back in the day no one symbolized
Hollywood glamor more than Elizabeth
Taylor and while numerous Brooks have
been written about her New York Times
best-selling author Kate Anderson Brower
has a new look at this iconic celebrity
hi Kate
hi thanks for having me on oh I'm happy
to have you here so tell us about your
new book Elizabeth Taylor the grit and
glamor of an icon
so I spent more than three years
interviewed more than 250 people and had
access to all of her Diaries and
personal letters
um I interviewed people like her four
children who have never talked to a
journalist before so intimately about
their mother it's the first authorized
biography of her life authorized by her
family and the trustees of her estate
and I wanted to write it because I've
always admired her as a Trailblazer and
really the first influencer a celebrity
influencer she really was you know many
of us feel like we know about Elizabeth
Taylor Just because she was in the
public eye for so long but what you did
to uncover during your research I mean
you uncovered a lot and I know that you
found some items that really struck a
chord with you
yeah I mean it hurt so she was famously
married eight times to seven different
men and her marriages to Richard Burton
uh revealed the most passionate
incredible letters between them
um in one of them that was actually
written on tear stained stationery she
says to Richard I don't want the Tuesday
emeralds and the Friday diamonds anymore
because he would just lavish to give her
these incredible gifts random days of
the week she said all I want is you to
hold me and to be close you know so in
the end I think she was just a person
who wanted to be loved for who she was
and because she was famous from the age
of 12 in National Velvet she struggled
throughout her life to be seen apart
from the commodity that was Elizabeth
Taylor which was was not really who she
herself was she was a funny smart body
woman who I don't think
um was was as close to the image that
people think they have of her you're
right I think that Legend around people
sometimes can be so big that you forget
that they're actual human beings with
life experiences and you make a good
point about her starting her career so
young I'm sure there's a lot of insight
in that book about her her trajectory
after that what are the unique aspects
of this book that make it a good read
well her life story is just incredible
it's like a novel right you you know in
a way get a tour through the 20th
century because from the age of 12 she's
fighting against the studio system then
these great loves and these passionate
friendships she had with gay men in her
life like um James Dean Rock Hudson
Montgomery Cliff so you get this old
Hollywood glamor too and then you go
through the HIV and AIDS epidemic and
what she did so bravely during that time
and how she got Ronald Reagan to finally
talk about AIDS for the first time in
1987 and she co-founded amfar and all of
that work and then and then you get her
as this celebrity uh Empire Builder you
know there would be no Kim Kardashian if
there wasn't Elizabeth Taylor because
Elizabeth started a perfume Empire that
was hugely successful oh yeah we all
remember those commercials too I
remember being a little girl and seeing
those commercials and thinking oh she's
so glamorous so what do you want readers
to take away from this book and her
remarkable story
I think that everyone can be inspired by
her as a Survivor as somebody who went
through so much pain both physical and
mental anguish throughout her life but
she kept getting back up again and she
had this tremendous empathy for other
people and you know unlike Marilyn
Monroe she lived to be almost 80 years
old and there's a reason for that she
had a tremendous strength of character
and she always knew who she was so where
can people go to get their hands on this
book
uh Amazon your local bookstore Barnes
and Noble
um it's available where all books are
sold all right Kate Anderson Brower
thank you so much for being with us we
really appreciate it and we'll be right
back with more midday Maryland right
after this stay tuned