After months of negotiations, Lifetime has signed Lindsay Lohan to portray Elizabeth Taylor in Liz & Dick. The biopic chronicling the enduring love of movie icons Taylor and Richard Burton, whose fiery romance was the most notorious, publicized and celebrated love affair of its day. The news comes on the heels of Lohan completing her court-mandated community service and quickly returning to her partying ways. The latter — especially tabloid reports of fights allegedly involving Lohan — raised questions whether Lifetime would proceed with the actress, whose career had been largely sidelined for the past couple of years by stints in rehab, jail, court rooms, and the recent house arrest/community service. Lohan returned to acting last month with a hosting stint on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, which drew big ratings. Lifetime brass obviously took notice. Here is the network’s release:
RELATED: Lindsay Lohan In Talks To Play Elizabeth Taylor In Lifetime Movie
Los Angeles, CA (April 23, 2012) – Lindsay Lohan is set to star as the legendary Elizabeth Taylor in the Lifetime Original Movie Liz & Dick, based on the true story of the screen icon’s historic romance with actor Richard Burton. Principal photography on the movie will begin in early June in Los Angeles, it was announced today by Rob Sharenow, Executive Vice President, Programming, of Lifetime Networks.
For nearly a quarter of a century, Taylor and Burton were Hollywood royalty and their fiery romance — often called “the marriage of the century” — was the most notorious, publicized and celebrated love affair of its day. Swarmed by paparazzi, Taylor and Burton’s love affair was played out entirely in front of the global press from the time they met on the set of the major motion picture Cleopatra, left their respective spouses, married and divorced, only to remarry and divorce once again. Despite their roller coaster romance for the public eye to see, Taylor and Burton shared an undeniable love greater than most people could have ever dreamed.
Regarding the announcement, Lohan said, “I have always admired and had enormous respect for Elizabeth Taylor. She was not only an incredible actress but an amazing woman as well. I am very honored to have been asked to play this role.”
“We are thrilled Lindsay will portray beloved Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor,” added Sharenow. “She is one of the rare actresses who possesses the talent, beauty and intrigue to capture the spirit of such a provocative icon.”
Liz & Dick will be produced by Larry A. Thompson Productions, Inc. Larry A. Thompson (Amish Grace, Lucy & Desi) will serve as executive producer, with Christopher Monger (Temple Grandin) writing.
I’ve worked with her. The sad thing is she’s super talented. If she could only clean her life up she would make so much money.
I thought she was well-cast for the Linda Lovelace biopic, but super talent only takes you so far when producers can’t count on you to fully commit to a project.
Agreed, sidewalk. Agreed.
Burton and Talor are both turning in their graves.
I meant Taylor. That’s what I get for typing and clicking too fast.
The great thing about Hollywood and America are second chances for those who make efforts to improve.
This is an opportunity for Lindsay to illustrate her acting skill.
Certainly, one can question the casting, but we shall see.
Good luck, Lindsay. Sincerely hope you can capitalize on this legendary role.
Um, SECOND chance???? This girl has been given a MILLION chances and acts like an ahole. She is rude and abrasive and thinks that she is a “star”. She has done NOTHING in the last decade to demonstrate she is anything other than a lost drug addict and alcoholic with a bad attitude. She’s STILL out partying. STILL out yelling at people. STILL behaving as if she deserves to be treated like royalty. Oy. WHAT TALENT????? There are a million more talented actresses who deserve what she has thrown away. Enough already with this brat.
As it also states in the post, “one can question the casting, but we shall see”.
That being said, I fully understand your point of view, Lauren.
If your thoughts applied to all, then Robert Downey Jr. would never have recovered to mature to where that ‘wasted, embarrassing drug addict’ is today.
Robert Downey Jr. is one of the most talented actors today. Comparing him to Lohan is ridiculous and an insult to him. Yes, addiction is a disease and of course people should be given opportunites after they start recovery. This has absolutely NOTHING to do with LL. She has time and time again shown absolutely no remorse for her behavior. She was just at Coachella over the weekend acting like the brat that she is. Weeks prior to that she almost hit a woman, the following week someone threw a drink on her at a club. I don’t understand why people keep saying she is talented. At what?? She was cute in a Disney movie a hundred years ago. My thoughts do not apply to all. They apply to her. She should not be given so many opportunites when she behaves the way she does. Doesn’t matter what I think – she got the role. Too bad for the production that cast her. Is sure to tank due to her in it. No one will watch. Have a nice day!
The comparison was relative to second chances. And, it was not a reference to Robert Downey Jr’s talent. It was the fact that Robert spent years on the dark side of drugs and bad behavior, but with commitment and the love of a good wife and family…he got his act together. My comment about Lindsay is that, perhaps, this role as Elizabeth Taylor might get her back on track if she can or wants to find a more healthy and wise career and lifestyle…no more…no less.
That’s all. You have a nice day, too.
But she is talented and the camera loves her. So..if (I know big IF) she gets a handle on her demons, and with a really good director, Lindsay can be a star again. Your anger and bitterness are a little over the top.
I hope she turns out an amazing performance that takes critics and viewers by surprise, jumpstarting a major career comeback. If Downey, Jr. can do it, I believe Lindsay can, too. Have a little human faith, people.
Lindsay can no longer act and she’s burned too many bridges. Was Tori Spelling too busy? Tonya Harding? Tara Reid? I won’t be watching.
Lifetime is so sleazy. They are shameless. Between this and The Client List the network has hit a new low.
“Move that cone! I’m Lindsay Lohan!”
Makes me think of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in this generation…
Without the alcohol addiction and cheating.
…that you know of.
Think… after seeing her on SNL, she should spend ALL her partying time taking acting lessions first. She may look like a younger Liz, but she’s far from being even close to having the talent of Liz.
Yeah, I’m sure this will all work out.*
* Sarcasm font unavailable.
Horrible, horrible choice.
What an insult to the beauty, class and intelligence of Liz Taylor… re-cast please.
agree
Could Elizabeth Taylor’s family step in and stop this?
We can only hope.
This is great casting. Lindsey is very familiar with Dick
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAA???????????????????
If she weren’t already dead, this would have killed her.
Who’s playing Dick? Whatever Gyllenhaal wants, pay him.
I agree. The truly sad thing here is definitely how much money she isn’t making.
I would like to see Pete Doherty as Dick. It would be just perfect.
She keeps landing on her feet. Her next movie the 9 lives of a ding bat cat.
Kim Kardashian would have been much better publicity stunt casting and that’s what this is all about anyway. Who can we get to give us the most publicity? They chose poorly. I demand casting approval over the actor who they hire to portray me.
Let’s keep a couple of things in mind here. First and foremost, this is a Lifetime television movie. It’s not a feature film. It’s not even a mini-series. How many DH readers have ever even watched a Lifetime television movie? Second, as the comments above reflect, this is nothing more than “gimmick” casting that is intended to generate some badly-needed buzz for a project that would otherwise be dismissed per Reason #1, above. So relax everybody. And let’s hope for her own sake Ms. Lohan can get her act together.
Based on LLs well-publicized nightclubbing incidents right after she was placed on unsupervised probation, the only work she gets is “stunt casting” for cheap publicity.
I do not expect Steven Spielberg and the other Hollywood decision makers to even consider casting her in any theatrical release.
Lindsay Lohan has been a train-wreck for over six consecutive years and is unreliable based on her recent social outings.
Forget about insurance, I just do not think there are any regular actors/actresses that want to work with her.
BIG MISTAKE
Will she make it through filming without getting arrested again?
One word for why she lives in denial and acts like an overgrown brat: Dina.
I actually hope this goes well for Lindsay. Would Lindsay have been my first choice to portray Elizabeth Taylor-probably not. Now that she has the job however-I hope she does well.This may be one of her final chances at getting her act together. The amazing thing about Lindsay(putting aside her personal life) the talent IS there. I just wish she could focus on her acting. If this young lady could somehow stop with all the other nonsense in her life-she could be one of the best actresses around. But that is a big if. Like I said before,I hope it goes well. Most people are prone to tear other people down in order to make themselves feel better-that’s just the way things are. So many bad things have been said about Lindsay over the years. Being chosen to play this role is her chance to prove everyone wrong, & ,I ,for one hope this young lady does exactly that.
I wouldn’t put it any better. Preach it man.
Liz’s family needs put a to stop this. I doubt she can do justice to Liz and her life.What a shame. I do like Lindsay , but This isn’t up her alley , at least not yet
Huh? Because everyone knows that Liz Taylor was a red headed freckle faced actress with a voice like Kathleen Turner. It’s like casting Rachael Ray as Marilyn Monroe.
Hey people!……this is Lifetime cable. A women’s minor cable network.
This is NOT a big-budget feature or to be shown one of the big television Networks.
Who did you expect them to cast? Charlize, Carey M, or Michelle W?
Come on. Who cares.
So team..let’s get creative;who would you’ve rather seen cast?
Call me crazy, but Mira Sorvino seems like she would be perfect. She has the acting chops to pull it off too.
Carrie Fisher