Shirley MacLaine, 90, has recently published a photographic memoir, The Wall of Life. In it, she shares a strange chore that her friend, Elizabeth Taylor, would enjoy doing for her.
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Taylor died in 2011 at the age of 79, and MacLaine misses her dearly. In an interview with CBS Sunday Mornings on October 13, she was asked about a the chore that Taylor found delight in.
Washing her floors.
Such famous and rich celebrities typically live luxurious lives free of the domestic burdens everyone else has to face. Taylor didn't have to wash her friend's floors, but she wanted to. This may come as confusion to many, but there may be a more sobering reason behind it.
Elizabeth Taylor Enjoyed Washing Shirley MacLaine's Floors
Lee Cowen, CBS correspondent, asked Shirley MacLaine about this peculiar habit, "you write in the book that she'd come over and wash your floors."
"Yeah she does," MacLain responded, "she wanted to be a housewife, at least around me."
"Maybe they were always dirty. I don't know," she jokingly adds, referencing her floors that Taylor took great joy in cleaning.
The things you'll do for your friends.
Apparently, the appreciation for this chore arose after Taylor's visit to the Betty Ford Clinic in 1983 for her alcohol and drugs addiction. Whilst there, she was subject to many things that her pampered life never exposed her to before.
Having to live with a stranger and undertaking domestic everyday chores was something Taylor had to do. This likely formed an appreciation for cleanliness and chores. Revealed to us in the recent BBC docuseries Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar.
MacLaine and Taylor were dear friends and it's those small things that you grow to appreciate when you've lost someone close to you. It's been over a decade since Taylor's passing, and MacLaine still gets emotional when speaking of her.
Even Taylor washing up the floors for her is a memory that she's held on to, something most of us have to do every day.
