Elizabeth

This tawdry Hollywood pot-boiler chronicles the life and times of superstar Elizabeth Taylor. Taraborrelli, best known for "revealing" facts and fiction about the Kennedy women, Princess Grace, Cher, and Madonna, slices up Liz's films, escapades, home wrecking, eight marriages (including her twenty-year relationship with Richard Burton), alcohol and drug addictions, and AIDS work into bite-size pieces that are easily digested. Reader Lynne Maclean delivers the story in a charming, slightly star-struck voice, wisely dropping to a lower tone when quoting Taylor or Burton. The comments of the author add little. But no matter the flaws, the gossip about a larger-than-life woman makes for a wickedly compelling listen. M.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

October 2, 2006
Maclean's precise and nimble reading makes it nearly impossible for listeners to resist the pull of Taraborrelli's compassionate chronicle of the wild and tempestuous life of Elizabeth Taylor. With her more than a half dozen full-length biographies and five decades as tabloid fodder, most listeners will be well acquainted with surface events in Taylor's life. There are the eight marriages (five of them before she was 32), the affairs, multiple suicide attempts, decades of life-and-death health issues, the jewelry collection and finally her AIDS activism. Taraborrelli's strength as a biographer is his tenacity to dig beneath the surface to find the motivations and insecurities behind Taylor's actions, and his care helps listeners discover the dynamic charisma and good humor that have attracted men and moviegoers to her. Maclean's narration sails effortlessly over a life full of globe-trotting without stumbling over foreign names and locales. Taraborrelli bookends the production by reading a five-minute overview at the beginning and participating in a brief q&a session at the end of the fifth violet-colored disc, where he praises Taylor's indomitable will and ability to survive. Simultaneous release with the Warner hardcover (Reviews, May 22).

Starred review from May 22, 2006
Ordinarily, readers might question the logic of a new tome on a celebrity who already has at least six full-length biographies (and four self-penned books) devoted to her life, but Elizabeth Taylor has never been ordinary. Readers will easily understand why tabloids have chronicled her escapades for six decades: her roller-coaster life could easily read like a high-sheen soap opera (the eight marriages, two Oscars, suicide attempts and innumerable life-threatening illnesses that led to years of alcohol and prescription drug addiction before she became the first celebrity to check into the Betty Ford Clinic). But Taraborrelli, a sympathetic biographer, rescues the subject by looking for psychological and emotional motives behind her actions. Taraborrelli can be overprotective of Taylor (he notes her reviews for Cleopatra
were "so vicious that they are not even worth memorializing here") but more often, he's a superb storyteller who is also an enthusiastic fan. The book is a fitting tribute to a woman who has lived and loved with abandon but who found real passion and purpose when she embraced AIDS activism in 1985, helping to destigmatize the disease and creating her own AIDS foundation. Taraborrelli's chatty prose (and bite-size chapters) perfectly complement Taylor's glamorous life of highs and lows to create an irresistible and inspiring tale. Photos not seen by PW
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