Elizabeth Taylor tells Twitter followers she’s going to the hospital for a heart procedure

Elizabeth Taylor tweets about heart procedure

LOS ANGELES — Elizabeth Taylor says she’s headed to the hospital for a heart procedure.

The 77-year-old actress tells her followers on Twitter that she is to undergo a “very new” procedure to improve heart function that “involves repairing my leaky valve using a clip device” rather than open-heart surgery.

“Any prayers you happen to have lying around I would dearly appreciate,” Taylor wrote Tuesday, adding that she plans to inform her 157,389 Twitter followers when the procedure is complete. She did not say when or where she is having treatment.

A representative for Taylor did not immediately return an e-mail and a phone call seeking comment.

Twitter may be the most common place to see the violet-eyed Oscar winner, who rarely makes public appearances. She was seen twice last month — at Michael Jackson’s private burial and at an AIDS charity event she helped establish decades ago — after months away from the public eye.

But she can be seen often on Twitter, where she has been contributing regularly since March. She has posted her support for gay marriage, her grief over Michael Jackson’s death and personal insights such as “Life without earrings is empty.” Taylor also actively supported her friend Kathy Ireland as she competed recently on TV’s “Dancing With the Stars.”

On the Net:

twitter.com/DameElizabeth