HOW TO BE A MOVIE STAR: Elizabeth Taylor In Holl

I don't pretend to be an ordinary housewife.' So said Elizabeth Taylor, and therein lay her secret. From her days as a youthful minx at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to her post-studio reign as America's lustiest middle-aged movie queen, Taylor has defined the very essence of Hollywood stardom. Marching through the decades swathed in mink, discarding husbands nearly as frequently as she changed her diamond necklaces, Taylor dominated the headlines as no other star before or since. From America's sweetheart to America's homewrecker and then back again, she uncannily reflected (and at times predicted) the always shifting cultural zeitgeist. How to Be a Movie Star is a different kind of book about Elizabeth Taylor: an intimate look at a girl who grew up with fame, who learned early - and well - how to be famous, and how that fame was used and constructed to carry her through more than sixty years of public life. Indeed, one might say Elizabeth went to school to learn how to be famous, her education courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the greatest, most glamorous movie studio of all time. Care has been taken to recreate in delicious detail the intricate star-making machinery of MGM, back in the days when the studio churned out a full-length movie every nine days. The critic Andrew Sarris has written, 'Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor were the most beautiful couple in the history of cinema. Those gigantic close-ups of them kissing [in A Place in the Sun ] were unnerving - like gorging on chocolate sundaes.