You can breathe a sigh of relief as last night's Lindsay Lohan definite artistic fiasco/possible ratings blockbuster won't be the final filmic word on the legendary love affair between screen icons Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz and Dominic West are set to portray the tempestuous duo in a BBC film that will look at the pairing of the actors in an ill-fated Broadway play. Taylor and Burton, in the months before he died in 1984 at age 58, co-starred in a production of Noel Coward's classic comedy Private Lives. The first Broadway teaming of Taylor, fresh off her Tony Award nomination for The Little Foxes, and theater veteran Burton less than a decade after their second divorce was a highly-anticipated event. Unfortunately, poor reviews brought a premature end to the production. It wasn't a happy experience for either actor. Burton wrote about the experience in his intimate diary. "ET impossibly sloshed all day long," he wrote dismissively. By the end of 1983 Taylor had checked into the Betty Ford Clinic to seek treatment for her alcohol addiction.
