The video file

What do Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda, and Julia Roberts have in common?

1. They all are beautiful.

Taylor (born 1932) at the peak of her career was a stacked (36C-21-36) five-foot-four, violet-eyed stunner with “the perfect boneless body,” according to somebody.

Fonda (born 1937) is 5-feet-8-inches and lean (32B-24-31 — in 1980). Once a fashion model, she supposedly was bulimic from age 13 to 37. Later, she became an exercise guru.

Roberts (born 1967) is 5-feet-9-inches and downright lanky (and it’s no longer cool to give women’s measurements).

2. They all grew up in a theatrical environment.

Taylor’s mother was an actress before marrying. When Elizabeth was seven, her family moved from London to Los Angeles where she won her first film role at age 10 (There’s One Born Every Minute, 1942).

Fonda is, of course, the daughter of actor Henry Fonda. At age 17 she acted in a community theater production with him and a year later attended the Actors Studio. Her first film was Tall Story (1960).

Roberts’ parents held acting and writing workshops and encouraged her performance interests. After a few minor roles, Julia drew attention when she was nominated for an Oscar (supporting role) for Steel Magnolias (1989).

3. They all have been married several times.

Taylor clearly leads the field. She has married eight times (twice to Richard Burton). When asked about her serial wifery, she quipped “What do you expect me to do? Sleep alone?”

Fonda’s been married three times (a director, a political activist, a media mogul).

Roberts, once married to Lyle Lovett, is married again and has just had twins.

4. They all are concerned about world problems.

Despite serious medical problems Taylor continues her AIDS work.

Fonda, alias “Hanoi Jane,” is still hounded by the press for her Viet Nam War politics and has produced documentaries about Native American history.

Roberts works for UNICEF on behalf of the world’s children and has helped fund research on Rett Syndrome, which affects young girls.

5. And, most importantly for today’s review, they all won top awards for playing prostitutes.

Taylor won an Oscar and was nominated for a Golden Globe for BUtterfield 8 (Daniel Mann, 1960). She won a second Oscar for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and earned three additional Oscar nominations.

BUtterfield 8 (the title is an old-fashioned telephone number) tells the story of Gloria Wandrous, a “party girl” who attracts a rich, married businessman, Weston Liggett (Laurence Harvey).

But Gloria is more kind and loving than loose and gold-digging. At the end of the film Liggett says, “I don’t think anyone would know she was a good person, but she was.”

Klute (Alan Pakula, 1971) came along at the end of the Viet Nam War, hippie, women’s-lib decade of confusion and anger. By this time the movie industry could call a prostitute a prostitute.

Fonda won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a National Society of Film Critics Award for her portrayal of Bree Daniel, the New York hooker that small-town detective John Klute (Donald Sutherland) saves from the guy who wants to kill her. And, guess what? Bree isn’t such a bad kid after all.

Roberts was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe for her role as Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman (Garry Marshall, 1990).

She won an Oscar for Erin Brockovich (2000). She is the highest paid film actress ever ($20 million for Brockovich).

Pretty Woman remains an immensely popular and controversial movie. It’s a modern Cinderella tale about a hooker heroine and a cruel capitalist. It celebrates money, consumerism and economic power.

So, OK, you like it. We all do.

That’s the problem.

We end up loving a movie that says a man can buy a woman and train her to be exactly what he wants. What kind of a life will she have always doing and being what HE wants? And can a hooker, as one female critic put it, be so “relentlessly cheerful”?

When I think about the meanings of these intriguing films, I have to go with Gloria’s as the most socially-responsible tale. Bree obviously won’t be a happy housewife and pretty Viv is dreaming.

But I don’t like broccoli and adore chocolate.