As I recall Elizabeth Taylor hated being called 'Liz.'

But I bet she didn't hate that as much as she'd hate "Liz & Dick" (9 p.m. Sunday, Lifetime), the TV movie about her love affair with Richard Burton, starring Lindsay Lohan and Grant Bowler.  

It's not exactly disrespectful using the nickname the actress hated so much. The film makes a big deal about the fact that the couple helped herald the era of stars being hounded by paparazzi with their scandalous affair, and in tabloid culture they were 'Liz & Dick.' (Combining their names a la Brangelina would have been far worse. Try it.)

Yet that paparazzi-bait note is pretty much all the movie has to hang its hat on. It's all shallow replications of Elizabeth Taylor outfits and hairstyles, and Taylor/Burton fights and meltdowns without much insight or energy.

Turner Classic Movies will have a special marathon of Elizabeth Taylor movies all day Sunday, April 10, in memory of the recent passing of the legendary actress.

The network has 24 straight hours of some of Taylor's greatest films, so clear out that DVR. Here's the lineup:

Lassie Come Home - 6am
National Velvet - 7:30am
Conspirator - 10:00am
Father of the Bride (1950) - 11:30am
Father's Little Dividend - 1:15pm
Raintree County - 2:45pm
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - 6:00pm
Butterfield 8 - 8:00pm
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - 10:00pm
Giant - 12:30am
Ivanhoe - 4:00am

In 1970, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton gave a playful interview about their volatile marriage (marriages?).

She said: "Fighting is one of the greatest exercises in marital togetherness." Remember that next time, your spouse works your nerves.

60MinutesOvertime.com was gracious enough to share the clip.

Check it out below:
 

This morning, when word reached us of Elizabeth Taylor's passing, I thought back to the summer of 1978.  Her husband at the time, John Warner, was seeking the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in Virginia.  I was a reporter at a small paper in Virginia, and one of my beats was politics.