RIP La Liz

Photo I saw posted on Twitter...

Today, I was sad to hear that a true icon of Hollywood glamour has passed away: Elizabeth Taylor, surely one of the most beautiful women ever to be captured on celluloid.
 
 Though I loved watching her in films from National Velvet to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and as a child ws fascinated by stories of her many husbands,  the biggest impression she made on me was through her support of AMFAR. As a small child in the 1980s, AIDS was a hige, scary headline. Like most people my age I was fed myths by ignorant adults, it was a subject discussed in hushed tones and on news reports sprinkled with words like 'plague' and 'stigma'.

When glamorous Elizabeth Taylor came out publicly in support of AIDS sufferers, that, too made the news. It also revlolutionised my views and made me aware of AIDS as a humanitarian issue, as a topic to be approached with compassion and dignified with funding and research.

Elizabeth Taylor was one of the first few major celebrities to back AIDS charities, raising over $50 million during a crucial period. That - as much as her movies, diamonds and scandalous love life - is what I would like to remember her for.