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and said he had aids and she was going and visiting hospices, i found beautiful letter that is she wrote to different aids patients. she did little things like she would arrange for a patient to be buried who didn't have the money. she said no -- no mother's son is going to sit on a cold slab in a morgue when i can do something about it and it was the little things that she did including funneling her own money into experimental treatments that i was touched by h. mike: you touched on many husbands one was republican senator of virginia, there were a power couple in washington, that was interesting to me. what about that relationship? >> that's how the whole book came about. he wanted a younger generation to know about all that she did. he put me in touch with her family. the truth is she hated it here. she hated being a senator's wife. i think she thought that she would be a partner and instead
activist in florence - and entrepreneurs to pave th way for countless celebritie to do what they do today last week i sat down with kate anderson brown, author o elizabeth taylor, the grit and glamour of than icon >> joining me now on set i kate anderson brower, th author of the newly published, elizabeth taylor the grit and glamour of an icon kate, thank you very much fo coming here on this christma morning. i want to read something, an excerpt from your book i think it encapsulate elizabeth taylor, and i want you to flush it out. here's what you said about whe she would visit a.i.d.s. patients you said taylor wanted to look perfect for every visit. i hope i have it over done it, she joke she'd always arrive with ful hair and makeup, and the famou 33.19 asher cards diamond on her left ring finger
about 1981, and he didn't talk about it publicly until 1987 at the potomac dinner in washington. and at that dinner, he was booed because he didn't talk about aids patients in the empathetic way that people expected him to. that people wanted him to come out and be more sympathetic. and elizabeth was very influential. she went to the white house, she went to the oval office and she visited him because they were both hollywood stars. and what i found in her diaries were incredible moments of compassion, and as you said, these were unpublicized visits to hospices, so nobody saw her hugging patients, asking them things like, you know, does their dog need to be walked, for instance. do they want her to call their mother? i mean, incredibly sweet things, and she was for gay marriage decades before anybody was talking about it, because she had so many gay men in her life. >> yeah. you know, the thing about
the time, ronald reagan, was absolutely silent. so talk a little bit about elizabeth taylor's activism there. let me read you a piece here, from your book, it says most of the time this was about aids patients. most of the time they would say the patients at hospice just needed someone to touch them. she decided to do unpublicized hospice vists. she wanted them to know they were loved. >> she was the first major excellent activist to take on hiv and aids. i think she was actually one of the first celebrity activists, period, to really devote her life to a cause. because the second half of her life was all about hiv and aids. so she used her relationship with the reagans and i got this rare look into these private letters and diaries where she's writing to nancy reagan and pleading with her to have the president speak about aids because it was years. the first cases, you're talking
years. before the coronavirus pandemic, fauci was known for leading the nation through another crisis, the aids epidemic. as youthful physician and medical doctor, but she helped martial a scientific response that help save millions of lives and his approach was surprising, it refreshing for someone in the government roll. this strategy was to engage directly with aids patients and with activists who felt they were not getting the answers they needed. >> we don't know a lot about its, but we also know an incredible amount about it from my experience over the past three or four years. and hopefully, our recent advances of being able to isolate, identify, and characterize the agent, together with the advances and understanding the natural history and pat of physiology of this disease will allow us over the next year to come back to you and tell you that we now not only have hope and hypothesis, but that we have a real prevention and indeed a
difference here's kelly cobiella. >> reporter: tonight, flowers at a paris tunnel and a london palace for princess diana. a quarter of a century after her death, diana still enthralls and inspires images of her compassion seared into our memory. her meetings with mother teresa, holding the hands of aids patients that compassion is part of the legacy that diana leaves behind. it's inspired 16-year-old olivia hancock. how much do you know about princess diana >> she was so important to people in the world. her legacy still continues as she says young people have the power to change the world. >> reporter: she was the winner of the diana award two years ago set up by prince william and prince harry to recognize young people for their social action and humanitarian work. olivia's cause -- raising thousands for teenage cancer patients and campaigning to end sexism in girls soccer
anti-retroviral medicines for aids patients, to basic food staples to shelter and reconstruction equipment and supplies that will allow people to begin to rebuild their homes. so we've got to keep those supplies coming. the international community, the humanitarian community that we all know well from other conflicts is now stood up. but they are really having a hard time accessing the eastern part of the country where russia is gearing up for its huge offensive and then the south, these areas that have been besieged. but everywhere else, again, we've got to keep those supplies going and those attacks on places like lviv where 65 humanitarian organizations have setup shop, those attacks pose grave risk to people just going to provide food, shelter and medicine. >> russia and eucaine a major producer of food including wheat. you've got to be hugely concerned about potential global food crisis as a result of this
reason. almost 40 years ago at the height of the aids crisis doctor anthony fauci headed the same national institute of allergy and infectious disease which he leaves today. he also ran the government aids research program and in 1987 he says he was approached by leading aids activists promoting a drug as a preventative medication for those at risk of contracting a pneumonia that killed many aids patients. despite plays from physicians like doctor joseph who was vaccinated patients fauci declined to act citing the need for clinical trials. he was focused on the aids vaccine that never materialized. he said delaying use showed an egregious negligence by perpetrators to protect those with aids. the people whose responsibility it was to look after them had no compassion or interest and he could have prevented tens of
institute of allergy and infectious diseases, which he leads today. he also ran the government's aids research program. 1987, he says he was approached by leading aids activist to consider promoting the drug for the preventative medication. despite the pleas from physicians such as dr. joseph donovan who was successfully using facts from the aids patients, fauci declined to act citing the need for an clinical trial. he was focused on the aids vaccine of course which never materialized. 2015 interview, he said that delaying the use of the prophylaxis showed an egregious negligence by perpetrators claiming to protect those with aids. the peoples whose responsibility was to look after them and had compassion or interest. it could have prevented tens of thousands of deaths.