Colin Farrell was the only Hollywood star to speak at the funeral of legend Elizabeth Taylor on Friday.
His appearance was a major surprise to many in the Hollywood scene who noted he was the only non-family member to speak.
His appearance had the gossip columns columns chattering because his friendship with the screen icon was not well known.
"What was Colin Farrell doing at Liz Taylors funeral," asked E!online, just one of many comments.
"Who knew Colin Farrell and Liz Taylor were such close friends" asked OK magazine.
The Dublin-born actor quoted from English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, who spent many years in Dublin, at the service.
Taylor was a huge fan of Farrell and had told 'Harper's Bazaar' that she thought he was an outstanding talent.
"I love Johnny Depp and I love Colin Farrell--both brilliant and nuanced actors," she told the magazine.
She told the magazine that Farrell was one of the few actors she would love to have worked with.
Farrell's moving tribute include the Manley Hopkins lines;
"How to keep—is there any any, is there none such, nowhere known some, bow or brooch or braid or brace, lace, latch or catch or key to keep back beauty, keep it, beauty, beauty, beauty…from vanishing away?" goes the poem.
"No there's none, there's none, o no there's none, nor can you long be, what you now are, called fair, do what you may do, what, do what you may."
"Give beauty back, beauty, beauty, beauty, back to God, beauty's self and beauty's giver.
"See; not a hair is, not an eyelash, not the least lash lost; every hair
"Is, hair of the head, numbered," from the poem 'The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo'.
Other poetry readings were delivered by her son Michael Wilding and daughter Liza Burton-Tivey. Her grandson, Rhys Tivey, played 'Amazing Grace' on a trumpet.
The service took place at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, outside Los Angeles where her close friend Michael Jackson, was buried in 2009.
In her last interview in 'Harper's Bazaar,' talking about her many husbands and jewelery Taylor said: "I never planned to acquire a lot of jewels or a lot of husbands. For me, life happened, just as it does for anyone else. I have been supremely lucky in my life in that I have known great love, and of course I am the temporary custodian of some incredible and beautiful things.
"But I have never felt more alive than when I watched my children delight in something, never more alive than when I have watched a great artist perform, and never richer than when I have scored a big cheque to fight AIDS. Follow your passion, follow your heart, and the things you need will come."
