I cannot wait to read this book. Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century was featured in the July issue of Vanity Fair and I am already so in love with this old-school celebrity couple that Brangelina may never hold the same charm for me again.

Contributing editor Sam Kashner and co-author Nancy Schoenberger trace the arc of this epic, turbulent love affair, which appropriately began on the set of Cleopatra—a story about another romance for the ages, and one of the most expensive films ever made—and ended spectacularly with jealousy, anger, and divorce, despite the fact that Taylor and Burton never really fell out of love.

Kashner and Schoenberger somehow managed to  persuade Liz to allow them to publish tons  of never-before-seen letters that her Richard wrote to her, and passages from many of the letters are included in the excerpt. In addition to demonstrating that Burton was a gifted, lyrical, playful writer who could effortlessly summon the beauty of the Shakespearean language he so loved, the correspondence reveals poignant and intimate truths about the power of the bond that Taylor and Burton shared—sexual, creative, and spiritual.

***Sigh**** He’s so dreamy****

This is a real love story ya’ll. Not Speidi, not TomKat….not Rob and Kristen…real love.

Highlights from the excerpt include:

• Taylor and Burton’s icy first encounter, on a balmy day at a star-studded Los Angeles pool party, and subsequent flirtation on the set of Cleopatra 10 years later, where director Joe Mankiewicz found it nearly impossible to break up their on-screen kiss well after the take had ended.

• Their scandalous on-set affair and surprise wedding in Montreal, where they were hounded by paparazzi, and the turmoil they went through while divorcing their respective spouses.

• The jewelry, artwork, and gifts that Burton lavished on Taylor as they took in millions of dollars from their films, including the 33.19-carat Krupp diamond, the 69.42-carat Cartier diamond, now known as the Taylor-Burton diamond, and paintings by Monet, Picasso, van Gogh, Pissarro, Renoir, Degas, and Rembrandt.

• Their powerful film interpretation of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and string of other collaborations, including Boom! and Divorce His, Divorce Hers.

• Burton’s outpouring of grief and longing in letters to Taylor as their relationship became strained by alcoholism and their frequent altercations.

• A description of the heartbreaking final letter that Burton wrote to Taylor just before his sudden death. She counts it as her most treasured possession and keeps it by her bed at all times.

Note to Hugh Grant: This is why people think you are a pompous old douchebag.

Hugh Grant has confessed he was drunk when he bought a painting of Elizabeth Taylor that later made him an £11million profit.

The actor was lauded as an art connoisseur when he bought the work by Andy Warhol for £2million. And he was praised as a master of timing when he sold it six years later for £13million.

I am sure that Elizabeth Taylor was delighted to find out that you bought this overrated, albeit iconic, portrait of her because you had a few too many at the pub. That was probably information that was best kept to yourself.