The bright lights never seem to fade on Hollywood’s stars. Even at her memorial service, Elizabeth Taylor left instructions that she arrive 15 minutes late to make an entrance. Friends and family remembered Taylor before she was finally laid to rest in the same cemetery where her longtime friend Michael Jackson is buried. Well documented in the press, the relationship between Ms. Taylor and the King of Pop remains an enigma of sorts. Twice, she stood by Jackson as he endured accusations of child abuse. When the singer turned to prescription drugs to dull his pain, it was Taylor who convinced him to go to rehab.
No stranger to the perils of drug abuse herself, Taylor knew firsthand Jackson could indeed turn his life around. After her own rehab stint made headlines in the early 1980s, Taylor was in a unique position to speak out to celebrities who abuse drugs to cope with fame and its pitfalls. While Jackson eventually passed away, allegedly from a powerful prescription drug, there is something to be learned from the lives of both the King of Pop and Hollywood’s golden girl.
Even when she struggled with health problems, weight issues, and alcohol, the public maintained its fond fascination for Taylor, and she emerged from those challenges fully supported. Then, she became one of the most active humanitarians in show business; utilizing her stardom to raise funds for AIDS research throughout the 1980s, which continued for several decades until her passing. Unfortunately, the feel-good chapter at the end of Taylor’s story – one marked by altruism and charity – is uncommon for Hollywood’s brightest stars, who often fade as fast as they shine.
Many celebrities are unable to turn their lives around. From Lindsay Lohan to Charlie Sheen, the tabloids are constantly filled with headlines detailing famous figures and their fall from grace. Earlier this month, I chronicled the life of Anna Nicole Smith, whose rags-to-riches story was so tragic that theater writers created a European opera based on her life. The native Texan – whose beauty was compared to Marilyn Monroe’s – became a Playboy cover girl, but her rise to celebrity status spun out of control. She fell prey to pressures of the public eye. When she married a Texas businessman, it appeared to be a phony grab for money. She initiated a lawsuit in an attempt to secure a piece of his estate before he even died. Thus, the final years of Smith’s life were marked by litigation and a continuous downward spiral. Eventually her pursuit of fame and glamour came to a sudden and tragic end in 2007 when she overdosed on drugs in a Florida hotel room.
The highs and lows experienced by celebrities in the public eye like Taylor, Jackson, and Smith have weaved their way into pop culture’s main frame. Elizabeth Taylor’s passing provides us the opportunity to reflect on the perils of fame. While the plights of celebrities have become a preoccupation and hobby for many people, it is apparent that the lenses under which these stars live result in more tragic endings than fairytale ones.
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