Liza Minnelli claims she was forced to sit in a wheelchair during her presentation at the 2022 Academy Awards.
Minnelli, now 79, took to the stage that night with co-presenter Lady Gaga to announce the Best Picture winner.
She had originally planned to sit in the director’s chair for the presentation, but her plans changed at the last minute, she says in her upcoming memoir, “Kids, Wait ’til You Hear This!”
“I was inexplicably ordered to sit in a wheelchair or not appear at all — even though I wasn’t asked — because of my age, and for safety reasons because I might slip out of the director’s chair,” Minnelli wrote in an excerpt published Friday in People.
“I said, ‘I’m not going to be treated like this.’ My co-presenter insisted that she wouldn’t come on stage with me unless I was in a wheelchair,” she said, adding, “I was heartbroken.”
“I was much lower than I was in the director’s chair. Now it wasn’t easy to read the teleprompter overhead. How would you feel if you were wheeled out against your will in a wheelchair and unable to see clearly to perform in front of a live audience?” she continues.
Minnelli looked a little disoriented on stage, stumbling over her words. Gaga comforted Minnelli, telling her, “I get it.”
She was upset at that moment, but after she left the stage, she praised Gaga’s kind demeanor.
“So when I stumbled over a few words, Gaga, who was by my side, didn’t pause for a second to play the kind-hearted hero for the whole world to see. ‘Okay,’ she said, bending over me,” Minnelli said.
After hearing Minnelli’s discomfort, the “Bad Romance” singer visited Minnelli’s dressing room and asked, “Are you okay?”
“I looked at her and simply said, ‘I’m a huge fan.’ I learned this lesson years ago from Mom and Dad (Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli): Even when you’re under great stress, you remain kind,” she wrote.
Minnelli continued, “That year’s Best Picture winner was CODA. For me, I loved the irony of that title. Writing my memoir would be my coda, my truth. There’s always a rainbow — if you know where to look for it.”
Elsewhere in her book, the Hollywood icon talks about her many high-profile romances, her sobriety journey, and her various celebrity deviations with friends.
“Kids, wait until you hear this!” will be published March 10th by Grand Central Publishing. This book is currently available for pre-order.
