Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Great Dame


A few things I know about E. Taylor, DBE.

1) I love her in Cleopatra, especially when she arrives in Rome on a giant golden sphinx, preceded by dancing semi-naked nubians, natch, every inch the great and mighty queen of Egypt and then winks at Caesar like a barmaid looking for a good time.

2) I have always had a hard time watching Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, even though she's fascinating in it, and a much better actor than Richard Burton.

3) her fake Southern accent in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof makes my skin crawl. It is, however, better than that of Dame Judith Anderson. Not that that's saying much.

4) her greatest role was in the White Diamonds perfume commercial where she saunters into a poker game (photographed through all the gauze available in California at the time,) hauls off her gigantmundo diamond earbobs and says "These always brought me luck." A role model for drag queens everywhere.

5) thinking of her always reminds me of the Saturday Night Live skit where John Belushi impersonates her choking on a chicken leg. Heehee. I am a bad person.

5 comments:

  1. "A Place in The Sun" - the quintessential convergence of beauty, talent and sex.

    They can turn off the HOLLYWOOD sign now. It's all gone with Elizabeth.

    Now back to my unscheduled queenie breakdown. I was too young for the Judy Garland thang...

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  2. Too young for Judy Garland? Blasphemer! Michael, there isn't a human on this earth who is ever to young for Judy Garland.

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  3. "These have always brought me luck."

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  4. One of Miss J's favorite words of all time, OF ALL TIME, is earbobs.

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