Elizabeth Taylor private tribute: Close friends, sweet words
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Elizabeth Taylor was honored Sunday at an exclusive private tribute, where the love flowed and relatives of Taylor shone as brightly as the stars in attendance.
The memorial was held at Warner Brothers’ Steven J. Ross Theatre in Burbank, according to People, with Colin Farrell serving as host.
Taylor’s children Michael and Christopher Wilding, Liza Tivey and Maria Burton attended, as well as stepdaughter Kate Burton. Rhys Tivey performed one of his grandmother’s favorite songs, ‘Amazing Grace,’ on trumpet. People quoted a guest as saying audience members were ‘mesmerized how her talent and grace lived on in Rhys.’
PHOTOS: Elizabeth Taylor, a life in pictures
Elton John, a friend of Taylor’s and comrade in the fight against AIDS, was on hand and closed the event with a rendition of ‘Blue Eyes.’
Also this weekend, MOCA’s Pacific Design Center branch held a preview of auction items of Taylor’s jewels, gowns and paintings. The Los Angeles Times reported in September on the preview by Christie’s:
The jewelry for sale includes Taylor’s much-photographed 33-carat rectangular-cut diamond, a gift from two-time-husband Richard Burton, now estimated at $2.5 million to $3.5 million. Art highlights include major paintings by Degas, Pissarro and Van Gogh (on view in London but not L.A.) as well as works on paper that the actress received from artist-admirers like Andy Warhol (on view in L.A.).
The public exhibit will next visit Dubai, Geneva, Paris, Hong Kong and New York before a four-day auction is conducted in New York from Dec. 13 to 16, according to Reuters.
Sunday’s remembrance of Taylor brings to mind some of Ministry’s favorite quotes honoring the actress and humanitarian at the time of her death, March 23, at age 79:
Sharon Stone said her friend was an ‘illuminator.’
‘She put human faces on issues. With her soft voice coming from that tiny frame, she held forth the giant purpose of the true meaning of love; that we are all equally valuable,’ Stone said.
‘She wrote her own chapter in a book that’s hers,’ Larry King said.
La Toya Jackson: ‘She was an incredible friend to my brother’ Michael, ‘at his side through some of his most difficult times and of course loved by his children and our family.’
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-- Amy Hubbard
