Intimate Portrait

“I’ve always been a huge fan of Dame Elizabeth Taylor,” says Meredith Vieira in her introduction to Lifetime’s Intimate Portrait devoted to Elizabeth, “and it’s been a thrill to watch her go from child star to movie star to national treasure, never losing her spirit of romance and optimism. Even now, she’s developing new projects, and new ways to make the world a better place.”

What makes this Intimate Portrait, which aired on December 2, 2002, extra special is that Elizabeth herself speaks candidly for the profile. Also sharing memories are Janet Leigh, Robert Wagner, Nastassja Kinski, Liz Smith, Mia Farrow, José Eber, Carole Bayer Sager, and Bruce Weber, as well as stepdaughters Carrie Fisher and Kate Burton.

A few highlights: Kate Burton reflects on cherished family memories away from the glare of the spotlight. “I do remember a lot of really very sweet happy times that were very simple times,” she said. “They [Elizabeth and Richard] were actually fairly simple, the two of them, in terms of the things that they enjoyed. They enjoyed scrambled eggs and toast and reading books, you know, I mean it was not constant drinking champagne out of a slipper and, you know, being in a yacht up and down the Mediterranean. I mean that was there, too.”

Carrie Fisher explains how her father, Eddie Fisher, differs from Elizabeth’s two great loves, Mike Todd and Richard Burton: “Both those men were these lifeforces, like she is. My father’s not a lifeforce, so I think out of all her marriages, those are the people that were the same sort of fibre or calibre of human as she is.”

Janet Leigh recalls one particular prank during their time at MGM: “Elizabeth and I have shared many moments together. I think the one that stands out for me is, on the set of Little Women, we played a joke on the director, Mervyn LeRoy. The four of us [Elizabeth, Janet, June, and Margaret] had a close up and, when he said ‘Action,’ we kind of turned our heads and we went like this [grinning] and we had black tape all across our teeth, and I remember laughing so hard. It was bliss.”

One of the most poignant moments comes when Elizabeth speaks about her children. “My kids, they’re my life,” she said. “They’ve kept me alive.”

The Intimate Portrait of Elizabeth Taylor followed quickly on the heels of the September 2002 publication of Elizabeth’s book, My Love Affair with Jewelry, so there’s a special focus on all that sparkles. Lifetime gives viewers a front row seat to the Christie’s auction held in New York on September 26, 2002 to celebrate the book hitting shelves and to raise money for The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Elizabeth parted with one of her treasured pieces in her storied jewelry collection that evening during the auction. Her Bulgari emerald and diamond ring, a treasured engagement gift from Richard Burton, went under the hammer.