Guiding Royalty

Imagine you’re a young movie producer trying to jump from small pictures into the international film market. Imagine a novice German director comes to you with a lousy script and barely enough money to pick up lunch. Now imagine that, for reasons that boggle your mind, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton announce that they want to star in your movie.

This is the outlandish, funny, touching, and mostly true story told by Yoram Ben-Ami in Guiding Royalty: My Adventure with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

In 1975, Ben-Ami was a struggling young producer making movies and TV shows in Israel. He was married, trying to start a family, and desperate to make it to Hollywood. Suddenly the highest-paid, highest-profile movie stars in the world land in his lap. They are movie royalty and their marriages and private lives fill supermarket tabloids everywhere. He brings them to Israel for publicity only to discover that, as famous as they are, “Liz and Dick” are out of work with no prospects. In other words, both sides need each other. During the five days that they spend together, all of Israel opens up to Taylor and Burton, and Burton and Taylor open up to Ben-Ami. Now Ben-Ami opens up to the reader about what happened.

Guiding Royalty: My Adventure with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton is an intimate look at two ultra-famous people at a time when their fame was at a low ebb. Set in the Holy Land and featuring places and personalities who shaped the history of their times, here is an untold and richly human story.

Yoram Ben-Ami (author) has made films for major American studios and TV networks including Lone Wolf McQuade, Stone Cold, Steal the Sky, Jury Duty, The Lion of Africa, The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains, Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, and the 3 Ninjas franchise, among others. He is active in Hollywood in the Directors Guild and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Nat Segaloff (co-author) has written over a dozen books and produced documentaries including biographies of Arthur Penn, William Friedkin, Harlan Ellison, Stan Lee, Larry King, and John Belushi. His books for Bear Manor Media include Final Cuts: The Last Films of 50 Great Directors and the Screen Saver series.