Singer and actress Liza Minneli speaks candidly in new film coming to BBC at weekend
WITH four failed marriages, Liza Minnelli could be forgiven for being cynical about relationships. But the singer, actress and dancer is a cheerleader for romance, saying: “I feel wonderful about love. I wanted it to be like it was in the songs.”
In the film Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, the star and her tight circle of friends open up about her life and her multiple husbands.
Being the daughter of Wizard of Oz icon and singer Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli put Liza in the spotlight from the very beginning – and her love life was something that always made headlines.
Her mum Judy married five times and Liza, 79, has notched up four. Her first marriage, to entertainer Peter Allen in 1967, lasted only a few years because she found him in a compromising position with another man.
Liza says in the Bruce David Klein-directed biopic: “Peter was so much fun to be with but I think he felt restricted. He needed, literally, to come out!” Friends adored the Aussie and Liza’s actress pal Mia Farrow reveals: “It was the happiest I saw her in her private.”
The star’s second husband, from 1974 to 1979, was actor Jack Haley Jnr, whose father also starred in The Wizard of Oz, leading pals to joke “the daughter of Dorothy has married the son of The Tin Man”.
From 1979 to 1992 Liza was married to sculptor Mark Gero. Friends claim he was “a solid rock” in her life because he was not from the showbiz world.
A decade later she wed US producer David Gest. The pair separated in 2003 and divorced in 2007. There has been much speculation around I’m A Celebrity and Celebrity Big Brother star Gest’s sexuality, with Sir Elton John adding fuel to the fire by joking he wanted to “find Liza a heterosexual husband”.
Gest denied he was gay and claimed in interviews that he only loved women. But in the new film, when asked about her track record of relationships, Liza quips: “Give me a gay break, will you?” then tells the cameraman: “I’m sorry, cut that!”
Gest – who died from a stroke in a hotel room in 2016, aged 62 – is the spouse who receives the harshest backlash from Liza’s pals. It seems no one liked him or trusted him, and some make him out as a controlling and manipulative figure in her life.
Singer and pianist Michael Feinstein says bluntly: “Bette Davis said you should only speak good about the dead. Well, David Gest is dead. Good!” Liza’s close pal, former dentist Allan Lazare, who died last year, is also critical.
He is seen saying: “They met during a period of time in Liza’s life when she wasn’t doing so well.
“Physically, she gained a lot of weight and David Gest charmed her and romanced her. Gest had the gift of the gab. Nothing was real and basically for a while he took over her life. He took everyone in her life out of her life.
“It ended when Liza went on tour and she came back and David Gest took everything out of the apartment and left her with a bed and a lamp. He took every picture and every piece of furniture and put it into storage.”
And when Knots Landing actress Michele Lee tells the camera: “I knew about all her men”, Liza interrupts, saying: “And some of them weren’t men at all.” Such quips seem to have become a way of life for Liza, according to those closest to her.
Performer and artist Jim Caruso points out that the star – who is a rare showbiz “EGOT”, having won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony award – was taught to keep quiet about her private life and turmoil.
Instead, she made out to her fans and the media that her life was “like a cabaret” – referencing her 1972 hit movie. He says: “Liza was taught by her MGM parents how to make things sound fantastic. She will never go on camera and talk about the dirt.
“She has acknowledged that she didn’t always make the greatest decision in relationships and laughs about it because there was genuine love deep in every one of those in different ways.” Liza is best known for Cabaret, Liza with a Z and Martin Scorsese’s 1977 film New York, New York.
In later years she enjoyed success with the Pet Shop Boys on the album Results and appeared in the Sex and the City 2 movie and on RuPaul’s Drag Race. The biopic, which premiered last year and airs on BBC2 this weekend, also looks into how she was affected by the death of mum Judy.
The former child star was 47 when she died of an accidental overdose in 1969, when Liza was 23. Liza recalls: “I started crying and I didn’t stop for about eight days. It just was devastating to me.” Liza also battled her own addictions.
She admits: “I was the kind of person who never fell down. I never missed work. I never did any of the things you think of when you think of somebody being a real mess.
“But inside I felt so weird. I was taking valium and prescription drugs but I really didn’t feel like I had a drug problem. I’d drink silly drinks like rum and coke. And I started to notice that drinking made me feel better from that. It is really that simple but then it turned on me, like it always does.”
The star says she hid her problems because she did not want people to know she was under stress. She adds: “I always wanted to be the hero.” But she is very candid about growing up in the shadow of her mum, saying: “Being Judy Garland’s daughter is not a lot of laughs but I am grateful for all the bad stuff. It prepared me for the rest of my life. It made me understand a little bit more about myself.”
* Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story is on BBC2 on Saturday at 9pm.