Elizabeth Taylor on Tuesday dismissed tabloid reports that she was being treated for early Alzheimer's disease or was gravely ill.

Actress Elizabeth Taylor is surrounded by bodyguards and the media as she exits CNN Studios after appearing on "Larry King Live" in Los Angeles May 30, 2006. [Reuters]

The Academy Award-winning actress, who uses a wheelchair because of back problems, was asked about the reports during an appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live."

"Oh come on, do I look like I'm dying?" the 74-year-old actress asked King in a rare television interview. "Do I look like or sound like I have Alzheimer's?"

Taylor said tabloids report such things "because they have nothing else dirty to write about anybody else."

She said her back problems go back to her teenage years because she was born with scoliosis, which she described as double curvature of the spine, and osteoporosis.