Editing Elizabeth Taylor (section)

==Other ventures==
===HIV/AIDS activism===
Taylor was one of the first celebrities to participate in HIV/AIDS activism and helped to raise more than $270 million for the cause since the mid-1980s.<ref name="woo20110324">{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-elizabeth-taylorlong-20110324-story.html |title=From the Archives: Elizabeth Taylor dies at 79; legendary actress |access-date=December 1, 2018 |last=Woo |first=Elaine |date=March 23, 2011 |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> She began her philanthropic work after becoming frustrated with the fact that very little was being done to combat the disease despite the media attention.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/lkl/date/2003-02-03/segment/00 |title=CNN Larry King Live: Interview with Dame Elizabeth Taylor |date=February 3, 2003 |publisher=[[CNN]] |access-date=December 1, 2018}}</ref> She later explained for ''Vanity Fair'' that she "decided that with my name, I could open certain doors, that I was a commodity in myself – and I'm not talking as an actress. I could take the fame I'd resented and tried to get away from for so many years – but you can never get away from it – and use it to do some good. I wanted to retire, but the tabloids wouldn't let me. So, I thought: If you're going to screw me over, I'll use you."<ref name="vanityfair">{{cite news |first=Nancy |last=Collins |title=Liz's AIDS Odyssey |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1992/11/elizabeth-taylor-activism-aids |work=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]] |date=November 1992 |access-date=November 1, 2018}}</ref>

[[File:Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Taylor Testifying Before the House Budget Committee on HIV-AIDS Funding (5978837887) (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Congresswoman [[Nancy Pelosi]] (left) alongside Taylor (right), who is testifying in 1990 before the [[United States House Committee on the Budget|House Budget Committee]] on HIV-AIDS Funding]]

Taylor began her philanthropic efforts in 1984, helping to organize and by hosting the first AIDS fundraiser to benefit the [[AIDS Project Los Angeles]].<ref name="vanityfair" /><ref name="advocate">{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OWMEAAAAMBAJ&q=the+advocate+elizabeth+taylor&pg=PT9 | title=Elizabeth Taylor: ''The Advocate'' Interview |access-date=December 1, 2018 |last=Yarbrough |first=Jeff | date= October 15, 1996 |work=[[The Advocate (LGBT magazine)|The Advocate]]}}</ref> In August 1985, she and [[Michael S. Gottlieb|Michael Gottlieb]] founded the National AIDS Research Foundation after her friend and former co-star Rock Hudson announced that he was dying of the disease.<ref name="vanityfair" /><ref name="advocate" /> The following month, the foundation merged with [[Mathilde Krim]]'s AIDS foundation to form the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).<ref name="amfar">{{cite web |url=https://www.amfar.org/amfar-introduction-and-history/ |title=History |access-date=December 1, 2018 |publisher=[[amfAR]]}}</ref><ref name="timeline">{{cite web |url=https://elizabethtayloraidsfoundation.org/timeline/ |title=Timeline |publisher=The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation |access-date=December 1, 2018}}</ref> As amfAR's focus is on research funding, Taylor founded the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF) in 1991 to raise awareness and to provide support services for people with HIV/AIDS, paying for its overhead costs herself.<ref name="vanityfair" /><ref name="advocate" /><ref name="unaids">{{cite web |url=http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2015/january/20150126_ETAF |title=A look inside The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation |date=January 26, 2015 |publisher=UN AIDS |access-date=December 1, 2018 |archive-date=February 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200223084958/https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2015/january/20150126_ETAF |url-status=dead }}</ref> Since her death, her estate has continued to fund ETAF's work, and donates 25% of royalties from the use of her image and likeness to the foundation.<ref name="unaids" /> In addition to her work for people affected by HIV/AIDS in the United States, Taylor was instrumental in expanding amfAR's operations to other countries; ETAF also operates internationally.<ref name="vanityfair" />

Taylor testified before the [[United States Senate|Senate]] and [[United States House of Representatives|House]] for the [[Ryan White Care Act]] in 1986, 1990, and 1992.<ref name="timeline" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://hab.hrsa.gov/livinghistory/timeline/legislation_hist.htm |title=Ryan White CARE Act: a Legislative History |publisher=[[Health Resources and Services Administration]] |access-date=December 1, 2018 |archive-date=October 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022082358/https://hab.hrsa.gov/livinghistory/timeline/legislation_hist.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> She persuaded President [[Ronald Reagan]] to acknowledge the disease for the first time in a speech in 1987, and publicly criticized presidents [[George H. W. Bush]] and [[Bill Clinton]] for lack of interest in combatting the disease.<ref name="vanityfair" /><ref name="advocate" /> Taylor also founded the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center to offer free HIV/AIDS testing and care at the [[Whitman-Walker Clinic]] in Washington, DC, and the Elizabeth Taylor Endowment Fund for the [[UCLA]] Clinical AIDS Research and Education Center in Los Angeles.<ref name="timeline" /> In 2015, Taylor's business partner [[Kathy Ireland]] claimed that Taylor ran an illegal "underground network" that distributed medications to Americans suffering from HIV/AIDS during the 1980s, when the [[Food and Drug Administration]] had not yet approved them.<ref>{{cite news |title=Elizabeth Taylor 'ran Dallas Buyers Club-style HIV drugs ring from her home' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/03/elizabeth-taylor-dallas-buyers-club-hiv-aids-drugs-ring |work=The Guardian |first=Peter |last=Walker |date=December 3, 2015 |access-date=December 1, 2018}}</ref> The claim was challenged by several people, including amfAR's former vice-president for development and external affairs, Taylor's former publicist, and activists who were involved in [[Project Inform]] in the 1980s and 1990s.<ref>{{cite news |first=Walter |last=Armstrong |title=Did Liz Taylor Really Run a Bel Air Buyers Club for AIDS Meds, As Kathy Ireland Claimed? |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2015/12/truth-about-liz-taylors-aids-safe-house.html |work=New York |date=December 10, 2015 |access-date=December 1, 2018}}</ref>

Taylor was honored with several awards for her philanthropic work. She was made a Knight of the French [[Legion of Honour]] in 1987, and received the [[Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award]] in 1993, the Screen Actors' Guild Lifetime Achievement Award for Humanitarian service in 1997, the [[GLAAD Vanguard Award]] in 2000, and the [[Presidential Citizens Medal]] in 2001.<ref name="timeline" />

===Fragrance and jewelry brands===
[[File:Elizabeth Taylor at Neiman Marcus store, Dallas.jpg|thumb|Taylor promoting her first fragrance, Passion, in 1987]]

Taylor created a collection of fragrances whose unprecedented success helped establish the trend of celebrity-branded perfumes in later years.<ref name="mic">{{cite web|url=https://www.mic.com/articles/188527/why-celebrity-fragrances-wouldnt-exist-without-elizabeth-taylor|title=Why celebrity fragrances wouldn't exist without Elizabeth Taylor|work=Mic|last=Lubitz|first=Rachel|date=21 March 2018}}</ref><ref name="guardianperfume">{{cite news |first=Sali |last=Hughes |title=Elizabeth Taylor: the original celebrity perfumer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/mar/29/elizabeth-taylor-original-celebrity-perfumer |work=The Guardian |date=March 29, 2011 |access-date=December 1, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Lisa Respers |last=France |title=Obsessions: Elizabeth Taylor, queen of cologne |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/03/25/taylor.celebrity.scents/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110507000241/http://edition.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/03/25/taylor.celebrity.scents/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 7, 2011 |publisher=CNN |date=March 25, 2011 |access-date=December 1, 2018}}</ref> In collaboration with [[Elizabeth Arden, Inc.]], she began by launching two best-selling perfumes – Passion in 1987, and [[White Diamonds]] in 1991.<ref name="guardianperfume" /> Taylor personally supervised the creation and production of each of the 11 fragrances marketed in her name.<ref name="guardianperfume" /> According to biographers Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger, she earned more money through the fragrance collection than during her entire acting career,<ref name=Kashner />{{rp|436}} and upon her death, the British newspaper ''The Guardian'' estimated that the majority of her estimated $600 million-$1 billion estate consisted of revenue from fragrances.<ref name="guardianperfume" /> In 2005, Taylor also founded a jewelry company, House of Taylor, in collaboration with Kathy Ireland and Jack and Monty Abramov.<ref>{{cite web |title=House of Taylor Jewelry, Inc. Established Through Merger With Nurescell Inc. |url=http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/house-of-taylor-jewelry-inc-established-through-merger-with-nurescell-inc-54488327.html |agency=[[PR Newswire]] |date=May 23, 2005 |access-date=December 1, 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117034108/http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/house-of-taylor-jewelry-inc-established-through-merger-with-nurescell-inc-54488327.html |archive-date=November 17, 2015}}</ref>