It's taken a while but I am devastated that Elizabeth Taylor has passed away.

Celebitchy has a piece about how Elizabeth Taylor decided to show up late to her funeral. I was devastated by her death, not because of the death itself but because the world really has lost an icon.

I will never forget the first time I saw an Elizabeth Taylor film. I was 10 years old, and the old Cartoon Network here would convert to TNT at night. They would show old movies, grand ones that I never got to watch anywhere else at the time. God, I got my first dose of Audrey Hepburn there. If I remember right, it was Roman Holiday. That movie! Because of TNT, I rented Breakfast at Tiffany's from Video One and soon followed it with My Fair Lady. 

I thank God for TNT. As Nora Roberts says, it's simply different when people kiss in black and white. I'm spoiled that way. There's also something to be said for the beauty of the Silver Screen actors. I remember watching Streetcar at 14, not really understanding what was going on until I was much older. But GOD, that movie. And Marlon Brando! 

Of all the old time actresses, it was Elizabeth Taylor that captivated me in Cleopatra. Forget Audrey and the waif look. I went for this amazingly lush, purple eyed goddess. 

The movie was immense. It was horrifying. It was dreadful. It was fantastic. And don't you just love the way people talk in black and white? Who cares that critics bashed it? I LOVED this movie. I remember practicing how she enunciated her words. Ever notice how people enunciate in old movies? Nobody does it like they do anymore. 

Too bad I don't  have a copy of A Place in the Sun. I think I'll go collect her DVDs and have myself a movie marathon. With champagne.

So, Liz, I raise a toast to you. I hope you are with Richard, reunited and happy. I think you loved him the best, and the most. So I end this mini-tribute with a quote from him:

"She was unquestionably gorgeous. I can think of no other word to describe a combination of plentitude, frugality, abundance, tightness. She was lavish. She was a dark unyielding largesse. She was, in short, too bloody much."