Elizabeth
Taylor and Tom Cruise were honored at the 2005 Britannia
Awards
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Elizabeth
Taylor and Tom Cruise
were honored at the 2005 Britannia Awards, presented
by the Hollywood arm of the British Academy of Film
and Television Arts.
Arriving well after the start of the Thursday ceremony
at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the wheelchair-bound Taylor
was still the vivacious glamour queen who had walked
so many red carpets for so long. She was dressed for
the occasion in an intricately detailed floral-pattered
blouse and an Indian-influenced skirt, and she wore
a necklace the size of Cleveland (with matching earrings,
of course).
Taylor was playful as she posed for photographers with
her award.
"Now, can you get me suite on the Cunard?"
she asked, referring to the show's co-sponsor, which
owns, among other ships, the luxurious Queen Mary 2.
"I want to go, I want to go someplace. . . . They
want to give me a whole cruise? I'll take it? Do I get
the whole ship?," she asked, generating laughs
from photographers. "I'll get you all invited,"
she teased, smiling. "That's a lie!"
Appearing healthy, happy and hearty, the often health-troubled
Taylor quashed rumors of her imminent demise. When asked
how she was feeling, she simply replied, "Fine,
thank you."
Taylor, 73, was on hand to receive the Britannia Award
for Artistic Excellence in International Entertainment.
"Well, it's great honor, because it's a British
honor, and I'm British, and, well, it's a thrill,"
Taylor told the entertainment-news program "Entertainment
Tonight."
The Oscar-winning Taylor's award was presented by actor-director
Dennis Hopper, who
told AP Television News, "When I was nine years
old in Dodge City, Kansas, I saw 'National Velvet,'
so Elizabeth Taylor was actually my first girlfriend.
And then when I was in high school in San Diego, when
I was 13, I saw 'A Place in the Sun.' So, I named my
pillow, 'Liz.' So I slept with Liz all through high
school. And then when I was 18, I won a contract with
Warner Bros. And, at 19, she was playing my mother in
'Giant,' even though she was just a few years older
than me. Boy, what an actor's adjustment I had to make
at that moment."
Cruise, who avoided reporters and photographers covering
the event, was honored with the Britannia Award for
Artistic Excellence in Film, presented by actor Anthony
Hopkins.
"He's a great movie star, and actor, and has committed
himself to the movie industry so powerfully. So I'm
just very pleased to have been asked to present the
Kubrick award," Hopkins said. "I worked with
him just briefly, on 'Mission: Impossible,' some years
ago. And it was a lot of fun just working with him.
He laughs a lot."
Cruise's public displays of affection for actress Katie
Holmes have been the talk of Hollywood since
late spring, and supplied a bit of comic fodder for
the show's host, talk-show personality Craig
Ferguson.
"You know, he's a light-hearted couch jumper,"
Ferguson observed, referring to Cruise's infamous June
appearance on "Oprah." "But you know
what?," Ferguson continued, "He's living his
life out loud. Fair play to him, I say. He's a big,
big old-time movie star, and there aren't many of them
around right now. He's terrific."
The night's other honorees included legendary director
Ronald Neame ("The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,"
"The Poseidon Adventure") and director Mike
Newell ("Four Weddings and a Funeral,"
"Harry Potter
and the Goblet of Fire").
Posted On 11/19/2005 12:00:00 AM
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