Elizabeth Taylor, R.I.P.

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Nope, no anecdotes about her. Never met her. Never had any particular feeling, one way or the other about her as an actress. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

Sadly, what I think of when the name Elizabeth Taylor comes up is not any particular screen performance but the jokes: Jokes about her many marriages. Jokes about her diamonds. And after a certain point — I think when Joan Rivers decided there was money in them — jokes about her weight. When you're a celebrity, people do jokes about your failings or negatives and I admit to having written a number of them, though I don't think any about her.

But there sometimes comes a point where the jokes cross a line — in sheer volume if not insensitivity and content, and start to feel more like stomping on someone when they're vulnerable…and forgetting that that's an actual human being you're talking about. I thought a lot of the jokes about Ms. Taylor's girth or her marital exploits often went way beyond what was funny. A lot of Johnny Carson's longevity and general esteem came from his awareness of where the line was and when not to cross it. Like her friend Michael Jackson, there were times when she seemed to be an easy punch line and nothing else…and that was sad. In both cases.