Elizabeth Taylor: A Life in Pictures

Her close friend and co-star was molested as a child, she claimed

(NEWSER) - Elizabeth Taylor knew a painful secret about close friend James Dean—but, in a 1997 interview with Kevin Sessums, she asked the journalist not to reveal it until after her death. In a column for the Daily Beast , Sessums recalls that interview for POZ, a magazine dedicated to AIDS activism. "I loved Jimmy," she said of her co-star and friend. "I'm going to tell you something, but it's off the record until I die. OK? When Jimmy was 11 and his mother passed away, he began to be molested by his minister." More»

Monroe was jealous of Elizabeth Taylor: memoir

(NEWSER) - A new memoir reveals that it was simple jealousy of Elizabeth Taylor that spurred Marilyn Monroe to pose nude. Monroe agreed to be naked while exiting a swimming pool during a photo shoot, as long as Taylor did not appear in any magazines running the images, reports Vanity Fair, which is publishing the images in this month's edition. (While Monroe made just $100,000 for her final film role in Something's Gotta Give, Taylor pulled down $1 million in Cleopatra.) But the nude pictures weren't the only place Monroe bared all. A smattering of her conversations with photographer Lawrence Schiller, as per his memoir Marilyn & Me:

• On posing naked: "Larry, if I do come out of the pool with nothing on, I want your guarantee that when your pictures appear on the covers of magazines Elizabeth Taylor is not anywhere in the same issue."

Larry Fortensky defends his relationship with Taylor

(NEWSER) - Elizabeth Taylor's eighth and final husband Larry Fortensky tells the Daily Mail all about his famous marriage to the iconic screen star, spurred on by what he calls false accusations of gold-digging and a loveless marriage. In fact, says the former builder, he and Taylor enjoyed a passionate relationship for many years, continued to talk frequently after their divorce, and he never asked her for any money. "Enough is enough," he says. "It is time for me to tell my story and the truth about Elizabeth and me and to stop these lies once and for all." More»

Kenneth Turan: She mesmerized us from the get-go

(NEWSER) - For Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan, an indelible image of Elizabeth Taylor comes early in her career in A Place in the Sun, filmed when she was just 17. "The actress' face in huge close-up is so exquisitely, so heartbreakingly beautiful you never doubt that (Montgomery) Clift's intoxicated character would do anything to keep her in his life," he writes. For years afterward, those "irresistible violet eyes" would have that effect on men both on screen and off. More»

In the end, Kim scores a new Twitter follower

(NEWSER) - For a Cleopatra-themed Harper’s Bazaar shoot, Elizabeth Taylor got a surprising interviewer: Kim Kardashian, a self-described “huge Elizabeth Taylor nerd.” Highlights:

• How Kim can catch up: Kardashian calls Taylor her “idol,” but notes that she’s “six husbands and some big jewels behind.” Taylor’s advice: “Follow your passion, follow your heart, and the things you need will come.”
• Liz’s favorite jewels: The 33.19 carat Krupp diamond “is an extraordinary stone. It has such life and brilliance when light shines through it. Size does matter, but so does the size of the emotion behind it.” The Prince of Wales plume pin, which she bought at auction, is also special to her.