# I don't get Liza Minnelli. Please explain. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 11, 2005, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069 "2005-09-11T04:41:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/1 "2005-09-11T04:41:24Z")
As the title says. Much was made today about Liza Minelli’s movie “Liza with a Z” playing at the Toronto Film Festival. Granting that Minnelli’s heyday was about 30 years ago, I don’t get it. I’ve seen the woman perform in various films. She can’t act, that I can see; she always acts pretty much like Liza Minnelli. Her singing sounds to me like a parody; I’ll grant she’s always on tune and such, but she’s always either sounding like, or just short of sounding like, a parody of a Broadway star. On top of that she’s spectacularly ugly and always has been but I’d discount that if only I thought she could act or sing. Is she popular just because she’s Judy Garland’s daughter? Or were standards of acting and singing skill different in the 60s and 70s (I was born in 1971.) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/2 "2005-09-11T04:51:57Z")
She had a brief window of entertainment value in the 60’s and 70’s. Beyond that she’s (like her mother) a chronic, dissipated alcoholic, and has survived more on being a “personality” than anything else since then. Her die-hard gay fans (again like her mother) have been her mainstay over the years. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/3 "2005-09-11T07:58:33Z")
There’s very little I can say in her favor. Just that I think every aspect of the film _Cabaret_ was brilliant. One of my all time favorite films. She was excellent. ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/4 "2005-09-11T10:30:54Z")
I kind of have a feeling her life went something like this: (Two bigshot NY music / theater moguls talking.) Who’s that hideous looking girl trying to sing on stage right now? That’s Judy Garland’s daughter! Ohhhhh, yes, she is rather talented isn’t she? ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy154](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ad7895/32.png) [@quiltguy154](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy154)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/5 "2005-09-11T12:21:20Z")
> [@ccwaterback](#): > > I kind of have a feeling her life went something like this: > > (Two bigshot NY music / theater moguls talking.) > > Who’s that hideous looking girl trying to sing on stage right now? > > That’s Judy Garland’s daughter! > > Ohhhhh, yes, she is rather talented isn’t she? Kinda like when she made her debut on Jack Parr’s old nighttime show. They introduced her as some foreign born singer, who was gonna’ be big. The name they gave her was culled from the syllables in her mother’s name, rearranged somewhat. After she sang, and wowed the audience, Parr revealed her true identity. Agree with the above, her 15 minutes was over 30 or so years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/6 "2005-09-11T12:38:56Z")
She’s funny on Arrested Developement in a Bill Shatner kinda way. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/7 "2005-09-11T17:53:15Z")
She wasn’t bad in **Arthur**. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/8 "2005-09-11T17:57:00Z")
Minnelli was a genuine Broadway star, one of the old-school Broadway belters like Ethel Merman or her mother. She also made a big splash when she went into movies; her character in **The Sterile Cuckoo** was scintillating (though the movie wasn’t) and she was terrrific in **Cabaret**. Later films were spotty, and she had health and drug problems, but in her prime she was a star in every sense. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/9 "2005-09-11T18:47:01Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > On top of that she’s spectacularly ugly and always has been You’re simply incorrect. Minelli is not and never has been a great (conventional) beauty, but she is far from being ugly, spectacularly or otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/10 "2005-09-11T19:36:17Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > She’s funny on Arrested Developement in a Bill Shatner kinda way. Well put! ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/11 "2005-09-11T20:57:00Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > You’re simply incorrect. Minelli is not and never has been a great (conventional) beauty, but she is far from being ugly, spectacularly or otherwise. No, Sir. You are simply incorrect. She is ugly. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/12 "2005-09-11T21:02:19Z")
Let’s just say that she has zero het male appeal. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/13 "2005-09-11T21:06:09Z")
[Oh](http://www.jacneed.com/PhotoFile/Liza_Minelli.jpg) [you’re](http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/images/m/13385301.jpg) [right](http://members.fortunecity.com/johnrobinsonm/scansm/minnelli/Liza%20Minelli%20m7.jpg), [she’s](http://xml.whatsonwhen.com/img_bg/cabaret1.jpg) [hideous](http://www.poster.net/sinatra-frank/sinatra-frank-photo-frank-sinatra-liza-minelli-and-sammy-davis-jr-6233786.jpg). Always was. Always will be. Thank you for enlightening me. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/14 "2005-09-11T21:07:02Z")
Gee, I guess this proves the old saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have always thought Liza was stunning. Not beautiful in the boring, beauty-queen way, but the kind of beauty that Edgar Allan Poe described, which has “strangeness in the proportion.” I wish I looked like Liza, at any age. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/15 "2005-09-11T21:11:46Z")
As a hetero male, let me just say that when Cabaret came out, and I was 17-ish, my reaction to the Mein Herr outfit (the one under the “she’s” link in Otto’s post above) was: humminahumminahummina yooowwwww woof. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/16 "2005-09-11T21:13:42Z")
She doesn’t look good now, but in her heyday, she was a very striking woman. ---
**Author:** ![sleeepy2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@sleeepy2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeepy2)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/17 "2005-09-11T21:34:13Z")
Her work in Arthur earned her a free pass from me. Lucille 2 is icing on the cake. (Not like the hideously unpleasant Martin Short guest arc. That’s putting a bit of a damper on my season 2 dvd enthusiasm.) ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/18 "2005-09-11T21:42:22Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > [Oh](http://www.jacneed.com/PhotoFile/Liza_Minelli.jpg) [you’re](http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/images/m/13385301.jpg) [right](http://members.fortunecity.com/johnrobinsonm/scansm/minnelli/Liza%20Minelli%20m7.jpg), [she’s](http://xml.whatsonwhen.com/img_bg/cabaret1.jpg) [hideous](http://www.poster.net/sinatra-frank/sinatra-frank-photo-frank-sinatra-liza-minelli-and-sammy-davis-jr-6233786.jpg). Always was. Always will be. Thank you for enlightening me. Sorry, I’m not gay, so she doesn’t do anything for me. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/19 "2005-09-11T21:59:15Z")
Liza Minelli may not do anything for you now, but that’s because she’s getting up there in years. She was quite attractive in her heyday, and was a very attractive middle-aged woman. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069/20 "2005-09-11T22:10:56Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > Sorry, I’m not gay, so she doesn’t do anything for me. Just as a point of reference, what women _do_ do something for you? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-liza-minnelli-please-explain/321069.md?page=2)