Editorials

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Good grief, Elizabeth Taylor is 70! 

The girl from “National Velvet” has gone through eight marriages and seven divorces, one widowhood, two Oscars, several life-threatening illnesses and she’s still here. And celebrating. 

“I had a party last night,’ Taylor, who turned 70 on Wednesday, said Tuesday night. “I’m having one tomorrow. And I think I’ll have one over the weekend. 

“I feel like 45,” she continued. “I don’t look too bad for someone my age, with my history of illnesses and operations and all those anesthetics. When they knock you out, it gives you time to catch up on your beauty sleep.” 

Taylor, who became a 12-year-old star in “National Velvet,” won best-actress Oscars for “Butterfield 8” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” 

About turning 70: “I like it. It’s no different from being 69. It’s a round number, and there’s something about roundness that has always appealed to me.” As for future plans, she’ll continue raising money to fight AIDS. 

“AIDS is challenge enoughtuntil they find a cure,” she said. “It’s the challenge of a lifetime for anyone. And I’m not going to give up until there is a cure.” 

Taylor is also willing to do another movie, not one for TV, but a “movie movie.” But, she added wistfully, “When you’re 70, they figure you should be out to pasture. And I don’t really give a damn what they think.