The official photo shoot marked the end of the schedule on this doll, three months on from the meeting in Beverly Hills, to the 'Dream Halloween' event in Santa Monica. I was interviewed for Entertainment Tonight, the crew swept into my office with questions about the development of the doll as cameras zoomed in on every detail. Viewers of this prime time show all over America saw my interpretation of Elizabeth Taylor! There was a lot of press coverage, all the way to London.

On the night of the auction, Jill Barad presented Elizabeth Taylor the doll with the words, 'I couldn't be happier if I were God'. Actress Demi Moore called in her bid from Paris, France to buy the doll for $25,000.00, the highest (legitimate) price paid for a Mattel auction doll at that time. Tim, Ms. Taylor's assistant, hugged me and expressed how much Ms Taylor had loved the doll.

The project lasted 3 months. However, running parallel during that time, were my other assignments. For instance, research for the portrait sculpting of Princess Grace, the Andy Warhol doll, John Lennon, Vivienne Westwood, along with major brainstorm meetings and presentations for the following years concepts.

In addition, my work had begun on creating the prototypes for the first three production dolls. The portrait sculpting was to be produced in vinyl and attached to the Barbie body. There was not time to create a new body for production to meet the scheduled release date for the other dolls (Cleopatra, Father of The Bride). In Mattel's Design Center is the gorgeous prototype of Maggie, (never released but my favorite) the slip, the earrings, the hair; it's all there. Also, still waiting in the wings in the Design Center, is the understudy to the auction doll I dressed in a black dress, based on Ms Taylor's role in 'Butterfield 8', the face, the shoes, the hair...