I had a lot of fun writing the May installment of Celebrity Musing - and I guess it showed. A discerning scribe or two caught onto the fact that I appeared to be enjoying myself and told me as much. Perhaps you will enjoy it as well. Well here's hoping, anyhow. You can link directly to the InsideToronto.com article, or if you're a bit fatigued by all that clicking, here's the plain old text for ya:
Liz and Dick and Lindsay and Rosie
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton (please forgive the inevitable cliche) were star-crossed lovers whose turbulent entanglement put them right up there with the top dog of tragic love stories: Romeo and Juliet.
Liz floated onto the set of the 1963 epic 'Cleopatra' while married to Eddie Fisher, and Dick swaggered in as the husband of actress Sybil Williams. Just as Antony and Cleopatra, the actors fell deeply in love. They each left and subsequently divorced their spouses, and married and divorced each other twice. In doing so they loved big and hurt bigger.
Although they didn't have the backing numbers of the quarrelling Montagues and Capulets, the Taylor-Burtons are said to have lived, loved and lost with such an enormous depth of passion for one another that there was no need - or room - for large supporting casts on either side.
While their ability to be healthy in their relationship spiked and plummeted over the years, the intensity of their connection never waned. The strength of their bond was so powerful that one could theorize that (ironically) it was the bond itself which prevented them from being compatible.
Their love needed to somehow be more anomalous than it was, but a marriage of two perfectly matched hearts and dispositions? They didn't stand a chance at the life they chose for themselves: a day to day ordinary existence as husband and wife.
Not only could the Taylor-Burtons not find their happily ever after, but unto herself, Elizabeth Taylor struggled mightily to find and retain happiness. In addition to the unyielding publicity that surrounded her career and her truculent personal life, she also faced a litany of life-threatening illnesses.
Yet despite it all, she never seemed to lose faith. In perpetuity and in her own good time, she took her lumps, picked herself up, dusted herself off and moved on as we all watched with mildly morbid fascination.
So, given all of this, why is Rosie O'Donnell so irked that Lindsay Lohan has been signed to portray Elizabeth Taylor in the upcoming Lifetime production of Liz and Dick? Well, O'Donnell says Lohan's personal life is a disaster and as a result she's not right for the job. Further, when suggested by fellow Today panelist Donny Deutch that Lindsay Lohan might be our generation's Elizabeth Taylor, O'Donnell responded by saying he was out of his mind. And as if to fortify her attack, she added the strong backing argument that Deutch "is a crackhead". Sigh...
Although wary of the ongoing coverage of Lohan's personal failings, my first reaction to hearing she will portray Elizabeth Taylor was actually, she rather looks like the screen icon and maybe she'll do a good job.
I'm no expert, but I'm intrigued by Lifetime's choice and don't mind saying I might even watch the movie. I guess I want to think Lindsay Lohan might be a clever, funny gal with some talent. Perhaps I want to think that because this is all just an O'Donnell-Lohan publicity stunt, what with both of them in need of a career boost. But I digress.
Lohan is going to have to overcome some heady personal stuff to earn back the respect of her peers and her public, but that's not impossible.
Others have done it: Elizabeth Taylor for instance and more than once.
As for O'Donnell, she subsequently stated she went on the offensive about Lohan out of concern for the young star. In comparing her to the late Whitney Houston, O'Donnell's after-the-fact implied message is we need to do a better job of looking after each other.
I couldn't agree more, but if this is how O'Donnell looks after Lohan, I'm not sure she's right for the job.
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