LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Elizabeth Taylor is hospitalized but doing well, a spokesman for the Oscar-winning screen legend said on Thursday, contradicting tabloid newspapers reports that she was in poor health.

"Ms. Taylor is fine. The rumors which began in England about her health are dramatic, overstated and untrue. Her hospital visit was precautionary. She will be returning home shortly," her Los Angeles-based spokesman Dick Guttman said in a statement.

"At present, she is surrounded by family, friends and fabulous jewels," the statement concluded.

A report on the Web site for the National Enquirer said Taylor, 76, was put on a life-support machine after suffering congestive heart failure. The report cited "a friend" and was picked up by Britain's Daily Mail, among others.

Guttman said he did not know where Taylor was being treated. No further details were available.

Taylor began her Hollywood career as a teenager in films such as "Lassie Come Home" and "National Velvet." She won Oscars for best actress in 1966's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and 1960's "Butterfield 8."

She was nominated for Oscars three other times and in 1992 was given a humanitarian award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which gives out the Oscars.