The Rosie O’Donnell Show

On September 6, 2001, Elizabeth stopped by Rosie O’Donnell’s eponymous talk show during the final season of its hugely successful run. She had been due to appear on the show several years earlier, when the typically East Coast-based show took a field trip to California, but was forced to cancel her appearance when she was diagnosed with a benign brain tumour. The two had co-starred together in 1994’s The Flintstones, and Rosie reminded Elizabeth how, to celebrate her first day on the set, the men had dressed in suit and tie and her dressing trailer had been filled with violets. “Oh, that was so hysterical,” Elizabeth recalled. “I wondered if somebody had died.” Rosie similarly rolled out the red (violet?) carpet when Elizabeth appeared on her show. Roses adorned the set, and Elizabeth Taylor memorabilia—including several of the recently issued Franklin Mint dolls—was arrayed on her desk. Rosie even brought her vintage Elizabeth cut out dolls, which she planned to ask her to autograph. “And I’m not giving any to charity!” Rosie joked before Elizabeth came out, referring to the online charity auctions she held featuring celebrity memorabilia from the guests who appeared on her show. (Elizabeth brought with her a copy of Nibbles and Me, the book she wrote when she was a young girl about her adventures with her pet chipmunk, to be auctioned.)

Elizabeth had her partner-in-crime, Sugar, seated on her lap for most of the interview. “She is covered in New York soot,” she joked. 2001 marked the tenth anniversary of her massively successful fragrance, White Diamonds, which was acknowledged during the interview. Rosie complimented Elizabeth on how good she was looking, and she shared that she had taken up swimming. She also revealed the name of her favourite lip gloss: Slut. (One of her beloved granddaughters had turned her on to it.) 

The Rosie O’Donnell Show taped at Rockefeller Center in New York. Elizabeth was in the city that never sleeps to appear at two concerts at Madison Square Garden celebrating thirty years of her dear friend Michael Jackson’s career as a solo artist (which were broadcast on TV later that year), on September 7 and 10. The morning after the second concert, September 11, 2001, two hijacked airplanes were deliberately flown into the Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Center. When Elizabeth’s interview was broadcast later that month, the words “Prerecorded: September 6, 2001” appeared at the bottom left of the screen, ostensibly reminding viewers that the lighthearted conversation had been taped before the world forever changed.