Liza Minnelli is true Hollywood royalty. She is the daughter of two beloved silver screen icons - actress and singer Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli. When she speaks, people listen. And Minnelli is speaking out pointedly against Lady Gaga and the people in charge of the Academy Awards ceremony. That's in her forthcoming book, Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! It will be released on March 10.
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In the frank tell-all, Minnelli claims that she was railroaded into sitting in a wheelchair when she was onstage with Lady Gaga during the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony. And she also suggests that the singer's solicitousness towards her, which many lauded, was not so genuine after all.
What Happened at the Academy Awards That Riled Minnelli
Perhaps you recall Liza Minnelli being onstage at the Academy Awards four tears ago. She was seated in a wheelchair with Lady Gaga standing next to her. They were presenting the honor for Best Picture. Now, Minnelli is saying that she actually thought she would be sitting in a director's chair. That would have allowed her to clearly see the teleprompter, in her opinion. But Minnelli alleges that the Academy insisted that she use a wheelchair for her own safety.
She wrote heatedly about the incident in her book. "I was inexplicably ordered. Not even asked — to sit in a wheelchair or not appear at all. 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 [expletive]. 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."
She Slams Lady Gaga
Minnelli seemed a bit confused at the time. Per Variety, she "appeared somewhat disoriented on stage and stumbled over her words. Gaga notably comforted Minnelli in the moment by telling her, 'I got you.'"
Minnelli said this about the "Shallow" singer. "So when I stumbled over a few words, Gaga, who was at my side, didn't miss a beat to play the kindhearted hero for all the world to see. 'I got you,' she said, leaning down over me."
Lady Gaga reportedly went to Minnelli's dressing room after the show ended to ask if she was alright after the wheelchair issue. Minnelli wasn't having any of it, though. She described what took place this way, "I looked at her and said simply, 'I'm a big fan.' I learned this lesson years ago from Mama and Papa. At a moment of high stress, you stay gracious."
