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Elizabeth Taylor: A Private Life for Public Consumption

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Elizabeth Taylor: A Private Life for Public Consumption

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Overview

"Uses the English-born Hollywood star as a lens through which to examine the social changes that have yielded what we now call celebrity culture"--

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781628920703
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/25/2016
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Ellis Cashmore is the author of Beyond Black: Celebrity and Race in Obama's America and other books such as Martin Scorsese's America and Tyson: Nurture of the Beast. He is currently Visiting Professor of Sociology at Aston University, UK, having previously held positions at the University of Tampa, USA, and the University of Hong Kong.

Timeline: Life and Times

1. The Most Public of Private Lives
2. Animal Delight
3. Like A Million Dollars
4. With Human Failings
5. Inseparable from the Gossip
6. Dismantling the Fantasy
7. Believing and Wanting to Believe
8. Beyond Condemnation
9. The Devil's Work
10. Every Fiber of My Soul
11. Facing Oblivion
12. Voyeurs and Performers
13. Rules of Engagement
14. No Life Without
15. Everything is for Sale
16. Other People's Lives
17. On Dangerous Ground
18. Only the Custodian
19. Nobody Can Hurt Her

Players
Bibliography
Index

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Editorial Reviews

01/18/2016
Cashmore (Beyond Black: Celebrity and Race in Obama’s America) combines broad research and personal observations in this lively study examining how Elizabeth Taylor transformed our perception of modern celebrity. He depicts the Oscar-winning actress’s life in the spotlight, beginning with her doomed affair with Eddie Fisher, followed by her very public romance with Richard Burton. He chronicles their tumultuous marriage and lavish lifestyle, as well as their shared dependency on alcohol, which, combined with Taylor’s abuse of prescription medication, led to her highly publicized stint at the Betty Ford Center. Taylor’s ability to deflect media criticism is impressive as she develops a beloved perfume brand at considerable profit and becomes a persuasive figurehead in the fight against AIDS, a story that will leave readers wondering why she didn’t enter the business and political arenas sooner. Finally, Cashmore shrewdly asserts that Taylor’s greatest role was as herself, cultivating a public image that redefined modern society’s relationship to fame and fed the media’s insatiable appetite for public spectacle. 16 b&w illus. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

'A Private Life' offers a rich and illuminating reassessment, invigorating the somewhat lackluster discourse about the iconic movie star. Although there are at least 10 biographies of Elizabeth Taylor, Cashmore's lively study provides a compelling interpretation and bridges the many gaps between Taylor's impact on the American zeitgeist and her alluring, infamous life.
The Washington Post

[Cashmore] examines Taylor with all the thoroughness of a jeweller with a loupe, holding every facet of her public persona to the light. He shows how she was the herald of the curious intimacies that now exist between audience and celebrity, a one-woman rolling news channel long before social media.
The Sunday Times

In the cigar-chomping Hollywood of the Fifties ... how did Taylor manage to call the shots? Ellis Cashmore's book is an impressive answer ... [His] thesis ... [on the effects of Taylor's unfailing ability to merge art and life is what] makes his book compelling.
The Daily Telegraph

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Elizabeth Taylor: A Private Life for Public Consumption

Elizabeth Taylor: A Private Life for Public Consumption

Hardcover

Hardcover

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