Marriage to seventh husband Larry Fortensky clearly agrees with Elizabeth Taylor. At 60, she is as radiant as the 17-year-old whom LIFE called "a violet-eyed beauty with magnificent deep coloring, a sharp delicate face framed in very dark hair, thick, honest brows and curly double eyelashes." That face betrays hardly a trace of residue from her yo-yoing weight, 30-odd operations, ongoing health problems or past addictions to alcohol, sleeping pills and painkillers.
"I'm very fortunate," says Taylor. "The way our features are flung together is just an accident. I mean, we all have two eyes, a nose and a mouth. They're just arranged differently." Sighing, Taylor gazes out a window of her luxurious Bel Air home. "I find the whole subject of physical beauty very boring. We're surrounded by such beauty every day of our lives. I'm looking at the mountains and.... Well, actually, it's very smoggy today," she says and then breaks into a throaty laugh.
The actress allows to a dark cloud looming on her immediate horizon. Just signed to make Faithful, her first feature in five years, she admits that "I hate myself on the screen. I want to die. I see too many chins. I look fat, short and dumpy, and my voice is either too high or too gravelly. I want to dive under the carpet." Finally, what she wishes for are "long legs—I'd love to be tall and willowy." Why? "Because," replies the 5'4" legend, "I'm short."
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