Screen legends Elizabeth Taylor and Julie
Andrews have been made Dames of the British
Empire by the Queen, at Buckingham Palace.
The Oscar-winning actresses were made Dame
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
in the millennium New Year Honours List.
Between them they
have starred in some of
Hollywood's most
memorable films and
created some of the
most enduring female
roles - and they drew
large crowds of
onlookers to the
palace.
For Liz Taylor, as she is
known to millions, her
former husband, actor
Richard Burton, was on
her mind as she headed
for the palace.
She told reporters: "I miss him so much. I wish
he was here."
She said: "I came to Buckingham Palace once
before, years ago, with Richard, when he
received the OBE."
Dame Julie said: "This is the greatest honour of
my life. I didn't think I was eligible as I've lived
in America for such a long time but I've always
felt I've taken my Britishness with me."
Both were born in
Britain in the 1930s but
have spent most of
their working lives in
the United States.
Dame Elizabeth, who
has been married eight
times - twice to the
late Richard Burton -
described the honour
as "the peak of her
life".
The Sound of Music
star Dame Julie Andrews, 64, was the first to
receive her insignia, for services to acting and
entertainment, at a ceremony in the ballroom
at Buckingham Palace.
Next, in alphabetical order, came Dame
Elizabeth, 68, who received her Dame
Commander's brooch in honour of her services
to acting and charity - recognising her
fundraising for Aids research.
Rarely have two such big stars been honoured
at the same investiture and - as is now
common practice - the investiture ceremony
was recorded for television.
An exhibition of
portraits of Dame
Elizabeth opens at
London's National
Portrait Gallery on
Thursday and she will
be the guest of honour
at a charity
spectacular at the
Royal Albert Hall,
London, on 26 May to
raise money for Aids
research.
Next Wednesday, the
British Film Institute is honouring her with a BFI
Fellowship at a tribute dinner at the
Dorchester Hotel in London.
Another highlight of a planned series of events
in her honour is the National Film Theatre's
programme of a dozen classic Liz Taylor
movies, including the epic Cleopatra in which
she starred with Richard Burton.
Dame Julie, who has
been married to US
movie director Blake
Edwards for 30 years,
shot to fame in the
1960s with starring
roles in The Sound of
Music and Mary
Poppins.
In December last year,
she launched a lawsuit
against a New York
hospital for damage to
her singing voice during vocal surgery in 1997.
Among her recent projects has been a British
film version of the Noel Coward comedy
Relative Values.
~*~
We're doomed if we ignore nature says
Prince(Electronic Telegraph)
By Robert Hardman
THE Prince of Wales will deliver a dire warning of the "disintegration of our
overall environment" when he makes his contribution to this year's Reith
Lectures on BBC Radio this evening.
In his fiercest attack on the dangers of unrestrained scientific research and the
perils of tampering with what he calls the "grain of nature", he says that a
world which ignores the "essential unity" of the living and spiritual worlds is
doomed.
The Telegraph has seen extracts of the 2,300-word essay, which the Prince
wrote during his recent pilgrimage to a remote Greek monastery. They
continue many of the themes which he developed in his Millennium address on
the BBC's Thought for the Day. But the uncompromising tone of tonight's
analysis may prompt a further rift between St James's Palace and the
Government, which continues to support genetically modified food.
The Prince said: "If literally nothing is held sacred any more - because it is
considered synonymous with superstition or in some other way 'irrational' -
what is there to prevent us treating our entire world as some great laboratory
of life with potentially disastrous long-term consequences?" He goes on to
welcome a "precautionary approach" to scientific advances and mocks those
who portray that as a sign of weakness or an attempt to block progress. "I
believe it to be a sign of strength and wisdom."
In a speech rich in quotes from sources as varied as Socrates, Bertrand
Russell and the Astronomer Royal, he counsels against reducing the natural
world to a mechanical process. "In this technology driven age, it is all too easy
for us to forget that mankind is part of nature and not apart from it and that
this is why we should seek to work with the grain of nature in everything we
do."
Science should be used to understand how nature works but not to change
what it is, the Prince says. There would be "remarkable" results if a fraction of
the time and money invested in genetically manipulated crops were spent on
research into traditional farming methods.
He concludes: "Only by rediscovering the essential unity and order of the
living and spiritual world will we avoid the disintegration of our overall
environment."