The 59th Annual Academy Awards

In 1987, Elizabeth graced the Oscars stage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for the first time in more than a decade to present the Academy Award for Best Director. Wearing Nolan Miller and making her grand entrance to “The Shadow of Your Smile,” the love theme from The Sandpiper (1965), she charmed the audience with her characteristic self-deprecating sense of humour. “Hi, I’m Elizabeth Taylor,” she said by way of introduction. (As if we didn’t know!) “Let me tell you about the directors. When they are good they are very, very good. When they are bad, I am horrid.”

The Oscar went to Oliver Stone for Platoon (1986).

There’s an interesting post script. David Lynch, who lost the Oscar to Stone, shared with Elizabeth’s authorized biographer, Kate Andersen Brower, how he received the ultimate consolation prize when he encountered Elizabeth at the after party at Spago:

“I looked at Elizabeth Taylor and I just almost melted to the floor because of her beauty. And I looked at her and she said, ‘I love Blue Velvet.’ And this just about killed me. And I told her, ‘I was so upset that Oliver Stone won because he got to kiss you.’ And she lifted up her hand and wiggled her finger for me to come to her.

“And I went over to her and I stood and she sat and she tilted her head back and indicated her lips. I slowly bent down, all the while going closer and closer to her lips but mesmerized by these violet eyes, and I got closer and closer and pretty soon my lips were touching hers. And they were sinking deeper and deeper and deeper into these pillow lips. . . . I saw those eyes close as we kissed and then mine closed and we went into a dream and I’ll never forget it.”