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Mar. 25th, 2011 08:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakTwo more Elizabeth Taylor related quotes, one from this obituary:
She was a lovely actress and a better star. She embodied the excesses of Hollywood and she transcended them. In the end, the genius of her career was that she gave the world everything it wanted from a glamorous star, the excitement and drama, the diamonds and gossip, and she did it by refusing to become fame’s martyr.
And, somewhat apropos, here's a description of Elizabeth Taylor in the mid 70s meeting John Lennon, Elton John and David Bowie (whom she introduced to Lennon, with musical results). This could have gone quite wrong (what with John's nasty habit of putting people on pedestals and then kicking the pedestals away when the reality of them did not meet his impossibly high expectations), but it went splendidly. She was the queen, and he was her admiring subject. (Also I am amused that of the three rock stars present, it was Bowie whom she whisked away for a private audience. Good choice, Elizabeth.) John's recapitulating statement on her at the end of this excerpt from his girlfriend May Pang's memoirs, in a way, is the same thing the obituary quoted above says.
John was every excited. "I've never met Elizabeth," he said. "I'm dyin' to go."
The party took place in a lavish Beverly Hills mansion, and there was a large buffet table and a bar. John and I stood in one corner, searching for stars we had never seen in person before. While we looked over the crowd, everyone was busy staring at us. Even though John always liked to meet really famous people, he was still the most famous person in the room. We slowly made our way through the house, chatting with whoever approached us.
"Where's Elizabeth?" John asked. "I want to see Elizabeth."
Forty minutes after we arrived, Elizabeth Taylor sailed into the room. The party stopped dead while everyone turned to stare at her. There was a star! I was surprsed to see how small she was, because everything about her was larger than life. Her hair was teased up in an elaborate hairdo that towered over her head. Her extraordinary violet eyes were lined in thick beads ov violet eyeshadow. She made no concession to her weight and she was costumed in a paneled paisley dress, each panel in a different shade of pink. Around her neck she wore one huge diamond surrounded by a cluster of emeralds. She was dazzling.
Like teenage boys, John and Elton nervously approached her. She beamed when she saw them. "Oh," she said, "I'm so pleased to meet you." John and Elton responded to her genuine delight. They both did their best to amuse her. She laughed merrily at their lines and threw in a number of her own.
When David Bowie arrived, she seized his arm: "David, do you know John?"
"No, but I've always wanted to meet him." Bowie flashed his bright smile at John. There was a look of genuine admiration in his eyes. John, who found Bowie's music fascinating, was very cordial. David had great charm and was also funny. The dialogue began to flow even more quickly.
The group finally broke up, and David announced: "I've got to go. I've got to go." He turned to leave. Later in the evening we found him in deep conversation with Elizabeth Taylor on a couch in a deserted room at the back of the house. John and I stared at them. The screen goddess and the porcelain-faced, orange-haired rock star made a startling-looking couple. Yet, sitting there, gazing into each other's eyes, they seemed to be long-lost friends, sharing their most intimate secrets. "May, John, join us," Elizabeth called out when she spotted us, and we sat down beside them. In a few minutes all of the remaining guests had crowded into the little back room and once again we were surrounded by onlookers.
On the way home John and I talked about how much we had liked Elizabeth Taylor. "She's not rock'n roll," John said. "She's not like us. We get crazy as we get older. She's been trained to deal with things."
****
Being Human fanfic rec: The Opposite of Death, a coda to the s3 finale, near impossible to describe without spoilers. Very much about the three people I wanted to read about, though.
BTVS and AtS vid rec: Some Peace. Buffy, Angel, Darla, Willow, Spike, Faith, Wes, Gunn, Fred, Connor. My Jossverse love is strong, and the vid reminds me why.
She was a lovely actress and a better star. She embodied the excesses of Hollywood and she transcended them. In the end, the genius of her career was that she gave the world everything it wanted from a glamorous star, the excitement and drama, the diamonds and gossip, and she did it by refusing to become fame’s martyr.
And, somewhat apropos, here's a description of Elizabeth Taylor in the mid 70s meeting John Lennon, Elton John and David Bowie (whom she introduced to Lennon, with musical results). This could have gone quite wrong (what with John's nasty habit of putting people on pedestals and then kicking the pedestals away when the reality of them did not meet his impossibly high expectations), but it went splendidly. She was the queen, and he was her admiring subject. (Also I am amused that of the three rock stars present, it was Bowie whom she whisked away for a private audience. Good choice, Elizabeth.) John's recapitulating statement on her at the end of this excerpt from his girlfriend May Pang's memoirs, in a way, is the same thing the obituary quoted above says.
John was every excited. "I've never met Elizabeth," he said. "I'm dyin' to go."
The party took place in a lavish Beverly Hills mansion, and there was a large buffet table and a bar. John and I stood in one corner, searching for stars we had never seen in person before. While we looked over the crowd, everyone was busy staring at us. Even though John always liked to meet really famous people, he was still the most famous person in the room. We slowly made our way through the house, chatting with whoever approached us.
"Where's Elizabeth?" John asked. "I want to see Elizabeth."
Forty minutes after we arrived, Elizabeth Taylor sailed into the room. The party stopped dead while everyone turned to stare at her. There was a star! I was surprsed to see how small she was, because everything about her was larger than life. Her hair was teased up in an elaborate hairdo that towered over her head. Her extraordinary violet eyes were lined in thick beads ov violet eyeshadow. She made no concession to her weight and she was costumed in a paneled paisley dress, each panel in a different shade of pink. Around her neck she wore one huge diamond surrounded by a cluster of emeralds. She was dazzling.
Like teenage boys, John and Elton nervously approached her. She beamed when she saw them. "Oh," she said, "I'm so pleased to meet you." John and Elton responded to her genuine delight. They both did their best to amuse her. She laughed merrily at their lines and threw in a number of her own.
When David Bowie arrived, she seized his arm: "David, do you know John?"
"No, but I've always wanted to meet him." Bowie flashed his bright smile at John. There was a look of genuine admiration in his eyes. John, who found Bowie's music fascinating, was very cordial. David had great charm and was also funny. The dialogue began to flow even more quickly.
The group finally broke up, and David announced: "I've got to go. I've got to go." He turned to leave. Later in the evening we found him in deep conversation with Elizabeth Taylor on a couch in a deserted room at the back of the house. John and I stared at them. The screen goddess and the porcelain-faced, orange-haired rock star made a startling-looking couple. Yet, sitting there, gazing into each other's eyes, they seemed to be long-lost friends, sharing their most intimate secrets. "May, John, join us," Elizabeth called out when she spotted us, and we sat down beside them. In a few minutes all of the remaining guests had crowded into the little back room and once again we were surrounded by onlookers.
On the way home John and I talked about how much we had liked Elizabeth Taylor. "She's not rock'n roll," John said. "She's not like us. We get crazy as we get older. She's been trained to deal with things."
****
Being Human fanfic rec: The Opposite of Death, a coda to the s3 finale, near impossible to describe without spoilers. Very much about the three people I wanted to read about, though.
BTVS and AtS vid rec: Some Peace. Buffy, Angel, Darla, Willow, Spike, Faith, Wes, Gunn, Fred, Connor. My Jossverse love is strong, and the vid reminds me why.
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Date: 2011-03-25 10:59 am (UTC)You know, for most of what I tend to call my "adult film watching life" (which must have started around the time I was thirteen) I have always struggled with that oddly janus-faced image I have of Elizabeth Taylor. One face being that of the heavily made-up matron appearing in all those horrible 1980s yellow press magazines lying around at my grandmother's home, and the other face that of the radiant, highly talented actress. The first movie I ever saw Taylor in was "Giant", which of course features that immensely powerful scene when Taylor's character, a New England society girl, first lays eyes on the profitable but barren-looking ranch of her newly-made Texan husband.
BTVS and AtS vid rec: Some Peace. Buffy, Angel, Darla, Willow, Spike, Faith, Wes, Gunn, Fred, Connor. My Jossverse love is strong, and the vid reminds me why.
Absolutely! That vid was a good one, hitting all the right notes.
Oh, and speaking of recs... You wouldn't by any chance know where to start looking for read-worthy ST: Voyager fanfic? After finishing our DS9 marathon, Cavendish and I have moved straight on to Voyager (season 5, by now). And while I never thought I would say this, both the individual characters and the plot lines have grown on me. Altogether a much better show than I remembered it to be. Maybe I'm getting mellow with age. *g*
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Date: 2011-03-25 11:55 am (UTC)Elizabeth Taylor: my father used to have a crush on her (though his absolutely favourite female film star and idol of female beauty as a boy was in fact Natalie Wood; Elizabeth was No.2), and thus avoided the sights of her older, but as I grew up I found something very vital in her cheerful "bad taste", heavy make up and all; she was so unapologetic and utterly without self-pity, you know? There was never a "oh, I used to be beautiful, but woe, what time did"; you always had the impression that at whichever stage she was, fat, thin, in between, flawless screan beauty or aged matron, she immensely enjoyed being alive.
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Date: 2011-03-27 07:08 am (UTC)I remember liking the Doctor and Seven best of the characters (the one Voyager season I bought on dvd is the fourth one, which tells you something, though I have episodes from all the others on video), but haven't found a Doctor-centric story I really liked in the sporadic intervals where I looked at Voy fanfiction.
Oh, yes. The Doctor and Seven. Very high on my personal favourite list as well, though I must confess a certain fondness for Janeway... and Torres, and Paris, and Kim, and Kes... . While while I might enjoy some characters more than others, it's mostly an ensemble piece for me, really.
Also, congratulations on your father's good taste regarding idols!
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Date: 2011-03-26 02:44 am (UTC)glad you enjoyed