Actor Joseph Fiennes says he was “shocked” to be cast as Michael Jackson in a TV show for Sky Arts.
Joseph Fiennes plays Michael Jackson in the comedy about a supposed road trip taken by the singer, Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor after the 9/11 terror attacks.
Some fans have reacted angrily to the casting, but Joseph Fiennes said he thought Michael Jackson was “probably closer to my color than his original color”.
Sky Arts said producers had “creative freedom” in the casting.
Joseph Fiennes said he believed Michael Jackson – who died in 2009 – had a “pigmentation issue” with his skin, so the issue of race should not come into play.
However, the actor told Entertainment Tonight: “I’m a white, middle-class guy from London – I’m as shocked [about the casting] as you might be.
“It’s a light comedy look. It’s not in any way malicious. It’s actually endearing. And the more I actually looked at Michael – it’s great, as an actor, to have so much to copy and look at in interviews – the more I kind of fell in love with him.”
Describing the plot of the 30-minute program – titled Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon – Joseph Fiennes said: “Michael and two of his best buddies, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando, happened to be in New York the night before 9/11.
“It was a concert Michael was giving, and Brando was introducing him on stage.
“I don’t know if this is an urban legend or if it’s true, but the three of them couldn’t get out because air space was shut down, so the three of them jumped in a car and went on a road trip.”
Stockard Channing, who is best known for her roles in TV drama The West Wing and musical Grease, is playing Elizabeth Taylor in the comedy with Brian Cox starring as Marlon Brando.
There has been a backlash on Twitter to the casting, with some using the hashtag #whitewashing and others claiming they thought the story was actually from satirical magazine The Onion.
CNN entertainment reporter Chris Witherspoon posted a 1993 Michael Jackson interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which he discussed rumors he had wanted a white child to play him in a TV commercial, telling the presenter: “Why would I want a white child to play me? I’m a black American (…) I am proud of my race. I am proud of who I am.”
Angela Bassett, who played Tina Turner in biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It, joked on Twitter she had “ordered violet contacts” and was “ready” to play Elizabeth Taylor after Sleepy Hollow star Orlando Jones suggested she play the actress.
The story about the road trip first came to light in a 2011 Vanity Fair article, which quoted a former employee of Michael Jackson as saying: “They actually got as far as Ohio – all three of them, in a car they drove themselves!”
Marlon Brando was said to have annoyed his friends by wanting to stop at nearly every fast food restaurant they passed on the way.
However, one of Elizabeth Taylor’s assistants dismissed the claims, saying the actress had actually stayed in New York and visited Ground Zero in the days after the attack.
Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon will be broadcast later this year as part of a series on unlikely stories from the history of arts and culture.
Madonna was the top earner on Forbes’ recent Celebrity 100 list, raking in $125 million, but Michael Jackson easily topped her though, earning $160 million over the past year.
It’s the third time in the past five years that the top-earning celebrity in the world has come from the graveyard.
Much of Michael Jackson’s money comes from two Cirque du Soleil shows. Immortal, a touring show, has grossed over $300 million since opening last year. One, which opened at the Mandalay Bay in May, is routinely sold out. Both shows feature the usual Cirque du Soleil acrobatics but One comes with a bonus: a hologram-like illusion of Michael Jackson performs Man in the Mirror at the end of the show.
Michael Jackson also still earns from his music and his half of the Sony/ATV catalog, which includes hits by The Beatles, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift among others.
The King of Pop reclaims the No. 1 spot on Forbes magazine’s list from his friend Elizabeth Taylor.
Elizabeth Taylor, who passed away in 2011, earned an estimated $210 million in the 12 months to October 2012 thanks to a series of lucrative auctions at Christie’s of Taylor’s art, jewels and clothes. This year her earnings dropped to an estimated $25 million, landing her in fourth place.
Over the past 12 months, Elizabeth Taylor’s estate earned big bucks from her White Diamonds perfume, which in 2012 brought in $53 million in retail in the U.S. alone, according to Euromonitor International, her rights in old movies and her smart stock and real estate investments. Elizabeth Taylor’s estate, now represented by Hollywood talent agency UTA, is at work on several licensing deals. Expect to see Elizabeth Taylor’s name on high-end clothing and cosmetics in the near future.
Michael Jackson tops Forbes’ Top-Earning Dead Celebrities 2013
Forbes magazine’s list looks at earnings between October 2012 and October 2013. The magazine count money coming into the estate and it doesn’t deduct for how the estate handles it. To come up with its estimates Forbes talks to estate managers, licensors and lawyers involved in the dead celebrity business.
Ranking second on our list is Elvis Presley with an estimated $55 million in posthumous earnings. Elvis Presley may have taken a back seat to Michael Jackson, but his estate is still earning steadily thanks to his eternally popular image and his famous home, Graceland. That was enough to convince billionaire Leon Black and his firm, Apollo Global Management, to buy CKX, the parent company of American Idol and the estates of both Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali, for $509 million in 2011.
Lindsay Lohan’s performance as Hollywood great Elizabeth Taylor in new biopic Liz & Dick has been met with jibes and laughter by critics after sparking thousands of Twitter jibes.
Lindsay Lohan, 26, made her hotly anticipated appearance as the Oscar winner on Lifetime movie Liz & Dick, watched by a not-so impressive 3.5 million viewers, the network has revealed.
The movie covered the tumultuous 12-year love affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, whose famously volatile relationship saw them marry twice.
Despite violet-tinted eyes and a black wig, Lindsay Lohan failed to pull off a convincing performance – boasting an accent that seemed to owe more to her native Long Island than Elizabeth Taylor’s dulcet English tones.
Today, the Huffington Post reported Lindsay Lohan was “devastated” by the reaction to Liz & Dick as a close friend said: “She has got used to all the negative press around her personal life but this is the first time she has experienced it about her work. No matter how bad things were going for her personally, everyone would always agree that she was a great actress.”
Another source added: “Lindsay has already read her own press. She knew the script wasn’t strong but thought she would bring the role of Elizabeth to life. This is particularly heartbreaking as her acting was the only thing in her life that she knew was real. Now she is doubting that, too.”
Thousands of viewers tuned in and made fun of the made-for-TV movie on Twitter while it was on air – including, ominously for Lindsay Lohan, many high profile TV writers and producers.
Model Christine Teigen tweeted that Lindsay Lohan was better in her breakout role in The Parent Trap – filmed when she just 11.
The brunette, who is engaged to singer John Legend, added: “Poor John. I know I had to watch 30 hours of football but he doesn’t deserve this. No one deserves this.”
While writer Liz Meriwether, who is the creator of hit sitcom New Girl, mocked the scene where Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor faints upon hearing the news of Richard Burton’s death, tweeting: “Oh my God. I think that was the funniest thing I’ve seen in TV for a while and I write comedy for television.”
Elan Galen, producer of ABC’s The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and Bachelor Pad, added: “Lindsay Lohan breaks new ground and shows her versatility in Liz and Dick by playing a chain-smoking emotional wreck pill-popping alcoholic.”
Writer Ben Widdicombe tweeted: “Can we have Hilary Duff as Grace Kelly next please? Maybe Snooki as Audrey Hepburn?”
However, one stood by Lindsay Lohan – Lady Gaga – who posted the message: “You did a beautiful job on Liz & Dick, Let no one bring u down, Liz didnt, they always try to knock the greats down a few pegs.”
This was despite the fact that Lady Gaga had not watched the show and is currently in Paraguay on tour.
Lindsay Lohan’s performance as Hollywood great Elizabeth Taylor in new biopic Liz & Dick has been met with jibes and laughter by critics
While Liz & Dick might have taken over social media during its Sunday night premiere, in terms of actual viewers the Lifetime movie failed to impress.
According to the network, 3.5 million viewers tuned in – a far cry from Lifetime’s revamped Steel Magnolias, starring Queen Latifah, averaged 6.5 million viewers in October.
This means that Liz & Dick clocks in as the fourth most-watched original movie premiere on an ad-supported cable network for 2012, behind Steel Magnolias, Drew Peterson: Untouchable and Abducted: The Carlina White Story.
To add insult to injury, Liz & Dick was panned by all critics, with The Hollywood Reporter’sTim Goodman calling Lindsay Lohan “woeful as Taylor from start to finish”, calling the movie “spectacularly bad” and a “classic of unintentional hilarity”.
“At one point, Lohan has to shout, <<I won’t live without you!>> and then run down a hall. It’s like a high school play,” Tim Goodman writes.
“By the time Lohan is playing mid-’80s Taylor and it looks like a lost Saturday Night Live skit, your body may be cramped by convulsions,” he says, before suggesting the movie was made for drinking games.
Meanwhile, TV Guide’s Matt Roush called the made-for-TV drama a |well-timed candidate for the TV Turkey Hall of Fame”.
He wrote: “Even deep breaths seem too much to ask of Lindsay Lohan these days, let alone capturing the essence of an exotic film goddess who reigned for years as a superstar sex symbol.
“The most authentic moment occurs when Liz informs Dick, <<I can’t tell you a thing about acting>>. Tell us something we don’t know. And later, during one of the many tantrums and benders that constitute a story line, Liz cries, <<I’m a joke!>> The joke is on anyone who tunes in hoping for a memorable TV train wreck.”
“You’ll find more exciting chemistry in a high-school lab than between Lohan and her Richard Burton, Grant Bowler.”
Ken Tucker at Entertainment Weekly called it a “peculiar, drab, damp little TV-movie”, adding: “When she opens her mouth, Lohan doesn’t speak in the high-register, almost girlish voice that Taylor was using well into her 20s – instead, we heard the raspy rattle familiar to anyone who’s seen Lohan on TMZ or in the ABC Family movie Labor Pains.
“No effort seems to have gone into Lohan’s preparation other than to have her eyes tinted Liz-violet.”
Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times referred to the dialogue as “laughable”, while Reuter’s Tim Molloy said it was “redundant and boring in a way no star could save”.
Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Clubadds: “Liz & Dick arrives on the small screen with a giant <<kick me>> sign rooted both in Lohan’s tabloid infamy and the sad overreaching of trying to chronicle an epic love affair that unfolded across continents and decades on a tiny television movie budget.
“It’s a testament to how badly Liz & Dick misses the mark that Taylor receiving news of Burton’s death inspires the film’s biggest unintentional guffaws. At least he has the release of being put out of its misery, a fate that should have befallen this misbegotten vanity project before shooting even began.”
While Jill O’Rourke at Crushable added: “Lohan portrays Taylor as a childish brat, like a teenager playing dress-up in her mother’s furs and jewels.
“It was reported that Megan Fox was also considered for the role of Taylor. After watching Lohan’s portrayal, I would love to see Fox take on the role. For that matter, I think they could have just given Grant Bowler [who plays Burton] a brunette wig, violet contacts and a beauty mark, and he could have played both roles. It still would probably have been better than what we got.”
Even Liz & Dick executive producer Larry Thompson admitted taking on Lindsay Lohan was a risk, telling Entertainment Weekly:“I want the best for Lindsay Lohan and anybody who ever hires her. But they have to know that making a movie with Lindsay Lohan is like jumping out of an airplane at 10,000 feet with a bolt of white nylon, a string, and a sewing machine. You’re building a parachute as fast as you can.”
Lindsay Lohan herself had seemed to be the only person who seemed to be proud of the project as she tweeted throughout the screening of Liz & Dick last night.
Although she never met Elizabeth Taylor, who died aged 79 last year, Lindsay Lohan said the star had sent her a ring as a gift.
Lindsay Lohan said: “I always admired and respected her….Beauty. Strength. Passion. Poise. Intelligence. She stood for ALL of it & did a great job!”
She added: “2 get 2 feel like 1 of the most amazing women in the world was a thrill all around & wearing the jewels wasn’t bad! “
Her father, Michael Lohan, also thought his daughter’s performance proved once again that she is right up there with Meryl Streep as he told the Huffington Post: “Due to the content, I had to step away from a lot of the scenes, but regardless of what some of these so-called critics, who don’t have an ounce of talent in their bones say, Lindsay proved that she is an amazing actress.
“This was a different role for her at a difficult time of her life. She still has what it takes to be the Lindsay Lohan that is one of Hollywood’s top actresses.”
Lindsay Lohan prepares to unveil to the world her take on Elizabeth Taylor in the new TV biopic Liz & Dick, as Life magazine releases a series of vintage photos of the star.
Elizabeth Taylor, an American film legend who passed away in 2011 at age 79, appeared on the cover ofLifemagazine 14 times, starting when she was just 15 years old, and already an old pro in the movie business.
During the following decades, many esteemed photographers were eager to capture the smouldering thespian at work, cavorting with her many husbands and paramours and always surrounded by hordes of adoring fans.
Many of the stunning black-and-white shots never made it onto the pages of the magazine, like a picture of the fresh-faced 18-year-old Taylor getting married for the first time in a lily-white princess gown.
Her marriage to Nicky Hilton in 1950 lasted less than a year, and by 1952 the young beauty tied the knot for a second time.
The treasure trove of Life‘s behind-the-scene photos feature images from the set of Cleopatra, where Liz Taylor starred in the larger-than-life title role opposite her two-time husband, Richard Burton as Marc Anthony.
In a note sent in March 1962 from the set of Cleopatra in Rome, a Life reporter wrote that Elizabeth Taylor “looks absolutely relaxed” and visibly enjoying the company of her handsome co-star.
Elizabeth Taylor appeared on the cover of Life magazine 14 times, starting when she was just 15 years old
One candid shot in the series shows Elizabeth Taylor as a 13-year-old girl in 1945 signing autographs for a young sailor during a charity event in Los Angeles. By that point, she had already starred in five films.
In another image, the British-born star is depicted wearing a sweatshirt belonging to her football player boyfriend with the words “All American” emblazoned across the front.
A few years later, a Life photographer caught a glimpse of Elizabeth Taylor chatting with her lifelong friend and co-star in A Place in the Sun, Montgomery Cliff, during a break on the Paramount lot.
The release of the photos depicting the quintessential movie icon set the stage for the highly anticipated premiere of Liz & Dick on Lifetime, which focuses on Taylor’s tempestuous relationship with Richard Burton.
During the key points in his life, Richard Burton kept a private record of events, writing on and off until just a year before his death, at the age of 58, in August 1984.
Now, for the first time, his widow Sally has agreed for it to be published in full.
The bulk of the diary focuses on the tempestuous years when he was married (twice) to Elizabeth Taylor. It was written knowing Elizabeth Taylor would read it and often teases her mercilessly – as well as including her stinging, handwritten ripostes.
“JUNE 1965
Tuesday 1st, Lavandou, France: Got up 9.50. Woke Burt [nickname for Elizabeth] up at 12.00. Swam, sunbathed, lunched, bed, read, ate, slept. Whew! Burt a bit sarky today. Added in Elizabeth’s handwriting:He should fri**ing talk!
“Wednesday 2nd: Had good row with Burt and accused her, among other things, of lousy taste. She accused me, among other things, of snobbery. I said the only thing we had in common was the game of Yahtzee [a dice game the couple enjoyed]. I forgot some other things.
Wednesday 9th: Had a quarrel again. Nasty habit we have. Home and to Yahtzee and bed in sullen silence. It’s always (nearly) alright in the morning.
MARCH 1966
Saturday 26th, Rome: I worry enormously about the fact we have no money. I worry that I won’t be able to look after my wife and my children after I’m dead – nobody else will.
APRIL
Tuesday 12th: E [his shorthand for Elizabeth] to go into hospital tomorrow for an operation. Came to lunch with me and felt sick and faint. Poor little thing. I shouted and bawled at her for being <<unfit>> for lack of discipline, for taking too much booze. I think I was talking about myself – out of fear for her. God get tomorrow over rapidly.
In Elizabeth’s handwriting:Bachgen [Welsh for <<boy>>], I love you.
Wednesday 13th: What a day. I went to work at 7.30 [both were starring in Franco Zefferelli’s The Taming Of The Shrew] and was made up and learned lines. All the time I waited for the phone to ring. I thought a lot about our lives and shades of mortality grew round me like a mist. Then the blower blew and joy of joys it was herself on the other end and the operation was over and she was in pain but alive and will live to be shouted at another day.
Thursday 21st: E much better today. I may have to work tomorrow. I look forward to it. In Taylor’s hand-writing:You ill-tempered bastard! So do I – at least you’ll be out of my hair!
Thursday, 28th: We dined at home quietly and made lovely love.
MAY
Sunday 29th: End of another working week. Both Eliz and I agreed solemnly that we never want to work again but simply loll our lives away in a sort of eternal Sunday. Quite right, too. We’re both bone-lazy. And enjoy it.
Monday 30th: One of my awful, unaccountable days of savage ill-humor. I snarled at everyone, everything and every idea. Eliz was gay and sweet, but nothing could drag me out of my tantrum.
SEPTEMBER
Monday 26th: Astonishingly I’ve lost, temporarily I hope, my taste for alcohol. I’ll force a Campari-soda-vodka between my clenched teeth before dinner or bust. I shall have my hamburgers any minute. E is frantic when she cooks – quite incoherent, poised in the dark over the barbecue like a Fury.
Tuesday 27th: I’ve just discovered that in the last 20 months, I’ve given $76,000 to one person, over $1,000,000 to another. You’ve got to be an idiot. Anyway, we’re lucky: we can always grow some more. Who’s like us?!
OCTOBER
Monday 3rd: Tomorrow we go to Rome to accept Golden masks or Silver masks or whatever, for being rich and infamous, I suppose. That’s a splendid fracturing bore to look forward to.
Tuesday 4th: The award evening was monstrous. For about ¾ hour, endless hard-faced breastless models paraded before our bored eyes an extraordinary tasteless concourse of fashions. Then every performer in Italy was awarded Masks of Silver. We were the last.
After the awards, we talked and drank with Zeffirelli and his secretary Sheila Pickles. E was telling us all about her operations, when Pickles threw up. All over the carpet. It cleared the bar rather faster than a typhoon.
Wednesday 5th: Woke late, and so ashamed that rather than be late would rather not turn up for work at all. E called and explained, lying like a trooper, that I was desperately ill. I don’t care. I have one disease that’s incurable – I’m easily bored. I’m fascinated by the idea of something, but its execution bores me.
Sunday 16th, Positano, Italy: Lunch slightly marred by fans. There was one frantic woman who ran along beside us, screaming: <<If she only takes off her glasses for me to see her beautiful eyes.>> I loathe fans; they make me intensely nervous and self-conscious. Why do they do it? I actually feel as embarrassed seeing a public figure as being one.
NOVEMBER
Wednesday 2nd, Rome: I’ve been more or less drunk for two days. I don’t know why but I enjoyed it thoroughly. I also made a feeble pass at Karen, our [adopted daughter] Maria’s nurse, and apologized immediately and straightaway told E, who thought it funny but probably harmful to K. I apologized again the next morning in front of E. Now what on earth possessed me to do that? It must be my impending 41st birthday.
Thursday 3rd: For some reason, I worried a lot about E this morning, whether she loved me or not and how awful it would be to lose her. I worked myself up to a rare state of misery and was absurdly relieved when she telephoned from the film studio. What’s the matter with me?”
The bulk of Richard Burton’s diary focuses on the tempestuous years when he was married to Elizabeth Taylor
“MAY 1967
Sunday 21st, onboard Oddyseia, Portofino, Italy: We’re going to buy this yacht. There are seven bedrooms and eight crew, and I estimate it will cost $25–30,000 a year to run it. Not too bad when one considers our last house (rented) cost $10,000 a month plus approx $1,000 a week for food and staff etc! If we use it as much as possible, we could actually save money.
Wednesday 24th: The seas were high and the skies grey and the boat rocked and shivered. So we settled to read and, in my case, do crossword puzzles. E anxious that I write about her, so here goes: She’s a nice fat girl who loves mosquitos and hates pustular carbuncular Welshmen, loathes boats and loves planes, has tiny blackcurrant eyes and minute breasts and has no sense of humour. She is prudish, priggish and painfully self-conscious.
JUNE
Thursday 1st, en route to Portofino: On Tuesday, Rex and Rachel Harrison came on board. Rachel became stupendously drunk. She insulted Rex sexually, morally, physically and in every way. She lay on the floor in the bar and barked like a dog. E lectured her, I did, Rex did. All to no avail. Christ.
Sunday 4th: Rachel became pretty drunk again and started to strip off at one point. The people on the roadway above started to cheer, thinking it was E, no doubt. Rex is fantastically tolerant. She wouldn’t last 48 hours with me, and he’s had it for seven years.
Saturday 24th, Monte Carlo: Orson Welles, gargantuanly fat, joined us at our table for a minute or two. I wondered to E how he could possibly make love.
JULY
Thursday 20th, Gstaad: The yacht is now ours and officially the KALIZMA. Kate Liza Maria [the names of their daughters – Kate and Liza from previous marriages, and Maria adopted]. It’s going to be fun when it’s all fitted out.
Friday 28th, London–Sicily: A woman asked: <<Sign my autograph please, Mr. Taylor.>> I gave her a look that felled her. That’s the first time in five years. Cheek.
Sunday 30th, Sicily: A slow day, with a walk in which we bought sunglasses at a little shop. As we left, the crowd which had gathered applauded us. E thought it very sweet, which indeed it was. We dined in somnolence and some self-satisfaction as we compared our ancestors and former wives and husbands.
Monday 31st: Mini-skirts are still relatively rare here and at one moment, in a narrow street, E’s skirts had ridden up and half her (admittedly pretty) thighs were revealed and one young man was so obsessed by the eroticism of the scene that I thought he was going to have an orgasm on the spot. E was too shy to pull her skirt down until we’d moved on, so the pimply feller had a long long stare. He will dream tonight.
AUGUST
Wednesday 2nd, Rome: In the middle of the early night, Elizabeth and I exchanged insults in which I said that she was not <<a woman but a man>> and in which she called me <<little girl>>. A lovely, charming, decadent, hopeless couple.
Thursday 3rd: Make-up day when we both kissed and apologies were flying in all directions.
Friday 11th, Gstaad-Sardinia: A terrible day, frantically disorganized, thousands of bags all over the place, nine children, six adults all on one plane. The Kalizma hasn’t arrived, nobody at the airport to meet us, and I screamed <<f***’ out of drunkenness in the hotel lobby. E making any excuse not to start the film [both were starring in Boom!] on Monday.
SEPTEMBER
Sunday 24th, Bonifacio, Corsica: A glorious day with a light breeze ruffling the harbor waters. Elizabeth was looking infinitely sexy in the shortest mini-skirt I’ve ever seen. The beach boys around, who all appeared to be stoned, were beside themselves. Later, a French deep-sea diving ship pulled alongside and moored. It was the French Navy – and discovering E was on the next ship, they immediately began to get drunk and dive into the harbor with all their clothes on.
Saturday 30th, Paris: At about 12 noon, I did something beyond outrage. I bought Elizabeth the jet plane we flew in yesterday. It costs, brand new, $960,000. She was not displeased.
JULY 1968
Tuesday 23rd, Fitzroy-Nuffield Hospital, London [Liz has been admitted for a hysterectomy]: I’ve just spent the two most horrible days of my adult life. This is the first time I’ve seen a loved one in screaming agony and I felt completely helpless. But it’s the nights that have been so harrowing. I took a room next door to E’s to be near her. The walls are like tissue paper and the first night I heard nothing but her groans. It is not a normal hysterectomy – there were great complications – and she’s suffering far more than normal.
In addition, they’ve given her a drug which gives her vivid hallucinations. At one point, she looked at a poster of the Mona Lisa on the wall and said, very hostess-like: <<Vicky, would you like a drink?>> I fell asleep but kept waking with the sort of convulsive wide-awakeness of a man who’s afraid of having a heart attack in his sleep. The most alarming thing was that E looked at me on occasions with a malevolence that made a basilisk look like a bloodhound. I can only hope that in vino veritas doesn’t apply to drugs.
SEPTEMBER
Thursday 26th, Paris: Elizabeth has gone off to work [on The Only Game In Town, with Warren Beatty]. After seven, or is it eight years, I still miss her if she goes to the bathroom.
OCTOBER
Wednesday 2nd: I suddenly turned from Jekyll into Hyde and went to bed dinnerless in one of my huffs. I woke at 4.30 a.m. and waited for the world to get up. The world being Elizabeth. Finally decided to wake the world up at 7.00, whereupon it made me a Bloody Mary. That, I said, is my vitamin C for the day.
Thursday 3rd [in Taylor’s hand-writing]:My Darling Husband, Just to let you know that going to bed with Warren Beatty hasn’t changed my love for you at all – increased it if anything. Aren’t you thrilled? All my love, Wife
Tuesday 8th: Maria Callas told us on Sunday that she and Aristotle Onassis had parted. Said he was too destructive and her singing was affected. I think she’s a bit of a bore. She told me how beautiful my eyes were and that they demonstrated a good soul! Elizabeth, who has eyes in the back of her bum and ears on stalks, was aware of everything that was going on.
Thursday 10th: Yesterday was unique. I didn’t see or talk to Elizabeth for an entire day. I felt desperate all day long and suddenly, about 5 o’clock, began to drink Martinis. By the time I got home, I passed out. I think perhaps, though it’s good for her, that I don’t like Elizabeth working without me.
Friday 11th: I’ve worked out that we should, at the end of 1969, be worth about $12 million between us [equivalent to $73 million today].
Saturday 12th, aboard Kalizma, Cap Ferrat, France: The Monet is in the living room, the Picasso and the Van Gogh are in the dining room. I can’t stop touching the boat and staring at it, as if it’s a beautiful baby.
Sunday 13th: Elizabeth has great worries about becoming a cripple because her feet sometimes have no feeling in them. She asked if I’d stop loving her if she had to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. I told her that I didn’t care if her legs, bum and bosoms fell off and her teeth turned yellow. And she went bald. I love that woman so much sometimes that I cannot believe my luck.
Sunday 20th, Paris: I’m ridiculously (I hope) jealous of E nowadays because she’s working with a young and attractive man [Beatty] who obviously adores her. She tells me I’m a fool and that he’s like a younger brother. Ah, I say, but there’ve been cases of incest. My God, she’s a beauty. Sometimes I look at her when she’s asleep at the first light of a grey dawn and wonder at her.
Wednesday 23rd: Elizabeth tells me that [rich socialites] Jacqueline de Ribes and Marie Helene Rothschild are mad for Beatty. They continually phone E or Warren or each other, scheming to get him. Poor bastard. I have an idea that Marie Helene and Jacqueline were after me for a time about two years ago, but gave me up as a bad job. I told E with great smugness that Onassis had given Jackie Kennedy a wedding present of only <<slightly less than £100,000 of diamonds, precious stones etc.>> – whereas I’d only recently given a £127,000 diamond ring to E simply because it was a Tuesday.
Friday 25th: Onassis has given Jackie half a million pounds worth of rubies surrounded by diamonds. The idea has already been implanted that I shouldn’t let myself be out-done by a bloody Greek. Now the Battle of the Rubies is on. I can be just as vulgar as he can, I say to myself.
Tuesday 29th: I’ve been offered $1 million for one month of this diary. Somebody is mad.
NOVEMBER
Wednesday 6th: Maria Callas is very lonely after the Onassis marriage. Now she obviously wants to do something that will prove to him that all he’s gained is a pretty socialite, while in her he’s lost a genius. Quite right, but if I had the choice I’m afraid I’d elect for Jackie Kennedy. She sounds more fun. And looks prettier.
Friday 8th: With milady fast asleep in bed as I thought, I was looking through a script when suddenly the bedroom door opened and standing there in a near-diaphanous nightgown with one shoulder slipped on to her arm was E. So I went back to bed for ten minutes. I was unquestionably seduced, and I teased her about it for the rest of the day.
Monday 11th: E gave me a mink coat for my 43rd birthday. A mink coat! It’s dark brown and the nap is close and short and it gleams as only a mink can. It comes to halfway down my thighs. I hope I don’t look like a fool! E says not.
Thursday 14th: I drank three bottles of vodka during the course of the day. And that, naturally, doesn’t include the evening, when I think I slowed down.
Friday 15th: I’d like to be alone with E for about 200 years but can’t even get two days.
Tuesday 19th: I’ve been inordinately lucky all my life but the greatest luck of all has been Elizabeth. She’s turned me into a moral man but not a prig, she’s a wildly exciting lover-mistress, she’s shy and witty, she’s nobody’s fool, she’s a brilliant actress, she’s beautiful beyond the dreams of pornography, she can be arrogant and willful, she’s clement and loving, she can tolerate my impossibilities and my drunkenness, she’s an ache in the stomach when I’m away from her, and she loves me! I’ll love her till I die.
Wednesday 20th: I was in a mad mood last night and accused E of talking too suspiciously much about Warren Beatty and his various middle-aged amours. It’s perfectly obvious that one way to attract a woman is to pay a lot of attention to other women. It drives them mad. I remember screwing everybody in a large company over a year or so to get one woman. I wish I hadn’t now because she was an evil bitch.
DECEMBER
Monday 9th, London: I became very drunk and abused people and insulted E a lot on the telephone when I arrived. I miss her terribly already. I wish I didn’t love people. And I wish I didn’t shout at people.
Thursday 12th: Deep-down, atavistically, I loathe the English. They’re immeasurably snob-ridden and conceited. All classes. The ordinary people in the street look so pinched and puny and mean. Only the occasional young girl, mini-skirted and swinging her bum and breasts, gives any pleasure. And on top of everything, there’s no E here to share my discontent.
Sunday 22nd, Gstaad: I was in one of my absolutely unstoppably filthy moods. Elizabeth screamed a bit. I accused her of being a hypochondriac, and said that she was ill only when she chose to be. Went to bed sulking at about 9.30. Now for the long bore of Christmas.
Tuesday 31st. If E continues to be in trouble with sciatica, I’ll insist that she never works again. The most frightening thing is that when she moans and groans in agony, I simply become bored. And what’s more frightening is she’s become bored with everything in life. As a result of this half-life we’re leading, I’m drinking twice as much. The upshot is that I’ll die of drink while she’ll go blithely on in her half-world.” Extracted from The Richard Burton Diaries, edited by Chris Williams, published by Yale University Press
It has been claimed that Elizabeth Taylor not only did have a string of romances with fellow screen stars – but also with Presidents Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy.
The former liaison allegedly occurred when Elizabeth Taylor was a teenager, with the latter encounter reportedly taking place as a threesome with actor Robert Stack, according to an explosive new biography.
Elizabeth Taylor: There is Nothing Like a Dame – penned by authors Danforth Prince and Darwin Potter – is an unauthorized biography that explores the colorful love live of the late National Velvet star.
According to the book, Elizabeth Taylor confessed to a friend after she was seduced at Ronald Reagan’s Hollywood Hills home, saying: “Reagan was treating me like a grown woman, and that thrilled me.
“We sat on his sofa and I could tell he wanted to get it on but he seemed reluctant to make the first move. I became the aggressor.
“After a heavy make-out session on the sofa, we went into the bedroom.”
Danforth Prince and Darwin Potter book is an unauthorized biography that explores the colorful love live of Elizabeth Taylor
The book claims Ronald Regan [born in 1911] was 36 at the time of the alleged encounter, which means it would have been 1947.
That would put Elizabeth Taylor, born in 1932, at just 15-years-old.
The authors claim it was a nude dip in JFK’s pool that would turn into a threesome between the actress, the politician and actor Robert Stack.
Danforth Prince and Darwin Porter allege Elizabeth Taylor also counted Peter Lawford, Errol Flynn, Tony Curtis, Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra as lovers – her romance with Ol’ Blue Eyes becoming one of the more serious.
The poster for upcoming movie Liz & Dick has been released as Lindsay Lohan finds herself embroiled in yet another DUI claim.
With Lindsay Lohan dressed as Elizabeth Taylor, the artwork boasts a salacious list about the Cleopatra legend, which also epitomize Lindsay’s latest dramas that have led to yet another arrest.
The poster for the Lifetime film reads: “Controversial. Love Affairs. Diamonds. Provocative. Scandal. Tabloid Front Page. Child Star. Beautiful. Leading Lady. Sexy. Paparazzi.”
The poster for upcoming movie Liz and Dick has been released as Lindsay Lohan finds herself embroiled in yet another DUI claim
Lindsay Lohan looks striking as the Hollywood icon, dripping with diamonds and lavished with make-up.
But unfortunately for LiLo, it seems her personal life has once again overruled her professional one, with a police run-in making front page news following an incident in New York.
Lindsay Lohan was arrested during the early hours of Wednesday morning on charges that she clipped a pedestrian with her car and did not stop.
The man she allegedly knocked down has claimed she “slurred her words and smelled like alcohol”.
Lindsay Lohan was snapped sampling various Elizabeth Taylor-inspired costumes for her role in the biopic Liz And Dick – her first leading lady part since the rather abysmal 2009 flop Labor Pains.
However, Lindsay Lohan, 25, didn’t bother to brush her hair for the wardrobe fitting, instead just scraping her messy locks back into scruffy bun.
A source told TMZ that Lindsay Lohan has been granted the “final say on all wardrobe decisions” and she has been relishing the opportunity to “perfect Liz’s looks”.
The website also claims LiLo has been “obsessing” with “getting into the Hollywood legend’s head”.
During the wardrobe fitting, Lindsay Lohan drew attention to her slender frame in a summery aquamarine cocktail dress, selected solely to recreate a famous snapshot from when Elizabeth Taylor was a teenager.
Lindsay Lohan was snapped sampling various Elizabeth Taylor-inspired costumes for her role in the biopic Liz And Dick
LiLo is also captured in a red dress, which is said to be based on a Valentino dress Liz Taylor once wore.
Speaking of her role, Lindsay Lohan revealed in a statement: “I have always admired and had enormous respect for Elizabeth Taylor. She was not only an incredible actress but an amazing woman as well.
“I am very honored to have been asked to play this role.”
The television movie, which will feature on the Lifetime Network, will tell the true tale of Elizabeth Taylor and her romance with actor, and fifth husband, Richard Burton.
Their relationship was considered somewhat of a scandal in the Sixties, with both parties already married as they embarked on their affair.
While a director is yet to be announced for the June shoot, Christopher Monger has been confirmed as the writer (Temple Grandin), and Larry A. Thompson (Amish Grace) will play executive producer.
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