Taylor (' I don't pretend to be an ordinary housewife') was nevertheless seriously upset by 'Destiny' and hired her Armani-clad birds of prey. Lawyer Neil Papiano gave an instant critique of 'Destiny' with:' This is ridiculous. You don't have a right to protect yourself from these vultures?'

The said vultures, the TV producers, went pecking after Taylor 's legal process was chucked out of court. Naughtily, they began filming in January and the first scenes were at the mansion where Taylor and Michael Wilding once lived. Producer Lester Persky said that the film 'will go up to the near present because I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow' and that all Taylor 's husbands will be portrayed. As will her ' best friend' Debbie Reynolds from whom she stole Eddie Fisher before she dumped him for Burton the first time.Is that another TV movie?

The one immediately in question stars Sherilyn Fenn and she is nothing for Taylor to complain about. In one sequence update for the TV film from Taylor 's movie 'Ivanhoe' (which BBC2 screened last Sunday) the contrast between the two stars is quite evident., Fenn, aptly and amply one of the the stars of David Lynch's ' Twin Peaks ', more than does justice to the medieval costumes. She's also quite a ringer for Taylor in a scene with Rock Hudson ( another good lookalike actor in Dan McVicar) where he threatens to throw her in a swimming pool.

Throughout, in the weddings and the movies and the marriages Sherilyn Fenn makes Taylor look good.

What has bruised the project is C. David Heymann's book in which he alleges that Taylor was abused by three of her husbands. Hotel heir NickyHilton is said to have beaten her on their honeymoon. Burton is also said to have got into fisticuffs. And Mike Todd the extravagant entrepreneur who died tragically in an air crash in 1958 is described in an incident that he 'went for her.'

Lawyers again. Taylor 's Neil Papian said:' The abuse charges are totally false.' He says such allegations could cost her millions. She is selling an image. If that is tarnished so are the gold credit cards. 'Her name,' he says, 'is all she really has.'

And that may be it. With cable television and super electronic highways the paparazzi are being overtaken by the video piranhas. Taylor , as we said, might not be the best example but clearly this is the TV business of the future.

She is a glaring subject for the TV biopic. Her life could have washed a generation of rugby jerseys. Jack Parr the onetime great of late night American TV said:' She should get a divorce and settle down.' Joan Rivers, a skeleton, on Liz's weight:' Is she fat? Her favourite food is seconds'.

Why should a subject of late night TV comics and commentators, of the tabloid tease, a British-born wartime evacuee -- to Hollywood -- object to the TV treatment?

Well, would you? If you take it from a professional point she isn't getting paid. Sherilyn Fenn is. The reason for the Taylor movie and many like it is the shortage of subjects. With the airwaves packed with time there is an increasing need for material. Famous names help fill the time slots.

What has changed is that so many of the subjects are living. There are films on 'Mia Farrow'( Patsy Kensit plays her), 'Madonna' ( Terumi Matthews is the star), 'O.J. Simpson' ( Bobby Hosea and Jessica Tuck play O.J. and his murdered wife Nicole), 'Tyson' ( Miachel Jai White and Kristen Wilson play Tyson and former wife actress Robin Givens) and there are two TV shots at 'Roseanne'. In one Patrikaa Darbo and Stephen Lee play Roseanne and Tom Arnold; David Graff and Denny Dillon do the honours on another network.

Roseanne got upset about some of the casting. She thought Denny Dillon was ' a freaky little thing.. a midget woman.'

Which is what Liz Taylor has spent her life striving either to become or remain. Chiefly, she survives. And from the photographs so far available Sherilyn Fenn is not doing anything untoward to her image.

Oh, there is one thing. Fenn never keeps anyone waiting. Which plays games with director Mike Nichols who classically said:' There are three things I never saw Elizabeth Taylor do. Tell a lie; be unkind to anyone: and be on time.' The Last Star?

She's beaten the clock.

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