Liza Minnelli, 76, 'shaken' and 'felt sabotaged' after sitting in wheelchair at Oscars

dailystar.co.uk:

Hollywood star Liza Minnelli, 76, has been left "shaken" and "sabotaged" after being forced to appear at the Oscars in her wheelchair, according to a pal.Her friend Michael Feinstein has since come to her defence after viewers at home were worried that she looked frail during her awards night appearance.Some fans argued that she looked "out of it" when she presented Best Picture at the 2022 Academy Awards alongside pop sensation Lady Gaga.Her close pal spoke on SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Show on Monday (April 18) and claimed that the 76-year-old acting and singing icon had been treated unfairly.The 65-year-old argues that Liza was "sabotaged" by Oscars organisers at the very last minute.He revealed the plan had been for her to be sat in a director's chair, but instead she was forced to use a wheelchair which flustered her and left her "discombobulated".Feinstein, an acclaimed jazz singer who focuses on standards, said he was in attendance at the Oscar with Minnelli.He claimed that she had wanted to do her presentation sitting down due to back pain issues.He said the New York, New York star and daughter of Judy Garland and Vincent Minnelli wanted to look and feel strong as possible after suffering from back pain issues.Her friend reportedly recalled her saying: "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.'"Feinstein also claimed that Will Smith's Chris Rock slap led to Liza being forced out of her preferred chair due to the chaos going on backstage.He explained: "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.