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Eldritch
03-23-2011, 04:22 PM
Screen legend Elizabeth Taylor dies

Academy Award-winning actress succumbs to heart failure at age 79

Elizabeth Taylor, the violet-eyed film goddess whose sultry screen persona, stormy personal life and enduring fame and glamour made her one of the last of the old-fashioned movie stars and a template for the modern celebrity, died Wednesday at age 79.

Against considerable odds, the actress turned into one of those rare performers who give career-peak performances as a child, a teenager, a young adult and as a middle-aged studio veteran.

She was surrounded by her four children when she died of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she had been hospitalized for about six weeks, said publicist Sally Morrison.

"My Mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humor, and love," her son, Michael Wilding, said in a statement.

"We know, quite simply, that the world is a better place for Mom having lived in it. Her legacy will never fade, her spirit will always be with us, and her love will live forever in our hearts."

"We have just lost a Hollywood giant," said Elton John, a longtime friend of Taylor. "More importantly, we have lost an incredible human being."

Full story here. (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/12517000/ns/today-entertainment/)

Germanicus
03-23-2011, 04:27 PM
The New York Times posted their lengthy Elizabeth Taylor obit a short time ago with this addendum:

Mel Gussow, the principal writer of this article, died in 2005. William McDonald and the Associated Press contributed updated reporting.

Mel Gussow was the NYT longtime theatre critic. Apparently he wrote this obit before he died, which means that the New York Times has been prepared for the death of Elizabeth Taylor since 2005.

It is of course not at all unusual for a news organization to have prepared an obit in advance -- from time to time they mistakenly get published early -- though seven years in advance seems a bit excessive.

This, however, may be the first time an obit writer was out-lived by his subject.