Liz Taylor interview part 2 Michael Jackson, Louis B Mayer and a Diamond

Carson : You talked about being uncomfortable in front of a live audience , now most people would find that strange , because you've been in front of audiences you're whole life."

Liz: " Well, no, because the Camera is in a sense like an eye, but its only one, and you have sometimes, this umbilical cord connection with the camera and you forget everybody else on the set, and you only see the actor you're working with and only feel their presence , and you're aware of this eye, but its only one, i had never been ion you're show because i was scaed of your audience..but yore really not scary at all...

Carson: " come and try the monologue some nights , you'll find out....no, but thats true, .."

liz: " I found that on the Perfume tour, i was doing questions and answers, for thousands of people in department stores and i had a ball."

carson: " yeah, you see, not that difficult, on the other hand, if i had to do something like a motion picture i would feel very awkward, because i am so conscious that people are watching what i am doing, and that bothers me, this doesn't bother me."

Liz: " and i forget that their there."

Carson: " Thats intersting."

Liz; " you have too."

Carson: " Tell me about you're friendship with Michael Jackson."

note: at this time in 1992, Michael Jackson was still the most famous human being on the Planet.

Carson: " It's intriguing , because you come from different worlds, you were married on his Ranch, with Helicopters buzzing around, how did you become friends?"

Liz: " um, we became friends, and he is like my Brother, nd there are a lot of similarities between Michael and myself, we were both from show business, show business children, we started very young, had no childhood to speak of, and went through the loneliness of that, and the sort of strangeness of growing up when you're an adult. And he loves animals, i love animals, we're both shy, we actually have a lot in common, and we can talk to each other on so many different levels, and michael is like litmus paper, like blotting paper, he just soaks up everything, and he is so curious and until two months ago he kept saying to me--'Ohh God i just loved your performance in Jane Eyre and i said JANE EYRE, i was 11 years old, Michael, i have grown up. he finally saw 'who's afraid of Virginia Wolfe" and he said he was very impressed, and i said ' thank you Michael, now i can listen to other records beside ABC."

NOTE: ABC was one of michaels first hit records, recorded when he was about 12 years old

Carson: " Its an interesting Parallel, you both started very very young, you wrote in the book -when you were young and at the studio , very early in your life you realized that there was difference in the thing, Elizabeth Taylor the commodity and Elizabeth Taylor the person, how did you come to that realization, because it's important."

Liz: " I realized that there was a certain value to this commodity called Elizabeth Taylor when i told L b Mayer who was swearing at my mother...using words that i had really never heard before"

Carson: " he was a Tyrant wasn't he?"

Liz: " he was foaming at the mouth and carrying on like a lunatic, and he was swearing at her and being so abusive, and i jumped up with tears pouring down my face and said; ' you and your studio can both go to hell ' and stormed out of his..."

carson: " How old were you?"

Liz: " 15."

Carson: " and you told that to Lous B Mayer."

Liz: " Yes" audience applauds." and i ran to Benny Thalls office who was the Vice President of MGM, and another Vice President came in and said;"you have to go back and apologize . " and i said 'no, why should i apologize , he should apologize to my Mother, and i said , " I'm not going back in his office, and i never did. and that sort of made me realize when they didn't fire me..that this commodity must have some value or otherwise i would have been sack, but i didn't care if i had been."

they talk about the national Enquirer, and Liz mentions that she sued them and won, and that was very satisfying.

After talking about kiss and Tell books which Liz says are tacky and in poor taste, Carson asks her-

Carson:" what is the nicest gift you ever received , i mean a material thing...didn't you have a diamond once the size of a Kumquat?"

Liz: " well, i still have it, you don't throw things like that out...they don't become like... used....i think probably the most exciting present i ever received was when i was 13, after i made ' International Velvet' and the studio gave me the Horse.'

So in a life that to that point spanned 60 years when she was wined and dined by millionaires and royalty, and received Jewelry and gifts that could stock a museum her favorite present was a Horse, a living affectionate animal, the memory of which made her smile to that day as well, i am sure , to the last day of her life.