LOS ANGELES — Elizabeth Taylor says striking TV and film writers will briefly put down their picket signs when an AIDS benefit performance is held next month on the Paramount Pictures lot.

Taylor and James Earl Jones are slated to perform A.R. Gurney's play "Love Letters" on Dec. 1, which is World AIDS Day. The goal of the one-night performance is to raise $1 million for The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.

The 75-year-old actress said she wouldn't cross picket lines if they were still up around the Paramount lot.

Taylor said she asked the writers union for a "one-night dispensation" so she and her guests could enter the studio with a clear conscience.

An after-hours call Monday to the guild seeking confirmation wasn't immediately returned.

"The Writers Guild of America has shown great humanity, empathy and courage by allowing our little evening to move forward," Taylor said in a statement.

She also expressed support for the striking writers.

"Without the gifts of writers, the world would be rather empty," she said. "I beseech those in power to treat members of the Writers Guild of America with fairness and decency."

Writers and studios are scheduled to resume contract talks Nov. 26. Writers have been on strike since Nov. 5.

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On the Net:

The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation:

http://www.elizabethtayloraidsfoundation.org/