Liza Minnelli Slams Oscars and Lady Gaga Four Years After Wheelchair Scandal

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Liza Minnelli tore into Lady Gagaand the Oscars four years following her embarrassing and disorganized performance at the ceremony.

Gaga wheeled Minnelli onto the stage in a wheelchair to present the best picture at the 2022 ceremony.Academy Awards, then leaned down and attempted to get her to sing a song from her 1972 film Cabaret, only for Minnelli to interrupt and say: 'Hi, everybody!'

The young singer's overly sweet interactions with Minnelli—whispering "I've got you" to her during a moment that was picked up by the microphone—sparked speculation about the latter's well-being.

Later, Minnelli's close friend, song-and-dance performer Michael Feinstein, stated she was 'compelled' toenter the stage in a wheelchair at the last moment after initially agreeing to sit in a director's chair due to her back issues.' 

Now Minnelli, 80, has shared her own intense version of the on-stage incident, as well as the conversation she had in the dressing room with Gaga, 39.

She shared her critical version of the events in her new memoirbombshell new memoirKids, Wait Until You Hear This!, as told to Feinstein and excerpted inPeople.

Minnelli claimed she was unexpectedly directed—without being asked—to either sit in a wheelchair or not show up at all. She was told it was due to her age and for safety reasons, as she might fall out of the director's chair, which she called nonsense. She refused to be treated that way.

She was 'heartbroken' by the course events had taken, on top of which she 'was significantly lower than where I would have been sitting in the director's chair. Now, I had difficulty reading the teleprompter above me. How would you feel if you were taken out, against your will, to perform in front of a live audience, and couldn't see clearly?

Minnelli then specifically remembered that "when I tripped over a few words, Gaga, who was beside me, didn't hesitate to step in as the compassionate hero for everyone to witness. 'I've got you,' she said, bending down toward me."

Gaga went to visit her in the dressing room following the incident and asked, "Are you okay?" Minnelli responded simply, "I'm a big fan," adding, "I learned this lesson long ago from Mama and Papa. During times of high stress, you remain polite."

In the immediate wake of the Oscars, Feinstein openly stated that Minnelli was 'sabotaged' due to the last-minute change of the wheelchair and left feeling 'very disappointed,' during an appearance on The Jess Cagle Show.SiriusXM.   

The 80-year-old icon of theater and film once stated she would never write an autobiography, saying, "Tell it when I'm gone!"

Nevertheless, she reconsidered after becoming angry about the incorrect portrayals of her mother Judy Garland's life and her own, so she has shared her story in a book.

In a dramatic passage from the book, she reflected on her childhood memories of assisting her mother who was addicted to pills in restocking her prescription medications.

"At 13, I was taking care of my mother — acting as a nurse, doctor, pharmacist, and psychiatrist all at once," she wrote, according toPeopleI can't remember how many times I called doctors to tell them she had run out of medication. I would say, 'I'm just a child! Please refill my mom's prescription!'

Released on March 10, the autobiography covers various aspects of her life and professional journey, including the moment she caught her first husband Peter Allen in their bedroom engaged in an intimate encounter with another man.

She came into the world in 1946 as the daughter of actress Judy Garland and filmmaker Vincente Minnelli, who began their relationship while collaborating on the iconic movie Meet Me In St. Louis.

Vincente Minnelli was Garland's second husband among five, during a tumultuous personal life marked by years of addiction that ultimately contributed to her passing.

Minnelli frequently mentions that she inherited her 'dreams' from her father and her 'drive' from her mother while growing up in the entertainment industry.

She traveled with her father to the locations of his movies and joined her mother on concert tours, moving schools frequently and staying in hotels with her younger siblings Lorna and Joey Luft, who were born from Garland's third husband, Sid Luft.

"I'll never forget the day she gathered us and offered Lorna and me a decision; Joey was under a year old," Minnelli remembers in a section of her latest book.

We could remain in school in Los Angeles. Alternatively, we could join her on the road. We would be moving between various hotels, schools (I eventually attended 22 of them), and cities. 'When do we leave?' we both responded together.

Reflecting on that time, Minnelli has humorously mentioned elsewhere that she would have gone hungry if she hadn't learned to order room service by herself as a child.

As she aged, she took on a protective role for Garland, assisting in keeping her away from the public's intense focus on her inner struggles.

In her late teens, Minnelli left for New York by herself, aiming to build a career as a Broadway performer, and stopped accepting financial support from her parents.

Nevertheless, she kept working with her mother, such as during a concert series at the famous London Palladium in 1963 when Minnelli was 18.

After my first song [on opening night], I heard her shout: 'Yeah, baby! Go get ’em!' " Minnelli wrote in the book. "After the second song, another 'Yeah!' but not quite as enthusiastic. By the third song, let's just say she was losing interest. I heard her muttering to our producer, Harold Davison: 'Harold, get her off my f***ing stage!'

I continued to sing amidst the enthusiastic cheers while Mama was furious. I had a remarkable insight. I started the evening as Mama's daughter. Now, I was on stage with Judy Garland.

She landed her major opportunity in the 1965 musical Flora, The Red Menace, featuring songs by Fred Ebb and John Kander, a pair who remained her close friends and creative partners for life.

Even though the production was not a commercial success, Minnelli received a Tony Award for best leading actress, making her the youngest woman to ever win in that category at just 19 years old.

In 1967, she began her first unsuccessful marriage to the gay Australian musician Peter Allen, remaining friends with him until his death from AIDS in 1992.

In the memoir, she described an afternoon during their marriage when she returned early from a luxurious shopping trip and discovered Peter engaged in a passionate encounter with another man in their bed.

She said, "As the other man quickly got dressed and left, I felt weak and scared. Too emotionally paralyzed to express my anger and sorrow. Then, Peter came over and hugged me tightly. We both started crying uncontrollably. He told me for the first time: 'Liza, I love you more than anyone in the world...and I'm gay.'"

Allen, she mentioned, "apologized repeatedly, explaining that, in addition to our active and highly satisfying sexual relationship, he was also drawn to men."

Meanwhile, her career continued to flourish, as she received her first Oscar nomination for the 1969 movie The Sterile Cuckoo.

She emerged as a globally performing concert artist,combining American show tunes with songs by her mentor Charles Aznavour, the 'French Frank Sinatra'.'

Minnelli referred to Charles as "the greatest influence on both my personal and professional life," while he mentioned that they were "more than friends but not quite lovers," throughINA. 

In 1969, she was Shaken by Garland's passing in London at the age of 47, which officials classified as an "incautious self-overdose" of sleep medication.

'I cried for eight consecutive days. The pressure and anxiety consumed me. I was struggling, and a physician recommended Valium to assist me in calming down just prior to the funeral,' Minnelli revealed in another of the recently published passages from the book.

"What started as a single-day blessing soon became a habit, and eventually developed into a severe addiction in the years to come. It was a last gift, a genetic inheritance from Mama that I couldn't avoid," said the Arrested Development actor.

In 1972, she appeared in the film role that is still most strongly associated with her - Sally Bowles in Bob Fosse's musical drama Cabaret.

Adapted from a Broadway production featuring music by Kander & Ebb, the movie showcased her as a nightclub performer in Weimar Berlin, carefree in the face of the growing threat posed by the Nazis.

Minnelli received an Oscar for her role in Cabaret, with her father present beside her — and when her name was announced, he became so excited that he shouted so loudly it caused her to experience tinnitus.

She mentioned in the book, though, that she "didn't even bother writing an acceptance speech" since she was so confident Diana Ross would win for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in the popular biographical film Lady Sings the Blues.

In the same year that Cabaret came out, Minnelli appeared in the Emmy-winning television special Liza with a Z, which brought her back together with Kander, Ebb, and Fosse.

'Overnight, it appeared, I had transitioned from being an original "nepo baby" to Sally Bowles — a chaotic mix of drive, endearing flaws, wild romance, and self-centered behavior,' she noted in a passage from the memoir.

I was marked with 'trouble' everywhere I went, due to the passion I put into everything. The world recognized me as LIZA! For the first time in my life, I questioned what that truly meant, especially while under the influence of substances. Benzodiazepines. Barbiturates. Amphetamines. Alcohol. Cocaine.

Her romantic life increasingly became what Andy Warhol famouslydescribed in his journals as 'complex', as she began a relationship with Peter Sellers while still legally married to Allen and betrothed to Desi Arnaz Jr., the son of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

While working on this book, Michael [Feinstein] gave me the strength to call Desi for the first time in many years," she recently revealed. "I began to apologize for the hurt I had caused him all those years ago. But Desi stopped me. 'Liza,' he said, 'all I remember is the love. Please let everything else go. I have.' What a true gentleman.

The 1970s and early 1980s marked the height of her professional success, featuring performances like a fully booked engagement at Carnegie Hall and a short but highly publicized role as Roxie Hart in the original Broadway version of Kander & Ebb's Chicago.

She appeared alongside Robert De Niro in the 1977 Martin Scorsese movie New York, New York, whose theme song by Kander & Ebb has evolved into an unofficial symbol of the city.

Minnelli and Scorsese started a romantic relationship, and he went on to direct her in the 1978 stage musical The Act, where she served as a source of inspiration for the young Meryl Streep.

To be honest, our relationship had more layers than a lasagna. We were both Italian. Passionate. Intense. Dedicated to our work. We both had fiery tempers," Minnelli shared in the new memoir.

He was an incredibly good-looking man who had the same passion for movies as I did. I was the daughter of a director. Despite his unconventional methods, Marty's guidance helped me achieve some of my best work. For once, I held back. Me!

In 1981, she played the main female role in the popular comedy movie Arthur, which featured Dudley Moore as a charmingly drunk aristocrat and John Gielgud as his sharp-tongued servant.

Her second husband was Jack Haley Jr., the son of the actor who portrayed the Tin Man with Judy in The Wizard Of Oz, and her third husband was sculptor Mark Gero.

While married to Jack, Minnelli is said to have had simultaneous relationships with Scorsese and Mikhail Baryshnikov, as noted in her friend Andy Warhol's diary entries.

She frequently attempted to start a family, once sharing with an interviewer, "I really desire a family," but experienced three miscarriages and eventually did not become a mother.

In the memoir, she powerfully reflected on the experience of giving birth to a stillborn baby at five months into her pregnancy while married to Gero.

I prayed each day that our child would live, but it wasn't meant to be. I was taken to a hospital in Reno, Nevada, where I endured the heartbreaking experience of a stillbirth," she shared. "Even now, I can't discuss these events without feeling sadness and anxiety. The inability to become a mother is a loss I will never overcome.

In the late 1970s, her social life was increasingly affected by a growing drug addiction that became a key part of her public persona.

As a young woman, Liza initially avoided alcohol and drugs, having seen her mother's tragic journey into addiction.

However, during the 1970s, she found herself in a whirlwind of excessive pleasure, experimenting with various substances such as alcohol, cocaine, and Quaaludes.

In the end, she managed to pull herself out of her downward cycle, receiving treatment at the Betty Ford Clinic and joining Alcoholics Anonymous.

Her initial stay at a treatment facility occurred in 1984 at the request of her sister Lorna Luft. When she checked in and the staff asked if she was on any medications, she replied, "Just a few, on weekends." The intake personnel didn't react at all.

I had a front-row view of Mama's struggles. But I believed I was different," Minnelli said in her autobiography. "I used cocaine, but everyone else did too. Honey, I had everything under control. What nonsense.

She exited rehab but returned within a year, this time after her long-time family friend Elizabeth Taylor convinced her to restart treatment.

Minnelli has shared with the public: "I will never forget the urgency in her voice and her words: 'Liza, this illness is going to take your life if you don't make the right choices,' she said. 'Please, no more falsehoods. Look in the mirror and recognize what we all see. You look terrible, and you feel even worse. You can't do this by yourself.'"

In 1994, she left her long-time home in New York for Los Angeles, where her social life transformed into a vibrant center of 1990s Hollywood.

"On any Saturday night in my Los Angeles living room, you could encounter Madonna, Tony Bennett, or Quentin Tarantino," she mentioned in the book.

We sat around my dining-room table, which sparkled under the load of Elsa Peretti-designed silver bowls from Tiffany & Co., filled with my favorite meal—Kentucky Fried Chicken. After chatting and eating, I would shout, "To the piano!" and we'd all gather around my Steinway.

She stated, "I was approaching 50, coming to terms with the fact that my life had become a wild swing between intense highs and stressful lows. Pain was now a constant presence. I experienced severe throbs, sharp pains, and aches. OxyContin quickly became my go-to medication for immediate relief."

In 2002, she entered her last marriage to David Gest, a close friend of Michael Jackson from his childhood, which quickly became a strange and highly publicized event.

"I wasn't at all sober when I married this joker. Gest was a quick-talking, ambitious promoter who used more makeup than I did. Boy, did he have a sales pitch: 'Liza, you deserve to be the biggest star in the world,' " she revealed in the book.

Jump ahead to our $3.2 million wedding celebration on March 16, 2002. Michael Jackson served as David's best man. Elizabeth Taylor was my maid of honor. Politicians, movie stars, rock stars — you can name them all. It was also a complete rip-off.

She explained, "I discovered that the complimentary items Gest couldn't obtain from the hotel and celebrities, he billed to my American Express. My American Express card!"

Throughout their marriage, Minnelli claimed that Gest controlled "everything I ate, from morning until night. He controlled the people I saw and spoke to on the phone. He screened my calls. In reality, I was his prisoner."

Their marriage ended in a bitter and lengthy divorce, during which he filed a $10 million lawsuit against her, claiming spousal abuse, but his case was thrown out.

Meanwhile, her rollercoaster addictions resurfaced—so much so that she once collapsed in the street after becoming drunk at a bar in Manhattan—and the many years of singing and dancing had started to affect her body.

'Between 1994 and 2015, I underwent surgery on both knees. I had procedures to fix damaged discs in my lower back. There were also surgeries to repair both wrists following another fall. This was in addition to two previous hip replacements and two operations on my vocal cords,' she said.

Someone else might have put away their Capezio shoes and gone to the closest beach. However, in 2008, when I performed Liza’s at The Palace on Broadway, I conveyed a different message. Although my voice may not have been what it was 20 years prior, Michael [Feinstein] assured me it was more powerful, profound, and full-bodied.

Liza is performing at The Palace, a solo show honoring her legendary mentor Kay Thompson, which was a huge hit that earned her a Tony. Following this, she performed an extensively publicized version of Single Ladies by Beyonce in Sex and the City 2.

A rehabilitation stay occurred again in 2015, following a morning when she "reached for my pills before breakfast" and "realized that maybe my nine lives were up," she noted.

I wasn't the least bit careful with the medications I was using, and the world saw what an unsafe overdose did to our family years back. I won't let that happen to me again," said the singer from the song "But the World Goes 'Round.

Recently, if someone hands me a glass of champagne at a gathering, I express my thanks and set it aside without taking a drink. However, medication is another matter. I still experience some lower back discomfort, and I occasionally feel anxious. But the use of these drugs is now carefully managed. And honey, there's no turning back.

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