Celebrity Romantic Gifts
Look out! Romantic gifts have always been in "vogue". Just watch TV or pick up any trendy magazine. And with young 20-year olds and celebrities of all ages rushing to the altar, love is in the air. Just take a look at these celebrity romantic gifts:
10 Most Romantic Gestures of All Time
By Dan Bova
These gifts from the heart were so extravagant—or original—that we had to salute the people who came up with them. Let them inspire you to new heights of sweetness.
1. Richard Burton's Rock for Elizabeth Taylor Sure, their relationship was a roller-coaster—they married and divorced each other twice—but wouldn't you be somewhat forgiving of a guy who liked to shower you with expensive jewelry like, say, a 69.42-carat diamond?
Burton bid on this Harry Winston wonder at an auction in 1969, but lost out to business tycoon Robert Kenmore, who coughed up just over a million bucks for the beauty. Burton didn't take the auctioneer's hammer for an answer, though, and after some heated haggling on the phone, Kenmore sold the gem to Burton for an undisclosed sum.
The Taylor-Burton diamond, as it's called, ended up being a gift that kept on giving: After the couple parted ways, Liz sold the gem in 1979 for a whopping $5 million.
2. The Taj Mahal India's most popular tourist attraction is actually a tomb, created for emperor Shah Jahan's wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth to their 14th child in 1631. Heartbroken, the Shah commanded 20,000 workmen to spend 22 years building this marble-and-jewel-studded effigy.
As if that weren't enough blood, sweat and tears spent, rumor has it that upon its completion, the Shah ordered that the right hand of the chief mason get chopped off so the building could remain truly one of a kind. Let's just say that when an emperor's in pain, his subjects feel it, and how.
3. Posh Spice's Cologne for David Beckham What do you get for a toned, tan, highly-swooned-over metrosexual millionaire who has everything? If you are Posh Spice, you get your husband—soccer superstar David Beckham—the world's most exclusive cologne.
The one-of-a-kind, $50,000 bottle of Clive Christian No. 1 fragrance took six months to produce, and came encased in a crystal bottle shaped like—what else?—a soccer shoe.
4. DiMaggio's Flowers for Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe may have dated some pretty powerful guys, but no man showed her more TLC than her husband of nine months, baseball player Joe DiMaggio. After Marilyn's death in 1962, Joe placed a 20-year standing order with a local flower shop to have long-stemmed roses placed on her grave three times a week. Talk about touching.
5. O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi This author crafted what many consider to be the most generous—albeit cheapest—romantic gesture ever. In this short story, a poor-in-pocket but rich-in-love couple secretly makes huge sacrifices in order to buy each other Christmas gifts: He sells his grandfather's gold watch to buy his wife a set of tortoise-shell combs for her beautiful hair; she cuts off that beautiful hair and sells it to a wig-maker to buy her hubby a platinum chain for his watch.
When they realize what's happened, they're wise enough to just be thankful that they have each other.
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Article courtesy of Happen magazine, www.happenmag.com.