Since Feinstein posted his video to Instagram, it’s been reposted on Twitter, going a bit viral among her fans who are heartened to see the artist boisterous and full of life. One Twitter commentator wrote, “The cigarette, the sleeves, the broken broadway voice. THIS is a visual handbook on camp.”

Feinstein, a champion of the Great American Songbook tradition who’s appeared with Minnelli on multiple DVD commentaries of classic MGM musicals, had previously said on Sirius XM’s “The Jess Cagle Show” that Minnelli was “sabotaged. That’s a terrible word to use but she only agreed to appear on the Oscars if she was in a director’s chair, because she’s been having back trouble,” he said. “She said, ‘I don’t want people to see me limping out there.’ She said, ‘You know, I want to look good. I don’t want people to worry about me.’” Related 2023 Brings a Diverse Set of Oscar Contenders. Will the Final Nominees Reflect that? ‘Living’: The Prime of Mr. Bill Nighy Related 51 Directors’ Favorite Horror Movies: Bong Joon Ho, Quentin Tarantino, Guillermo del Toro, and More Nightmare Film Shoots: The Most Grueling Films Ever Made, from ‘Deliverance’ to ‘Mad Max’ to ‘Avatar 2’
“Then literally five minutes before she went on, when she sat in the director’s chair back there, and because I guess they were all shaken up because of everything that had happened earlier, the stage manager said, ‘Well, she has to be in a wheelchair.’” “She was nervous,” said Feinstein, “and it made her look like she was out of it. Can you imagine being suddenly forced to be seen by millions of people the way you don’t want to be seen? That’s what happened to her.” Feinstein also told Page Six that Minnelli at the time said, “No, I will not be seen in a wheelchair in front of everybody. I will not do this. I refused to do this.” Representatives for the Academy had no official comment, though word from inside the ceremony was that the event organizers were thinking of Minnelli’s health and wanted to take every precaution for her safety.

— JohnPaul (@JPJaval) April 27, 2022   Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.