Liza With the T

 

Liza Minnelli's memoir is heading to a bookstore near you, although this has "the audiobook will be even better" written all over it!

She writes:

On March 10, my book "Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!" finally arrives in the world. I’m spillin' the tea and tellin' the truth about my life - from “Original Nepo Baby” to carving out my own lane as an artist. It honors my father, my mother, my family… and all but one of my husbands!

My book began as a series of recorded conversations with my dearest friend, Michael Feinstein, over the past 15 years. I used to say, “Michael, tell it when I’m gone!” Yet, as countless people I loved lost their lives to drugs and alcohol, I knew it was time to open up and truly let you inside my heart.

In these pages, I share my loves, heartbreaks, triumphs, the laughter that keeps me going, and my lifelong challenges with what we now call SUD (Substance Use Disorder) - and yes, how I’ve thrived in recovery for over 10 years. If my book helps even one person find their way to healing, then telling my story is worth it. I'm taking all the tremendous love you’ve shown me over the years and giving it right back to you.

The first signed editions of my book sold out immediately … You've asked for more, so it's back to my desk! Kids, I turn 80 in March, so I can’t keep signing forever. I invite everyone who connects with me here to be aware that we have a limited number of signed copies. If you'd like, we'll share my life, my memories, my recovery, my joy and my love for you.

Order HERE.

Song of the Day: 'Embraceable You' by Liza Minnelli and Michael Feinstein

 

With so much mystery surrounding Liza Minnelli in recent weeks, it got me wondering when she had last performed. I knew she had worked on friend Michael Feinstein's recent "Gershwin Country" album. That collaboration of "Embraceable You" can be heard HERE, But her appearance just last year at Feinstein's at Vitello's in Studio City, Calif., is far more fun, as evidenced below

Song of the Day: 'Maybe This Time' by Liza Minnelli

Read all about Twitter's most heartfelt Liza tribute HERE!

 

Are You Losing Your Mind?

The world has gone to hell in a handbasket ... but this tribute to LIZA MINNELLI might be the perfect escape.

Page 1 Roundup (06/15)

The Daily News: New York attorney general sues President Trump, his kids and his charity -- charges foundation broke law to enrich him

This seems more fitting ...

Liza Minnelli does 'not approve nor sanction' Renee Zellweger playing mom Judy Garland in upcoming biopic

Pink News: Gay World Cup fan left with brain injuries after brutal attack -- but remember: Putin's a 'good man'

New York Post: New York’s attorney general on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Trump, alleging he illegally used money from his charitable foundation to pay off his creditors, decorate one of his golf clubs and help his presidential campaign

Page Six:  Journalist behind ‘S–tty Media Men’ list is shopping book

New York: No one wants to work at the White House so it’s having a job fair

Mother Jones: San Francisco’s first black female mayor defies the liberal litmus test

The New York Times: Democrats find vindication, and new agony, in report on Comey

 Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Justice Department tried to protect Hillary Clinton -- a watchdog’s report says otherwise

The Washington Post: Even House Republicans are considering allowing immigrant children to be detained alongside their parents

The Wall Street Journal: The utimate démarche: France wants to oust English from the EU

Liza Says #Reshisht!

I'm not being paid to promote this -- I just think it's aztounding with a z! Details HERE.

Song of the Day: 'Don't Drop Bombs' by Liza Minnelli

Judy Garland's favorite child's 1989 masterpiece, "Results," is about to get a delicious four-disc deluxe reissue! Details HERE.

David Gest, Odd Ex-Husband of Liza Minnelli, Found Dead in London HotelRoom

Apparently he had been battling some health issues, but wasn't he a most peculiar man?

The Daily New reports:

David Gest, the TV and music producer who turned into tabloid fodder during his stormy marriage withLiza Minnelli, died Tuesday in a London hotel. He was 62.

Gest, who left "Celebrity Big Brother" in January over health problems, was found dead in a Four Seasons in Canary Wharf at 10:17 a.m., police said.

A cause of death has not been determined. Police said an autopsy would take place "in due course."
Gest's New York attorney from his notorious divorce remembered him as a kind man who made the best of his prolonged legal drama.

"He was one of the funniest people you could meet in your whole life," Sue Moss told the Daily News Tuesday.

"He really always took the time to ask you how you were doing...He was a real pleasure to work with."

Moss said she last spoke with Gest about six years ago, after he moved to England and found new fame there. He loved having that opportunity to "start over," she said.

Broadway producer Rick Miramontez told the News Gest was "a major showman" with "eclectic taste and love for artists."

Who'd have thunk Liza would be the last (wo)man standing?!

Happy Birthday, Liza With a 'Z' (Not Lisa With an 'S')!

  The legendary Liz Smith pays tribute to the triple-threat of an entertainer -- pills, booze and coke -- who turns 70 tomorrow. Read HERE.

Read about my one-night stand with Liza at the Palace in 2008 HERE.

Supreme Courts Says Yes to Marriage Equality

Our long nightmare is finally over.

The New York Times reports:

In a long-sought victory for the gay rights movement, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5-to-4 vote on Friday that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage.

“No longer may this liberty be denied,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority in the historic decision. “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were.”

Marriage is a “keystone of our social order,” Justice Kennedy said, adding that the plaintiffs in the case were seeking “equal dignity in the eyes of the law.”

The decision, which was the culmination of decades of litigation and activism, set off jubilation and tearful embraces across the country, the first same-sex marriages in several states, and resistance -- or at least stalling -- in others. It came against the backdrop of fast-moving changes in public opinion, with polls indicating that most Americans now approve of the unions.

As Justice Kennedy finished announcing his opinion from the bench on Friday, several lawyers seated in the bar section of the court’s gallery wiped away tears, while others grinned and exchanged embraces.

Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired in 2010, was on hand for the decision, and many of the justices’ clerks took seats in the chamber, which was nearly full as the ruling was announced.

The decision made same-sex marriage a reality in the 13 states that had continued to ban it. Outside the Supreme Court, the police allowed hundreds of people waving rainbow flags and holding signs to advance onto the court plaza as those present for the decision streamed down the steps. “Love has won,” the crowd chanted as courtroom witnesses threw up their arms in victory.

In remarks in the Rose Garden, President Obama welcomed the decision, saying it “affirms what millions of Americans already believe in their hearts.”

“Today,” he said, “we can say, in no uncertain terms, that we have made our union a little more perfect.”

Who better to have the last word?

Damian and I joined hundreds of joyous New Yorkers in Sheridan Square to celebrate the rulings on Obergefell v. Hodges and three related cases that said the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage.

Next stop was Julius', New York City's oldest gay bar! xo

Be My Gest

Follow me on Twitter HERE, Facebook HERE and Instagram HERE.

Nice to see 45-year-old women are still getting work in Hollywood. #progress

Song of the Day: 'The Singer' by Liza Minnelli

Not even sure if this qualifies as "so bad it's good," but apparently it's her only LP to reach the Top 40, which is kinda amazing. (Where were all you queens when "Results" came out?!!!)

Girls' Night Out

Boy Culture was in Brooklyn over the weekend for the gayest moment in recent history -- Liza Minnelli and Rosie O'Donnell singing backup for Cyndi Lauper on "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." Oh, and some chick named Cher performed later. Read HERE.

'Cabaret': The Musical That Changed Musicals

Life is a "Cabaret" Blu-ray -- NOW.

Better the Devil You Know

Charlie does Madonna, Cher and Gaga -- but I still think his Liza is his bread and butter!

Judy and Liza Go Grocery Shopping

A trip to the Piggly Wiggly was never this much fun! (This is really brilliant.)

 

(With thanks to Steve!)

Being Liza Minnelli

Finally, documented proof that "Liza and David," the aborted VH1 reality show starring Liza Minnelli and her wax-figure husband, David Gest, would have been for the gays what "Being Bobby Brown" was, well, for everyone. (Via Towleroad)

With Z Intact, Liza Returns to Broadway

On Saturday night, Michael and I saw the legendary Liza Minnelli at the Palace Theatre. Believe it or not, I'm not what you would call a full-on "Liza queen." The only recording of hers that I only own is "Results," the album she made in the late '80s with the Pet Shop Boys, which in and of itself makes me an entirely different kind of queen. And while I greatly appreciate her gay icon mother, Judy Garland, I haven't seen many of her films and don't know the words to many of her songs. Yet the second I saw Liza, now 62 and on at least her seventh or eighth life, was back -- on Broadway -- I immediately bought tickets. I may not be obsessive about her but I know enough to appreciate that they just don't make 'em like this anymore, old-fashioned, vaudeville-bred, hard-working entertainers, that is. And Liza did not disappoint. Looking fit and ready to go, she opened strong with "Teach Me Tonight" and never looked back. Sure, she faked her way through some of the high notes. And sure, she had to take breaks and sit down here and there. But there wasn't a second she was on stage that you didn't feel like she was giving you -- her audience -- everything she had to make sure you had a good time. And if the 20-some standing ovations were any indication, a good time was had by all. I can't remember the set list, but "I Would Never Leave You," "Maybe This Time," "He's Funny That Way," a recreation of her mother's "Palace Medley," and, of course, "Cabaret" and "New York, New York" were all highlights. (No "Say Liza (Liza With a Z)" or songs from "Results," in case you're wondering.)

   

The second act was a tribute to her godmother, Kay Thompson (whom my sister and I adored in "Funny Face"), in which Liza recreates the famed MGM vocal coach and "Eloise" author's cabaret act she performed at Ciro's in Hollywood with the Williams brothers back in '48. Although I was unfamiliar with most of the material, during "Jubilee Time," "Clap Yo' Hands" and "I Love a Violin," Liza and her four male backups performed with so much joy and enthusiasm that you couldn't help but get swept away in their excitement. In between songs, Liza's memories of Kay, who lived in Liza's Upper East Side penthouse until her death in 1998, were heartfelt, and you got the impression that Kay was a larger-than-life Auntie Mame type who managed to bring some much-needed straight-talk into Liza's chaotic life. There were many memorable moments about the show, but none more so than hearing Liza sing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," the classic holiday song her mother introduced to the world in "Meet Me in St. Louis" back in 1944. When I performed it with the Rhodes Chorale honors choir back in junior high, we sang the revised (Frank Sinatra) lyrics. But Liza, of course, sang her mother's more melancholy version. And for one brief moment on a cold winter's night just before Christmas, it was as if it her mother were alive to dazzle us, once more ... (Photos via NYT)

Music Box: Liza Minnelli

I've always loved "Results," Liza Minnelli's 1989 album she made with the Pet Shop Boys. But deep down inside I've always thought somehow it wasn't quite as good as it should have been. (There. I said it. Don't hate me. I feel better already finally getting this off my conscience.) Not since Debbie Harry teamed up with Chic in 1981 for her solo debut, "Koo Koo," have I felt such ambivalence about a favorite record (and sure-fire collaboration). But unlike "Koo Koo," which looking back I can see lacked strong material, there's not a dud to be had on "Results," which makes it all the more perplexing.

While I can see Christopher Isherwood's point when he said Liza was "too good" to really be the unpolished Sally Bowles of "Goodbye to Berlin" -- it's hard to say Liza was all that miscast here. Who better to deliver Neil Tennant's cynical, monotone musings than the heiress to the throne of the Queen of Tragedy? And Tennant and Chris Lowe brought magic out of the equally tragic Dusty Springfield on "What Have I Done to Deserve This?," yet strangely I find it's on the three songs they didn't write -- Sondheim's "Losing My Mind," Tanita Tikaram's "Twist in My Sobriety" and the old Yvonne Elliman classic "Love Pains." -- do they even come close with Liza. (Of their seven contributions "Don't Drop Bombs" is probably the closest.)


Then last week I gleaned some new insight into the whole "Results" affair when I stumbled upon "Visible Results," the video companion to the album. While I normally think videos tend to ruin songs (don't get me started about the Pretenders' "Show Me"!), seeing these they almost serve as the missing link for why "Results" wasn't the greatest album ever: It should have been a full-length video-album! (A la Blondie "Eat to the Beat.") Watching a flawless-looking (she's svelte!) early 40s Liza chasing her ex-lover half-naked in the rain, hanging his shirts on a clothesline and in a tub of man-Polaroids with those CRAZY EYES of hers in "Losing My Mind," or seeing her looking fabulous doing an homage to Fred Astaire's "Holiday Inn" in "Don't Drop Bombs" (or did she crash the set of Bananarama's "Venus"? ) or glammed up in a theater singing to an audience of no one in "So Sorry, I Said," brings these songs to a whole other level, and you start to remember that Liza was never JUST a recording artist; she's a PERFORMER. (I only WISH there'd been a clip for "Rent"!) And while I'll admit she needs direction -- I heard she kept trying to SMILE while taping these videos for codependent anthems! -- when you give Liza Minnelli the right song and the right setting, you'll never disappointed in the Results ...

Separated at Birth?

My friend Jay says that MyHeritage.com face recognition software doesn't work right. I'm not so sure about that ...

At Fri, 14 Apr 2006 21:50:49 -0400 Jay wrote:

Subject: that face website is sham i uploaded one pic and aside from tom welling (which is nothing to sneeze at), the rest of my matches were girls with the closest being demi moore!!!! i have to give it credit though as elizabeth taylor and farrah fawcett were also on the list (don't cry for me though because eva peron was also listed). i uploaded a second picture and all the names it returned were men including mark rufalo, lech walesa and billy ocean. ridiculous.