Atlanta-based Turner Classic Movies will remember the late Elizabeth Taylor with a 24-hour movie marathon starting at 6 a.m. Sunday. Atlantan Rodney Cook Jr. is remembering her as a friend of the family. His father, Rodney Cook Sr., went to Washington & Lee University in the late 1940s with former U.S. Sen. John Warner, to whom Taylor was married for nearly six years. When Rodney the younger was at W&L, he was sometimes dispatched to fetch the senator — by then a university trustee — and his glamorous wife from the airport. Once, he took them on a brief detour to view Natural Bridge, taking a path that wasn't exactly open to the public. "We, of course, were apprehended," Cook told us. "All these guards came, but the two of them turned around, and seeing that it was their senator and Cleopatra, off they went." Even after the Warners divorced, Cook's family maintained a friendship with La Liz. About the time the Cooks — Rodney and his wife, Emily, along with his dad and their daughter English — were hosting the Atlanta Debutante Club at a father-daughter luncheon at the Millennium Gate Museum in December, their cousin Alex Hitz was paying Taylor a final holiday visit. "We were certain this past Christmas would be her last," Cook said. He sighed, remembering those violet eyes, that warm laugh, and the time she planted a kiss on his cheek after he'd delivered her luggage to her hotel suite. "She was great."
Tweet of the day
"My son Marston and I are both celebrating our birthdays together on Saturday. I'll be 85 and Marston will be 21!"
- Hugh Hefner, whose son and current fiancée are four years apart. Crystal Harris, also known as Miss December 2009, turns 25 later this month. She and Hef get hitched in June.
Buzz in our ear
Celebrity journalism can give you an ulcer sometimes. While running down details of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan's wedding last weekend, our gumshoe sources were plying us with all sorts of intel, including the tantalizing tip that Matty Ice and the former Sarah Marshall were using the code names "Kevin and Sierra" to throw off suspicion. How cloak-and-dagger of them! As the story continued to unfold, though, we came across another news bulletin: the real Kevin and Sierra. Kevin and Sierra Clemons married last weekend at The Cloister on Sea Island, as did Matt and Sarah Ryan, so you can see how our spies could get their wires crossed. All's well that ends well, though, and members of the Clemons wedding party, who certainly were in a position to know, filled in a few more details about the Ryan affair. The former Sierra Finnegan and her beloved exchanged vows on Saturday, the Ryans on Friday. Both couples call Atlanta home now, and we wish a happy-ever-after to them all.
Celebrity birthdays
Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner is 85. Actor Dennis Quaid is 57. Actress-model Paulina Porizkova is 46. Actress Cynthia Nixon is 45. Rock singer Kevin Martin (Candlebox) is 42. Actress Keshia Knight Pulliam is 32. Actress Leighton Meester is 25. Actor-singer Jesse McCartney is 24. Actress Kristen Stewart is 21. Actress Elle Fanning is 13.
Contributing: news services
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