Michael Feinstein, friend and collaborator to Liza Minnelli, says the actress was ‘sabotaged’ at this year’s Oscars.
Michael Feinstein, friend and collaborator to Liza Minnelli, says the actress was ‘sabotaged’ at this year’s Oscars and ‘forced’ to use a wheelchair against her will.
Minnelli and Gaga’s appearance announcing Best Picture at this year’s Oscars was one of the night’s calmer highlights, barring a certain slap. Feinstein, however, says that Minnelli’s appearance on stage was executed how she had planned it and “disappointed” her very much.
In an appearance on The Jess Cagle Show, Feinstein said: “She only agreed to appear at the Oscars if she would be in a director’s chair, because she’s been having back trouble.”
“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.’” Feinstein added.
However, when the infamous slap happened, the event organisers – in a bid to divert attention perhaps, although Feinstein did not confirm – decided Minnelli would be seated in a wheelchair than a director’s chair.
“And then literally, literally five minutes before she went on, when she sat in the director’s chair back there, and because every, I guess they were all shaken up because of everything that had happened earlier, the stage manager said, ‘Well, she has to be in a wheelchair’ and Liza pleaded,” Feinstein said.
He also added that the sudden change of plans rattled Minnelli.
“She was nervous. 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. And she was very disappointed at that, that that happened and it was not what was agreed to.” he explained.
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