Liz

In a clear-eyed, often startling look at the woman behind the mask, Heymann portrays actress Elizabeth Taylor as, on the one hand, a resilient survivor of career droughts, emotional disasters, drug and alcohol addiction and illnesses, and on the other, an acquisitive, overindulged, caustic, wildly romantic narcissist urgently needing love and attention. The main outlines of the story are familiar: the London-born child star, overprotected by an ambitious mother and an alcoholic father, breaks away from studio regimentation by marrying hotel heir Conrad "Nicky" Hilton, an alcoholic wife-beater, followed by a succession of husbands whom she generally treats shabbily. Nevertheless, Heymann, bestselling biographer of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Barbara Hutton, interviewed hundreds of Taylor's friends, lovers, co-workers and associates, whose candid recollections, seamlessly woven into the narrative, provide a wealth of intimate detail found in no other biography. Although Donald Spoto's new biography of Taylor, A Passion for Life (Forecasts, March 20), is more analytical, sharply focused and much stronger on film criticism, Heymann's portrait will rivet fans.