Dame Elizabeth Taylor: Actress and Invalid

I wonder where Joan Rivers was when she heard the news that Elizabeth Taylor died.  Did she remember how cruel she was towards her on different shows in the 80's?

I believe the roots of Dame Elizabeth's illnesses was early stardom, amazing beauty and reporters.  Because of her beauty she had men she loved and was constantly in the newspapers.  The movie magazines began to say nasty things about her.  They wrote about her more and more till it was a crescendo.  She was perhaps the most famous woman in the world.  She was scrutinized.  She would meet people who thought they "knew" her because of her fame.  She was being put down as immoral, especially for her romance with Eddie Fisher.

She attended a theater once with Richard Burton.  Crowds of people went up to her to see if her eyes really were violet: they were, but maybe more towards lavender.  She was the most dissected person in the world.  She had no privacy.

At some point she became very ill.  The number of illnesses she suffered was endless.  And I believe this was all a Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome experience.  She lived like a caged animal.

In the '70's she began to put on weight.  Jokes were made about her by Joan Rivers.  Yet, anytime someone said something negative about Joan Rivers, no matter how trivial, she became upset, would cry and threaten lawsuits.  "I"m only trying to make people laugh," she defended herself.  Rivers is not a nice or fair person and totally blind to what damage she does.

How much observation can a person take?  I thought Dame Elizabeth was a great actress.  She was also a mother who managed to keep her children private.  How she accomplished this I don't know.

Was she vain, narcissistic?  When she underwent brain surgery to remove a benign tumor, her head was shaved and there was a scar crossing the top of her head.  She allowed people to see her bald  -- back in the day when no one saw anything like this.  She allowed photographers to take pictures of her with no hair.  She was philanthropic and became very involved with AIDs research and treatments.  She did her best to fight against AIDS until she was too ill to continue.

She is at peace now.  Thank you, Dame Elizabeth Taylor, for your wonderful performances, renowned beauty and long life.

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