| At the time of her illness, Elizabeth had just begun filming her most lavish production to date – ‘Cleopatra’. Every actress in Hollywood had wanted the part, the most coveted since Scarlett O’Hara in ‘Gone With The Wind’. According to Peter Brown and Patte Barham in ‘Marilyn: The Last Take’, Monroe had been campaigning to play the Egyptian queen for years. Moreover, the film was being made at her home studio, Twentieth Century Fox. In retrospect, it is hard to envisage anyone but Elizabeth in the role. Her combination of earthy sensuality and regal manner made her an ideal choice. But it was far from the dream project she had hoped for. Her bouts of sickness led to lengthy delays, and what was, in its time, the mostly movie ever made, would lead Twentieth Century Fox towards bankruptcy. The final cut was overlong and rather static, though visually stunning. What most people remember about ‘Cleopatra’ is the off-screen romance between Elizabeth and her co-star, Richard Burton. Both were still married to other people, and the ensuing scandal led, incredibly, to Elizabeth being condemned for “erotic vagrancy” by the Vatican. Paparazzi photographs of Taylor and Burton embracing changed the nature of celebrity permanently. After ‘Cleopatra’, stars could no longer rely on the influence of the studios to protect them from bad publicity. In early 1962, Marilyn Monroe returned to Twentieth Century Fox, still floundering in the wake of ‘Cleopatra’, to make a lightweight comedy, ominously titled ‘Something’s Got To Give’. Despite her long tenure as Fox’s most bankable star, Monroe’s $100,000 salary was a mere tenth of Taylor’s fee for ‘Cleopatra’. Despite misgivings about the weak script, Marilyn tried her best to make ‘Something’s Got To Give’ a hit. At thirty-six, her future as a sex goddess was limited, but she was determined as ever to prove herself. She agreed to film a midnight bathing scene nude, and though the footage is tame by today’s standards, this was a daring move for an established star. Shots from the set made news all worldwide, and Marilyn was delighted “to get Liz Taylor off the magazine covers.” Photographer Bert Stern, who worked with both Monroe and Taylor in 1962, later wrote in his book, ‘The Last Sitting’, “Marilyn was totally the opposite of Elizabeth Taylor. Liz Taylor’s already ‘there’. All she has to do is turn exactly straight and be still. Her beauty is formal. Liz is the fact of beauty. Marilyn was the fantasy. If Marilyn were still for an instant, her beauty would evaporate. With her it was like photographing light itself.” But Marilyn was not well – suffering from acute sinusitis, she was absent from the studio for long periods. When she flew to New York to sing at President John F. Kennedy’s birthday gala, studio executives gave her a final warning. Less than a month later, Marilyn was fired. It is clear that Twentieth Century Fox was already under pressure because of ‘Cleopatra’, and some observers have since suggested that executives must have decided that it would be less costly to dispose of Marilyn than to abandon ‘Cleopatra’. But at the time, the blame was placed squarely on Marilyn. Public reaction to Marilyn’s plight was more sympathetic than Fox had anticipated, and Fox began negotiations to have her reinstated. Then, on August 5th 1962, Marilyn was found dead at her home, having overdosed on barbiturates. Marilyn’s death caused shockwaves around the world. Her fans were confounded that a woman who seemed to have everything – fame, beauty, wealth – could die in such awful circumstances, and apparently by her own hand. Marilyn’s tragic decline seemed like nothing less than a betrayal of the American dream. Hollywood had fallen from grace, and would never fully recover. “I liked her enormously without really knowing her very well,” Elizabeth told reporters in the days following Marilyn’s passing. “Her death brings me an endless sorrow. From what I know of her, Marilyn had very human qualities. You will understand that I am very upset by this announcement." Professionally, however, Elizabeth now had no rival as the world’s greatest star. She embarked on a turbulent marriage with Richard Burton, lasting more than a decade, and won her second Oscar in 1965, for ‘Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?’ But even Elizabeth had to live in the shadow of Marilyn, whose memory never faded from view. She was infuriated by an article in which Max Lerner stated, "Elizabeth Taylor was a legend, but Marilyn Monroe was a myth." Elizabeth retorted, "You have a nerve saying that Marilyn was a myth and I'm just a lousy legend. I'm much more beautiful than Marilyn Monroe ever was, and I'm certainly a better actress. What the hell do I have to do to be a myth? Die young and by my own hand?” It was an off-the-cuff remark which nonetheless reflects on Taylor in a less than positive light. Perhaps the most important difference between the two stars is that while Elizabeth’s fame was thrust upon her, at least at first, while Marilyn’s success came from her own relentless need. She had no supportive family waiting in the wings, and her early life was traumatic enough to destroy a less courageous individual. In a sense, Marilyn’s ascent is even more remarkable than Elizabeth’s – despite her terrible fall. Marilyn’s life had all the elements of a fairytale, like Cinderella, but without the happy ending. Elizabeth Taylor’s life went on long after Marilyn died, a cycle of love and heartache, triumph and struggle. It has not been easy, but Elizabeth is a Hollywood survivor. Over time, Elizabeth came to feel a profound tenderness for her former rival. “Marilyn seemed to have a kind of unconscious glow about her physical self that was innocent, like a child,” Taylor has observed. “When she posed nude, it was ‘Gee, I am kind of you know, sort of dishy,’ like she enjoyed it without being egotistical.” "I adored Marilyn,” Elizabeth told The Times magazine in 1999. “I felt very protective towards her and there was no way of protecting her... she had brought this net of negativity and self-destructiveness around her that anyone could put their Machiavellian fingers through. She drank and took too many pills.” When a journalist pointed out that Elizabeth had also battled addiction, she added, “But Marilyn didn't have the grit." Whether Elizabeth’s observations came from direct contact with Marilyn, or filtered from the Hollywood grapevine, is difficult to tell. But Taylor’s deep compassion and empathy could, in time, have made her a strong ally for Monroe, who had all too few close friends. Elizabeth may have had twinges of jealousy, but she is, according to those who know her well, a fundamentally kind woman. And Marilyn was valued by her friends for her immense generosity, and never saying a bad word about anyone. Therefore it seems unlikely that their much-hyped rivalry was anything more than professional. |
| Marilyn, Elizabeth and ‘Cleopatra’ Page 2 |
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