Elizabeth Taylor: 'I enjoy food too much'

[Jara sang]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/11/people.elizabethtaylor.ap/index.html



NEW YORK (AP) -- Elizabeth Taylor, who has been thin and not-so-thin, says she won't starve herself to be like Hollywood's size-zero starlets.



"I wish I could be that size, but I can't be," Taylor says in the August issue of Harper's Bazaar, on newsstands July 25. "I enjoy food too much. In the end, I'm too hedonistic. I enjoy pleasures."



When asked by fashion designer Michael Kors, who conducted the interview, whether she dresses for men, women or herself, Taylor reveals she prefers to impress the opposite sex.



"Men first. Myself. Then other women. 'Cause you can't please women. They are horribly critical of each other. And more so if you're famous. Meow."



The 74-year-old legend, known for her violet eyes, has been married eight times. When asked whether she is a romantic, she concedes: "I'm afraid so."



When she was married to Sen. John Warner, she says she was told not to dress ostentatiously during his 1978 campaign.



"I ended up in a tweed suit," she says. "Me. Little tweed suits. What I won't do for love."

[stop the bleeding]

1. great post -

great point and great post

do think CNN got the memo yet??!?!

This really shows how fucked up our "librul" media really is -

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. I suspect Liz is on our side.

[stop the bleeding]

29. and I suspect that CNN isn't

:hi:The Backlash Cometh:toast:

[sui generis]

2. didn't Liz give something like 18 million to AIDS research

and charities over the past twenty years?

I think it's probably CNN who deserves the mockery. Did Brittany put her baby's diaper on backward again?

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. I don't read the OP as mocking Elizabeth Taylor.

I think it IS mocking CNN and our own obsession with celebrity while the world is literally blowing up around us.

I think it's brilliant.

[stop the bleeding]

4. yep - really to the point n/t

[sui generis]

7. Jara knows I'm co-commenting, not criticizing

:hi: Jara

[malaise]

9. Touche

It is a brilliant post.

[jpgray]

40. It's the flippin showbiz section

What's the big deal? I hope you never go into showbusiness. :D

[Jara sang]

58. Precisely.

Thank you.

[Bridget Burke]

5. Yes.

She was one of the very first celebrities to talk about AIDS.

As a 24-hour "news" station, CNN covers Entertainment, Sports & Weather. But I guess Jarasang thinks their "Real News" coverage is just fine...

[nealmhughes]

38. Before she started raising money, she nursed her ex-daughter in law

personally in the earliest days of AIDS. She took her in and was her "mom" when noone else would. She didn't tell anyone about it publicly for years. I think, actually, one of her children brought it up in an interview on "why she was so interested in AIDS."

[prolesunited]

6. I agree

I like the concept, but I think you need a more vacuous celebrity and someone people generally dislike to make it work more effectively. Why not try Paris Hilton?

[Pale Blue Dot]

8. Why?

What matters is not whether we "like" or "dislike" a celebrity. What matters is that fact that we have debates about whether we "like" or "dislike" a celebrity while there are horrible things going on.

I think that the fact that this thread has been hijacked for this argument proves the point.

[roguevalley]

12. cnn deserved the sting. taylor was a vehicle to deliver it but I would

have preferred a less good person for the example.

[LostinVA]

65. Agreed -- I also found the OP's point to appear scornful of Taylor

Taylor was one of the first and most vigilant supporters of AIDS funding and education... I understand the OP's point, but it rankles that Liz Taylor was used. Why not a celebrity that truly deserves our contempt scorn?

And, as another poster said, this was during their Entrainment segment -- nothing wrong with that.

[sui generis]

17. hijacked

HIJACKED I tell ya!

oy. the drama.

[roguevalley]

30. so making an observation is hijacking? sigh

[sui generis]

32. eeeeee!

sui has an over multi-tasking meltdown. nevermind. ack.

[prolesunited]

33. Yes, I "hijacked" the thread

Obviously, if you have a comment other that WTG or that's great, you are "hijacking" a thread. :eyes:

Let me try to explain again more clearly. I am not debating the likability of a celebrity at all. The original poster was trying to juxtapose what's going on in the world with the shallowness of celebrity. As Taylor is a vocal proponent AIDS causes and raised millions, she is obviously not as caught up in this vapid world as some celebrities. She has used the spotlight that the clueless media and public shine on her to try to make a difference in the world. Her devotion to the AIDS cause shows she takes an interest in the world and the issues of the day.

I think the same thing about Angelina Jolie. She sees the ridiculousness of our celebrity obsessed culture, but tries to use that to be a voice for change. She knew the media was clamoring for pics of the baby, but rather than let some photog make millions off of it, she capitalized on it by arranging the sale herself to donate the proceeds to charity.

By using someone like Paris Hilton -- who only exists because of the shallowness of celebrity culture and the public's "star" worship -- in the montage it would have a more pointed effect in the viewer's mind because he or she would see Paris as nothing but fluff who has not taken a stand or contributed anything to the world other than the further debasing of our collective culture.

[jpgray]

41. You and I are a regular James Gang!

:rofl:

[pitohui]

50. i agree w. you, proles

the effectiveness of the photo essay is destroyed when it pits a serious and caring person, who has done so much to bring HIV/AIDS awareness into public light, and pits it against the horrors of war

well, sue me, war is hell but hiv/aids is hell too

using elizabeth taylor in the photo essay guts the entire essay and blunts its sharp edge

that interview w. paris hilton where she brags abt what a sharp businesswoman she is (gag me w. a spoon!) would be a million more times effective than using the interview w. elizabeth taylor

[LostinVA]

66. Agree 100% n/t

[Canuckistanian]

56. I have no problem with the choice

I'm personally sick to death of hearing stories about Liz Taylor and her weight. It started in the 1970's and has never stopped.

She's fat! She's thin agian! I think she's gaining weight again! No, wait, she's actually lost 5 ounces! Quick! Find out what diet she's on!

At this point, I couldn't care less if she ballooned to 1100 lbs. or lost so much she fell through a sewer grate.

Great point and great post.

[TwentyFive]

71. Yes - the latest events of Paris Hilton or Brittany Spears is perfect.

Inquiring 'minds' want to know...

[LSK]

10. K & R

[durrrty libby]

11. Jara, this is stunning. n/t

[bryant69]

13. Kind of a barn door target

There are entertainment puff pieces at at a time of war - how shocking! That just proves what bastards we all are.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[lonestarnot]

14. Someone needed a wake-up call and this thread delivered!

:woohoo:

[undergroundpanther]

15. Pricess Di is wearing a new dress!!

New Dress Depeche Mode

Sex jibe husband murders wife
Bomb blast victim fights for life
Girl Thirteen attacked with knife

Princess Di is wearing a new dress

Jet airliner shot from sky
Famine horror, millions die
Earthquake terror figures rise

Princes Di is wearing a new dress

You can't change the world
But you can change the facts
And when you change the facts
You change points of view
If you change points of view
You may change a vote
And when you change a vote
You may change the world

In black townships fires blaze
Prospects better premier says
Within sight are golden days

Princess Di is wearing a New Dress

You can't change the world
But you can change the facts
And when you change the facts
You change points of view
If you change points of view
You may change a vote
And when you change a vote
You may change the world

Princess Di is wearing a New Dress
*******************************************

This song was written before Diebold..

[Momgonepostal]

18. And before FOX News, too. It's prophetic! nt

[Bobbieo]

20. How the Hell can we expect to have our troops

return home as normal human beings??

[RandomKoolzip]

16. If I ever catch ANY of you enjoying yourselves EVER AGAIN....

There's gonna be some serious lecturin' goin' on. :grr:

[lonestarnot]

23. LOL

[NYCGirl]

24. Right on target, RandomKoolzip.

:thumbsup:

[Bridget Burke]

25. Let's shut down the Lounge immediately!!!

DU'ers are wasting far too much time on frivolity.

[jpgray]

42. ...

:thumbsup:

[RobertSeattle]

19. Elizabeth Taylor: 'Stay the Course'

The first course, the second course, the third course, the fourth course...

[itzamirakul]

21. WOW! K&R ...eom

[Quantess]

22. I avoided this thread at first

because I don't actually give a rip about Liz Taylor's eating habits. Then I saw all the recommendations, so I had to open it to see what the fuss was. Nice job!

[wisteria]

27. Your post absolutely says it all. Where are our priorities?

We have lost prospective on what is truly important in life and in living.

[TheModernTerrorist]

28. This reminds me a lot of

my friend's art project. In Nashville, TN, he made this art project for class that was video of the nick Berg assassination, juxtaposed with audio of TV advertisements. It was so controversial, that Michigan's own Candice Miller, the bitch that she is, called for censorship of his art. The school even fired the teacher, but was later reinstated due to a huge student protest.

[Bobbieo]

34. Jara - This is absolutely brilliant BUT just

maybe we need Elizabeth Taylor and other celebrity images to take our mind off the horrors of this world as a momentary diversion to hold onto our own sanity and survival. It sometimes works for me.

[Misunderestimator]

31. What did Elizabeth Taylor do to you? I think this little photo essay...

would work better if you used a fluff interview with a lying hypocrite like Bush instead. :shrug:

[Bobbieo]

35. Jara made the right move!!!!

The Bush image would never had made the same impact as the Taylor interview - the subtlety would not exist. She could have used any Hollywood personality - not a politician.

[Misunderestimator]

39. Any hypocritical hollywood personality yes. Not Taylor.

Since Taylor actually does GOOD with her fame, the impact of this essay is completely lost on me. CNN is a news source, and news includes news about celebrities (even in other countries, there is still *gasp* news about celebrities). I guess I don't get the point.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

48. I agree with you. Elizabeth Taylor has been exceptionally generous with

helping others.

[izzie]

36. well she is a high maintenance women and she has done

her job in life. Let her be fat or not. She sure has giving us some good movies and a lot of fun from her life which she seemed to enjoy all the way.

[mtnester]

37. My mother, god rest her and took her too soon, looked almost EXACTLY

like Elizabeth Taylor, even to the color of her eyes.

I personally still think Liz looks great..such a beauty even now at 74.


PS - on edit - not a DAMN thing wrong with likin food! :)

[Kolesar]

43. Liz kind of has a "Robert Smith, the Cure, 1987-thing" going in this pic

[Fermezlabush]

44. Got the point, but bad juxtaposition example. Was Britney taken?

[undergroundpanther]

45. This is IT...

The Emotional Life of Nations
by Lloyd deMause

Chapter 2--The Gulf War as a Mental Disorder
"He's going to get his ass kicked!"

---- George Bush
THE PRESIDENTIAL STYLE OF GEORGE BUSH
George Bush's childhood, though not as chaotic as Reagan's, was also full of fear and punishments. Psychohistorian Suzy Kane, interviewing George's brother, Prescott, Jr., discovered that Bush's father often beat him on the buttocks with a belt or a razor strap, the anticipation of which, Prescott, Jr. recalled, made them "quiver" with fear. "Dad was really scary," George himself once admitted.7 As a result, a desperate need to please was George's main trait as a child, and a depressive personality with an overwhelming need to placate became his trademarks as president.


2:1 America felt sinful after the peace and prosperity of the 1980s


As my previous studies have shown,21 the image of national sinfulness is usually pictured in political cartoons as pollution. Each time a nation feels too prosperous for its deprived childhood to tolerate, it imagines that it is sinful, and a national "pollution alert" is called, where the media suddenly notices such things as environmental pollution (acid rain), home pollution (dioxin) or blood pollution (AIDS)-all of which existed in reality before, but now suddenly became symbols in a fantasy of inner pollution (sin, guilt). What happens in these emotional "pollution alerts" is that the media stops overlooking real dangers, raises hysterical alarms about how the world has suddenly become unsafe to live in, and then avoids really changing anything-since the pollution that is frightening the nation is actually internal, not external.22......


Money magazine, writing a story on how easy it was to get into college, used as its cover illustration a wholly gratuitous drawing of a youth being stabbed by pennants with the headline: "THE SACRIFICE OF THE CHILDREN," imagery exactly opposite to the main point of the story but accurately illustrating the main fantasy of the nation. Children were increasingly shown on covers of magazines and newspapers as being killed in "War Zones," even though homicide had actually decreased in the past decade.30 A United Nations World Summit for Children conference was depicted in a cartoon with Bush saying that America's children deserved electrocution for being naughty. ...

"Thanks, Saddam. We Needed That" another reporter headlined his column on the Iraqi invasion.53 Our shared emotions in a maelstrom, we would become a "Desert Storm" to live out our fears and rage....

Bush's rationalizations about his reasons for going to war shifted with the desert sands, first saying it was about "our jobs," then "our way of life" and then "our freedom."54 The real reason was a psychological one: we would cure ourselves of our depression and flashbacks of punitive mommies by inflicting the punishment we felt we deserved upon other people's children....

http://www.psychohistory.com/htm/eln02_gulf.html

STOP THE MADNESS

[defiant1]

46. Excellent post....

Recommended.

d1

[dsc]

47. I fully understand your point

but I really think you should know what Elizabeth Taylor means to gays and others who were associated with AIDS back in the 1980's. She was literally the first famous person to take on AIDS hysteria. If people thought you might have AIDS back in the early and mid 1980's they might ban you from public pools, refuse to let you in resteraunts, refuse to deliver your mail, refuse to treat you for medical conditions, sit next to you on a bus, or a host of other things. In the midst of a country that was literally hysterical with fear and hatred of AIDS she was a forceful public voice for compassion and raised a boatload of money. She and Rock Hudson literally created in Hollywood the idea of AIDS as a special project. Like many gays of a certain age and older, she has a very warm place in my heart. I am sure someone would have come along later, but she came along first and made a huge difference. On edit I really wish you had used just about any other celebrity to make your point.

[pitohui]

51. if only we could recommend a reply to a post

i would recommend yours, dsc!

[dsc]

53. thanks.

[Bear down under]

61. amen to that

n/t

[Jara sang]

57. This post had nothing to do with Elizabeth Taylor.

And everything to do with media content. It was not a slam on Taylor.

[LostinVA]

67. But you used Taylor to make that point

And, what many people on this thread are saying, is that that bothers and/or offends them... because Taylor was a very prominent voice in the wilderness when those without a voice were dying and being condemened... from the President down. I am convinced AIDS funding increased when it did almost solely because of Taylor's very vocal acceptance of those with HIV/AIDS.

We understand the point you were making -- please try to understand why your use of Taylor as the tip of that point rankles some of us. Britney and K-Fed, or Paris Hilton would have been much better -- and more deserving -- targets.

[dsc]

68. i do understand your point

and I honestly figure you had no idea she had done this for AIDS. I just think your point would have been better served had you used another, more shallow, celebrity.

[WinkyDink]

49. WHAT the HELL?

Elizabeth Taylor is a MENSCH!

Do you think we have to eat, breathe, speak, think, sleep or not, ONLY THIS "WAR"??

[Lilith Velkor]

54. No eating!

It is immoral for a woman to enjoy food when there's a war on! :crazy:

[Hissyspit]

60. Well, I think that is part of the point. She is not asked about any of the

things that make her a woman to be respected.

[WinkyDink]

70. That is the incompetent Larry King, then.

[Duncan Grant]

52. This is brilliant.

When asked by fashion designer Michael Kors, who conducted the interview, whether she dresses for men, women or herself, Taylor reveals she prefers to impress the opposite sex.

If I could recommend it more than once, I would. :applause:

[Lilith Velkor]

55. That's what we need, demonize fat women more!

:thumbsdown:

[rman]

69. Interestingly, most people DO get the point of the OP

[chiffon]

59. Jara...you have spoken volumes. n/t

[RebelOne]

62. I don't understand the point of this. n/t

[tomreedtoon]

63. You should have used BRITNEY SPEARS, and you KNOW why.

Remember that she said, and I quote:

"Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that."

This parody of womanhood - of PERSONhood - is the one who deserves to be dragged through the mud. Taylor, although she has lived a life of excess, has done some good work for causes like AIDS. What has Spears done besides pollute magazine covers and the airwaves?

[Vinca]

64. Excellent post. nt