[SECOND UPDATE: HDNet has announced it'll unreel 1956's Texas-set Giant starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean this Saturday (March 26) at 1 p.m. ET, in full HD and without interruption.]
[UPDATES: TV Guide Network airs Elizabeth Taylor: A Life, A Legacy tonight (Wednesday) at 8 and 11 p.m. ET and Thursday at 7 and 10 p.m. ET . . . Fox Movie Channel has scheduled a March 27 marathon of the four-hour epic Cleopatra, restarting Sunday at these times, all ET: 6 a.m., 11 a.m., 3:30 p.m., 8:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m.]
It didn't take long after Elizabeth Taylor's Wednesday morning death at age 79 for Turner Classic Movies to announce a 24-hour tribute on April 10. But why wait that long? Two of Taylor's most iconic films are already scheduled to air this week.
Cleopatra unreels on the Starz/Encore channel Retro this Thursday (March 24) at 7 a.m. ET, then again on Retro next Wednesday (March 30) at 12:05 p.m. ET and 10:30 p.m. ET. The infamous 1963 epic of ancient Egypt, which precipitated Taylor's headline-making fling (turned marriage/divorce/marriage again) with co-star Richard Burton, also gets an Encore airing Monday, April 4 at 6:10 a.m. ET.
(Further down the road, Fox Movie Channel has Taylor's Cleopatra, now primed to get an Angelina Jolie remake, on April 15 and 24. FMC airs The Only Game in Town with Warren Beatty alongside Taylor on April 28.)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? which in 1966 won Taylor her second Oscar (and also co-stars Burton), was already on TCM's schedule for this Thursday night (March 24/25) at 2 a.m. ET.
It's followed by two more late-night screenings: Friday, April 1/2's weird Secret Ceremony with Mia Farrow at 2 a.m. ET, plus Monday, April 4/5's Civil War saga Raintree County with Montgomery Clift at midnight ET.