Hello, everybody. We begin first up with the news that Geraldine Ferraro, who in 1984 made history as the first female U.S. vice presidential candidate, died Saturday morning at age 75 from blood cancer at a Boston hospital.

Ferraro ran alongside Walter Mondale in the 1984 presidential election against incumbents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush; in the end, Reagan won every state except Minnesota (Mondale's home state) though Ferraro would set the standard for women in politics to come. In 2008, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin attempted to pick up where Ferraro left off after John McCain picked her as his running mate, and on her Facebook page she paid tribute to Ferraro saying, "She broke one huge barrier and then went on to break many more. May her example of hard work and dedication to America continue to inspire all women."

The death of a political icon like Geraldine Ferraro came just a few short days after we said goodbye to a screen icon: Elizabeth Taylor. The double Academy Award winner died on Tuesday at 79 after a series of health problems over the years including congestive heart failure.

Throughout her lifetime, Liz was known for a lot of things including her marital statuses. Her first husband to hotel mogul Conrad Hilton lasted only nine months in the early 1950's, followed by Michael Wilding (1952-57), Michael Todd, (1957-58 until a plane crash took his life), Eddie Fisher (1959-64, Taylor converted to Judiasm afterwards), and then the three that really made headlines: Richard Burton (1964-74, 1975-76; the two met while filming "Cleopatra"), U.S. Senator John Warner of Virginia (1976-82, she really was the first real housewife of D.C.), and finally, construction worker Larry Fortensky (1991-96, they met while at the Betty Ford Clinic and were married at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch).

Another was her humanitarian work. Along with her two Best Actress Oscars for "Butterfield 8" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" in the 1960's, Taylor received a special Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1992 for her AIDS activism. Prior to that, she was co-founder of amFAR, the American Foundation of AIDS Research, which came around the time her longtime friend Rock Hudson succumbed to the disease.

And then, of course, was the acting. Liz came into our lives in 1944 with "National Velvet" at the young age of 12 and throughout the '40s and '50s, became one of MGM's hottest commodities. In 1956, she starred with Rock Hudson and James Dean in "Giant"; a portion of it was already in the can after Dean's death.

Seven years later came "Cleopatra" with Richard Burton. The film may have been a colossal flop with a $40 million bill (which was big money back in 1963) that almost destroyed 20th Century Fox, but Taylor and Burton would really heat things up for years to come after it wrapped.

Several more films would follow throughout the '70s (with her last being "The Flintstones" in 1994), but during the '80s, it would be television work including stints on "General Hospital" and "All My Children" and even the voice of Maggie Simpson on "The Simpsons." Liz wrapped up her overall resume with the 2001 TV movie "These Old Broads."

And long before celebrities hawked their own merchandise, Taylor got the ball rolling first. Her perfume line -- White Diamonds, Passion, and Black Pearls -- have raked in an estimated $200 million.

But even till the end, Liz like most of the world jumped on the social networking bandwagon. Her Twitter account had 343,605 followers at the time of her death, and on July 12 last year she tweeted what would be her last words to the public: "Every breath you take today should be with someone else in mind. I love you."

Now that Elizabeth Taylor will be reunited with her longtime love Richard Burton and longtime friend Michael Jackson in heaven, her passing also marked the end of Hollywood's old golden age. The new golden age has already begun, and I'm thinking Anne Hathaway is already leading that charge. But of course, there was only one Elizabeth Taylor, and no one will come close to equaling or surpassing her. So long and stay strong.