and he said no, crystal blue, which was a bit disappointing, but then I think how gorgeous she was in the black and white movies that it doesn’t really matter.
My dad and I went to classic movie day at the Courtland Center Cinemas in Flint, Michigan to watch “A Place in the Sun” and my first thought was, she’s on a huge screen and she has no pores. None. Not a one. Of course this was in my Biore pad obsession days, but still. Her skin was completely creamy and flawless.
Elizabeth packed a lot of living into her 79 years. She had many bad illnesses, almost dying a few times, losing a loved one, marriages, divorces, but you can’t say she didn’t really live. So many of us, myself included, play it safe and take the road more traveled, but Elizabeth went for it in every aspect of her life. Maybe that’s a lesson for us all.
But then again, how could you not be fascinated with her? I had violet colored contacts in high school and all through college and grad school due to her. Of course with my super dark hair (yes, that is my natural color), violet was the only shade that worked on me, but when I did a makeup segment on the news and someone commented about the young Elizabeth Taylor with the “non-gummy lipstick,” my day was made. I actually worked with a makeup artist who had done her makeup. He did my makeup and I remember one of the girls in the dressing room asking him if she really had violet eyes and he said no, crystal blue, which was a bit disappointing, but then I think how gorgeous she was in the black and white movies that it doesn’t really matter.
My dad and I went to classic movie day at the Courtland Center Cinemas in Flint, Michigan to watch “A Place in the Sun” and my first thought was, she’s on a huge screen and she has no pores. None. Not a one. Of course this was in my Biore pad obsession days, but still. Her skin was completely creamy and flawless.
Elizabeth packed a lot of living into her 79 years. She had many bad illnesses, almost dying a few times, losing a loved one, marriages, divorces, but you can’t say she didn’t really live. So many of us, myself included, play it safe and take the road more traveled, but Elizabeth went for it in every aspect of her life. Maybe that’s a lesson for us all.
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