Inquiry: William J. Mann: HOW TO BE A MOVIE STAR: ELIZABETH TAYLOR IN HOLLYWOOD

“No one has done anything that Elizabeth Taylor didn’t do first-and without the excess calculation.” writes biographer WILLIAM J. MANN, tonight’s guest on Inquiry. Elizabeth Taylor defined the modern ideas of “stardom”. Before Elizabeth Taylor, the “paparazzi” were just a “bunch of aggressive Italian photographers.”Throughout her long career, she has made decisions, chosen films, even married partners that would allow her to be who she wanted to be. She was never a pawn of the antiquated studio system, and has never cared what the press or the gossip mongers have had to say. Tonight Mann discusses Taylor’s “chocolate sundae years” when she made some of her most famous films and had some of her most notorious marriages and torrid love affairs. Mann’s must read biography is HOW TO BE A MOVIE STAR: ELIZABETH TAYLOR IN HOLLYWOOD.