Intrigue

Johnny answers questions from the audience. Elizabeth Taylor discusses her life and career; producer-actor Michael Douglas (La grande idée (1992), Basic Instinct (1992)).

The comedy segment is questions from the audience. Elizabeth Taylor makes her first appearance on The Tonight Show, and congratulates Johnny on 30 years. She talks about her upcoming 60th birthday party at a Disney park, recalling that she and Grace Kelly went to each other's 40th birthday parties. She also comments on how much she has survived in life, and how that has fed into the public fascination with her. She and Johnny joke about marriage and the number of unions they have been in, and she talks about her new marriage of four months; she notes that all of her husbands have been about 40 years old, regardless of how old she was. Taylor then discusses her reluctance to perform before a live audience, as opposed to a camera, and says that is why she has not been on the show before. Asked about her friendship with Michael Jackson - at whose ranch she was married - she says they actually have a lot in common, having started young and not having had a real childhood; they are also both very shy, and love animals. She recalls how she learned the value of herself as a commodity when, at age 15, she told off Louis B. Mayer (and refused to apologize) but wasn't fired. When asked the most exciting gift she ever received, she says the studio gave her the horse from National Velvet; she kept it until it died, when she was 24. Michael Douglas met Taylor and Richard Burton at age 13 when they were taking their yacht past Connecticut. Recalling that his father Kirk used to appear on The Tonight Show while Michael was a teenager, he says he often pretended to be a guest on the show while sitting in the bathroom. His first time being booked on the show was in 1971, but he was bumped the first time. Asked which famous people he's never met but would like to, he mentions Marlon Brando and Katharine Hepburn. He talks a bit about his father, noting that unlike most professions, people are critical if he's too similar to his father; he says he's trying to find a project in which they can work together. He also says that Kirk is often surprised when people ask if he's jealous of his son's success. Douglas then notes that his upcoming film "Basic Instinct" had 47 seconds edited to get an R rating, though audiences can see the unedited version in Europe. Then he comments on the new film "Radio Flyer", which he produced. Linda Hopkins does not appear due to lack of time.—lenab9011