ELIZABETH TAYLOR: THE LOST INTERVIEW

Special thanks to the awesome eminently cool people at RS for this great gift. You’re the best. It made my morning.

In 1987, ROLLING STONE CONTRIBUTING EDITOR JONATHAN COTT sat down with ELIZABETH TAYLOR in her suite at New York’s HOTEL PLAZA ATHENEE, when the actor was 55.

This is an expanded version of an article that appears in the APRIL 14, 2011 issue of ROLLING STONE. The issue is available now on newsstands and will appear in the on line archive APRIL 1.

“There was no standing on ceremony, no pretense, no pulling punches,” he recalled. “She was so forthright, witty and fearless.”

The previously unpublished interview is presented here for the first time.

JONATHAN COTT: You started making films in Hollywood during the 1940s. How has the movie business changed since then?

ELIZABETH TAYLOR: It used to be a sin to be considered a Hollywood actor. Even worse to be a star — God forbid a superstar. Stage actors would accuse people of selling out when they’d go to Hollywood. Actually, I think the whole thing is a bunch of bullshit and I always have. An actor is an actor whether it’s in Hollywood, whether it’s in Africa, whether it’s on stage, television or in film. Acting has to be generated from within.

JC: How does that happen for you?

ET: I have never had an acting lesson in my life. But I’ve learned, I hope, from watching people like SPENCER TRACY, MARLON BRANDO, MONTGOMERY CLIFT — all people who were finely tuned and educated in the art of acting. They were my education. I found quite early on that I couldn’t act as a puppet — there would be something pulling my strings too hard — and that I did my best work by being guided, not by being forced.

And I suppose that really is just the child in me — wanting to be allowed to grow and develop at my instinctual sort of pace. If you describe me as an actress, you’d have to say that I wasn’t a distinctive actress as actresses go because I’m certainly not a polished technician.

JC: Many of your fans would disagree. But just as Hollywood was once used as a dismissive epithet, so today some stage actor types often demean television stars. I gather you wouldn’t agree with that.

ET: I’ve seen some splendid work on television. And I think it was your definitive stage actor LARRY OLIVIER who said that he thought that one of the finest ways a person could learn was through the medium of television — especially the soaps, where the actors have to be so creative day in and day out. My son is currently doing a play and a soap at the same time and it’s like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time.

Now, when I first watched soaps, it was always a real giggle for me…and then I became enthralled. I thought, this is my show — GENERAL HOSPITAL. I mean, this is karma. This has got to be my first soap. [laughter] So I watched GENERAL HOSPITAL and really liked it so much that one day I was a surprise visitor on the show. And my God, I have such admiration for that form of art in acting. It’s bloody hard work.

JC: Someone once said that the old Hollywood studio was a kind of extended family.

ET: It was like a big extended factory, I’m sorry to say. But if you like being smothered, I guess it was a very productive family. I was nine when I made my first films in Hollywood. I was used from the day I was a child and utilized by the studio. I was promoted for their pockets. I never felt that they were a haven. I’ve always been very much my own person. I had my own mother and father — they were my family, not the bloody studio.

JC: Was there a particular incident that stands out?

ET: When I was 15 and Louis B. Mayer started screaming at my mother and using swear words that I’d never heard before (“I took you and your fucking daughter out of the gutter”), I uttered my first swear word and told him that he didn’t dare speak to my mother that way – and he and the studio could both go to hell and that I was never going to go back to his office. And I left my mother there with her eyes shut…and I think she was sort of praying.

JC: What happened after that?

ET: I walked out of there in such a fury and in tears and went to see my old friend and vice president BENNY and he said, “You have to go back.”

And another vice president came and found me. Now those guys were my buddies and they said, “Sweetheart, you have got to go back and apologize.”

And I said, “What for? He should apologize to my mother. I’m not going back in his office. I meant what I said and I don’t care if you fire me now.”

I don’t know where I found the independence. I totally winged it on my own and just took my career – with total knowledge and decision – and threw it out the window. Now I had not a clue how L.B. Mayer — one of the great icons of Hollywood history and slightly mad…and who was frothing at the mouth in a temper — would take this from a pipsqueak.

But I didn’t care.

I knew that he had done something very wrong. As it turns out they must have wanted or needed me. Otherwise they wouldn’t have kept me. But that only has occurred to me in hindsight.

JC: Did the studio try to change you in other ways?

ET: My God. I had black hair — it was photographed blue black it was so dark — and thick bushy eyebrows. And my mother and father had to stop them from dying my hair and plucking out my eyebrows. The studio even wanted to change my name to Virginia. They tried to get me to create a JOAN CRAWFORD mouth when I first began using lipstick at 15. They wanted, you know, JOAN CRAWFORD – the 40s and everything.

Every movie star, LANA TURNER, all of them, painted over their lips: and I’m sure that some of them had perfectly fine, full lips — but thin eyebrows were the fad…and God forbid you do anything individual or go against the fad.

But I did.

I figured this looks absurd. And I agreed with my dad: God must have had some reason for giving me bushy eyebrows and black hair. I guess I must have been pretty sure of my sense of identity. It was me. I accepted it all my life and I can’t explain it. Because I’ve always been very aware of the inner me that has nothing to do with the physical me.

JC: But there is a connection between the two…

ET: Eventually the inner you shapes the outer you, especially when you reach a certain age and you have been given the same features as everybody else. God has arranged them in a certain way. But around 40 the inner you actually chisels your features. You know how some people have a kind of downward pull and some people have sort of an upward pull and look stress free, while the others look as if they’re just trying to carry the world on their shoulders.

You just want to say, shake your head, shake your body like a dog and just get rid of all that. It doesn’t need to bow you down. Life is to be embraced and enveloped. Surgeons and knives have nothing to do with it. It has to do with a connection with nature, God, your inner being — whatever you want to call it — it’s being in contact with yourself and allowing yourself, allowing God, to mold you.

JC: Were you always so free spirited even as a kid?

ET: When I was a child in England they always used to say to my mother — and it used to bother me — that I was an old soul. I had no idea what that meant, but apparently I used to frighten grown ups, because I was totally direct.

I saw my daughter as a baby, before she was a year old, look at people steadily with those eyes of hers and see people start to fidget and drop things out of their pockets and finally, unable to stand the heat, get out of the room. She was totally tapping into something that she was seeing that they didn’t want touched.

JC: It sounds almost feral…

ET: As they say, “Don’t look into a lion’s eyes.”

I had that happen once when I was in a jeep in the bush of Africa, in Chobe — this was during my second marriage to RICHARD BURTON. It was on an earth path at 6 in the morning. And I came upon this black maned lion just in the middle of the forest, at this footpath crossroads. We were in this totally open jeep that belonged to the white hunter guard named Brian and myself. It was just him and myself, no tour guide. No protection of any sort.

And I said, “Go very slowly. Just make as little sound as you can.” And we got a little bit closer — so close, in fact, that I could see the hairs on this animal’s body.

Now, I’m fascinated by cats. I used to have an Abyssinian cat — if you are a cat lover you’ll know exactly what I mean. When I say that the tips have a little dark marking on them and it gets lighter and lighter the closer it gets to the pelt.

But the mane itself, around that lion’s face — those huge amber eyes — was black. I’d never seen anything resembling this lion. I wanted to get really close. And the animal by this time was looking at me and Brian, who would not look at him, said, “Elizabeth, stop staring into the cat’s eyes.”

And I said, “Why?” and he said that that was the one thing that will make them pounce. It makes them very nervous. And I said, “I’m sorry, Brian. But I can’t take my eyes away from this.”

And this cat and I are staring into each other’s eyes. And there was no power in this world that could make me take my eyes out of that cat’s eyes. I was into them. And I was looking into that cat. Finally the cat stood up — my eyes and his eyes were still locked — and he kind of stretched. Brian’s hands were starting to shake on the wheel.

And the lion opened his mouth and I saw these teeth and he let out a roar that didn’t make me jump — because it’s as if I knew what he was going to do — and I still kept staring at him and he sort of moved his eyes away from me, started very gently padding away from me, turned and looked at me again over his shoulder and then just went into a very relaxed trot and disappeared into the bushes. I can’t tell you what a trip that was.

JC: Do you have a special affection for animals?

ET: I’ve always preferred animals to little girls or boys. I had my first horse — actually it was a Newfoundland pony — when I was three and I loved riding, without anyone shackling me — riding bareback as fast as I could.

In Africa, I also had a troupe of green monkeys in my living room. Every morning and every evening, for a period of two months, I would go to the lip of the forest, which was right near RICHARD’S and my bungalow and it was where the monkeys would go down and drink at the river. Now, I’m not foolhardy and I don’t even think that encounter with the lion was foolhardy, because I knew nothing was going to happen. I was very respectful of the monkeys. It took me about two or three weeks, but I would start making them unafraid of me with food.

And I got them so they’d go up this two story wall and around the swimming pool and into my living room…and just have them accept my presence and realize that I was not threatening. They were just gorgeous little innocent creatures whom I sat and chatted with. There were about 20 of them in my small living room, with RICHARD in the bedroom — just the monkeys, who would reach out and touch my knee. So it wasn’t just the MGM lion!

And I became known amongst the local tribes as this strange Caucasian lady who spoke to animals. And so can my daughter, by the way…But, of course, you’re an animal and we’re communicating. [laughing]

JC: You’ve obviously never liked to conform or be shackled.

ET: I hated school, so I was kind of an oddball. As far back as my consciousness can remember — and unfortunately it’s associated with pain but also with curiosity.

JC: An unauthorized biography of you by Kitty Kelley has just been published. Its thesis is, so to speak, that you were nurtured by the studio, that you didn’t have a life of your own aside from it and that you lived the parts that you played and played the parts that you lived.

ET: That’s absolute bullshit!

I had my own world, my parents were sensitive enough to me and I had something going for myself that I was tapping into quite naturally and quite instinctively. And they encouraged my relationship with animals.

In England, where I lived until I was 8 years old — you’d have a certain formal time for mommy and daddy: but otherwise the nannies would structure your life. I didn’t dig that kind of existence at all. My family, being American in this sort of formal society, were much more liberal with their time than most English parents. But as far as nannies were concerned, I did live the so called upper middle class childhood. I rebelled against it and found nature was the one place where I could do my own thing and where I could trip out – literally – as a kid.

JC: You weren’t lonely?

ET: There were all these fantastic natural highs. Why would I be lonely?

JC: You seem to rebel against any kind of authority figures — L.B. Mayer, your nanny…

ET: That type, yeah. My nanny, for instance, was horrible! Her name was Frieda Edith Gill — it’s so onomatopoeic: Frieda Edith Gill, Frieda, Edith Gill. I think she was probably very sweet and I was rude in my rebellion.

But I had my own identity and I probably was the biggest manipulator of all time. I got my own way so cunningly, because I can see that in my daughter, I can see it in myself. Yeah, I was probably the biggest manipulator ever born! I hadn’t thought about this for ages, but I can see that little girl getting onto that horse and going on that trip that she wanted to go on and accomplishing it, though sometimes it would take hours to start the trip.

My pony would run away and I’d have to wait for her to come back or track her down. And sometimes I would be gone all day long. I knew that if it were into the evening I’d be up shit’s creek without a paddle, so I’d, you know, get myself back one way or another. But it’s strange. This is really turning into an interview about animals!

JC: You’re currently putting together a self help book based on the tough times you went through. What was that period like for you?

ET: Everything is just totally out of wack. It’s just more than fatness and obesity. It’s more than just not caring how I looked. It’s in every line of my face. It’s even in the texture of my hair. The main reason I was doing this book was that I hoped that I could reach somebody out there, even if it was just one human being.

Weight loss, weight gain all have something to do with yourself. It’s deep loneliness, depression, lack of self esteem that is the cause for overeating, drinking, taking pills, whatever — the necessary crutch. One makes up excuses.

I used to think that drinking would help my shyness, but all it did was exaggerate all the negative qualities. The drinking and the pills just sort of dulled my natural enthusiasm. All you have to do is look a picture of me from that time to know. Unfortunately, I don’t have a good photographic record of myself from that period.

I don’t have anybody around me with cameras because to me it’s like war.

JC: I imagine the paparazzi all around the world could put together a few volumes on you.

ET: They’re not photographers! They’re not people! [laughing]

JC: What species are they?

ET: These are cockroaches. But actually they do take some very revealing photographs.

JC: I gather you don’t feel the same way about supposedly revealing unauthorized biographies of you — in particular, Kitty Kelley’s book.

ET: I don’t read them and I’ve never read Kitty Kelley’s because I know there is nothing I can do about it. Why aggravate myself?

I’ve been told that it’s full of a bunch of lies. Fabrications. And real dirty malicious stuff.

But why go through the irritation when I know that legally in the sweet buggerall there is nothing I can do about it? I heard she has said something like, “Well, Elizabeth Taylor hasn’t sued me so you know I was telling the truth.”

I went through the ceiling of my house. I touched the roof of the sky. I called my lawyer. And he told me I had to read the book and sue her for every single untruth. That would mean not only spending money, it would mean bringing it up. It would mean the aggravation of reading it.

So I have to let that bitch say, “Well, Elizabeth Taylor read that and didn’t sue me. So it must be true.”

JC: What do you think allowed you to pull yourself away from the brink?

ET: You can always avert throwing yourself in front of an oncoming train. There is something that just pulls you away — and it has pulled me away, because I’m not dead yet — just at the brink of impact. Sometimes I have been really grazed by that train.

The world and the press and people have always enjoyed doing that. That’s the nature of things. You create an idea, a star. They’re yours. You have created this monster. So what do you do?

It becomes boring unless you tear it down. I’ve been on that yo yo trip all my life. Except like the times when I almost lose myself.

But I didn’t lose myself, did I?

Something always made me save myself. Either The Betty Ford Center or going on stage to perform in the theatre when many people didn’t think I could do it. Or doing this, doing that. Whatever.

I mean I was pronounced dead, for God’s sake, about 20 years ago. I was in the hospital on a respirator and they were pulling this sort of rubbery, bloody substance out of my lungs. I stopped breathing for five minutes.

And I had a kind of near death experience that you didn’t talk about then because people would have thought you were crazy. It’s amazing that I didn’t have any permanent brain damage. (Don’t you dare make any cracks!) I even had a chance to read my obits and they were the best reviews I ever had! [laughing]

JC: Why couldn’t MARILYN MONROE save herself?

ET: I don’t think MARILYN committed suicide. I don’t think MARILYN was murdered. I think it was an accident. But she was playing with fire. I don’t think she was as acutely aware of it as some of my other self destructive friends.

JC: I was thinking about some of the leading men you’ve played opposite in your films, such as MONTGOMERY CLIFT, MARLON BRANDO, ROCK HUDSON, RICHARD BURTON, ORSON WELLES, HENRY FONDA and PAUL NEWMAN. That’s quite a group.

ET: They don’t make leading men like that any more. And, you see, they were my teachers. Then, add the women in there and the directors and the cameramen and you have some hell of a school. Thank God, I hope I picked up something!

JC: In Paris not long ago, I happened to see two of your best films — REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE and A PLACE IN THE SUN — the first of which also starred MARLON BRANDO, the second MONTGOMERY CLIFT.

ET: For some reason the French think I’m a good actress and I think that’s really nice.

JC: I’ve come across some excellent reviews of your work recently in this country.

ET: Oh, that’s bullshit! That’s probably in due deference to my age or something like that. Come on! I don’t keep clippings of any kind, but if I had them I would. Some reviews I consider to be bitchy for the sake of being bitchy.

JC: Well, I wanted to know what you thought of the notion, once expressed by a European director, that MARLON BRANDO and MONTGOMERY CLIFT are the two antithetical sides of great American acting.

ET: To me, they tap and come from the same source of energy. (Oh God. MARLON will kill me!) They both have this acute animal sensitivity and the other more animalistic. But it’s the same thing. Because, if you think about it, they both have the vulnerability. God, you don’t even have to think about it — you can feel it, especially when you’re working with them.

I always felt it in their work. I think MONTY was at a more refined state early on. But MARLON developed it and wasn’t as self destructive. MARLON is still a great actor. You know, we can’t speculate what would have happened to MONTY’S career. He’s safe now. But then he wasn’t safe.

He was one of the best actors, innovators that the acting world has ever known. His death came at an untimely, unheroic, unpoetic moment in his life. So instead of being revered, he’s kind of shuffled aside. But, good God, all you have to do is look at some of his old films. Just look at him. Open a little door of your consciousness and you can be on his wavelength so easily. He just takes you along. That’s a great art.

Actually the Big Daddy of them all, for me, was SPENCER TRACY, with his simplicity and honesty and directness. They were all spawned by SPENCE, who did it instinctively and naturally. He was a highly polished actor and he had that kind of quietness that is part of the acting of a Method actor. They call it being introspective. But I call it a kind of quietness.

JC: Do you miss the golden age of the movie star?

ET: Today a name no longer carries a film. People used to go to the cinema to see a JOHN WAYNE film. And you don’t have that thing happening now except in the rock world, which has taken the event out of movies. The event is where the star is and that’s in concert. I think that this has to do with the pace of things and with pushing buttons instead of getting dressed, getting behind the wheel and making an event of going to the cinema. The superstars are in concert. And I think that’s why very few of them have made a successful transformation to film.

Very few. I happen to love DAVID BOWIE and think he’s a brilliant actor on stage and I love his movies. But I don’t think he has been given artistic control in his films. But I think he’s got great good taste.

JC: What about MADONNA?

ET: I haven’t seen her films so I can’t make a comment. But I think her adoring public may love her so much that they may not be special enough events for them. She’s highly gifted, highly talented. She’s beautiful. She’s sexy. She’s charismatic. I love to listen to her music. She is a star of her craft.

But I don’t think the public really wants her as a movie star — unlike with BETTE MIDLER who’s a great comedian and dramatic actress. But BETTE is no longer a concert star, come to think of it. She’s switched to acting. Name me one that does both, a star in both circuses? It has nothing to do with talent. It has to do with the public’s desire concerning where they want them.

JC: Are you a rock & roll fan?

ET: I love going to rock concerts, by the way. I love to lose myself in that vast wave of rhythm and body heat and get on the same vibe. And kids will say, “Hi, Liz.” And I’ll say hi back. I get an outrageous kick out of the concerts.

JC: You’re not thinking of forming a band, are you?

ET: Don’t worry. I promise. I tried it and I’ve listened to my singing voice and I’ve promised myself that I’m really too generous a human being to do that to the populace. [laughing] Nobody can make it sound like me. Believe me.

JC: Why did you name your new perfume ELIZABETH TAYLOR’S PASSION?

ET: It’s called PASSION because an interviewer asked me what quality it was in me that made me the survivor that I was. And I had never thought about it before. I think it’s my passion.

My passion for life, for people, for caring…my passion for everything.

I’m not fascinated by things. I dive into them. One is fascinated by fire. But when I was a toddler and crawling, I was so fascinated by it that I reached out and touched it. That’s the difference between fascination and passion for me. I get totally — as you can probably tell by my rambling — involved. You cannot have passion of any kind unless you have compassion.

That’s one of the reasons why I get so furious about AIDS. How dare people consider themselves fully rounded human beings without compassion. If they don’t have passion, it means they are incapable of love. That passion has just always been there and I’ve taken it for granted. I still have that childlike ability to get diverted by my own thoughts.

Because I’m not afraid. Life is just such an adventure to me.

ROBBIE ROBERTSON’S NEW CD: HOW TO BECOME CLAIRVOYANT

FROM THE CANADIAN PRESS

It’s taken a few decades, but ROBBIE ROBERTSON is finally opening up.

On HOW TO BECOME CLAIRVOYANT, his first record in thirteen years, the musical legend probes his past and scrutinizes his emotional baggage with the diligence of a pesky customs agent.

He delves into the vices that took the lives of his friends, the youthful idealism that pervaded his first journey through the United States and — for the first time — writes about the painful dissolution of THE BAND.

And, ROBBIE remarked, the process actually felt pretty good.

“This went to a much more personal place than I would have ever imagined and it felt great. It felt like a release,” he said during an interview in Toronto this week.

“Some personal songwriting to me — from certain people — I feel embarrassed hearing them talk about themselves in a self indulgent way. And I’ve tried my best to avoid the me me me songs…I’ve always been more comfortable with the fictional characters that your personal stuff gets disguised in.”

“And for some unknown reason this time I was just able to (write more personally). It’s almost like saying: ‘Well, here’s what happened.”’

We last heard from the Toronto native on 1998′s CONTACT FROM THE UNDERWORLD OF REDBOY, on which ROBBIE explored his heritage with a fusion of traditional Native American inspired music and other modern sounds.

From the start, he knew he wanted CLAIRVOYANT to be different – to be a challenge. The work seemed to begin in earnest two years ago, when ROBBIE took some of his new songs — some still in skeletal sketch form — to London to collaborate with his friend ERIC CLAPTON.

After their sessions, ROBBIE returned to California with a sudden sense of clarity. While he still had work to do as music supervisor on MARTIN SCORSESE’S 2010 thriller SHUTTER ISLAND, ROBBIE now had a clear direction in mind for his new album. He began to recruit collaborators, a diverse bunch that eventually included TRENT REZNOR, STEVE WINWOOD, TOM MORELLO, ROCCO DELUCA and ROBERT RANDOLPH.

“It was like casting a movie of who’s going to play this part, who would be great for that,” ROBBIE recalled.

“It wasn’t about famous names…It was really about musicianship and people that have a certain gift who can fulfill what’s in my imagination.”

Despite the genre jumping cast of contributors, ROBBIE wanted the record to sound cohesive.

ERIC CLAPTON performs on seven of the album’s twelve tracks (and earns cowriting credits on three). ROBBIE and the English rocker — each with his own inimitable guitar style — manage to mesh nicely, their supple playing providing a spacious setting for the former’s candid lyrics.

THIS IS WHERE I GET OFF will be of particular interest to longtime fans. The lush tune finds ROBBIE returning to the deterioration of THE BAND, the influential Americana act that was crumbling for years before breaking up for good in the late 70s.

The song is certainly melancholic, but hopeful too — the first verse ends with the optimistic line: Everything you leave behind/Catches up in another time.

ROBBIE ROBERTSON — who will be inducted into THE CANADIAN SONGWRITERS’ HALL OF FAME on Saturday — said that he simply wouldn’t have been ready to write the song until recently.

“Now, reflecting on this, it just feels very natural — it almost strikes me as being odd not to…And I thought I was able to touch upon it in an emotional, uplifting and sad way, all at the same time.”

“It was an extraordinary period. And it’s just one of the periods that I celebrate in my life the most. We did some really beautiful work together. And these guys are like my brothers. So why wouldn’t I embrace that?”

Meanwhile, the grooving HE DON’T LIVE HERE NO MORE is also written about a difficult time. ROBBIE wrote the song with ERIC CLAPTON and MARTIN SCORSESE, a friend and frequent collaborator, in mind, dedicating the tune to a period of indulgence they were lucky to survive: I was running on a red light/Always looking for a streetfight/I was higher than a lost kite/Too far gone.

“We were part of a whole culture in the late 70s where there was incredible decadence and abuse going on and nobody recognized it at first. It had come out of the 60s, when experimenting and expanding your mind all seemed to be…a healthy thing to do,” ROBBIE explained.

“And then it went to a dark place – a very dark tunnel. So I am expressing that period with Marty and me and also the period with the guys in The Band. We were all going through this…It’s not like we were outside doing something that nobody else was doing — it was as common as somebody drinking coffee now.”

“And really, what I’m getting across in this is that Marty and I and Eric were lucky to go into that tunnel, see how dark it was in there, and come out the other side and say: ‘He don’t live there no more.’”

Yet not all of his friends were so fortunate.

“Some people didn’t get out alive. There’s great sadness in that. And some of the people that I was very close to, you know. So it’s worthy of acknowledgment – in a deep way to me – that that’s part of our growing curve.”

The languid WHEN THE NIGHT WAS YOUNG also draws from the past, but from brighter memories. The song refers to a specific period in ROBBIE’S musical history, when he and the other members of the yet to be christened BAND split ways with RONNIE HAWKINS and headed south.

ROBBIE hooked up with BOB DYLAN in New Jersey and soon began living at New York’s historic CHELSEA HOTEL, keeping some pretty impressive company.

“Edie Sedgwick lived at the Chelsea Hotel too and she used to spend a lot of time hanging out with me in my room and Andy Warhol — who completely adored her — would come looking for her in the hotel,” ROBBIE remembered.

“So when she wasn’t in her room, they would call my room and they’d say, ‘Mr. Warhol is down here. He’s looking for Ms. Sedgwick. Would she be there by any chance?’

“And she’d be like: ‘Tell him I’m not here! Tell him I’m not here!’ And so I would say, ‘No, Edie’s not here. I think she’s gone downtown to hear some blues.’ I’d have to make up some story. So I’m just weaving all of these things from that period together.”

Clearly, he still has a wealth of stories to tell, so it’s not surprising that he’s planning on finally crafting a memoir.

He says it was actually this album — and the experience of opening up about his past — that convinced him an autobiography could be the next step.

“It opened that door. I thought: ‘I’ve gotta tell these stories.‘ I don’t want a ghost writer. Nobody can tell these stories as good as I can tell them…It kind of freed me up in a way that now I felt like, that’s what I want to do. In a couple of months, I’m gonna roll up my sleeves, sit down and just start telling the stories.”

“All I know is this is going to be a first hand account. There’s no filter here. And I’ve always been a pretty good storyteller, so I think that I’m going to be able to do this in a real honest and hopefully entertaining way, too.”

Of course, ROBBIE – who swore off the rigours of the road a long time ago — has no plans to tour behind his new album except for a handful of appearances.

(“I’m not going to be getting back on the bus.”)

He has other projects on the horizon, but hopes it won’t take another 13 years for his next album.

“I love making records. Making this record is one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. And so, in my mind, I’m thinking I’m drawn to that right now. It just depends on distractions.”

But he’s willing to wait as long as it takes for inspiration to strike. He’s not interested in forcing out new material simply for the sake of it.

“I hope I don’t do that. In the early days, that’s what the program was: make a record, do a tour, make a record, do a tour, make a record, do a tour. And when I got off that merry go round, I got off it because I didn’t want to do that any more.”

“When I’m inspired to do it, that’s when I want to do it. That’s when I’m excited about it.”

JOSH RADNOR’S IRONS IN THE FIRE: HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER & A NEW FILM

JOSH RADNOR had sleepless nights while directing HAPPYTHANKYOUMOREPLEASE, which he also wrote and stars in.

Sometimes he had to adopt a fake it till you make it mantra to hide his nerves. The tactic worked because the movie is now playing in limited release.

HAPPYTHANKYOUMOREPLEASE is the story of a group of young people in New York City who are trying to figure out their lives. The film also features MALIN AKERMAN, KATE MARA and PABLO SCHREIBER.

JOSH discussed his new film and the CBS sitcom he appears in, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, which was just picked up for two more seasons. (He plays TED MOSBY on the show.)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: HAPPYTHANKYOUMOREPLEASE had a great reception on the film festival circuit. (It won the AUDIENCE AWARD at the 2010 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL.) Did that give you confidence with your directorial debut?

JOSH RADNOR: It made me feel like I had a right to be there…You’re kind of like…Really? This ruse is continuing?…If you’re performing surgery, you have credentials. To be an actor, to be a director, even though I have an MFA in acting and I think training is supremely important, there was no reason that I should be directing this movie other than like it’s a confidence game being like “Sure, I can direct this movie,” and they’re like “Really?”

And you’re like “Yeah,” and then they turn around and you’re like “How am I going to direct this movie?” You know? But you put your poker face on and you do it.

AP: It sounds like a great learning experience.

JR: It was almost like drawing on everything I’ve ever learned in my life and not just about acting or directing. It was about interpersonal skills or just being a member or a leader or being a part of a community.

AP: Will we ever find out who the mother is on HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER?

JR: I don’t know how they’re going to do it. I always tell people it’s better for me not to know. I’m playing the narrator as a younger person who doesn’t know where all this is headed so my naivete about (the story) serves me.

AP: One of the best things about the show’s writing are the inside jokes.

JR: It rewards your loyalty to it. Sometimes there’s a joke that if you’re just tuning in for the first time you wouldn’t really know what the joke was but if you’ve stuck with the series for a while, it’s really pleasing. The writers call back all these things. We don’t always re explain them. It’s just these little things.

AP: Is there anything about the set that would surprise people?

JR: It’s all on this big soundstage. You see Ted and Robin’s apartment and then you walk five feet and you’re like the bar is right here? It’s all really close together. One thing that always astonishes me is they’ll have Marshall and Lily’s apartment in one episode and then you won’t see it for three episodes and they’ll build it and they’ll take it down. They’ll put it up and it looks amazing and then they’ll take it down.

ON LINE:

HAPPYTHANKYOUMOREPLEASE

KIM CATTRALL: EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

After twelve years of playing sultry screen vixen SAMANTHA JONES on SEX & THE CITY, KIM CATTRALL said that she’s “letting it all hang out” for her new part as a has been porn star.

KIM gained twenty pounds for the title role in the indie film MEET MONICA VELOUR, about a washed up aging porn star living in a rural Indiana trailer park.

“It was actually kind of a relief,” the actor said Tuesday in an interview.

“It was like getting rid of the Barbie doll and throwing it out and starting again.”

She said packing on the pounds for MONICA VELOUR, which comes out APRIL 8, was her first break from dieting in 25 years and was “wonderful.”

“We were shooting in Detroit and there are a lot of great bars in Detroit. So I ate and I drank for about six weeks.”

Not quite so fabulous, she admitted, was getting back into her strict regimen so she could shoot her next project, ROMAN POLANSKI’S THE GHOST WRITER, which was released last year.

KIM hit the treadmill and cut out bread, dairy, sweets and most meats to prepare for her role as an assistant to a former British prime minister, played by PIERCE BROSNAN.

She hopes the atypical role in MONICA VELOUR will remind people that before SAMANTHA there was KIM, the performer with decades of varied film, television and theatre credits.

“I loved working on Sex & The City. It’s a dream job and a great character to play. But before Sex & The City I was a working actress and hopefully I’ll be until I can’t talk or move.”

ON LINE:

MEET MONICA VELOUR

ELIZABETH TAYLOR’S JEWELRY TO BE AUCTIONED AT CHRISTIE’S

As the world continues to mourn the passing of ELIZABETH TAYLOR, there is one question that comes to mind: What’s going to happen to those fabulous jewels?

According to sources, the legendary star’s brilliant baubles — estimated in the past at $150 million collectively — are expected to be auctioned by CHRISTIE’S some time in the future.

Part of what makes her collection so special is its quality, according to LUXURY JEWELS OF BEVERLY HILLS President/CEO PETER SEDGHI, who worked with the actor on her HOUSE OF TAYLOR jewelry line.

“She had the most amazing eye,” he told PEOPLE.

“To be honest, she knew more than I did [about jewelry]. When you would show her stones, she would tell you the origin, if it’s good quality, bad quality, where it came from.”

And though Ms. Taylor loved it all — coloured stones, pearls — she had a special place in her heart for diamonds.

“She had a collection like I’ve never seen before and she knew exactly what every one was — what the diamonds were, the quality. But it was more than that for her; it was the history behind it. A lot of them had sentimental value.”

Friend and celebrity jeweller LORRAINE SCHWARTZ said such sparklers were a natural part of Ms. Taylor’s history.

“The studios, in order to make her happy, they’d always give her jewelry. So she grew up collecting it. People always gave her gifts…It was something that she learned to love.”

And she took great care of them, too. “She [had] collections and collections…and rooms. She [knew] where every single piece was. [It was] amazing.”

Of all her baubles — which included the 69 carat TAYLOR BURTON DIAMOND — it was the 33 carat KRUPP diamond, gifted to her by fifth husband RICHARD BURTON, that she treasured most.

But regardless of which jewels she preferred, she was always wearing at least one.

A CONVERSATION WITH LIZ PHAIR

This article is written by MIKE RAGOGNA at THE HUFFINGTON POST

MIKE RAGOGNA: Liz, when did you feel it was time to rev up your new album FUNSTYLE?

LIZ PHAIR: You know, it really was born very naturally from the musical experience I was going through at the time – usually my records are. I found myself in two different recording environments leading up to this release, one of which was my television scoring that I’ve been doing the last couple of years, where you’re doing a ton of music in a very short time and you orchestrate stuff with sort of a push of a button. So, part of FUNSTYLE was born from that sort of experimentation.

Then, the other half of it was all about jamming in the studio with other musicians and friends and seeing what we come up with there. So, there are two fun styles on FUNSTYLE.

MR: Nice. Very funny. Did you come into the recording process with these songs or did you write them in the studio with your pals?

LP: I came in with the songs, but where they went from there – it can diverge from what you expect pretty greatly if you’re willing to let it…and I was, especially the stuff that was sort of based on the scoring technique. That went really sideways in a good way.

MR: You mention that FUNSTYLE is kind of the converging of two different funs – one fun being the studio fun and the other being what happens when you get slap happy, working on television scores. Can you tell me more about your scoring? What shows do you have material coming up in?

LP: Well, we’re starting up again with IN PLAIN SIGHT. We’re starting our second season, but it’s the series’ fourth season. We’re going to be doing a show this year called THE GREAT STATE OF GEORGIA, which was created by the amazing novelist JENNIFER WEINER. I don’t know if your readers know her, but she wrote GOOD IN BED. She’s been creating shows for the last couple of years and this is her new one.

What it’s like, really, is making twenty mini songs per episode for these shows. You’re basically providing the emotion – the music is sort of the emotion of the scene – and that’s very fun and very creative. You can go any number of directions with it, so it’s very free too.

MR: Let’s go through a little of your musical history. You have many albums that I think you would find in a lot of people’s collections such as EXILE IN GUYVILLE, but you also have WHIP SMART and WHITECHOCOLATESPACEEGG. Those were your MATADOR albums, right?

LP: Yeah, I think. WHITECHOCOLATESPACEEGG was MATADOR CAPITOL and WHIP SMART was MATADOR ATLANTIC. If you remember, back in the day, big labels were buying up little labels. Now it’s all internet. But back then, the trend was like Pac Man – let’s munch up the indies.

MR: You performed with LILITH FAIR?

LP: Yeah.

MR: What is it like when a group of artists assemble with a theme and perform together?

LP: That was so much fun. I think whatever the reboot was just last summer – we need a new all female concert thing that maybe has a different story attached to it, so SARAH (McLACHLAN) could reinvent herself and come up with something different because it was so much fun. It was a blast, personally, to be able to be backstage rubbing elbows with all that talent. Just the feeling of having that all female environment was just like nirvana because it’s so rough out there for a woman that you have to toughen up. It’s just that Guy World is Guy World and it can be fun to dip into, but LILITH FAIR sort of gave me an opportunity to do what I do in a utopia.

MR: Speaking of Guy World, I remember…GUYVILLE was considered a little controversial because you were a strong woman during a time period when a lot of female artists were coming out with ubersensitive records.

LP: I’ve never cottoned, if you will, to that (singing), “I’m just a little girl and I’m in my room…” I just didn’t feel that. I don’t feel that archetype within me and I much prefer to be adventurous and stand up to the boys and that sort of thing. At the same time, I’m not a man and I never really intended to beat them at their own game. I just wanted to point out that, “Hey, we’re down here. Don’t be talking like that.” You know?

MR: Now, it was around 2003 that the album LIZ PHAIR came out and that was about the time that MATADOR sort of went away and you then became a CAPITOL artist, right?

LP: They abandoned me. They left me. CHRIS (LOMBARDI) and GERARD (COSLOY) like dumped my butt with CAPITOL and off they went. (laughs) I’m joking here – CHRIS and I are on great terms (laughs). It’s just one of those things that happens. I suppose I should be flattered because I think CAPITOL said, “Yeah, you guys can leave. But leave us Liz Phair.” So it’s actually flattering.

But suddenly, I found myself on a major, with nobody I came up with still around and that was sort of when my impetus struck to pop because that was sort of what was going on at the time and I needed money to record. They were sort of interested in radio hits – and I’d never had a radio hit – but I thought that sounded like fun. So, I went and worked with this team called THE MATRIX. As vilified as they’ve been in the press over the years for their pop mentality and their mainstream sensibility, they’re actually really naughty, funny, awesome people…and I enjoyed working with them quite a bit.

MR: You had a hit with them too, with WHY CAN’T I?

LP: I did.

MR: What was working with them in the studio like?

LP: They’re just fun. Just saucy Brits. They’re fun.

MR: That album also had the track EXTRAORDINARY, right?

LP: It did. That was a very different experience for me and I took a lot of heat in the press for it, but I loved doing that. I like that over the course of my career, I’ve been a number of different things – I’ve been an indie artist, I’ve been a radio artist with a hit and I’ve been sort of a polarizing press artist over the decade with controversial lyrics. And feminist – I don’t know what you want to call it – pot stirring, in a way. Now, I’ve started doing TV scoring and movie scoring and it’s just an interesting journey. I’m in it for the journey. I’m in it for the process.

MR: Are you in it for the pot stirring too?

LP: I can’t help it.

MR: What’s happening in the news lately that has your eye?

LP: Well, I’m watching Libya because I completely inaccurately predicted that the son would sort of step in and see reason. Obviously, what’s happening in America and around the world, with global corporations superseding nationhood as the powers that be – that’s disturbing. And of course, CHARLIE SHEEN – I’ve been following that train wreck.

MR: You can’t get away from it. How do you think they’ll do ONE & A HALF MEN this year?

LP: (laughs) I think JON CRYER should stay with ELLEN. I think he’ll have a much better ride.

MR: Ooh, nice one. So, FUNSTYLE has a second disc, the GIRLYSOUND demos. Can you go into its history?

LP: Absolutely. When I was a young girl – when I was but a wee thing – I would sit in my room and write these guitar songs. I would write them very quietly and they were filled with maybe anger, rebellion, roleplaying, jokes and they were just a very personal expression that I recorded on a four track cassette. I made copies of them – old style, like from one side of a boom box to the other – and I would give them to people. This was how the music got around and it became popular and people made copies of it until it became this underground thing that led me to my first recording contract.

MR: How did that lead to your recording contract?

LP: A friend of mine that I was hanging out with in New York City when I was living there was someone who was involved in the early music zine scene – like fanzines. He wrote this review of my GIRLYSOUND tapes saying that it was just over the top – “amazing artist, new woman doing things, you’ve got to hear it” – and GERARD COLSEY of MATADOR RECORDS was literally reading that review and was thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great if artists like this just called you out of the blue and you didn’t have to go court them at shows or hunt them down in some part of the country?”

Five minutes later, I called him up and worked myself into some megalomaniacal sort of stance and said, “Hey Gerard, I’m an artist and I’d like you to give me a recording contract.”

He was like, “Who is this?” and I said, “I’m Liz Phair.” He said, “Well, that’s funny, Liz. I was just reading about you.” Literally, it was that sort of a right place at the right time situation…and off we went.

MR: You don’t have to go completely into it, but can you tell me just a little bit of what went into making your album EXILE IN GUYVILLE?

LP: It was really fun. I would just walk on down the seven blocks to BRAD WOOD’S studio IDFUL in Chicago and he would sort of put me in when he didn’t have a paying gig. We’d just hang out; people would stop by and put something down on the record. Like, if somebody came in that played harmonica, we’d be like, “Hey, come play on this song.” That’s how the harp got on DIVORCE SONG. It took months and it was very relaxed. It was just very natural and very fun.

MR: And you have a DVD associated with it for the reissue.

LP: Yeah, GUYVILLE REDUX. I love that DVD because if you have any questions about…GUYVILLE, it pretty much answers them all. I went back and interviewed everybody associated with that record, or people that were in my personal life that were associated with why I did it. It just completely explains the whole process, the controversy that surrounded it and the people who liked it and didn’t like it…and how it all happened.

MR: DAVE MATTHEWS does an intro on it, right?

LP: (laughs) It’s like this little thread of humour runs through the whole thing. A lot of it is serious talk about stuff, but we did little animated things that show up every once in a while that are very funny. During the DAVE MATTHEWS thing, where he’s just facing the camera and really saying some serious and poignant things about my work, there’s this chubby guy in the background who’s thinking he’s off camera who tiptoes right through the scene behind DAVE. There are all these funny moments in the DVD. It’s a pretty good time.

MR: Now, ALAN LIGHT had a great line about EXILE IN GUYVILLE, which was, “It’s miles more complex than the porn star manifesto it was often considered as.”

LP: Isn’t that the truth? That’s the story of my life.

MR: (laughs) But honestly, you broke a lot of ground with that album.

LP: Thank you. I like all sorts of music. I really do. I don’t have a genre that I like better than another. I think there is room for everybody and the world is a better place for it. The type of music I was labelled as making didn’t describe what I was really doing, which was kind of turning an archetype on its head. Basically, the press picked up on a couple of shocking, sexual lines of the lyrics and that’s what I became.

MR: Remember TORI AMOS’ SILENT ALL THESE YEARS? It contained controversial lines, yet nobody blinked.

LP: I know. If you could explain that to me, I’d really appreciate it. I’ve been living with it for many years, so what’s up? What up world?

MR: OK. You worked on the CBS show SWINGTOWN and the CW’s reboot of 90210. You’ve also got an ASCAP award for top television composer.

LP: Yeah. Composing for TV has been one of the things I’ve been doing with my time for the last few years and I love it. It, of course, has the component with it that all jobs do because you’re working on it with someone else, so I don’t get to just have the final word. But the people that we’ve worked with have been really appreciative and really on the ball musically. It’s like making twenty mini songs for each episode and it’s really fun.

MR: After listening to those tracks on GIRLYSOUND all these years later, what are your thoughts on your run from then to now?

LP: It’s been a wild ride. It’s been more than I could have dreamed of. I love the fact that – as far from those tapes to as I am now – I’m still learning, growing, experimenting and enjoying what I do. I feel as immersed in music as I always did, so I count myself very lucky.

MR: Got any advice for new artists?

LP: I would say get your own buzz going yourself. At best, it’s going to be a matching grant. Everybody wants to pile on as soon as something has a buzz, but you really have to do it yourself. That, far and away is the best way to go about it, even in the long run, in terms of what kind of power you have and how you’re going to be imaged. Do it yourself and the help will come – probably when you don’t need it any more – but you’ll still be grateful.

MR: Are you on tour right now?

LP: This is sort of the last bits of the tour. We’re going to go down to SXSW and play that as well, so I’m looking forward to that.

(Note: This interview took place before her terrific performance at SXSW.)

MR: It’s like Comicon, so amped. Attendance by acts, panels and attendees just keeps exploding.

LP: Isn’t that interesting? What does it mean?

MR: I think artists, managers, labels, publicists get how live performances there gets a big buzz out on a level that’s not possible at most other venues.

LP: I love it.

MR: It’s nice to see this.

LP: I know.

MR: And the future for LIZ PHAIR beyond touring?

LP: I can’t say. I have surprises.

MR: Ooh. Will you come back and tell us about your surprises some day?

LP: I will.

MR: Liz, this has been really fantastic. Thanks.

LP: Thanks a lot.

THE EXTERMINATION OF UNDESIRABLES

The music I have selected for your listening pleasure this Friday is a wickedly brilliant DON HENLEY cover of a LEONARD COHEN song.

It’s called EVERYBODY KNOWS. Couldn’t pass that up.

It was just too perfect. Or should I say purrrrfect…?

This was the only clip on YouTube that I could find. I certainly have nothing against ALEX O’LOUGHLIN or anything that showcases him. (He was quite good in THE BACK UP PLAN.)

If I wanted to use this, I really had no other alternative.

And now that all of the bases have been covered, it’s time for me to exit. Stage left…

ELIZABETH TAYLOR’S LAST INTERVIEW: JEWELS, MEN…& TWITTER

FROM PEOPLE

After a lifetime in the public eye, ELIZABETH TAYLOR gave a last interview that, as it turned out, was – appropriately enough – pure ELIZABETH TAYLOR.

When the Hollywood icon talked with KIM KARDASHIAN for a HARPER’S BAZAAR feature that ran in February, it was stunningly obvious that the Hollywood legend still had a mind for all things fabulous.

“I never planned to acquire a lot of jewels or a lot of husbands,” she said in the interview.

“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…some incredible and beautiful things.”

Ms. Taylor also showed that she was keeping up with contemporary times. She joined Twitter – and even honoured KIM with a follow.

“I like the connection with fans and people who have been supportive of me,” Ms. Taylor remarked.

“And I love the idea of real feedback and a two way street, which is very very modern.”

Ms. Taylor’s last Tweet was a link to the interview and a compliment for KIM concerning her CLEOPATRA themed photo spread in the same issue.

After Ms. Taylor passed away on Wednesday at age 79, KIM took to her blog to describe the interview as “one of the greatest highlights of my entire life.”

“Not only did I get to wear Dame Elizabeth’s original clothing from the movie, but I got to interview her for this piece! I never felt so lucky and fortunate; it was truly the greatest honour and dream of mine to be the iconic Elizabeth Taylor for one day.”

BROADWAY HONOURS ELIZABETH TAYLOR TONIGHT

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Broadway will honour ELIZABETH TAYLOR by dimming its lights this evening.

THE BROADWAY LEAGUE, the national trade association, said Thursday that theatre marquees will go dark at 8 PM for one minute in memory of the legendary superstar.

The actor died in Los Angeles on Wednesday at age 79.

ELIZABETH TAYLOR made her first appearance on Broadway in the 1981 revival of LILLIAN HELLMAN’S THE LITTLE FOXES and was nominated for a BEST ACTRESS TONY AWARD.

Ms. Taylor returned to Broadway in 1983 as producer and star of NOEL COWARD’S PRIVATE LIVES opposite her former husband RICHARD BURTON. She also produced THE CORN IS GREEN that year.

Known primarily as a film performer, Ms. Taylor did appear in movie adaptations of stage plays, such as TENNESSEE WILLIAMS’ 1950s classic CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF.

ELIZABETH TAYLOR: THE MOST GLAMOROUS MOVIE STAR

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ELIZABETH TAYLOR was the antithesis of today’s Hollywood fashion icon, who is eager to be seen as an everywoman. She was always dressed like a movie star: hair done, perfect makeup and plenty of jewelry.

And while she was famous for her ACADEMY AWARDS, iconic roles and many husbands, she was most renowned for her beauty — the incandescent violet eyes, alabaster skin, pouty lips and glossy raven hair. She died Wednesday at 79 from congestive heart failure.

The public saw her mature from a young girl in NATIONAL VELVET to the sultry CLEOPATRA. Yet no matter the time, place or role, her glamour was consistent…and that was inspiring to women.

“Every quality that we consider classically beautiful, she had,” said AMY KELLER LAIRD, beauty director at ALLURE.

“She was sexy and girlish. She had both those qualities all through her life.”

In 1951, Ms. Taylor showed off her legendary 19 inch waist in a strapless dress with a bodice top, full tulle skirt and delicate flowers at the neckline designed by EDITH HEAD. She had the same influence on lingerie styles after she wore a lace trimmed slip in BUTTERFIELD 8. And black kohl eyeliner was all the rage after CLEOPATRA.

HAL RUBINSTEIN of IN STYLE said he had the pleasure of meeting the legendary star several times.

“As a child, she was eerily beautiful — she never had a child’s face, and as a woman, she was unmatchably beautiful,” he said.

In person, the most striking thing about her was her impeccable features. But her broader appeal, the one the world saw in photographs, was her overall glamour.

“When she walked into a room, she just had the most amazing presence about her,” added designer ELIZABETH EMANUEL, who is best known as PRINCESS DIANA’S wedding dress designer but who also made several looks for Ms. Taylor.

“She was just incredible.”

The big studios trained her to always step out the door as glamourpuss ELIZABETH TAYLOR: She wore the role of movie star all the time and she didn’t apologize for it.

“She was an incredible beauty and she had an awareness of her own beauty. Even those we think are great beauties today play it down and speak modestly — there’s always something they don’t like and they apologize for it. But she never did,” HAL RUBINSTEIN remarked.

“She was aware of her gifts and truly appreciated them.”

He also noted that Ms. Taylor made sure any and all of her suitors, from boyfriends and husbands to reporters, knew that she liked presents and that she expected them. After all, one of the most important diamonds of all time, a 69 carat stone, was a gift from husband Number 5 and 6, RICHARD BURTON. It is now known as the TAYLOR BURTON DIAMOND.

Ms. Taylor not only owned many pieces of statement jewelry — unlike today’s stars, who often borrow them — but she’d wear them often instead of storing them. That goes back to the movie star thing.

At the OSCARS in 1970, she asked EDITH HEAD to create a gown that would show off her necklace, ending up in a blue gown with a very low V neckline.

“Elizabeth Taylor was a style icon who always followed her own unique and daring fashion vision,” said Jamie Cadwell, director of the Diamond Information Center, a trade organization.

“Her love of jewelry was unsurpassed and women everywhere continue to be inspired by her incredible collection.”

In her clothes, Ms. Taylor had a preference for draping, said ELIZABETH EMANUEL. Her longevity as a style influencer is proven by the long time success of her fragrance collections launched with ELIZABETH ARDEN. WHITE DIAMONDS, which followed 1980s era PASSION and was one of the original celebrity perfumes, has been a beauty counter bestseller for 20 years.

The fragrances will continue, according to a company statement.

“Our best tribute to Elizabeth Taylor will be to continue the legacy of the brands she created and loved so much,” said chair and CEO E. SCOTT BEATTIE.

“White Diamonds is still one of our readers’ favourite fragrances. The fact that hers has stood the test of time, even though every hot celebrity has a fragrance, says a lot about her as a beauty icon,” stated ALLURE’S AMY KELLER LAIRD.