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Numerous times here, I’ve mentioned my often tumultuous relationship with biopics… of how sometimes actors are cast and praised for their pure resemblance to a real-life figure they’re portraying without any real connection to that person; or an actor simply giving a wonderful PERFORMANCE that transcends looks alone. Then there are those who are nothing more than kitschy stunt-casting. I’m still trying to figure out in which category Lindsay Lohan playing Elizabeth Taylor might fall…

 

The initial news was perplexing. Then press photos started being released, and I was still skeptical -- Photoshop is a wonderful (and accessible) thing...

 

 

Now, some new production stills have surfaced, and I am beginning to wonder if this might not actually work out after all.

 

Amazing things can be done with hair and make-up, to be sure, but an actor still needs to be able to embody and evoke that persona, especially one so well-known and engrained in pop culture as Elizabeth Taylor, to really suck us in.

 

I can’t say the photo of Lindsay as Liz as Cleopatra particularly does it for me. Looks like Linds got an early start on Halloween…

 

 

However, this pic of Lindsay, with her Liz & Dick co-star Grant Bowler (as Liz’s on-again-off-again husband Richard Burton), is far more intriguing. Perhaps it’s just the angle, but Lindsay is her alter ego’s spitting image in this photo…

 

 

It occurs to me, upon studying and reflecting on it, that I think what might be Lindsay’s saving grace here is her smile. If you think about it, both women have very similar smiles. Both ladies have/had an uncanny ability to transcend all those juicy, scandalous things we know about their private lives simply by flashing their pearly whites. Now, assuming Lindsay has done some things to, ahem, “enhance” her smile in the last few years, hopefully she can make it work to her advantage in this film. It certainly doesn’t seem to hurt in this photo of Lindsay as Liz in her later years:

 

 

So, okay, the physical part is admissible. I won’t say I am completely convinced, but I am not completely dismissive either. Now, the true verdict will come when the film is finally aired (November 3 on Lifetime). Let’s face it, our last collective memory of Lindsay in a truly memorable acting role was Mean Girls… when she was 18. We haven’t seen her in any really substantial movie during her adult life. Many in the industry who have come to her defense over the years point out how the public should give her a chance because she’s “talented”. However, our perceptions of her talent come from roles she played when she was a kid! She is a 26-year-old woman now, and she really hasn’t had a chance to spread her wings and develop her skills in the last eight years or so. Of all the stories I’ve read about her in the tabs and on the gossip blogs, I don’t recall hearing anything about acting lessons. Liz & Dick will be the true test to see if Lindsay Lohan really is a talented actress, or if she was just a talented child actress.

 

Stay tuned!

 

 

- Katie Marzullo, YH Staff Editor

katie@younghollywood.com