The infamous affair of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

In the early ’60s, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were two of the most popular movie stars in the world. As the highest paid actors and actresses in the world, they were practically royalty. They were working together on the historical epic Cleopatra and rumors spread that they were having an affair. This was a more conservative America than it is today, and since both stars were married to other people – Burton to Sybil Williams and Taylor to Eddie Fisher – they denied these rumors. In 1963, Burton and Taylor went on a secret vacation to Italy. Here, a paparazzo clicked some now-iconic shots of the two, dressed in swimsuits, relaxing on a yacht and engaging in some PDA. The grainy black-and-white photos blew up and caused an uproar around the world.

How America’s darlings became the world’s most hated ones

The case and its aftermath were covered by the world media for weeks. Even the press of South Asia and Africa, which usually stayed away from Hollywood gossip, gave tabloid coverage to Burton and Taylor’s scandal. Since their actions were considered immoral, the Catholic Church had to get involved. The Vatican publicly condemned the actors for their ‘lewd vagrancy’. And even when both stars stopped in Italy, the US Congress considered banning them. There were calls from several congressmen for a vote to bar him from re-entering the United States and ban him from the country forever.

Cultural impact of the case of Liz and Dick

Many have described the case as the first showbiz scandal that affected the entire world. Previously, the private lives of celebrities were largely hidden from public consumption. The audience was more interested in what their favorite stars did in front of the camera. Sociologist Alice Cashmore has called the publication of the photograph a “turning point” in modern history, after which celebrities could never fully separate their private lives from their public roles.

Another change that occurred due to this incident was the popularization of paparazzi. The term was invented by Federico Fellini for his film La Dolce Vita (1960) starring a news photographer named Paparazzo. The media used the term as a pseudonym for the photographer who took the photographs of Burton and Taylor, and eventually for all such photographers. As soon as photographers in Hollywood realized that magazines and newspapers were willing to spend thousands of dollars for a perfectly timed shot of a star, everyone wanted to be a ‘paparazzo’. And the rest, as they say, is history.