Liza Minnelli has slammed Gene Hackman more than a year after his death.
In the “Cabaret” star’s new memoir, “Kids, Wait Until You Hear This!,” she recalls Hackman’s “downright rude” behavior during the filming of the 1975 film “Lucky Lady.”
“I don’t like to complain, but Stanley[Donen]later revealed that Gene was very disrespectful to me during the movie,” Minnelli, 79, wrote.
“It’s hard to go to work without a chemical reaction happening,” she added. “I think it’s safe to say that Gene was downright rude.”
In “Lucky Lady,” Minnelli plays Claire, a widower who starts smuggling alcohol with her lover Walker (played by Burt Reynolds) and their friend Kibby (played by Hackman) during Prohibition.
The trio find themselves in a messy love triangle as they try to avoid being sent to prison for their crimes.
Directed by Donen, the film was a box office flop and received negative reviews from critics.
Roger Ebert gave the comedy-drama two stars out of four, calling it “a big, expensive, good-looking flop. Rarely has so much effort been put into such an inconsequential film.”
Elsewhere in the memoir, Minnelli revealed that while she was married to producer Jack Haley Jr., she had an affair with Martin Scorsese.
The “New York, New York” star also revealed that while married to her first husband, Australian entertainer Peter Allen, she was engaged to two men at the same time. Minnelli later discovered Allen having “passionate sex” with a man.
Minnelli’s revelations about Hackman came more than a year after his death on February 18, six days after the death of his wife, Betsy Arakawa. The Oscar winner was 95 years old and the classical pianist was 65.
Authorities believe the “French Connection” star was unknowingly living with his wife’s body for several days.
Hackman died of high blood pressure and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, which was caused in part by “advanced Alzheimer’s disease,” while Arakawa’s cause of death was hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare rodent-transmitted virus.
On February 25, 2025, the partially mummified bodies of a couple were discovered in their messy home.
