Liza Minnelli slams the Oscars in her new memoir, “Kids, Wait ’til You Hear This!” The “Cabaret” icon won the Academy Award for Best Picture alongside Lady Gaga at the 2022 Academy Awards, but Minnelli looked a bit disoriented on stage and stumbled over her words. It’s worth noting that Gaga comforted Minnelli in that moment, telling her, “I get it.”
Minnelli was in a wheelchair at the time, which she claims in her book was a requirement of the academy. She had expected to sit in the director’s chair where the teleprompter would be better viewed, but plans changed at the last minute. The academy reportedly prioritized Minnelli’s safety and switched her to a wheelchair.
“I was inexplicably ordered to sit in a wheelchair or not show up at all, without even being asked,” Minnelli wrote. “They said it was for safety reasons because because of my age, I might slip out of the director’s chair, but that was bullshit. I said, ‘I’m not going to be treated like this.’ I was heartbroken. I was way lower than sitting 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 to perform in front of a live audience, and you couldn’t see clearly?” Minnelli continues. “So when I stumbled over a few words, Gaga, who was by my side, didn’t miss a beat to play the kindhearted hero for the whole world to see. ‘Okay,’ she said, bending over me.”
Variety has reached out to representatives from the academy for comment.
Minnelli wrote in her memoir that Gaga came to her dressing room after hearing about Minnelli’s suffering in a wheelchair. Gaga asked, “Are you okay?”
“I looked at her and simply said, ‘I’m a huge fan,'” Minnelli wrote. “I learned this lesson years ago from Mom and Dad: Even when stress is high, people remain kind. CODA won Best Picture that year.” For me, I loved the irony of the title. Writing my memoir would be my coda, my truth. There’s always a rainbow – if you know where to look for it. ”
Minnelli’s “Kids, Wait Until You Hear This!” will be published on March 10th.
