Liza Minnelli claims in her upcoming memoir that Oscars producers ordered her to present the 2022 Best Picture award in a wheelchair alongside Lady Gaga, warning she would not appear onstage at all if she refused.

In the book, titled Kids, Wait Till You Hear This, the 79-year-old entertainer writes that she had agreed to appear at the ceremony on the condition that she could sit in a tall director's chair because of back problems and so she could clearly see the teleprompter.

She says those plans were abruptly changed shortly before she went onstage, when she was "ordered" to use a wheelchair instead, with staff citing her age and supposed safety concerns. Minnelli recalls thinking the explanation was "nonsense" and writes that she felt "heartbroken" and humiliated by the last‑minute decision, according to Variety.

The moment at the 2022 Academy Awards, which saw Minnelli and Gaga announced CODA as Best Picture, went viral at the time for Gaga's reassuring aside, "I got you," after Minnelli stumbled over her script.

In the memoir, Minnelli says the wheelchair left her seated too low to comfortably read the teleprompter, which she blames for losing her place while reading. She asks readers to imagine being "rolled out against your will" in front of a live global audience while struggling to see clearly.

Minnelli also writes that Gaga came to her dressing room after learning she was upset about the situation and checked whether she was all right, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Earlier, Minnelli's longtime friend and collaborator Michael Feinstein had already alleged in a 2022 radio interview that a stage manager "forced" her into the wheelchair at the last minute, leaving her "discombobulated" before the telecast.

At the time, Feinstein suggested organizers had been rattled by the on-air altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock and abruptly tightened their safety approach backstage.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has not publicly addressed Minnelli's new claims, and representatives for the organization and for Lady Gaga have been contacted for comment in light of the memoir excerpts. Minnelli has said she decided to publish the book to "correct the record" about her life and career after years of what she views as misrepresentations in the press, as per Daily Mail.

Tags
Lady Gaga, Memoir, Awards