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Friday, March 25, 2011

TCM Plans Elizabeth Taylor Film Marathon

Film actress Elizabeth Taylor has died, and TCM is planning an Elizabeth Taylor Film Marathon.

"It makes sense," I surmised. "She was in a lot of films. Elizabeth Taylor belonged to a select set of hollywood royalty, from way back in the glamor days of the silver screen's 'Silver Age' era I believe."

Taylor starred or appeared in easily more than forty films over a period spanning at least four decades I am sure. Her name is synonymous with a lot of things. But Taylor's personal life too, was noticeable - for other reasons. In an era of increasingly angsty zeitgeist and hand-wringing from Joe and Dotti America over the declining "sanctity of marriage," Taylor's example was often put forth as a sort of poster-girl situation for how Hollywood's example is or was getting it wrong, leading America astray. Such scrutiny must have been very unwelcome for Taylor, yet it's hard to deny that she was involved in many flashy, high-profile engagements, megawatt marriages, and splashy divorces - whether as a fiancee, a wife, or an ex-wife. To concerned, self-righteous Americans, the divorces in particular - at least four, by some counts - were most troubling of all.

Yet as the public controversy over such painfully private matters played out on the grand, shabby nationwide tabloid stage, it could not obscure the indelible mark Taylor was leaving on movie screens nationwide during her huge run. "Have you ever seen any of her early stuff?" I remarked. "She was beautiful. Truly gorgeous. It's not hard to understand the fascination she holds even today, in the eyes of many lesbians and gay men."

Still, one question remains: what is Elizabeth Taylor's link to Traditional Chinese Medicine? Why are TCM practitioners banding together in tribute to the passing of this iconic film legend? How is the film marathon to be organized, and where will the screenings take place? Details are sketchy. Messages left with several TCM practitioners were not immediately returned.

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