The former first lady lived a long and glamorous life, yet somehow her charms were lost on me. Perhaps President Reagan's policies poisoned the well, but it's hard for me to have respect for a woman who supposedly controlled her husband yet somehow was unable to get him to do much of anything about the AIDS crisis. That her conservative stance on stem-cell research only changed when it directly affected her further demonstrated her fickle (read: opportunistic) empathy ... and don't get me strated on the astrology crap. There's no altering history. But it will forever break my heart to imagine how different the early days of AIDS might have been if someone of Princess Diana or Michelle Obama's caliber had been our mother-in-chief instead of an extra from "Dynasty." Elizabeth Taylor was truly an angel to step into the role. But imagine how much more powerful the message would have been coming from the home of the leader of the free world.
If only there were Terry Sweeney clips online ...
Joan Didion nailed Nance's smile when she described it as "a study in frozen insecurity."
UPDATE: Look what I found on NBC(dot)com!
An interesting response to my post on Facebook:
