This, as much as her longing for concealment, fed her empathy with Hollywood's misfits, to whom she offered simple, common kindness: Montgomery Clift, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Michael Jackson, the homosexuals-in-hiding and would-be children whose secrets she heard and kept.

ECONOMIST: Dame Elizabeth Taylor, actress, died on March 23rd, aged 79

Mr Gore won the Philadelphia suburb of Montgomery County by 30, 000 votes, a district Michael Dukakis had lost by more than 60, 000 in 1988.

ECONOMIST: Lexington