Recommendations of the Editorial team
Liza Minnelli expected to sit in a director’s chair when she appeared at the 2022 Oscars. But instead, the Academy insisted she sit in a wheelchair, she claims in her new memoir.
Coercion instead of choice
“I was inexplicably ordered — not even asked — to sit in a wheelchair or not perform at all,” Minnelli wrote in “Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!”, according to Variety. “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 nonsense. ‘I won’t be treated like that,’ I said. I was heartbroken. I sat much lower than I would have in the director’s chair. Now I couldn’t read the teleprompter above me well.”
Minnelli appeared at the event alongside Lady Gaga to present the Best Picture award, having starred in the 1973 Best Picture winner “Cabaret” and winning an Oscar for Best Actress. Their performance was intended to commemorate the 50th anniversary of “Cabaret”.
Minnelli’s chair remained stationary during her performance, during which she told the audience how excited she was to be there. When Minnelli struggled to read her notes, Gaga put her hand on her shoulder. She said, “I got this,” and praised Minnelli as a “true showbiz legend.”
Minnelli stumbled over her words during the performance, whereupon Gaga (audibly in the microphone) whispered, “I got you.” After a montage, the women sang a few lines.
No statement from the Academy
A spokesperson for the Academy did not immediately respond to ROLLING STONE’s request for comment.
“How would you feel if you were wheeled out against your will to perform in front of a live audience and couldn’t see clearly?” Minnelli wrote in her book. “So when I stumbled over a few words, Gaga, who was at my side, didn’t miss a moment to play the kind-hearted hero for the whole world. ‘I got you,’ she said, leaning over me.”
Variety reports that Minnelli wrote in the book that Gaga came to her afterwards and asked if everything was OK. “I looked at her and simply said, ‘I’m a big fan,'” Minnelli wrote. “I learned this lesson from Mom years ago [Judy Garland] and dad [Filmemacher Vincente Minnelli] learned. In a moment of great stress, you remain generous.
The Best Picture winner that year was “CODA.” I loved the irony of the title for myself. Writing my memoir would be my coda, my truth. There’s always a rainbow – if you know where to look for it.”
Career and Oscar nominations
Before she won the Best Actress Oscar for “Cabaret,” the Academy nominated Minnelli in the same category for “The Sterile Cuckoo” in 1970.
