C’mon, Minelli without the makeup and the camera angles is average-looking at best. By Hollywood standards, she’s ugly. Not a very good singer or actress either. Plays one role well. Liza. Fine if you like the role, and there’s no disputing tastes, but jeebus, she’s just not very good looking.
Specifically, her eyes are too far apart, her nose is too big, and her mouth is too big. She looks like a failed Muppet design.
Hell, start with Marilyn Monroe and go up through Bjork.
She’s not a straight guys dream or even fetish fool-around.
Sorry, but none of those pictures does anything for me in the least. And in that second link, she is indeed hideous.
I wouldn’t call her ugly (well, NOW she is), but even back in the day, she was just kind of average at best and downright strange looking at worst.
First things first. To the OP: Liza with a Z is (or I should say, was) a television show, not a movie in the stictest sense.
While it’s true that Liza has been running on empty for at least a decade now, her early body of work is nothing to dismiss, and stands as a testament to the talent she has (or, at least, had). The problem is that the breathless, pop-eyed, girlish exuberance that played well for a young up-and-comer in the 60’s, 70s and 80s, does not wear well on the boozy, overweight matron Liza has become. Sadly, she was never able to transition into an elder statesman-type performer, like Sinatra or Streisand.
But if anyone doubts Liza’s early talents, I suggest they get hold of the cast recording of a little-known 1960s Broadway gem called Flora the Red Menace. Liza starred in it and won a Tony Award for her efforts – the youngest recipient at the time, IIRC. She is really wonderful in it.
BTW, the show was fateful in way that would pay dividends for the rest of her career: it began her lifelong relationship with what would become one of the strongest, songwriting teams in show business, Kander and Ebb. (Flora was the first Broadway show for the trio.) When you’ve got K&E writing songs and shows just for you, you’ve got one hell of an ace in the hole. Liza later added another ally that helped raise her public profile – on the fashion front – in Halston.
So, sure, being Judy Garland’s daughter probably got her auditions that other shlubs would not have gotten. But she carried her weight in her early career. And she lucked into some very talented collaborators along the way, and those probably bought her and extra decade or two. But now, her style is all old hat, her looks and talent have been eroded by old age and substance abuse, and her reputation has been stained by scandals and stupid life choices.
Not to mention that Liza with a Z was absolutely stupendous and raved over at the time (and won 4 Emmys and a Directors’ Guild Award in 1973 and was nominated for another 4 Emmys that year).
Bettie Page, Marilyn Monroe, Catherie Zeta-Jones, Jennifer Connelly, Rose McGowan, Angelina Jolie, Alyson Hannigan, Kate Winslet, Tina Fey, Robia LaMorte, Charisma Carpenter, Scarlett Johanssen, Keira Knightley, Amy Poehler, Rachael Ray, Nigella Lawson, Rhona Mitra, Janeane Garofalo, Judy Greer, Fran Drescher (seriously), Lisa Edelstein, Gina Gershon, Salma Hayek, Claire Forlani, Leah Remini, Rena Sofer, Natalie Portman, Alicia Witt, Lynda Carter, Neko Case, Jenny Lewis (of the band Rilo Kiley), Shirley Manson, Gwen Stefani, Tori Amos, Shania Twain (even though I hate her music), Lisa Loeb, Masuimi Max, Persephone, Morrigan Hel, Anna Malle, Asia Carrera, Jeanna Fine, Brittany Andrews, Linsey Dawn McKenzie, Dita Von Teese… and that’s just off the top of my head, not that it really matters what I think.
Wow, you’re really open to a wide variety of types…
I think she’s quite attractive…
I never got Zsa Zsa either.
I’ve been to several Liza concerts over the decades, and she is absolutely gorgeous and mesmerizing in a live performance.
But when I play the CD’s or tapes of those concerts, or her movies, there’s very little there. She’s connects with a live audience in a way that very few performers do, but you’ve just gotta be there to experience it.
She was the dream girl of my straight-guy best friend Max back in the 1970s. Yes, I thought was an odd choice myself.
Oh, it matters, dude. With that list, you are a Tastemaker.
BTW, I’ll add that although I see nothing hot about Liza, the late-40s-early-50s Judy Garland could really clean my clock. See Summer Stock sometime.
Tony - check
Oscar - check
Emmy - check
She certianly appeals to someone.
Tastemaker?
[Straight woman reporting in. I always thought Liza was attractive, and I like her voice.]
She also won the Grammy Living Legend Award in 1990 for the body of her recording work.
When I was younger, I frequently thought about Liza during sex. It helped me to keep from ejaculating prematurely.
Let’s just say she’s exotic, in the NewsRadio sense of the word.
A close friend of mine was one of Liza’s personal assistants for many years. I could tell ya stories…
Whether or not you think she is attactive, you cannot deny she has certainly done some fine work over the years - albums, Broadway and film. She has made many, many bad career choices, but that is easy to say in hindsight. At the time they probably seemed like a good idea.
I have seen her in concert many times and she puts on a hell of a live show, when she is sober.