Lisa Minnelli’s moment on the Oscars stage with Lady Gaga is revisited, one of the highlights of the awards ceremony engulfed in the infamous slap of Will Smith.
Minnelli appeared in a wheelchair with Lady Gaga to present Best Picture, the evening’s final award at the 94th Academy Awards in March. The moment was particularly endearing when Gaga stepped back to allow Minnelli to accept a standing ovation from the Dolby Theater audience. After Minnelli seemed to struggle with the teleprompter, Gaga helped and then whispered audibly, “I’ve got you.” Minnelli whispered again, “I know.”
However, Michael Feinstein, Minnelli’s longtime friend, says he was in the wings of a theater with Minnelli. Talk about the Oscar appearance on SiriusXM’s”The Jess Cagle ShowHe said the legendary 76-year-old actress was “sabotaged” before she went on stage.
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When host Jess Cagle said Minnelli looked shaky on stage, and inquired about her health, Feinstein said the appearance changed due to the last-second decision to appear in a wheelchair on stage. He said Minnelli was planning to be in the director’s chair with Lady Gaga on stage.
“Minelli only agreed to appear at the Academy Awards if she was in the director’s chair, because she had back problems,” Feinstein said. On Wednesday’s episode. She said, ‘I don’t want people to see me lame in there…I want to look good.’ I don’t want people to worry about me.”
But after Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage earlier in the night, Feinstein said plans have changed.
“I think they were all shaken by everything that happened earlier,” Feinstein said, adding that the show’s stage director insisted on Minnelli’s wheelchair.
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Minnelli responded by backing off, and initially refused, according to Feinstein. But the production team insisted on using a wheelchair “or nothing” before Minnelli’s theater time, and Feinstein said, “I was there. I said, ‘What do you want to do?'” ‘ She said, ‘I will do it.’
“She was so quivering that she was agitated. She was nervous,” Feinstein said of the appearance. “And it made her look like she was out of her. And she was so shaken. Can you imagine being forced all of a sudden to be made to be seen by millions of people the way you wouldn’t want anyone to see her? That’s what happened to her? And she was so disappointed in that.”
Feinstein said Minnelli, who has struggled with health issues, “is working really well.”
“It’s such a shame that that is the case,” he added of his Oscar appearance. “I was very disappointed.”
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the remarks on the show. A Minnelli representative declined to comment. Feinstein’s press representative declined to comment further.
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