No argument, but you know it was the F'stones '90s movie starring John Goodman she was in, right?
I know, joeks, etc. (e.g., "That's not writing, it's typing.")
― Anti-mist K-Lo (Phil D.), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 16:52 (thirteen years ago) link
"can't think of a single decent film she was in"
national velvet little women father of the bride a place in the sun giant raintree county cat on a hot tin roof butterfield 8 who's afraid of virginia woolf? the taming of the shrew reflections in a golden eye secret ceremony night watch the driver's seat winter kills
― scott seward, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 16:56 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah well of those I've seen on that list (which is, I dunno, half of them?) can't say I liked any of 'em
― Hyper Rescue Troop (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 16:59 (thirteen years ago) link
Trying to give my grade 6s an idea of the scope of her celebrity this morning...best I could come up with was that it exceeded Lady Gaga's. That seems woefully short of the mark.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 16:59 (thirteen years ago) link
found Cat on a Hot Tin Roof really painful to sit through, altho Burl Ives was entertaining
― Hyper Rescue Troop (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:00 (thirteen years ago) link
when you say grade 6 you make me think about trailer park boys and i love trailer park boys!
x-post
― scott seward, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:01 (thirteen years ago) link
so, thanks.
Can't believe anyone could dislike Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Such a good movie.
― reggaeton for the painfully alone (polyphonic), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:02 (thirteen years ago) link
Sort of the (an?) Angelina Jolie of her time. Her stardom transcended the quality of her films.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:03 (thirteen years ago) link
ugh, no
Movies actually mattered when Taylor became a star. They stopped being central to the culture at least 55 years ago.
― Fuck bein' hard, Dr Morbz is complicated (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:07 (thirteen years ago) link
Actually, I think it's pretty apt. Just as (Oscar winner!) Jolie has been great in some films, she's also been in a bunch of dreck, and the reason most know here is not for her acting but for her tabloid stuff. Same with Taylor. Sure, once movies "mattered" more, but Taylor was a tabloid fixture for reasons beyond her roles.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:18 (thirteen years ago) link
uh uh Suddenly Last Summer should be on the good films list there.
― anna sui generis (suzy), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:20 (thirteen years ago) link
Never change, Shakey.
― Peyton Flanders (Nicole), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:22 (thirteen years ago) link
A friend noted on Facebook that he asked the editor of the National Enquirer 14 or so years ago what their biggest stories tended to be, and he cited "deaths" and "Elizabeth Taylor." So by my friend's measure, this is the biggest tabloid story of all time!
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:23 (thirteen years ago) link
at least we don't have to hear what michael jackson thinks about the whole thing. cuz that would have been a whole thing right there.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:24 (thirteen years ago) link
And by never change I mean please take it to the Rachel Ray thread. xp
― Peyton Flanders (Nicole), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:24 (thirteen years ago) link
It is strange how she outlived Michael.
― Peyton Flanders (Nicole), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:25 (thirteen years ago) link
It is strange how Keith Richards outlived them both.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:26 (thirteen years ago) link
I think all her co-stars are dead except Mickey Rooney.
Anyway, she did herself credit with her AIDS activism, and seemed to have a sense of humor about herself.
― Fuck bein' hard, Dr Morbz is complicated (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:26 (thirteen years ago) link
RIP quality joeks
― Hyper Rescue Troop (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:27 (thirteen years ago) link
she had to live with richard burton! she paid for any sins she might have committed.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:28 (thirteen years ago) link
http://fablog.ehrensteinland.com/2011/03/23/fait-diver-a-friend-of-vitos-passed-away/
― Fuck bein' hard, Dr Morbz is complicated (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:35 (thirteen years ago) link
http://fashionbride.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/19911021-750-01.jpg
― buzza, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 17:44 (thirteen years ago) link
http://thumbs2.ebaystatic.com/m/mzQd8XREHUluZ99TV15yfnw/140.jpg
― Peyton Flanders (Nicole), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 18:11 (thirteen years ago) link
Don't forget: voice of Maggie Simpson.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 18:15 (thirteen years ago) link
I used to pretend she was my real mom growing up. She was a real gem.
― Call on me (Spinspin Sugah), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 18:34 (thirteen years ago) link
whole lotta links:
http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/3027
― Fuck bein' hard, Dr Morbz is complicated (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 19:44 (thirteen years ago) link
If you mean what you wrote in that sentence -- that she was often better than the movies in which she starred or costarred -- then I agree. I know the ILX Film Crew loves Suddenly Last Summer, and it's been 20 years, but it's unfunny camp to me. Hepburn is literally unwatchable.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 21:32 (thirteen years ago) link
anyway rest in peace big diamond bitch goddess icon drag queen violet eye rage machine. luv ya.
― scott seward, Wednesday, March 23, 2011 9:31 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
rip
― horseshoe, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 21:35 (thirteen years ago) link
well, yes and no - I don't think she's a terrible actress or anything (she could be VERY campy/overwrought, but this is not always bad in my book) but the sort of films she chose to be in just really bore me for the most part. melodramas, etc. not interested.
xp
― Hyper Rescue Troop (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 21:36 (thirteen years ago) link
you're not gay enough
― corey, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 21:42 (thirteen years ago) link
shakey no 'mo
― scott seward, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 21:46 (thirteen years ago) link
guess I should see Virginia Woolf tho
Yes. Yes you should. RIP
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 21:51 (thirteen years ago) link
http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/4048021969/symbiotaxiplasm-r-i-p-l-i-z-elizabeth-taylor
― tylerw, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 21:55 (thirteen years ago) link
I hope she dies very soon― Mike Hanley
laughed hard at this
RIP
― rockapads, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 22:10 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/mar/23/elizabeth-taylor-obituary brilliant obit for those (like me) who didn't really know the crazy-remarkable story of her life.
― piscesx, Thursday, 24 March 2011 01:56 (thirteen years ago) link
Sort of the (an?) Angelina Jolie of her time.
http://media.bigoo.ws/content/gif/music/music_139.gif
― BIG GERTRUDE aka the steindriver (history mayne), Thursday, 24 March 2011 14:03 (thirteen years ago) link
^ Ha, Snoop, always a pleasure! Anyway, I said that not as a particular fan of either party, but the parallels are undeniable. Jolie is even playing Cleopatra, FFS.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 24 March 2011 14:07 (thirteen years ago) link
RIP Liz
― Tom D (Tom D.), Thursday, 24 March 2011 14:10 (thirteen years ago) link
But the real joke is the comparison between Jolie and Taylor. Jolie's fame rests entirely on her personal life, which can be summed up as "married Rachel from Friends' husband, fond of adopting". As Jolie has amply proved, one doesn't need to be a good actor, or even appear in any good films, to be an A-list celebrity these days: one just needs to be thin and have a fondness for being photographed. Taylor had the life, the looks, the movies, the smarts and the talent, and she – unlike Jolie – looked as if she not only enjoyed the occasional plate of pasta but my God, to watch her eat it would have been an experience in itself.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/mar/24/elizabeth-taylor-life-talent
― Madchen, Thursday, 24 March 2011 14:14 (thirteen years ago) link
yes.
Still I wish I could find the John Belushi and Catherine O'Hara impressions of Liz online to illustrate what a joke she was widely considered by the late '70s.
― Fuck bein' hard, Dr Morbz is complicated (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 24 March 2011 14:17 (thirteen years ago) link
Camile Paglia:
To me, Elizabeth Taylor's importance as an actress was that she represented a kind of womanliness that is now completely impossible to find on the U.S. or U.K. screen. It was rooted in hormonal reality -- the vitality of nature. She was single-handedly a living rebuke to postmodernism and post-structuralism, which maintain that gender is merely a social construct. Let me give you an example. Lisa Cholodenko's "The Kids Are All Right" is a truly wonderful film, but Julianne Moore and Annette Bening -- who is fabulous in it and should have won the Oscar for her portrayal of a prototypical contemporary American career woman -- were painfully scrawny to look at on the screen. This is the standard starvation look that is now projected by Hollywood women stars -- a skeletal, Pilates-honed, anorexic silhouette, which has nothing to do with females as most of the world understands them. There's something almost android about the depictions of women currently being projected by Hollywood.
I said as much in my own little obit: she was a broad. Not a classy plate in her chassis.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:13 (thirteen years ago) link
But the 'broad' thing mostly got going full-bore w/ Virginia Woolf, which as David Edelstein points out stuck to her in all kinds of ways; her roles usually required her to fake class, except for some of the Tennessee Williams adaps.
― Fuck bein' hard, Dr Morbz is complicated (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:25 (thirteen years ago) link
http://theweddingtiara.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/elizabeth-taylor1.jpg
― scott seward, Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:28 (thirteen years ago) link
Blimey
― Tom D (Tom D.), Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:30 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.mimifroufrou.com/scentedsalamander/images/elizabeth-taylor-1957.jpg
― scott seward, Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:31 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.twolia.com/blogs/heres-looking-like-you-kid/files/2009/07/elizabeth-taylor-sunning-herself-on-the-set-of-giant-1955-photo-by-sid-avery.jpg
― scott seward, Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:33 (thirteen years ago) link
love all the pictures from the giant set:
http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/66470/photos/PHOTO_9417186_66470_20752879_main.jpg
http://vintagestardust.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/fwc_dean4.jpg
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01467/jamesdean_1467951i.jpg
― scott seward, Thursday, 24 March 2011 15:38 (thirteen years ago) link
Guardian overlooks the fact the Jolie *can* act - she won an Oscar, FWIW - and to say her fame rests entirely on who she married is stupid. Her worst movies are no more shitty than many of Liz's, her love life no more the focus of tabloid attention than Liz's, her humanitarian work no less notable or laudable. Personally, I'm not a fan of either actor, but their parallels are manifest. To suggest, as the paper did, that Jolie is famous just for who she married is both a) terribly sexist and b) totally ignorant that she is a much bigger star than her husband.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 24 March 2011 17:12 (thirteen years ago) link
Taylor had the life, the looks, the movies, the smarts and the talent, and she – unlike Jolie – looked as if she not only enjoyed the occasional plate of pasta but my God, to watch her eat it would have been an experience in itself.
Like, this last point is basically just "Liz Taylor was sexy and fat."
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 24 March 2011 17:15 (thirteen years ago) link