Elizabeth Taylor ‘Iced Out’ Celeb AIDS Activists, Says Mamie Van Doren: ‘Told Us That We Weren’t Wanted’

At 94, actress and sex symbol Mamie Van Doren is nowhere near slowing down — and, as she revealed in a wide-ranging new interview with Indiewire, she’s still settling scores. Van Doren, an early celebrity AIDS activist, said that Elizabeth Taylorpushed Van Doren out of charitable organizations after she became involved in activism around the disease.

“Elizabeth Taylor came along trying to say that she was the first one that ever did anything for the community [of people with HIV and AIDS]. And it was a very bad shock… I wasn’t invited to anything after that. So, the gay community got together and… put me in the parade and made me the queen” of the 1987 Los Angeles Pride Parade.

Van Doren described being “iced out” by the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof actress, who founded the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and co-founded leading HIV/AIDS research organization amfAR.

“A lot people — we were all the first ones — we’re all getting ready to go to this charity thing that [Taylor] had, and they called us and told us that we weren’t wanted,” Van Doren recalled. “That was the end of it. I want to make it very clear in history, she was not the first one. She only did it after Rock Hudson died.”

Van Doren is planning to release a third memoir in the near future, as well as a documentary about her life, Mamie Confidential — so she’ll still have plenty of opportunities to settle any other outstanding classic Hollywood scores.