Liza Minnelli's Friend Michael Feinstein Says She Was 'Sabotaged' at the Oscars

Michael Feinstein, a longtime friend of the legendary Liza Minnelli, was by her side at the 2022 Oscars and he has revealed she was “sabotaged” at the show.

Liza had originally agreed to do the appearance under one condition and five minutes before she was supposed to go on stage, the stage manager allegedly changed plans at the last second.

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Michael says that Liza only agreed to appear at the show if she could sit in a director’s chair, but at the last second the producers supposedly forced her to sit in a wheelchair, against her wishes.

“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, cuz she’s been having back trouble,” Michael said on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show.

He continued, “And 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.’ 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. She said, ‘No, I will not be seen in a wheelchair in front of everybody. I will not do this. I refused to do this.’ And they said, ‘Well, it’s either that or nothing.’”

“And so I said, I was there. I said, ‘What do you wanna do?’ And she said, ‘I’ll do it.’ And she was so shaken that she was discombobulated. 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. 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,” Michael said. “And she was very disappointed at that, that that happened and it was not what was agreed to. So she’s, she is really doing well and it’s a shame that it turned out that way. She was very disappointed.”

Liza was joined by Lady Gaga to present the award for Best Picture at the end of the night.