Michael Feinstein is making something clear about his friend Liza Minnelli’s appearance at The Oscars.
In an interview on SirusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show”, the singer revealed that Minnelli originally planned to appear in a director’s chair due to back problems.
“You know, that whole thing was, she was sabotaged. That’s the terrible word to use, but she only agreed to appear on the Oscars if she would be in the director’s chair, ’cause she’s been having back trouble,” he explained. “She said, ‘I don’t want people to see me limping out there.’ She said, ‘You know, I wanna look good. I don’t want people to worry about me.'”
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Plans changed at the last minute, which Feinstein attributed to the show being in disarray after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock.
“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,” he continued.
The 76-year-old was then told it had to be the wheelchair or no appearance. She reluctantly agreed, but the sudden change affected her as she presented the award for Best Picture.
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“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,” he recounted. “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.”
Feinstein just wanted to assure fans that Minnelli was fine and in good health.
“So she’s, she is really doing well and it’s a shame that it turned out that way. She was very disappointed,” he added.
