Writes Jennifer Weiner in "Jennifer Lopez Is Becoming an Elizabeth Taylor for a New Generation" (NYT)(free-access link).
I'm not interested enough in Jennifer Lopez to care about her multiple marriages and divorces, and Elizabeth Taylor began a bit before my time, but I remember the Elizabeth Taylor of the 1960s, and that sets me apart from Weiner, who arrived after Taylor's prime. I'm still quite interested in Taylor, even more so after watching this new HBO documentary:
Taylor critiques fame. I thought this review from Chris Cassingham was apt: "At a time when the public’s access to celebrities’ personal lives is simultaneously at its greatest and most calculated, the raw vulnerability of Taylor’s recollections is necessarily tempered when transposed onto something so pedestrian as Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes often is. If the material at [director Nanette] Burstein’s disposal holds within it deep insights about the toxic nature of hypervisible celebrity, about an industry’s exploitations, her film deploys them hesitantly...."
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Wan't Taylor parodied as a ravenous eater in the "fat shaming" 1980s?
"Wan't Taylor parodied as a ravenous eater in the "fat shaming" 1980s?"
Yes, that's why this post has the "Belushi" tag. But your comment made me click through the link and see it goes to a different SNL thing. Yeah, I will never forget John Belushi, dressed as Liz, wolfing down chicken during an interview.
Taylor was fortunate to be cast in a lot of good roles when she was very young and very beautiful. And like many stars, she looked better in B/W than in color. Its incredible that at the age of 27, she'd already made: A place in the sun, Raintree Country, Giant, suddenly last summer, Cat on a hot tin roof, national velvet, father of the bride, Life with Father, Little women, and Ivanhoe.
After Cleopatra and Who's Afraid, her career nose-dived, but she kept being a famous celebriety. I've never was a fan of her in Cleopatra, but don't know who could have done better in the early 60s.
I never understood the fuss made over her when I was young in the 70s/80s, I was like "Why are we still talking about this old has-been?"
Taylor was gorgeous when she was in her teens-late 30s. I have never been a particular fan of her acting or even of the movies she starred in but is easy to see why she was a superstar.
Lopez was and is still extremely attractive but she can't act at all- her very best movie and role came 25 years ago in which she wasn't even given top billing- Clooney was.
She's not as big a star and she hasn't been married as many times (yet). She does move magazines though. The other celebrity who does is Jennifer Aniston, who was on the cover of the magazines at the supermarket checkouts for years. Jen was the Debbie Reynolds of our time. Brad Pitt was Eddie Fisher. Angelina Jolie was Liz Taylor. So, can the Liz Taylor of our time be both Jenny Lopez and Jen Aniston?
I actually liked Liz Taylor in Butterfield 8. Hated her in The Comedians, an otherwise great movie based on the Graham Greene novel. She was really pretty flat in most her roles, and did not have a great voice.
The PR machine for Lopez is doing damage control. Not much charm and charisma for drivers who make eye contact with her, or even for cast members way back from In Living Color that she might run into. At least for singing, she was an industry plant. Her vocals were blended with those of talented singers.
C'mon now. Jennifer Lopez made the big booty okGo in 1998's Vanity Fair. Millions of women no longer had to ask 'does this make my butt look big?' That's a fine leap forward all around.
The two don't deserve comparison to each other, for polar-opposite reasons. Taylor was the more beautiful one, the more glamorous one, the more tragic one, and - many would argue - the more talented one. She certainly had a greater moral strength, given her vocal and unyielding support for Rock Hudson, dying of AIDs, and Michael Jackson, pilloried rightly or wrongly for Neverland Ranch. Both of them died tragically, but with the staunch friendship of Taylor supporting them.
As a college freshman in 1967 saw "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" at a campus screening and when it was over was so blown away, simply sat through the next screening that followed in about a half hour. I don't think any other film has ever hit me that hard. Later bought the soundtrack LP because the music was so great and listening to it brought back the vibe every time. Many years later discovered it used an alto flute, an instrument I picked up in my 40's and loved.
National Velveeta
>Jennifer Lopez Is Becoming an Elizabeth Taylor
Angelina Jolie was Liz Taylor<
Where did we find all these blind people?
I liked her in out of sight, the wedding planner, even parker for a bit where she doesnt go over the top,
Jennifer Lopez and Elizabeth Taylor do not even belong in the same sentence together.
Bumper sticker on Elizabeth Taylor's car, according to Joan Rivers,
HONK IF YOU HAVE GROCERIES
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLqoPnfrOiWfxLf0QnK8oILKHLzoHFHgdEfxqmkRPD2Mpt-HnvhgEDbjrmEaRv3w82iRtF36yNAxeDMUV0h8fDBhpJHRgwFLcgvfYte-NECPqy_c_8F8XvZEtWQJM_pvABAZwhJw/s1600/tn2_elizabeth_taylor_4.jpg
J-Lo isn't this generation's Liz Taylor. Liz was a huge movie star (easily a top-20 female movie star of all time). J-Lo has had virtually no impact as a film actress. J-Lo does have a music career that has garnered her a handful of No. 1 hits; but neither her music successes nor her TV career has propelled her to the heights of fame that Liz enjoyed.
I get that the writer sees J-Lo and Liz as being comparable in terms of marriages and relationships, but that comparison doesn't quite work, either. Liz's personal life involved far and away more (and more compelling) drama and tragedy.
If we devised a one-to-ten scale of overall fame and celebrity, I'd put Liz at about 9.8. J-Lo would be more like a 6.8 or maybe 7.0. A better comparable for her from Liz's era would be someone like Doris Day.
Can confirm about the eye contact. I was briefly acquainted with someone who worked for a company that did audio/visual sales and installation in LA. (Those mini-movie theaters celebs have in their houses.) He and his crew put an a/v system in her house and were told at the start that YOU. DO. NOT. LOOK. AT. JLO. UNDER. ANY. CIRCUMSTANCES! He said it pissed him off, his guys had done a lot of work for celebs over the years and knew how to act around them.
Richard Burton (the actor not the explorer) was much more than J-Lo's spouses.
My mom had a Liz Taylor look, which my dad told me all about a few nights after she passed, which he told me all about when mentioning the first time he saw her.
Also, when I was in the Navy, probably 84-85, the new glamorous Liz showed up on the cover of People Magazine and the guys went wild. It was an amazing transformation seeing as how there’s no way she stopped ravaging her body.
I'm not interested enough in Jennifer Lopez to care about her .....
She has not been all that successful as a movie star, although I very much liked Angel Eyes, but she has been remarkably successful as a businesswoman in the entertainment industry. While Tay Tay has been extraordinarily successful in managing her business interests, Lopez has set a high standard in managing hers. When she walks into a pitch meeting, she walks out with a sale.
- Krumhorn
Warner Hodges worked on a video set for a Prince song once. The word was of course do not look at him, but it turned out that that also meant the cameramen. Prince knew who Warner was, so he did allow him to approach (without looking) and explain that they were THE CAMERAMEN, there was no other way. Prince reluctantly acquiesced.
I am in the same age group as Ms. Weiner. I watched "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"around 15 years ago. I was startled at how attractive Elizabeth Taylor looked.
My kids were born in the '90s and every one of them knows National Velvet. A great movie with great performances is watched no matter when it was produced. What a stupid excuse this writer uses for her own film ignorance.
Imagine J-Lo in Giant, or Taming of the Shrew, or Virginia Woolf? And I like J-Lo. But, come on.
I saw "A Place in the Sun" when I was in college. Every guy I knew wanted to be Montgomery Clift.
There really aren't any "movie stars" anymore. Why is that? Sure, there are certain actors who are considered attractive, or sexy, from year to year, but "glamorous" and bigger-than-life famous? No.
My initial guess is that TV (in your house, small screen, available 24x7x365) has diluted the stature of "stars," and possibly the music business (wild sound, dress, makeup, behavior, etc.) has made movie "stars" seem tame and common by comparison. There just are no more Elizabeth Taylors or Sophia Lorens or Cary Grants.
Glad I lived through their era.
Ah, Elizabeth Taylor. Such a beauty. And she knew how to use nuanced expressions and vocal manipulation to great effect.
Just the one eye peeking through a window's shutters at the beginning of "The Taming of the Shrew" (with Richard Burton and an outstanding cast of giants in the acting field) says more than J-Lo in half her movies.
Taylor lived through husbands dying. Pretty sure JLo just discards via divorce. Boring!
She was at her hottest very young - ravishing in Ivanhoe when she must have been 19 or 20. Fun movie but with a plot problem - how could Robert Taylor possibly have finished up picking Joan Fontaine over Elizabeth Taylor ?
But she aged FAST - probably all the booze. By her mid 30s she was a fat old broad.
I think it has something to do with originality. We have a monoculture now that didn't exist a few generations ago. In those days, Americans didn't all look or speak the same way, so you could have Humphrey Bogarts and Kate Hepburns -- and you could easily name dozens more -- who would show up on a movie screen and grab your attention for their unique looks, voices, and personalities. Now, all young people soak up essentially the same media culture and, not surprisingly, those who go into entertainment end up looking, dressing, and sounding the same as everyone else who grew up with those same influences and role models. As evidence of this, watch a show like the Grammys and you'll find you don't really see any big difference in style or appearance as between the country acts, the pop acts, the rockers, or any other group (all of which used to be pretty distinguishable!) The culture is all being blended together into a one big, mushy blob. It's hard to imagine how anyone can truly stand out in such an environment.
Elizabeth Taylor was a very good actress.
ET was my mother's age and I knew of her growing up as my dad's favorite movie star, although the first thing i saw her in was Taming of the Shrew. She was serious enough about her craft to deliberatly play older in Virginia Wolf.
Liz delivered great performances that carried movies. If you doubt me try Butterfield 8, Giant, and Who’s afraid of Virginia Wolf.
"Also, when I was in the Navy, probably 84-85, the new glamorous Liz showed up on the cover of People Magazine and the guys went wild. "
Yes, I'm sure the over 40 crowd, did.
Here are the famous movie actors born in the early 1930s. James Dean, Robert Duvall, Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Steve McQueen, and Liz Taylor. Those are the ones off the top of my head. Taylor is the only famous woman I can think of.
Grace Kelly was born in 1929 which is close. Always preferred her looks over Liz Taylor’s.
My sister has looked like Eliz Taylor and often had people comment on it.
Jean Shepherd used tabloid coverage of Liz and Richard as an example of soap opera women believing it's a crisis in their life. An early version of news today.
I never had the slightest interest in Liz Taylor. Wrong kind of roles, I guess. Sky King's niece Penny was hot though.
Or maybe it's because Hollywood sucks and has deliberately gone out of their way to piss off half of their potential audience.
She had the kind of chaotic life that is typical of incest survivors and pretty girls who grew up on the back lot of MGM, but she was more than the sum total of chaos in her life. Her marriage to Burton was the stuff of legends and had more drama than that couple they played in Woolf. I read some interviews she did. She was an interesting person who had gained some wisdom from her divorces and frequent stays in the ICU......I remember her in Giant. To indicate the passage of years and her matronly status, they gave her hair a few gray streaks. Same with Rock Hudson and James Dean. She won her chess game with death and outlived them both.
JLo wishes she had 1/10th the star appeal and glamour Liz Taylor had. What blockbuster movie did JLo ever star in?
And lets not forget National Vulva.
Very beautiful as a young actress. I admit I have not seen much of what she as been in, in terms of movies I SHOULD watch. I may have watched Cat on a Hot Tin Roof a long, long time ago
She appeared in some very good movies. But Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot appeared more often in my dreams.
"When love walks in the room
Everybody stand up
Oh it's good, good, good
Like Brigitte Bardot"
- Pretenders, "Message of Love"
Bardot in the red dress in La Parisienne.
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