Miss Taylor, who is crippled with osteoporosis and congestive heart problems, arrived at CNN's Californian studios in a wheelchair. She smiled and managed to wave at the gathered crowd of well-wishers.
The woman once proclaimed the most beautiful in the world wore a green and purple full-length kaftan with bright green heels.
Eight-times-married Miss Taylor said she had been forced into using the wheelchair because of a worsening of a condition she was born with - scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine. These days she is rarely seen in public. Her last screen appearance was in 2001, in the little-known U.S. TV movie, These Old Broads.
In a career spanning over 60 years, Miss Taylor has made 55 movies and ten television films. She has suffered two bouts of near-fatal viral pneumonia, a brain tumour, three hip replacements and multiple fractures of the spine.
She also underwent two periods in rehab for addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs.
Meanwhile, Michael Jackson has been touring Japanese orphanages looking for another child to adopt, according to U.S. reports.
The star is currently fighting his former second wife, Debbie Rowe, over custody of the two children she bore him.
Miss Rowe, a former dermatologist's assistant, is the mother of Jackson's oldest son Prince Michael, aged nine, and eight-yearold daughter Paris. He has another son, adopted four-year-old Prince Michael II, whose mother has not been identified.
Celebrity columnist Roger Friedman said: 'Michael Jackson's weekend trip to Japan was not all about publicity and quick self-gratification for a dimmed star with no fans.
'Jackson toured orphanages perhaps with a reason. I'm told he's looking for more kids to add to his current collection of three.'
Miss Rowe has made significant legal gains lately in her long-running fight to see her children and Jackson could be taken to the United States Supreme Court. Legal experts say Miss Rowe is in a good position to have access to her children and might even gain custody of them.
On the one recent occasion when she was allowed to see the youngsters, Jackson apparently refused to let her tell them she was their mother.
