Liza Minnelli is reflecting on her appearance at the 2022 Oscars, the place she anticipated she’d seem in a director’s chair to current one of the best image class.
Instead, she alleges in her memoir that she was compelled to sit in a wheelchair.
In an excerpt of her upcoming memoir Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! shared by People on Friday, Minnelli claims that the choice induced her to misinterpret the teleprompter and journey over her phrases.
“I was inexplicably ordered — not even asked — to sit in a wheelchair or not appear at all,” Minnelli writes. “I was told it was because of my age, and for safety reasons, because I might slip out of the director’s chair, which was bullshit. I will not be treated this way, I said. I was heartbroken. I was much lower down than I would have been in the director’s chair. Now I couldn’t easily read the teleprompter above me.”
“How would you feel if you were wheeled out, against your will, to perform in front of a live audience, and unable to see clearly?” Minnelli continues.
The Cabaret actress claims that when she “stumbled over a few words,” Lady Gaga “didn’t miss a beat to play the kindhearted hero for all the world to see.” The “Abracadabra” singer was on stage throughout the 2022 ceremony to current one of the best image Oscar alongside Minnelli.
“‘I got you,’ she said, leaning down over me,” Minnelli writes, including that Gaga visited her dressing room and requested if she was OK after the incident.
“I looked at her and said simply, ‘I’m a big fan,’” Minnelli, who’s the daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, writes. “I learned this lesson years ago from Mama and Papa. At a moment of high stress, you stay gracious.”
Minnelli’s longtime buddy Michael Feinstein, who has an “as told to” credit score on the memoir, beforehand opened up concerning the viral Oscars second, telling SiriusXM host Jess Cagle in 2022 that Minnelli was “sabotaged.”
“That’s a terrible word to use, but she only agreed to appear on the Oscars if she would be in the director’s chair, because she’s been having back trouble,” Feinstein mentioned at the time. “She said, ‘I don’t want people to see me limping out there.’ She said, ‘You know, I want to look good. I don’t want people to worry about me.’”
A supply shut to the 2022 Oscars advised The Hollywood Reporter Friday that Minnelli was requested to use a wheelchair when it was clear it could be crucial for her total security, as a part of a need to shield the long-lasting actress.
Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! shall be launched on March 10.
Feb. 20, 3:08 p.m. This story has been up to date with further data from a supply shut to the 2022 Oscars.
