May 31, 2006, 10:36 GMT
Los Angeles - Hollywood diva Elizabeth Taylor took to the airways to try to quash tabloid reports that she has Alzheimer's and is gravely ill.
Elizabeth Taylor © Scott Alan / Photorazzi
'Do I look like I'm dying? Do I look like or sound like I have Alzheimer's?' she asked in a Tuesday night broadcast of CNN's Larry King Live.
The adamant 74-year-old, two-time Oscar winner said, however, that she often uses a wheelchair because of chronic back pain as she answered a range of questions about her film career, her work fighting AIDS and her passion for designing jewelry.
Taylor's interview followed a report with the headline 'Liz Alzheimer's Tragedy' last week in the National Enquirer tabloid, which said she was suffering from dementia and was being treated for the early stages of Alzheimer's. The report quoted an unnamed friend.
Taylor has often battled health problems, including congestive heart failure, a brain tumour, severe osteoporosis, alcoholism and obesity.
The oft-married Taylor also spoke with King about her past loves and film career, which culminated with Oscars for her role as a prostitute in Butterfield 8 and as an alcoholic in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
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