Ailing Taylor 'still cheerful'

Elizabeth Taylor is keeping her spirits up despite battling congestive heart failure, her publicist says.

Taylor, 72, told W magazine’s December issue that she had the condition, in which the heart fails to pump enough blood through the body, resulting in fatigue, shortness of breath, fluid build-up and other symptoms.

The London-born Hollywood star, who won an Oscar for Butterfield 8 in 1960 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966, also said she had scoliosis that had twisted her spine, resulting in constant pain.

“My body’s a real mess,” said Dame Elizabeth, whose screen credits also include Cleopatra, Suddenly, Last Summer, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and National Velvet.

“If you look at it in the mirror, it’s just completely convex and concave.”

Despite her health problems, Taylor’s spokeswoman Sally Morrison said last night the actress was coping well, remained cheerful and had recently attended a friend’s birthday party.

Taylor has lived through two life-threatening bouts of pneumonia, one requiring a tracheotomy, back fractures, two hip replacements and a brain tumour, among other health ailments.

She told the magazine she was not afraid to die.

“Really I’m not, because I’ve been there,” she said.