Elizabeth Taylor’s ‘The Nanny’ Rider Demanded No Eye Contact and a Tiffany Gift, Niles Actor Reveals

Elizabeth Taylor spent decades as the gold standard of Hollywood stardom, so it’s no surprise that her late-career TV appearances were treated as events. Her violet eyes alone were famous enough to be part of her legend. When she turned up on a network sitcom in the 1990s, producers knew they had landed a guest star unlike any other.

‘The Nanny’ had a long tradition of celebrity cameos during its run on CBS from 1993 to 1999. The show followed Fran Fine, played by Fran Drescher, a cosmetics saleswoman from Queens who is accidentally hired as nanny to the wealthy Sheffield family. Daniel Davis played Niles, the family’s sharp-tongued butler, for the entire series.

Now Davis has pulled back the curtain on what it was like when Taylor came to set. Speaking at a panel at 90s Con in Hartford, Conn., on Saturday, Oct. 17, the 80-year-old actor named Taylor as the biggest guest star the show ever had. He also described a list of demands that came with her visit.

Taylor’s appearance came in February 1996 and was part of a larger promotional push. She was promoting her fragrance Black Pearls, and the campaign had her appear on all 4 of CBS’s Monday-night sitcoms. The takeover was known as Taylor-Made Monday.

On ‘The Nanny’, the episode was titled ‘Where’s the Pearls?’ and aired on Feb. 26, 1996. In it, Fran loses Taylor’s string of black pearls after being asked to deliver them. The storyline crossed over with ‘Can’t Hurry Love’, ‘Murphy Brown’ and ‘High Society’.

Davis was careful to separate Taylor from her team. He described her as gracious, charming and lovely, saying that her entourage was a little demanding. He also noted that those requests came from the people around her rather than from the star herself.

That distinction matters because the list was not small. According to Davis, Taylor’s contract stipulated a number of conditions, including a Tiffany & Co. gift on her dressing table. It was a long way from a typical sitcom guest rider.

The gift was supposed to be worth no less than $5,000. Davis said it had to be waiting for her in her dressing room, a luxurious requirement even by Hollywood standards. Then came the twist: he said Taylor never saw the present.

That detail adds a bittersweet note to the story. The demand was met on paper, but the person it was meant for never got to enjoy it. It also underlines Davis’s point that the rules came from her entourage rather than from Taylor.

The most striking requirement involved the crew. Davis said Taylor’s contract stipulated that cast members were not to look her in the eyes. In a business where eye contact is part of nearly every scene, that is an unusual instruction.

It’s also fitting given how famous her eyes were. Davis mentioned that she really did have lavender eyes. Whether the rule was meant to protect her privacy or simply reflected the entourage’s approach, it left an impression on everyone present.

Davis also recalled asking whether he could take a photo with Taylor. He was told the photo had to be retouched according to her direction, so that she would look like a billion dollars. He said he was later charged $150 for a hard copy.

He still has the photo hanging on his wall. That detail turns the story from a list of demands into a fond memory, even if it came with a price tag. It shows how carefully Taylor’s image was managed, even on a half-hour sitcom.

90s Con, run by That’s 4 Entertainment, brought more than 50 celebrity guests and thousands of fans to Hartford. Davis appeared alongside his ‘Nanny’ co-star Charles Shaughnessy, and the weekend celebrated the decade’s pop culture. Panels like this one give actors a chance to share the behind-the-scenes stories that never reached the screen.

For fans of the series, the Taylor anecdote is a reminder of how big the show’s guest star list could be. It also shows how the legendary actress, who died on March 23, 2011, continued to inspire fascination long after her prime. A single episode from 1996 is still generating headlines three decades later.

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