McMahon: `Liz'

These days in show business if you're anybody at all, you have long ago discarded the weight of a last name and you are known as only Madonna, Bono, Cher or Eminem.

With some entertainers it begins as an affectation. But with Liz that's all you ever had to say and the world knew you were talking about Elizabeth Taylor.

She was such a star, virtually from childhood, that she was able to overcome the scandal sheet coverage of eight marriages to seven husbands, the Eddie Fisher and Richard Burton headlines and numerous illnesses.

But the biggest barrier she ever overcame is the early public opinion about her highly controversial embracing of -- what at the time was the leprosy of the modern age -- AIDS. Those who were infected were the untouchables. The day I interviewed three active HIV patients, someone from the station came in and disinfected the microphones after they left. We've learned a lot since then and the research continues but for that and her remarkable career we can be grateful to Liz.