{Collage by This is Glamourous Blog}
Elizabeth Taylor died on Wednesday. And thus, despite it being rather sunny and nice outside the walls of Guardian HQ, our world became a greyer place. Such an event requires a fitting tribute, so we decided to compile a list of our favourite things about Liz:
1. She didn't give a hoot about society's expectations and was famously married eight times to seven men. The first was when she was just 18, to Conrad Hilton (Paris Hilton's great uncle), but the relationship lasted only a year. Her most significant relationship, however, was with Richard Burton - the love of her life whom she married (and divorced) twice. She liked her men rich, passionate and wild. "Marriage is an institution", she said, and for her, it really was.
2. She spoke her mind, once saying: "I don't think President Bush is doing anything at all about Aids. In fact, I'm not sure he even knows how to spell Aids." Brilliant.
3. She and Richard Burton were denounced by the Vatican for "erotic vagrancy" after news broke of their relationship on the set of Cleopatra, when both were already married.
4. "Big girls need big diamonds." Liz loved a bit of sparkle. Richard Burton bought her a 33.19-carat Krupp diamond for $305,000 (about $2m today). Then he followed it up with a Cartier diamond, bought for $1.1m. "I wanted that diamond because it is incomparably lovely," he said. "And it should be on the loveliest woman in the world. I would have had a fit if it went to Jackie Kennedy or Sophia Loren or Mrs Huntingdon Misfit of Dallas, Texas." That right there is what romance is all about, people!
5. Not for her a pedestrian genetic mutation like an extra finger or toe. No, Liz got an extra row of eyelashes instead. Some people have all the luck.
6. She embraced modern technology and could often be found tweeting. Some of her gems included:
Every breath you take today should be with someone else in mind. I love you.
and:
You are who you are. All you can do in this world is help others to be who they are and better themselves and those around them.
and her final tweet:
My interview in Bazaar with Kim Kardashian came out!!!
7. She was best friends with Michael Jackson, so much so that he asked her to be godmother to two of his children.
8. Burton's nicknames for Elizabeth included "Twit Twaddle", "My little Twitch", "Ocean" and "Dearest Scrupelshrumpilstilskin".
9. She won two best actress Oscars over a career that spanned more than half a century. Her first was for Butterfield 8 in 1960, and the second for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1967.
10. She had a famously fiery temper and Richard Burton once said of her: "Elizabeth and I lived on the edge of an exciting volcano. I'm not easy to be married to or live with. I exploded violently about twice a year with Elizabeth. She would also explode. It was marvellous, but it could be murder."
BY RACHEL HOMES
THE GUARDIAN UK.
