"I had put on, inadvertently, a peeling mask for the lunch with Elizabeth Taylor. Like, what did I do?" Gray recalled
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NEED TO KNOW
- Linda Gray shared a humorous story about her first lunch with Elizabeth Taylor on the Celebrity Drop podcast
- Gray unknowingly wore a peeling mask during the lunch after rushing to prepare a meal in just 45 minutes
- The two actresses connected through a mutual friend, an interior decorator working on Taylor’s house
Linda Gray is sharing the details behind her first lunch with Elizabeth Taylor — and how she unknowingly wore a peeling mask on her face throughout.
Gray, who played Sue Ellen Ewing on Dallas for 14 seasons, said in a recent interview with the Celebrity Drop podcast that she and Taylor first connected via a mutual friend — an interior decorator who was working on Taylor's house.
"We met through mutual friends," Gray, 85, shared.
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Credit: Harmony Gerber/FilmMagic; Kevin Mazur/WireImage
"He called me and he said, 'Well, we're going to pop by and see you on the way to Santa Barbara. I said lovely. And he said well we're bringing Elizabeth and her assistant Liz, whom I adore to this day. And he said we're just going to pop by for lunch," she shared.
Gray continued: "And I kind of froze because I thought, 'Oh my god, Elizabeth Taylor's coming for lunch. What am I going to fix?' "
"And I didn't have time. I had about 45 minutes to pull this lunch together. But it was a little stressful," she added.
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So, in an effort to save time, Gray decided to forgo makeup and focus instead on preparing the food.
"I thought, I don't have time to put makeup on and do all that. I have to focus on the cooking, which I did. So, I ran in and I thought, 'Okay, I'll just put a little moisturizer on my face. Just tap it on, a little lipstick and off I go,' " she added.
Gray continued: "So, during the lunch — Waldo was the decorator and his assistant was next to me and he went like this [gesturing] as you do when somebody has something on their mouth from eating. And so I was like, 'Wait a minute. I better check.' So I took my my napkin and I tapped to see maybe it was some breadcrumb or something. And then we continued the lunch."
"And then about 10 minutes later, he did the same thing on this side," she shared. "And I just sort of delicately did this and thought, 'What happened to me?' Anyway, they left. They went on to Santa Barbara, and I cleaned up the lunch and dishes and then I ran into my bathroom and took one look in the mirror and I was shocked. I had put on, inadvertently, a peeling mask for the lunch with Elizabeth Taylor. Like, what did I do?"
Taylor died March 23, 2011, at age 79, over a month after being admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for symptoms caused by congestive heart failure.
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