Liza Minnelli is one of our premier artists in the world.
An Oscar winner, along with an Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe — not to mention a Lifetime Achievement statue from the Grammys — Liza also has three Tony Awards plus a special Tony.
Now 79, Liza has often been talked about for a Kennedy Center honor. Indeed, it’s way past the time it should have been offered.
With the Kennedy Center Honors surely to be announced any minute, I asked her former publicist Scott Gorenstein: Would she accept the award under the new regime at the Trump Kennedy Center?
Gorenstein — who pushed for years for Liza to get a Kennedy Center Honor — first emailed me: “Lol” like I was crazy. When I persisted for a quote, Gorenstein replied:
“Nobody is more deserving of any honor than Liza Minnelli. Her body of work stands alone. And the Kennedy Center should have recognized her many years ago. However, the Trump administration has made a mockery of the Kennedy Center, and I doubt Liza’s millions of fans would want to see her standing next to him after the damage he has inflicted upon our country.”
Liza may feel differently since she is almost 80. By the time Trump is out of office she’d be 85. Considering her health over the last few years, that may not be a realistic prospect. But Gorenstein is right — Minnelli is not likely to be photographed with a grinning Trump.
And who would perform in her her honor? “Cabaret” — with its fluid sexual characters and even drag implications — would never be allowed at the Kennedy Center under the new regime.
What’s alternative? How about the Chaplin Award from the New York Film Society next spring? That would be even better!
Kennedy Center Honors, by the way, are supposed to be for people who changed the culture for the better. Liza Minnelli is at the top of that list. Watch this:
