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Liz and Dick - the love lettersLiz and Dick - the love letters Love or despise Liz Taylor, she was one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. It was easy for me to see how she captured the rakish and naughty Richard Burton’s heart. I will never forget seeing them together in Cleopatra. The on screen attraction was so obvious. There was an animal magnetism about them that was palpable. Liz was a superb actress. I will never forget her in Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf. She played the part of a nasty, bitter and drunken shrew so well. When Butterfield 8 was showing in Auckland there was a huge poster of her on the wall outside the Civic Theatre. She looked so sexy and gorgeous. Of course I didn’t realize she was only about 5ft 2in. which would have completely spoilt the image for me, but I bet quite a few teenage boys (and their fathers,too) went home and fantasized about her after seeing that raunchy poster!In the late 60's I worked for a very formal English gentleman, who had flown from New York to London and on his return, told us girls in the typing pool this story of his flight. He said there was this very "blousy" woman wandering up and down the plane flashing a huge rock that couldn't possible be real because it was so large. He had no idea who she was, but when they landed at Heathrow, he was very annoyed at having to wait 20 minutes before disembarking because a celebrity was on the plane and the paparazzi were taking photos. Imagine his chagrin that realising that the "blousy" woman was Elizabeth Taylor and the huge rock was the Krupp Diamond which Richard Burton had just given her! As for Richard Burton, what about that voice, evocative of the Welsh Dales. I could listen to him reading the description on a paint tin 20 times over and not get bored. The July Vanity Fair Cover Story (previewed below) publishes exerpts from the love letters Richard wrote to Liz. Vanity Fair July Cover Story Preview  Liz and Dick: The Ultimate Celebrity Coupleby Rebecca Sacks Before Brangelina, before TomKat, before … Speidi … there was Liz and Dick—that is, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, the super-couple who set the standard all others can only aspire to in terms of modern celebrity. What other couple has been condemned both by the Vatican and on the floor of the House of Representatives? What other couple lived as decadently, as opulently, and as passionately? What other couple could conquer both Hollywood and Broadway the way these two did over a span of two decades? In an excerpt from their upcoming book, Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century, featured in the July issue of Vanity Fair, contributing editor Sam Kashner and co-author Nancy Schoenberger trace the arc of this epic, turbulent love affair, which appropriately began on the set of Cleopatra—a story about another romance for the ages, and one of the most expensive films ever made—and ended spectacularly with jealousy, anger, and divorce, despite the fact that Taylor and Burton never really fell out of love. Kashner and Schoenberger scored a major coup in persuading Taylor to allow them to publish scores of never-before-seen letters that Burton wrote to her, and passages from many of the letters are included in the excerpt. In addition to demonstrating that Burton was a gifted, lyrical, playful writer who could effortlessly summon the beauty of the Shakespearean language he so loved, the correspondence reveals poignant and intimate truths about the power of the bond that Taylor and Burton shared—sexual, creative, and spiritual. Highlights from the excerpt include: • Taylor and Burton’s icy first encounter, on a balmy day at a star-studded Los Angeles pool party, and subsequent flirtation on the set of Cleopatra 10 years later, where director Joe Mankiewicz found it nearly impossible to break up their on-screen kiss well after the take had ended. • Their scandalous on-set affair and surprise wedding in Montreal, where they were hounded by paparazzi, and the turmoil they went through while divorcing their respective spouses. • The jewelry, artwork, and gifts that Burton lavished on Taylor as they took in millions of dollars from their films, including the 33.19-carat Krupp diamond, the 69.42-carat Cartier diamond, now known as the Taylor-Burton diamond, and paintings by Monet, Picasso, van Gogh, Pissarro, Renoir, Degas, and Rembrandt. • Their powerful film interpretation of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and string of other collaborations, including Boom! and Divorce His, Divorce Hers. • Burton’s outpouring of grief and longing in letters to Taylor as their relationship became strained by alcoholism and their frequent altercations. • A description of the heartbreaking final letter that Burton wrote to Taylor just before his sudden death. She counts it as her most treasured possession and keeps it by her bed at all times.
Lately I've been thinking about how movies are a big part of my life and have often helped influence my thinking. To that end, I've come up with a list of movies that made me cry, terrified me, gave me |
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something to think about or had an impact on my life…so far!! This list is only a snapshot of the pivotal films in my life. For example, there is no Foreign or English film on this list, yet I love them and thought I watched them in preference to the American Genre. Also I stopped at American Psycho, not because there haven’t been great movies since 2000, but I had to stop somewhere! Otherwise this list would be endless! 
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