Was Elizabeth Taylor being shady towards Marilyn Monroe here?

What do you think allowed you to pull yourself away from the brink?

You can always avert throwing yourself in front of an oncoming train. There is something that just pulls you away — and it has pulled me away, because I’m not dead yet — just at the brink of impact. Sometimes I have been really grazed by that train.

The world and the press and people have always enjoyed doing that. That’s the nature of things. You create an idea, a star. They’re yours. You have created this monster. So what do you do? It becomes boring unless you tear it down. I’ve been on that yo-yo trip all my life. Except like the times when I almost lose myself.

But I didn’t lose myself, did I? Something always made me save myself. Either the Betty Ford Center or going onstage to perform in the theater when many people didn’t think I could do it. Or doing this, doing that, whatever.

I mean I was pronounced dead, for God’s sake, about 20 years ago. I was in the hospital on a respirator, and they were pulling this sort of rubbery, bloody substance out of my lungs. I stopped breathing for five minuets. And I had a kind of near-death experience that you didn’t talk about then because people would have thought you were crazy. It’s amazing that I didn’t have any permanent brain damage (Don’t you dare make any cracks!) I even had a chance to read my obits, and they were the best reviews I ever had! [laughing]

Why couldn’t Marilyn Monroe save herself?

I don’t think Marilyn committed suicide. I don’t think Marilyn was murdered. I think it was an accident. But she was playing with fire. I don’t think she was as acutely aware of it as some of my other self-destructive friends.

<- OMG is that a real pic (you never know these days)? Truman Capote said Marilyn was intimidated by Taylor, who was younger and a really good movie actress.

Couldn't you picture MM as a seductive "Maggie The Cat", or the slut in Butterfield 8?

R2 It is indeed real. I’ve read more than once that Marilyn was jealous of Liz.

[quote] I stopped breathing for five minuets.

How horrible! The average minuet was 4-5 minutes long, so Liz was not breathing for 4/5 of a sitcom!

Liz was too self absorbed and trained to understand Marilyn.

Marilyn grew up pretty much a rejected orphan no one cared about. Elizabeth was the complete opposite.

She didn’t understand Marilyn had been deeply fucked up since she was a child. She never had a chance mentally.

The photo posted at R1 was taken during Frank Sinatra's performance at the Sands in 1961. Marilyn was dating Sinatra at the time and was quite tipsy and making a scene when she visited him backstage after the show. Elizabeth cattily commented that "Marilyn shouldn't drink if she can't hold her liquor. Now me, I can hold my liquor."

Pathological narcissism. She was a cretin.

Liz was fond of Marilyn. I don't think she was being snarky. Just delusional.like a typical drunk/addict.

R5 Liz was very understanding of Monty Clift tho, whom Marilyn described as the only person she knew that was in worse shape than her.

Elizabeth Taylor was the most famous woman of her time. Biggest star of her time. Most beautiful of her time. Etc.

When author Max Lerner wrote in The New Yorker that "Elizabeth Taylor is a legend, but Marilyn Monroe is a myth," Taylor raged at Lerner: "You have a nerve saying Marilyn is 'a myth' and I’m just a lousy 'legend.' I'm much more beautiful than Marilyn Monroe ever was, and I'm certainly a much better actress. What the hell do I have to do to be a myth? Die young at my own hand?"

R11 What was she so offended for? Despite all her hardships, Liz lived to tell her own story. Marilyn didn’t. I’d much rather be in Liz’s position than Marilyn’s.

Marilyn is still adored today by so many.

Elizabeth lived FOREVER. When I think of Liz, I think of a wheelchair bound old lady with a tumor the size of a walnut coming out of her head.

If she died during “Cleopatra”, she’d have been as iconic as Marilyn.

I love Liz though, don’t get me wrong.

I don't think the comment quoted by OP is shady.

R14 If the rumors are true that Marilyn was murdered or that there was foul play in her death, then it reads as victim blamey.

OP hates everyone and everything, so she sees hate everywhere. A loony bin looks set to be her final destination.

Marilyn coveted the leading lady roles in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Suddenly, Last Summer" and even met with Tennessee Williams at his home to convince him she was right for Maggie the Cat. But her studio, 20th Century Fox, had little faith in her dramatic acting abilities and didn't even bother securing those parts for her. She certainly was not pleased that Taylor won those roles.

A few years later, Marilyn campaigned for the part of Cleopatra when Fox first announced plans for a remake. But after Spyros Skouras told her it would be a very low budget production at $210,000, using old costumes and old sets, with Joan Collins being considered to star, Marilyn lost interest. She was filming "Let's Make Love," a picture she did not want to make when she got word that Elizabeth Taylor signed on for a cool $1 million (a tenth of MM's contract salary). Marilyn was livid. "They put me in a disaster, but turn to Elizabeth for the biggest film they have ever made... I'm the one who's under contract, and they treat me like hell!"

No, doesn't sound shady. I've always thought MM was jealous of ET, not to a crazy degree, and it would be understandable. E.g., on the subject of that huge diamond ring (ET's), MM said that ET had short, fat fingers (which was true, I think).

I can believe that ET sized up MM as weak, couldn't hold liquor, etc. ET supposedly drank Jack Daniel's. (Yes, there's an apostrophe in there.) Why not something better? Who knows.

R11, I don't get that. Wouldn't you rather be a legend then remembered as a myth?

R13, I don't see why a star should die young just to have eternal relevancy, that sounds superficial. Plenty of stars from back then are still loved today but didn't die young. People talk more about Marilyn's suicide, drug addiction, mental problems and the Kennedy affair more than anything else about her. Would you want to be remembered for just that? If she had lived longer, she could've had more to offer than being just another tragic Hollywood figure.

I would hate to be a celebrity that died “young and beautiful.” People can say whatever they want about you and project whatever they want onto you.

Elizabeth stole one of the most talented singers ever. She also had a lot of pain and struggle throughout her life. Despite that, she had a good heart, which is hard to encounter in Hollywood. At a time when gay people were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with her struggles and she theirs.

Marilyn and Liz didn’t like one another. That was well known in Hollywood.

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