Liza Minnelli made a surprise appearance at the GLAAD Media Awards Thursday night in Los Angeles.
The EGOT-winning actor and daughter of Judy Garland, 79, was on hand to accept the inaugural Liza Minnelli Storyteller Award at the ceremony, which celebrates fair and inclusive LGBT+ stories in media.
Minnelli, sitting in a director’s chair, was flanked by an ensemble of dancers and received a standing ovation from the crowd. She was presented with the award by her longtime friend Michael Feinstein, ahead of the release of her memoir, Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!
Accepting the award, she told the crowd, “I’m so glad to be here with you, all of you. You make me so proud, ‘cause you’re strong, and you stand up for what you believe in.”
Her appearance (and notably the director’s chair moment) comes after she claimed in an excerpt of her memoir that she was “inexplicably ordered” to be in a wheelchair for her 2022 Oscars appearance with Lady Gaga.
Years after the appearance — and following similar claims about the event from Feinstein — Minnelli claimed that she was originally supposed to sit in a director’s chair to present the award, but the plan changed without much explanation.
“I was inexplicably ordered — not even asked — to sit in a wheelchair or not appear at all. I was told it was because of my age, and for safety reasons, because I might slip out of the director’s chair, which was bullshit,” writes Minnelli in her forthcoming memoir, an excerpt of which was published by People.
“I will not be treated this way, I said. My co-presenter insisted she would not go on stage with me unless I was in a wheelchair. I was heartbroken,” Minnelli continued.
“I was much lower down than I would have been in the director’s chair. Now I couldn’t easily read the teleprompter above me. How would you feel if you were wheeled out, against your will, to perform in front of a live audience, and unable to see clearly?
“So when I stumbled over a few words, Gaga, who was at my side, didn’t miss a beat to play the kindhearted hero for all the world to see. ‘I got you,’ she said, leaning down over me.”
Minnelli then claimed that Lady Gaga visited her in her dressing room after their appearance to check in.
“I looked at her and said simply, ‘I’m a big fan,’” Minnelli wrote. “I learned this lesson years ago from Mama and Papa. At a moment of high stress, you stay gracious.”
Lady Gaga’s representatives did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment.
The 37th GLAAD Media Awards will stream exclusively on Hulu from March 21.
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