http://www.dameelizabethtaylor.com/peregrina.html (http://www.dameelizabethtaylor.com/peregrina.html)
I was poking around in the interwebs and ran across this interesting bit .
I had no idea that Liz Taylor had some uncredited cameos in Anne of the Thousand Days in 1969, which was starring her then-husband Richard Burton as Henry VIII.
What is way cool, is that she wore the real La Perigrina as part of her Tudor costume.
For those who are interested there is a period portrait of Mary I wearing that same jewel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maria_Tudor1.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maria_Tudor1.jpg)
Burton and Liz bought the above portrait of Queen Mary I at auction, because Dame Liz was reportedly keen on replicating the necklace worn by the queen.
However, upon finding out that the royal gallery didn't have a portrait of Mary I, they donated it for the public to see.
I read a few different articles about the movie (which won the Oscar for best costume design) and had to chuckle over this nugget:
"In 1964, when Wallis first acquired the rights to the play, The New York Times had announced that he was negotiating with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton to play the roles of Anne and Henry. But unless Wallis is lying in his autobiography, he never actually considered Taylor for the role. He recalls a lunch he had with her in 1967, in which "Elizabeth hung on my every word. I was surprised by her attention, as there was no part in the picture for her. Over an elaborate desert she took a deep breath and said, 'Hal, I've been thinking about it for weeks. I have to play Anne Boleyn!' My fork stopped halfway to my mouth.
Anne Boleyn? Elizabeth was plump and middle-aged; Anne was a slip of a girl. The fate of the picture hung in the balance. I could scarcely bring myself to look at Richard." Burton, however, "handled it beautifully. He put his hand on hers, looked her directly in the eye, and said, 'Sorry, luv. You're too long in the tooth.'" Any hard feelings were handled by a huge fee for Burton ($1,250,000 plus) and cameos for Liz (as a masked dancer at a ball) as well as Burton's daughter Kate, and Taylor's daughter Liza."
Well played.
Still. Liz had to have gotten some satisfaction that she was better dressed than the Queen, even if she was too old to play one. ;D