Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s love story told in magazine covers

ANGELINA Jolie, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston (aka Poor Jen) are pillars of the tabloid magazines.The Brangelina industry is huge. The Jen-Brad-Angelina love triangle is a prism of untruth, half-truths and gossip. The saga of betrayal, love, sex romance, marriage, divorce, separation, reunion and rowing moves on with each deadline in the National Enquirer, In Touch and Star magazines. How much do we believe? What are the stories’ sources? Jolie can only adopt so many children; Pitt can only wear so many hats; Aniston can only toss her hair so much. But when the story has limits, the wily editor looks to cover emotions: Jen shocked; Jen hurt; Brad confused; Angelina furious and so on.

We are told to think of this obsession with fame as a modern thing. It’s not. This peeping at the lives of A-list movie stars is nothing new. In the 1960s and 1970s, Liz Taylor and Richard Burton were the sensation. The so-called romance of the century (20th), Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s relationship was all about money, alcohol, sex, cheating, jewels (hers) and a love that endured 16 years (with breaks).

The tabloids lapped it up. Get a load of the covers:

Great photos of Liz Taylor.

1962: