Elizabeth Taylor: ‘I Was Always a Rebel’

HER BEAUTY WAS INCANDESCENT, HER DIAMONDS WERE WORTH MILLIONS, AND HER SPIRIT WAS UNTAMABLE. A NEW DOCUSERIES SHOWS WHY TODAY’S STARS IDOLIZE HER

- LIZ MCNEIL,GILLIAN TELLING

When Christopher Wilding first listened to Taylor Swift’s “Elizabeth Taylor,” track No. 2 on her new album The Life of a Showgirl, he found it “especially magical.”

Taylor Swift's Homage Swift's new song "Elizabeth Taylor" references the star's White Diamonds perfume (below) and Cartier jewels. The House of Taylor (run by the star's estate) is "thrilled" with the song and has released a sweatshirt in Swift-inspired orange.

Wilding, the 70-year-old son of the late actress and her second husband, Michael Wilding, was delighted to hear Swift name-checking his mom’s violet eyes, Portofino and the Plaza Athénée (two of her favorite romantic haunts), and White Diamonds (her signature scent).

“Taylor and my mom do seem like kindred spirits,” he says. “They were both the very embodiment of female empowerment.”

All Eyes on Her "I jumped into everything sort of feet first," Taylor (at the 1963 Lawrence of Arabia premiere in Paris) once said. Right: Taylor in 1956.

Taylor was a force so fierce that even 14 years after her death at age 79, the Oscar winner remains a touchstone for a new generation of stars.

1959

Kim Kardashian has produced a new three-part docuseries,