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- Academy Award winning actress Liza Minnelli presented the award for Best Picture with Lady Gaga at the 2022 Oscars.
- The 76-year-old was quite clearly not her in best shape, as she appeared on stage in a wheelchair.
- A friend of Minnelli’s has since said that she was sabotaged and “forced” on stage in a wheelchair.
Michael Feinstein, a singer, pianist, and friend of Hollywood legend Liza Minnelli, says that the 76-year-old actress was “sabotaged” while presenting at this year’s Oscars and that the Academy “forced” her on stage in a wheelchair to present the award for Best Picture to Coda
The moment immediately went viral, with many praising how Lady Gaga handled the situation, telling the famed Oscar-winning actress “I got you,” to which Minnelli replied, “I know.”
This is like a lesson in how to facilitate older people while honouring who they are.
What a class act by @ladygaga with legend Liza Minnelli.
The conferred whispers of "I gotcha" "I know" picked up by the mikes make it especially touching.pic.twitter.com/2JOWyrTQxn— Naomi O'Leary (@NaomiOhReally) March 28, 2022
Despite the tender moment, though, Feinstein said during a recent interview that the Cabaret star — one of the few performers to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award (known as an “EGOT”) — was “sabotaged” and “forced” on stage in a wheelchair.
Friend of Liza Minnelli says the Oscars “sabotaged” her and “forced” her on stage
“She was sabotaged,” Feinstein said during a Tuesday appearance on SirusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show.
“That’s a terrible word to use, but she only agreed to appear on the Oscars if she would be in a director’s chair, because she’s been having back trouble. She said, ‘I don’t want people to see me limping out there.’ She said, ‘You know, I want to look good. I don’t want people to worry about me.’”
“She was nervous, and it made her look like she was out of it,” he said. “Can you imagine being suddenly forced to be seen by millions of people the way you don’t want to be seen? That’s what happened to her.”
The moment with Minnelli and Gaga was just one of many headline-making moments from the night, as Best Actor winner Will Smith also infamously got on stage and smacked stand-up comedian Chris Rock in the face for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
RELATED: The Academy Gives Will Smith Decade-Long Oscars Ban After Chris Rock Slap
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