Angela Nicole Parker

I have a confession to make --- I have always had a minor obsession with Elizabeth Taylor. There are very few movie stars who fascinate me, Katharine Hepburn, Lauren Bacall, Betty Davis and to some extant Angelina Jolie, have been movie stars whose real lives I care to learn more about. I think that's because these women play the gutsy, independent women we all secretly want to be and through them, we could have it all on our own terms. La Liz in a lot of ways symbolized that for me --- a woman who did it her way.

She was born gorgeous, some even said that she was most beautiful woman in the world, something that has never been said about me, and the fantasy of being that alluring, a violet-eyed goddess,  is easy to get lost in.  Her life actually seems like a chick lit novel --- a child star grows into the most famous woman in the world with an appetite for fame, fortune and men. Ah the men!  Eight marriages in all that included a hotel heir that turned out to be a brute, a larger than life producer who died too soon, her friend's husband, and of course an English Bard that she liked so much she married him twice.  As a writer I'd have a field day with a heroine like Elizabeth who spent a lifetime battling illness, depression, insecurity and herself.

When the men fell away and the beauty was no longer famed, Elizabeth didn't go gently into that good night. She refused to bow and let the curtain come down, instead she got a new act and Elizabeth the actress was reborn as Elizabeth the advocate and the work she did raised millions for those with HIV/AIDS, not a popular or sexy subject. Sometimes life is stranger and more brilliant than fiction and Elizabeth Taylor proved that life isn't about being perfect, it's about getting your hands dirty, giving love, and being the best at what you do.

May she rest in peace.