ENTERTAINMENT DAILY: ENT 4 - LIZ TAYLOR

(25 May 2000) English/Nat
STORY: LIZ TAYLOR
LOCATION: LONDON
DATE: 24/05/00
DAME ELIZABETH TAYLOR's Grand Tour of Europe continued with a visit to London where, riding a wave of adulation in the country of her birth, she was handed a lifetime achievement award by the British Film Institute on Wednesday.
Friends including the singers GEORGE MICHAEL and GERI HALLIWELL, former models JODIE KIDD and MARIE HELVIN and fashion designer, VIVIENNE WESTWOOD gave the latest thespian dame a standing ovation as she received the honor at a banquet for AIDS charities.
In her acceptance speech, the much-married 68-year-old star and AIDS campaigner said it had been "a long, slow uphill struggle" to alert people to the dangers of the disease and "build the strong, viable organizations that are needed to curtail this epidemic."
Previous recipients of the award include ORSON WELLES.
The Queen made Taylor a dame - the female equivalent of a knight - earlier this year for her services to the entertainment industry and to charity.
The actress is credited with raising more than $120 million for AIDS research and two items of diamond jewelry from her personal collection were auctioned for AIDS charities at Wednesday's dinner.
The daughter of two art dealers from St. Louis, Mo., Taylor was born in London in 1932 but moved to Los Angeles with her family in 1939.
One of her earliest roles was in National Velvet. She followed that up with the lead in Little Women and roles in Father of the Bride and A Place in the Sun.
She was nominated for Academy Awards for "Raintree Country" (1955); "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958) and "Suddenly, Last Summer" (1959), and won her first Oscar for "Butterfield 8" in 1960. She won a second Oscar in 1966 for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". Her most recent big screen appearance came in The Flintstones.
She married seven times, taking her most celebrated partner Richard Burton, down the ailse twice. She also teamed up with him to make Cleopatra and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
The British homage to the unofficial Queen of Hollywood continues. On Friday, a gala at London's Royal Albert Hall will celebrate Taylor's life. A National Portrait Gallery exhibition devoted to the actress continues through until June 16.
She was in Cannes last week hosting the Victoria Secret-sponsored AmFar party.

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