It was a sad day when Elizabeth Taylor died. Two weeks ago, the news broke, and we began our long mourning process for the star who had mesmerized the world for decades -- even if our coworkers under 30 didn't know who she was. Taylor was a star who lived like a star. And within hours of her death, speculation about how her will would distribute her assets began to clog the Internet.

It was easy to skip over a lot of this stuff. The first rumor had to do with her children being unhappy that her manager was named personal representative. Then there were all the guesses at how much she was worth: Was it $600 million or $1 billion? How much would her AIDS charities get? What about her jewelry -- remember the Krupp Diamond? All we could think of was how lovely she'd been, especially in her earlier movies.

But something else turned up that definitely got our attention. Bloomberg estimated her estate to be worth about $600 million at her death -- and her future earnings at more than $75 million a year. And rumor had it that she had not addressed her post-death earnings in her will.

Taylor earned considerable sums from her signature fragrances produced by Elizabeth Arden. And she was still earning residuals from many of her movies. Taylor had built up the Elizabeth Taylor brand, and income from that would continue after her death. And she hadn't addressed it in her will or a trust or anything.

It's hard to imagine that such a savvy business woman wouldn't have thought of that. She was close to Michael Jackson, who was so aware of his own brand, and she certainly had witnessed what happened with Elvis Presley's image after his death.

After so many decades of making headlines, Taylor will be making headlines for a while yet. Rumors will eventually, we hope, give way to truth.

Source: Toronto Star, "Who will get what in Elizabeth Taylor's will?," Lesley Ciarula Taylor, 03/29/11