For Liz, British Ovations Abound

Riding a wave of adulation in the country of her birth, Dame Elizabeth Taylor on Wednesday was handed a lifetime achievement award by the British Film Institute.

Friends, including the singer George Michael, gave the newest 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 included Orson Welles.

The queen made Taylor a dame - the female equivalent of a knight - 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.

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 for Butterfield 8 in 1960. She won a second Oscar in 1966 for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

The British homage 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 June 16.