Zsa Zsa Gabor "took a turn for the better" but remained in critical condition Saturday night, her publicist and husband told NBC News.
Her ninth husband, Frederic von Anhalt, told NBC News he is staying with the 93-year-old actress in her room at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where she underwent hip surgery Monday after a weekend fall out of bed.
She had a blood transfusion Friday and is being fed intravenously, von Anhalt said.
A change in medication from morphine to another pain killer could be why she's improved, said publicist John Blanchette.
Both said she could speak a few words and was able to eat. Von Anhalt also said she was able to squeeze his hand.
Von Anhalt said that if Gabor were younger, the hip replacement would mean she would be out of the hospital in three days, but he said he expects a lengthy stay.
"She also hit her head and shoulder when she fell out of bed," he added.
Gabor was reaching for the phone while watching "Jeopardy" on TV when she slipped out of bed in the Bel Air home she bought from Elvis Presley in 1974.
After her surgery Monday, Gabor "wasn't talking" and "wasn't aware of what was going on," Blanchette told the Los Angeles Times.
The actress was also visited Saturday by Francesca Hilton, her daughter from her second marriage, to hotel magnate Conrad Hilton.
Francesca Hilton, said through her publicist that Gabort was "not in a coma and she is not at death's door."
"The primary word is guarded," said Hilton's publicist, Ed Lozzi.
The Hungarian-born actress was partially paralyzed in a 2002 car accident.
Gabor starred in such films as "Moulin Rouge," "Lili" and "Touch of Evil," and was one of three glamorous sisters who stole the Hollywood limelight in the 1950s and 1960s.
Gabor has never admitted a birth date but is thought by Hollywood journalists to have been born between 1917 and 1919.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.