Elizabeth Taylor – The Role of Her Life

A new biography reveals the details of Elizabeth Taylor's lonely battle as activist during the AIDS crisis-and her struggle to persuade her famous Hollywood friends to help

- By Kate Andersen Brower

Aat around 4 P.M. on a Friday in 1998, Elizabeth Taylor, the most famous movie star of the 20th century, was dressed in her nightgown, applying makeup, and showing her friend Dorothy Flagler, a salesperson at Van Cleef & Arpels in Beverly Hills, a magnificent new yellow diamond ring. Flagler sat cross-legged on the floor of Taylor's bathroom as they chatted away.

But when Taylor's assistant Tim Mendelson walked in and told them that a friend of a friend had passed away from AIDS-related causes that day, the mood in the room changed dramatically.

"He really doesn't have anyone and he has no money," Mendelson told them. There was no money even to bury him.

Taylor told Mendelson to get her business manager on the phone, because she wanted to arrange for his burial. Mendelson called his office and was told that it would have to wait until Monday. When he relayed the message to Taylor, she threw the brush she was using down on the bathroom counter and her eyes went wild.

"We will not fucking wait until Monday. We will do it right now. Get him on the phone again. I want to talk to him. No mother's son is going to lay on a cold, hard slab for the weekend when I can do something to stop it."