Best Lead Actress - Elizabeth Taylor (1960) Sometimes an Academy Award isn't given to a particular person for a specific movie. Sometimes actors are given an award for being previously overlooked, as was certainly the case with Elizabeth Taylor here. Liz had been snubbed by voters the two years leading up to this win, for performances in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly, Last Summer. To make up for it, the Academy decided to reward Taylor for her work in a movie with such provocative taglines "The glamor girl who wakes up ashamed!" and "She must hold many men in her arms to find the one man she could love." In case those are too subtle, the story is about a call girl who sleeps her way to true romance. Butterfield 8 is like Pretty Woman, but without any of the self-awareness. Taylor has slammed the movie herself, saying "It stinks!" and declaring that she'd never (nor would ever) watch the movie. Apparently she only starred in the "piece of obscenity" to fulfill her contract with MGM.
