Feb. 22, 2026, 1:54 p.m. ET
The Will Smith slap wasn’t the only bit of drama to arise out of the 2022 Oscars.
In her upcoming memoir “Kids, Wait Till You Hear This,” Liza Minnelli, 79, describes being unhappy that she was allegedly forced to sit in a wheelchair when she presented best picture at the 2022 Academy Awards with Lady Gaga. Minnelli says she was expecting to sit in a director’s chair, but this changed at the last minute.
USA TODAY has reached out to Gaga and the Academy for comment.
“I was inexplicably ordered − not even asked − to sit in a wheelchair or not appear at all,” the “Cabaret” star claims in the book, according to an excerpt published by People magazine on Feb. 20.
“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 bull—-. 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.”
Minnelli adds, “I was heartbroken.”
Minnelli was joined on stage by Lady Gaga when she presented the Oscar for best picture to “CODA” on March 27, 2022.
At the time, Gaga stood while Minnelli was seated next to her in a wheelchair, with the “Poker Face” singer saying she was honored to be with a “true showbusiness legend.” The appearance was tied to the 50th anniversary of the 1972 musical film “Cabaret,” which earned Minnelli the Oscar for best actress.
Minnelli held cards apparently containing the script for the presentation, though she appeared to read from a teleprompter while introducing a montage of the best picture nominees. When Minnelli seemed to become momentarily confused, Gaga leaned over and could be heard telling her, “I got you,” in what was widely seen as a heartwarming moment. The pop star held Minnelli’s hand and kneeled down to open the envelope so Minnelli could read the winner.
In her memoir, which will be published March 10, Minnelli reportedly writes that because she was required to sit in a wheelchair, she was “much lower down than I would have been in the director’s chair,” making it difficult to read the teleprompter.
“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?” she says in People’s book excerpt. “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.”
The best picture presentation with Minnelli came at the end of the same ceremony where Smith slapped Chris Rock for joking about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers hair loss from alopecia. As a result, Smith was banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years.
A few weeks after the awards show, Minnelli’s friend Michael Feinstein claimed she was unhappy with the way the best picture presentation occurred. Minnelli’s memoir is based on her interviews with Feinstein.
While appearing on “The Jess Cagle Show” in 2022, Feinstein, who was present at the Oscars with Minnelli, alleged the actress was “sabotaged.”
“She only agreed to appear on the Oscars if she would be in the director’s chair, because she’s been having back trouble, and she said, ‘I don’t want people to see me limping out there,’ ” he said. “She said, ‘I want to look good. I don’t want people to worry about me.’ “
Feinstein added, “Five minutes before she went on, when she sat in the director’s chair back there − and I guess they were all shaken up because of everything that had happened earlier [with Will Smith], the stage manager said, ‘Well, she has to be in a wheelchair.’ And Liza pleaded. She said, ‘No. I will not be seen in a wheelchair in front of everybody. I will not do this. I refuse to do this.’ And they said, ‘Well, it’s either that or nothing.’ “
According to Feinstein, Minnelli finally gave in and agreed to sit in the wheelchair, but the situation left her “so shaken up” that “it made her look like she was out of it.”
