MOVIES - Aug. 17, 1987

Elizabeth Taylor joined the ranks of the publicly confessed ex-addicts Sunday when, in an interview published by Cosmopolitan magazine, Taylor admitted that

her addiction to drugs and alcohol would have killed her had she not sought treatment. “I was drinking Jack Daniels (whiskey) and soda along with Demerol (a prescription pain killer); and, of course, I was higher than a kite,” Taylor said. “I used to drink because I am shy . . . I could consume so much without getting drunk. But then I’d come home, take my sleeping pills and Valium (a tranquilizer), and wake up in the middle of the night, go to the bathroom and walk into a wall.”