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Showing posts with label Elizabeth Taylor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elizabeth Taylor. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Elizabeth Taylor has reportedly left her last husband $800,000 in her will. Larry Fortensky was number seven in Taylor's long line of spouses (eight marriages/seven men) and after years of
staying mum on their relationship, the 59-year-old former builder recently opened up to London's Daily Mail.
In a lengthy interview, Fortensky insisted that he was never after Taylor for her money. He reflected on the couple's happy times together and claimed to only be breaking his silence now in an effort to stop the rumors about him being a gold-digger.
"This is nothing to do with money, I have been offered so much over the years," he said. "This is about wanting people to know the real story. I am sick and tired of the lies."
To the public, the two seemed an unlikely match from the get go: he was a construction worker who never finished high school and was 20 years younger, she was among Hollywood's most glamorous, well-known (and well-bejeweled) movie stars.
The pair met during stays in rehab at Betty Ford in 1988 and were married at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch in 1991. The marriage was over by 1996 and Fortensky walked away with $1 million in the divorce settlement, which for Taylor was a drop in the bucket (her worth was recently estimated between $600 million and $1 billion).
Fortensky's health has been ailing ever since he fell down the stairs in 1999 while he was drunk and he's had more than his share of financial troubles since (his house was repossessed last year). Still, he argued that while he accepted money from Taylor over the years, he never asked, not even when they were married.
"I am a proud man and I like to work. I didn't want her money," he said. "I'd get up at 6am to go to the construction site. Elizabeth would get up, put on a kaftan and we'd have breakfast."
With such a financial gulf between them, Fortensky said he never tried to compete with Taylor- the year she gave him a Harley for Christmas, he gave her chocolate covered roses. Warming to the spotlight though was something he could never do.
"Everywhere we went there were cameras," Fortensky recalls. "Elizabeth would put lipstick on constantly because she said she never knew when she was being photographed. I found it hard. It wasn't my cup of tea, those cameras everywhere. Elizabeth was used to it. I never got used to it."
Fortesnky's short-term memory is suffering, but he was able to take the Mail through a highlight reel of his years with Taylor, from the time she threw a fur coat over her nightgown and ran outside to make a snow angel, to how much the two enjoyed riding his Harley along the coast before stopping for burgers at biker bars.
"Of course she was very pretty and I wasn't too bad-looking in those days either. We had an instant physical attraction," Fortensky said. His sister Donna, who lives with him in a town two hours south of Los Angeles, chimed in a little too much on the subject of their sex life.
"She would call Larry her 'stallion.' He loved that," she said. "They were very sexy together. Larry would get up from the table and drag Liz off to the bedroom."
Forstensky said he and Taylor were not only very much in love during their marriage, but that they continued to have an amicable relationship following the divorce. The two spoke on the phone several times each month.
"I love her, I always will. And I know she loved me, too."
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
When Elizabeth Taylor's entire collection of jewelry goes up for auction at Christie's in the next few months expect to see a sea of celebrities turning up to bid on a not-so-little piece of history;
however, beware! Kimora Lee Simmons tells me she's going to be bidding to win!
"All my life I have said this, I'm so emotional about Liz Taylor. My whole life I have really patterned after Elizabeth. She's always been my icon. If you think about it, I can explain it forever," Kimora told me while promoting Bounty paper towels. "First she had 165 husbands, I love it. I have a good one now but I'm not against having 165 if I could. Think about my first fragrance. It's the shape of a diamond shell with the ring around it. All that came from Elizabeth Taylor because it's about giving you a fragrance that is lush and giving you a little something extra. With her you get a little dream or a gift on the side, I'm the same."
And although Kimora is the first to admit that she is not Elizabeth, she surely would love to have a lot of Elizabeth's jewels. "I built my entire jewelry collection with her in mind. I will definitely go and bid. The last time I went to an auction I came home with all Versace stuff. I got a lot of it. I was probably the biggest buyer. I got his bed, DNA are in those sheets!"
Proceeds from the auction will go to amfAR and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. The face value is around $200 million, but as one diamond expert tells me, "With Elizabeth's name attached to these items it could go for double."
So, Kimora, bring your checkbook and look out for Tori's mom, Candy, who also told me she would love to own some of Elizabeth's baubles.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Not only was Colin Farrell one of the few non-family members who attended Elizabeth Taylor's funeral last week, he also recited a poem during the service. The actor explained his unlikely
friendship with the late, great actress to Access Hollywood.
"How did we become friends? You know, the old story of boy meets girl, and boy pesters girl with too many phone calls at inappropriate hours of the night," Farrell said of his friendship with Taylor, who passed away last week at age 79. "I was just lucky enough to become her friend in the last year and a half," he said. "I adore her... still."
The admiration was mutual, as Taylor mentioned him in an interview with Kim Kardashian for the March issue of Harper's Bazaar. "I love Johnny Depp, and I love Colin Farrell -- both brilliant, nuanced actors with great range."
Farrell was asked to read the poem 'The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo' at Taylor's funeral -- a request made by the actress before her death, which was passed along to Farrell.
"Elizabeth chose it. It was a tricky poem as well," Farrell said. "Even in passing she had me under the thumb, sweating bricks."
"I just miss her; I just miss her; I just miss her," he said of his late friend.
Friday, March 25, 2011
As the world mourns the loss of an American icon, newly released details from a 1997 interview with Elizabeth Taylor reveals a shocking secret about legendary film star James Dean that she
allegedly kept for most of her life.
According to The Daily Beast, writer Kevin Sessums interviewed Taylor for a cover story for POZ, an American magazine dedicated to AIDS activism. It was then the actress reportedly let him in on a secret about Dean, a close friend of hers.
"I loved Jimmy. I'm going to tell you something, but it's off the record until I die. OK? When Jimmy was 11 and his mother passed away, he began to be molested by his minister," she revealed to Sessums, who was sworn to secrecy.
"I think that haunted him the rest of his life. In fact, I know it did," she said of her friend. "We talked about it a lot. During 'Giant' we'd stay up nights and talk and talk, and that was one of the things he confessed to me."
Taylor and Dean starred together in 1956's 'Giant,' a film in which Dean earned his second posthumous Best Actor Academy Award nomination. The actor was killed in a car accident in 1955 at the age of 24.
Taylor died Wednesday of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she had been hospitalized for the past six weeks.
Elizabeth Taylor loved and honored her friends and tried her best to get them the recognition she felt they deserved. Illustrating this bond is a new, never-before-seen letter the Dame sent to the
board of trustees at the Kennedy Center on behalf of her great friend Barry Manilow.
On beautiful lilac stationary, with her name embossed at the top in purple, Taylor eloquently wrote that Barry was deserving of the Kennedy Center Honors because he created "the soundtrack of our lives" and is a genius who "cranks out hits at a dizzying pace." She also lavished him with praise for courageously standing with her to fight for AIDS/HIV funding back when the "stigma of AIDS was great."
Barry had no idea his friend had lobbied on his behalf until the letter was released following her death on Wednesday. "I had no idea about this letter. It's just unbelievable," he tells me. "This is so beautiful."
Read the full letter below:
Dear Gentlepersons,
I have the good fortune to count among my friends an extraordinary man, a man whose talents have touched so many hearts and whose heart has touched so many lives. That man is Barry Manilow.
One of the greatest names in popular music, this prolific singer-songwriter-performer has created the soundtrack for our lives. Ever since he first took the stage in the 1970, he has proved himself to be an unstoppable showman, a true musical genius who cranks out hits at a dizzying pace. His songs are as well known as Beatles tunes, and its impossible not to sing along. I'm truly a fan.
And then there's his work as a humanitarian: Barry is tireless in pursuit of his charitable endeavors, which include raising funds and awareness for The Prince's Trust, United Way, The Starlight Foundation, The Foundation Fighting Blindness, and for many HIV-AIDS organizations, for which he holds a special place in my heart. I will always remember back to the early days of my fundraising work, when the stigma of AIDS was so great. I was seeking talent to perform at our first benefit event, and was receiving nothing but rejections--until Barry alone had the courage to come forward and say "yes".
Barry has established The Manilow Fund For Health And Hope, which supports education, health and care efforts locally, and the Manilow Music Project, which supports musical equipment to local schools whose art programs have been eliminated. It is Barry's feverent belief that music changes lives: I know he's changed mine with his enormous talent.
I can think of no one more deserving of a Kennedy Center Honor than Barry Manilow, and hope you will accept this letter of nomination and support. Thank you in advance for your kind consideration.
Sincerely,
(Signed in her own hand in ink matching the color of her raised letterhead) Elizabeth Taylor.
Dame Liz was honored by the Center in 2002 and since then was given the elite opportunity to nominate individuals. So far, Barry has not been tapped for the award. Last year's recipients included Merle Haggard, Jerry Herman, Bill T. Jones, Paul McCartney and Oprah Winfrey.
Elizabeth Taylor was the Queen of Hollywood, with a career spanning six decades. She was as famous for her colourful personal life, which included 8 marriages and 7 husbands, as she was for her acting career.
Although Elizabeth was born in England, her parents were American art dealers. Her mother had been an actress on the stage until she married, and the family relocated to Los Angeles when she was seven.
A family friend suggested Elizabeth be taken for a screen test, and she signed a contract with Universal Studios. Her first foray onto the silver screen was in the short, ‘There’s One Born Every Minute’, when she was ten.
Elizabeth was then signed by MGM to make ‘Lassie Come Home’. Her next two films were minuscule parts, but then came the film that made Elizabeth a star, ‘National Velvet’, in 1944. The film was a smash hit grossing over $4 million.
Throughout the 1940s and into the early 1950s, Elizabeth appeared in film after film, with mostly good results. 1954 proved her busiest year to date, with roles in ‘Rhapsody’, ‘Beau Brummell’, ‘The Last Time I Saw Paris’ and ‘Elephant Walk’.
1957 saw Elizabeth star in ‘Raintree County’, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1958, she starred in ‘Cat On a Hot Tin Roof’. The film received rave reviews from the critics and Elizabeth was nominated again for another Academy Award. She finally won an Oscar in 1960 for ‘Butterfield 8’.
In 1963, she starred in ‘Cleopatra’, which was the most expensive production up to that time, and her enormous salary of $1,000,000 made her the highest paid woman in Hollywood and the first ever million dollar actress.
After her second Oscar win for ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’, her films never again reached the same heights. However, she maintained her place in the limelight by the sheer quantity of her work, appearing in ‘The Taming of the Shrew’, ‘Reflections in a Golden Eye’, ‘The Only Game in Town’ and ‘Hammersmith is Out’ between 1967 and 1972.
In 1974, Taylor starred in ‘Victory at Entebbe’, a made-for-television movie based on an actual event, which involved Israeli hostages being freed from Entebbe Airport in Uganda. Over the next decade, she went on to have roles in productions including ‘A Little Night Music’, ‘The Mirror Crack’d’, ‘All My Children’, ‘Malice in Wonderland’ and the miniseries ‘North and South’.
With her appearances largely restricted to television and voice roles, Taylor continued entertaining fans in the late 80s through to the 90s with roles in ‘Young Toscanini’, ‘Sweet Bird of Youth’, ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘The Flintstones’. Her most recent work includes 2001’s ‘These Old Broads’ and 2003’s ‘God, the Devil and Bob’, an animated sitcom.
Taylor’s personal life has been as colourful as her acting career, having gone through seven husbands and eight marriages over the years. Her most famous union was with seven-time Academy Award nominee Richard Burton, whom she married and divorced twice.
In February 1997, she was hospitalised for the removal of a brain tumour and, although the operation was successful, her health remained an ongoing concern. Taylor has had a wide range of other medical issues over the years and in February 2011, at the age of 78, she was admitted into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for treatment related to congestive heart failure, which she disclosed in 2004.
She passed away on 23 March at the age of 79 from congestive heart failure. A statement announcing Taylor’s death said that “she was surrounded by her children - Michael Wilding, Christopher Wilding, Liza Todd and Maria Burton” and left behind ten grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Paying tribute to his mother, son Michael said in a statement: “We will always be inspired by her enduring contribution to our world. My Mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humour, and love.".
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
When Elizabeth Taylor needed a superstar to headline one of her earliest benefits to raise money for HIV/AIDS in 1986, long before it was a cause that all in Hollywood were ready to support, she
turned to her dear friend Barry Manilow. Without pause, Barry jumped at the chance, and today with news of her passing, the legendary singer is heartbroken.
"She was the last great movie star and one of my closest friends," Barry tells me. "This is a sad day for me."
Not many people got to be so close to greatness like Barry did, but what he remembers most is her warmness and huge laugh that filled rooms.
"What I'll always remember about Elizabeth was her laugh," he says. "She would walk in looking like a princess, and out of her mouth would come this cackling laugh that would crack all of us up."
Dame Elizabeth called Barry her hero for jumping in when she needed him most -- remember in 1986, most celebrities were hesitant to get involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS -- and never forgot that her dear friend was always a phone call away.
He went on to perform alongside other huge stars in Liz's 1992 telethon, 'In a New Light: A Call to Action in the War Against AIDS,' and he was the master of ceremonies at her 60th birthday party at Disneyland.
Elizabeth Taylor has passed away at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in California, ABC News has confirmed.
The actress died from congestive heart failure. She was 79. In a statement, her son Michael Wilding said, "We will always be inspired by her enduring contribution to our world."
Along with Michael, Taylor's other children Christopher Wilding, Liza Todd and Maria Burton were by her side at the hospital, her publicist Sally Morrison said.
The 'Cleopatra' star was hospitalized last month for heart failure, and also underwent heart surgery in 2009.
In a recent Harper's Bazaar interview with super-fan Kim Kardashian, Taylor opened up about her many husbands, jewels and philanthropic work.
"I never planned to acquire a lot of jewels or a lot of husbands," Taylor told the 30-year-old Kardashian sister. "For me, life happened, just as it does for anyone else. I have been supremely lucky in my life in that I have known great love, and of course I am the temporary custodian of some incredible and beautiful things. But I have never felt more alive than when I watched my children delight in something, never more alive than when I have watched a great artist perform, and never richer than when I have scored a big check to fight AIDS."
See a collection of Liz Taylor clips:
In 1963's 'Cleopatra
Liz in 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
An early role in 'National Velvet'
Speaking about Michael Jackson
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