Who do people think of when they think of Liza Minnelli’s great romances? Depending on their ages, Peter Allen, the Australian entertainer she was married to from 1967 to 1974, might be on her mind.
Younger fans may immediately recall her highly publicized wedding to David Guest in 2002 and their split five years later.
Liza Minnelli’s life in photos, from performing with mom Judy Garland to earning an EGOT
But along the way, Minnelli had an A-list pairing with Tony Award-winning stage and screen legend Ben Vereen. He talks about their intense romance in a new documentary Liza: Really great, absolutely true storywhich premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2024 and debuts in select theaters on January 24.
The documentary covers Minnella’s four marriages and divorces and her high-profile relationships with stars such as Desi Arnaz Jr., Peter Sellers and Martin Scorsese. During a segment devoted to her marriages and romances, a black-and-white photograph of a topless Vereen hugging a topless Minnelli appears on screen.
“She said, ‘I want to take a picture of just us or us,'” recalls Vereen, 78, as she discussed the genesis of the photograph. “I said, ‘OK, sure.’ So I took off my shirt, she took off her blouse. We took a photo of exactly what was in my mind.”
“Then the next thing I know he was inside Newsweek,” he continues, laughing. “All over the world.”
Ben Vereen in 1974.
ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
The documentary doesn’t say when Vereen and Minnelli, 78, were in a relationship, but it was probably in the mid-’70s, between his marriages to Andrea Townsley and Nancy Bruner and Minnelli’s marriages to Allen and Jack Haley Jr. , son of The Wizard of Oz star Jack Haley.
“I’m sure a lot of society was shocked, but it never entered our bubble,” Vereen says of their interracial relationship, which was still somewhat taboo at the time. “It was two people sharing a moment in time. He keeps saying, ‘Well, what does that White guy think about that?’ Or ‘What’s that black guy going to think about that?’ We didn’t care. It was in our world.”
He wipes away tears as he watches an old video of him and Minnelli together. “I guess you’d call it love,” he says. “I loved Liza. That’s my child.”
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‘Liza: A really great, absolutely true story’.
Kii Arens/Courtesy of Atlas Media Corp
Vereen’s enduring affection for Minnelli underscores an observation by Allan Lazare, who was friends with Minnelli from 1973 until his death in February 2024, about the Oscar winner in the documentary: “Some of those relationships didn’t last as relationships, but a lot of them were long-lasting friendships during year.”
Liza: Really great, absolutely true story now playing in select theaters.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education