The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook

Just from the title alone, ?The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook? seems pre-destined to find a place on the coffee table of many gay homes. But forget the stereotypical gay worship of this show biz icon and zoom in on the rich contents. Scott Schechter?s extraordinary tribute to Liza with a ?Z? is brilliantly researched, lavishly illustrated and endlessly entertaining. It is impossible to come away from this book without possessing a deeper love and respect for Minnelli.

Schechter breaks down Minnelli?s career in a neat manner: a decade-by-decade career-based mini-biography (all scandals are removed from print), followed by a chronological appreciation of Minnelli?s theater, film, television, recording and concert careers. Schechter uncovers a wealth of long-forgotten facts and photographs which will delight Minnelli?s fans: Minnelli dancing on stage with then-unknown Elliott Gould in a touring company of ?The Fantasticks,? her simultaneous Time and Newsweek covers for ?Cabaret? (and you thought Bruce Springsteen was the only entertainer to accomplish that?), a poster for a cancelled 1981 Carnegie Hall concert with ex-husband Peter Allen (who is strangely absent from the book?s photographic line-up) and an advertisement from the aborted VH-1 reality series with ex-husband David Gest (Minnelli looks great, Gest looks totally icky).

The book is also rich with Minnelli trivia, including unlikely appearances such as a concert for the inmates of a Chicago jail (two months after she won the ?Cabaret? Oscar). There is also an unexpectedly large amount of little-known data on projects which Minnelli either turned down (including the role of Daisy in ?The Great Gatsby? opposite Robert Redford) or which fell apart before production began (including the film version of ?Evita? under Ken Russell?s direction).

Schechter is uncommonly generous to Minnelli, to the point of presenting the most glamorous and flattering photographs available; later-life tabloid photographs which show Minnelli?s problems with weight control are conspicuously absent. Yes, ?The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook? is a love letter to the great star. And honestly, what?s wrong with a love letter to someone who truly earned the love of her fans?