Liza Minnelli had everyone very concerned when she took the stage with Lady Gaga to present the Best Picture award at the 94th annual Academy Awards last month. Now, Minnelli’s longtime friend Michael Feinstein says his BFF was “sabotaged” by being “forced” to use a wheelchair against her wishes.
Speaking to Sirius XM’s “Jess Cagle Show”, Feinstein, who was backstage with Minnelli at the ceremony, said she “only agreed to appear on the Oscars if she would be in the director’s chair, ’cause she’s been having back trouble.”
Related: We need to revisit Liza Minnelli’s super gay electronic dance album that nobody seems to remember
He claimed Minnelli said she wanted to “look good” and didn’t want people to “worry” about her health, but everything went awry backstage after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock and a stage manager told her she had to use a wheelchair instead.
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“I guess they were all shaken up because of everything that had happened earlier,” Feinstein alleged.
Upon being told she would have to use a wheelchair, Feinstein claims Minnelli turned to him and said, “No, I will not be seen in a wheelchair in front of everybody. I will not do this. I refuse to do this.”
Eventually, however, she decided to proceed with presenting the award, though she was “so shaken that she was discombobulated.”
Related: The Will Smith Oscars drama just took a very strange turn
“She was nervous,” Feinstein claimed. “I mean, and it made her look like she was out of it. And she was just so shaken up that it was. Can you imagine being suddenly forced to be seen by millions of people the way you don’t wanna be seen? That’s what happened to her.”
Feinstein added Minnelli was “very disappointed” by how everything went but that she is “really doing well” now, although “it’s a shame that it turned out that way.”
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BennyTheHill
If I were she, I would have refused to go on. F–k them!
ZzBomb
You mustn’t be familiar with “the show must go on” are you?
BennyTheHill
ZzBomb:
They need her more than she needs them. I’ve read that she owns about 50 Warhols (remember they were besties in NYC in the ’70s and ’80s) worth in total approximately $500 million.
ZzBomb
I fail to see where anyone “needed” anybody. LOL And the number of Warhols someone owns means what exactly?? LOL Do you always judge people based off of some superfluous standards?
BennyTheHill
ZzBomb:
I do have a lot of respect for savvy investors and good businessmen and women, and Liza is clearly both.
s b
Until it comes out of Liza with a “z”‘s own mouth, I won’t believe it.
M K
Did they bound her in the wheelchair? If she waned to (and was able) she could just stand up after coming out there would be nothing preventing it.
KerryB
Millions of people? I doubt that many people watched the Oscars.
white-queer-african
@BennyTheHill, you exaggerate just like the Orange turd. Minelli owns 22 Warhols.
MxM no doubt your source.
LOL.LOL.LOL
BennyTheHill
I’ve rented a LOT of space in your brain. Your obsession with me is endearing. LOL!!!
Flyiboy
Take the chair out of the equation.. She looked confused and trippy .. Lady G understood the assignment
Jack Meoff
My thoughts exactly. It was probably a decision made with her safety in mind.
ScottOnEarth
So, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock and there was suddenly not a director’s chair to be found….at the Academy Awards…but they had a wheelchair on-hand? Right. It seems that Michael Feinstein is trying to cover for whatever was going on with Liza that night. But, she is, indeed, a legend and I hope she’s doing ok.
cuteguy
Is Minnelli were a POC, her wishes would’ve been granted. That horrible producer Will Packer is a m0ron and tried to deflect his flub of allowing that monster Will Smith to collect his award and get a subsequent standing ovation for assaulting someone by putting the blame on Chris Rock. There are plenty quality producers who are POC who would be better suited to produce the Oscars. The show was a trainwreck and it falls at the shoes of the horrible producer.
Mattster
I liked the show, I thought it had great energy, the best in years though granted that’s not saying all that much. I liked the DG and band in the 1st 2 thirds of the show, and the recorded musical numbers allowed greater scale and variety than the usual stagey type productions of past years.
Moving several of the tech awards presentations to earlier, and announcing multiple winners with the same announcers, also helped keep up the pace. I also liked their jettisoning the usual boring “now we’re going to explain how important sound effects editing is” presentations.
You seem to be blaming the producer for Smith’s outburst and assault on Chris Rock. I don’t know what you expect a producer to do in that situation? Smith was a guest, seated in front, as he is a former winner and current best actor nominee. What sort of security do you think he should have in place to protect the stage from the academy’s own nominee?
Likewise, how is the producer supposed to intervene and revoke an award that had already been voted on, and the results kept secret? It’s not as though the producer knows who the winner is before it’s announced.
I suppose Smith could have been ejected by security during the commercial break after the assault. But then you’d probably blame the producer for ruining the best actor award.
I’m not even sure the producer of the show has the ability to unilaterally order someone out of the theater, that might require action by the academy itself, which is notoriously bureaucratic and slow.
inbama
She is obviously having difficulties.
The interaction between Minnnelli and Gaga was one of the truly beautiful and touching moments of the entire program.
The class and talent of our divas is a credit to us.
smittoons
Agreed on the interaction and she was having difficulties that night, but I have to say I believe the account of what happened with her. The CBS Sunday Morning profile of her back in January saw her in excellent form, not a whiff of confusion at all. Obviously it was edited, but it lends credence to the idea of extenuating circumstances at the Oscars.
JJinAus
I didn’t watch the whole show, but saw some of Liza and Gaga. I had to stop. Seriously, it was so cringe-worthy, I felt like a sadistic voyeur. I have an 88yo father in severe decline and it resonated. She shouldn’t have been there.
TMBisAOK
That you have a father in decline also but decided to refer to this as “cringe-worthy” says so much about you and lots of people. If you wouldn’t want people describing your father as cringe-worthy, how about not referring to Liza that way. Sad and heart-broken, but also loving and caring are words that come up to me about that moment, but not cringe-worthy SMH
Inspector 57
Where do you draw the line, JJinAnus? Should we all be protected from the discomfort of seeing people in wheelchairs out in the world, too? Perhaps people, even ambulatory, who have a visible palsy should realize that they owe it to us to self-isolate? Personally, it makes me a little anxious when people can’t vocalize smoothly; stutterers should keep their mouths shut or stay home. And don’t get me started about when I go shopping or out to eat or something and have to look at fat people. Or people with skin problems.
Now, I’m not saying that everyone in my world has to look like a Queerty Instagram pic. But they need to at least look and act normal. It’s only right. I have enough things to deal with.
Man About Town
I guess this no-class, overpraised nitwit needs to be reminded of the time when he sabotaged Linda Ronstadt for her wonderful recordings of standards with Nelson Riddle’s orchestra.
smittoons
CBS Sunday Morning did a great profile of her just 3 months ago. People can have good and bad days, but she was totally in command of her faculties for that interview, so I tend to believe anyone who says the Oscars situation was not par the course for her.
whitenoiz
How many of the Warhols are pictures of herself? LOL.