The 2022 Oscars ceremony had been torpedoed more than an hour prior courtesy of Will Smith, but when it finally came time to announce the Best Picture Oscar well after 11:00 pm Et, viewers were equally heartened and also a little stunned to see Liza Minnelli on stage with Lady Gaga.

Minnelli, a 1973 Oscar winner herself for “Cabaret,” appeared onstage in a wheelchair, brought out by friend Lady Gaga, to announce “Coda” as the winner of the night’s final honor. Now, in a recent interview on SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show,” her longtime friend Michael Feinstein claims Minnelli was “forced” to appear on stage in the wheelchair despite having initially requested to be in a director’s chair.

Feinstein, a singer and recording artist, said 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,...