By Anne Brodie
Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar opens with her powerful statement. “Ill use my pain. If you want to hear something from me, you’ll hear it. I’m gonna thunder this through their brain”. Given her life story, forced into acting as a child, based on her beauty and fortunately, talent, as a “commodity” (in her words) there seems to have been strong resentment and a sense of rebellion, but there was lnothing she could do. She was forced to do love scenes with middle actors when she was 16, controlled by studio staff, particularly Louis B. Mayer whom she hated, and had few opportunities to be “normal”, just a girl growing up. She became a media obsession for the rest of her life. Taylor was the best-known woman in the world, adored, revered, and copied but that created problems we would never understand. It didn’t help that her famous marriages, eight in all, sharpened already intense attention, as she searched for lasting love and meaning. The statement above was her call to action, honesty, and her claim on herself. I remember reading about her constantly – she was not just one of the world’s best-known women but on of the world’s best-known people, period. New insights and familiar biographical info make for a rousing doc that includes this line – “An archbishop would kick out a stained-glass window” for her. Her greatest accomplishment saved thousands of lives. Taylor singlehandedly launched awareness and funds for AIDS research when no one would even mention the word. Taylor’s career, signature wit, personal life, attributes and failings, her influence and importance are detailed via interviews with Paris Jackson, Michael’s daughter, grand daughter Naomi deLuce Wilding, son Chris Wilding, his ex-Eileen Getty, George Hamilton, Joan Collins, fellow child star Margaret O’Brien, Sharon Stone, assistant Georgette Heyer, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and series producer Kim Kardashian plus revealing archival interviews with Liz. The three-part series premieres on demand and on Hollywood Suite’s 2010s+ channel on Dec. 26.