When your entire life has been lived in the limelight, when your story has been shaped—and sometimes warped—by publicists, tabloids, paparazzi, fans, and critics, writing a memoir is a way to set the record straight. In recent years, three of America’s most iconic female entertainers have done just that, publishing impressively candid, finely detailed, and highly readable personal histories.
In 2023, Barbra Streisand dazzled her fans—and the Kirkus critic—with My Name is Barbra (Viking). “What a talent, what a career, what a life, and what a treat to relive it all with this most down-to-earth of demigods,” our reviewer exclaimed in a starred review. The next year, Cher: The Memoir, Part One (Dey Street) took readers through the first half of the eponymous star’s rags-to-riches story, also winning a star and more high praise from our reviewer: “The vicarious experience of wealth, glamour, and romance is rarely this much fun. A truly great celebrity memoir.”
Thus, the bar was set high by for Liza Minnelli, whose Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! was published this month by Grand Central. But Liza, too, has earned a star for her “old-school Hollywood tell-all with all the trimmings, traumas, and bold-face names.” With the Big Three of American divahood all having weighed in, we couldn’t resist the temptation to compare and contrast high points and low.
Origins
BARBRA Born April 24, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York
CHER Born May 20, 1946 in El Centro, California
LIZA Born March 12, 1946, in Hollywood, California
An Affair To Remember
BARBRA Barbra had recently read a Life magazine article about the new prime minister of Canada when he appeared beside her at a dinner hosted by Princess Margaret. She was “dazzled” by Pierre Trudeau, who impressed her as “a combination of Albert Einstein and Napoleon (only taller).” Their whirlwind romance ended when the much older Trudeau got too serious.
CHER Cher was 15, driving a borrowed car, when she was cut off and almost hit by a white Lincoln convertible. The man with “one of the sexiest smiles [I’d] ever seen” turned out to be Warren Beatty, then 25. He invited her back to his place, where what happened, or at least what she’s admitting to, was extended kissing and a swim, wearing Natalie Wood’s bathing suit.
LIZA Liza carried on a wild affair with director Martin Scorsese while they were shooting New York, New York. Both were married, she to Jack Haley, Jr., son of the Tin Man from her mother’s landmark hit, The Wizard of Oz. She was out for a stroll in Greenwich Village with Haley when they ran into Scorsese, an encounter that became all the more awkward when Scorsese began loudly berating her for cheating on him with her pal Mikhail Baryshnikov. “I’d been outed,” she admits.
Still Mad At...
BARBRA Walter Matthau, Barbra’s co-star in the film Hello, Dolly!, was extremely hostile to her on set, at one point saying, “I have more talent in my farts than you have in your whole body!” Fortunately, when Matthau went to producer Richard Zanuck to complain about her, Zanuck said, “I’d like to help you, but the film isn’t called Hello, Walter!”
CHER Cher may have accepted Sonny Bono’s eventual apology, but her memoir does not hold back from revealing that throughout their relationship Sonny was cruel, controlling, and greedy. In their divorce, Cher’s lawyer claimed he had held her in “involuntary servitude,” in violation of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery.
LIZA Lady Gaga, Liza’s co-presenter at the 2022 Oscars, questioned Liza’s competency to appear on stage, suggesting she’d be “better off going home” and insisting the star use a wheelchair. “I feel she cast a shadow over my present career that I’m still fighting to overcome,” writes Liza.
Diva Moment
BARBRA Was it when she decided her story required 992 pages to tell? Or when, in the audio edition, she introduced so many ad libs that it ran more than 48 hours? Was it when she had her beloved Coton de Tulear dog cloned—twice? Or maybe it was much earlier in life, when she grew her nails long enough to ensure she’d “never have to type.” Your choice.
CHER More nails. In 1974, Cher skipped the Golden Globes ceremony, where she was nominated for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Television Series on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, to stay home and get her nails done. When they called her name to receive the award, they got...crickets.
LIZA “If you could have one wish on that yellow brick road, what would it be?” asked Barbara Howar of Entertainment Tonight, well into a long interview. Liza had had it. “I’d wish that you don’t ask me any more questions about my mother!” she snapped.
Mommie Dearest
BARBRA Diana Kind was no stage mom. “Don’t get your hopes up,” was her response to her daughter’s dreams of stardom. “I’m not sure if she actually told me, ‘You’re not pretty enough to be a movie star.’ But I knew that was what she meant,” writes Barbara. “I do love her. But that doesn’t mean I like her.”
CHER Jackie Jean Sarkisian faced financial struggles so severe she left her infant daughter at a Catholic children’s home in Scranton, Pennsylvania, paying $4.50 a week for her care, and finally reclaiming her as a toddler. Cher learned this only when she found hidden in a drawer a tiny photo of herself as a baby clinging miserably to the rails of a crib at the home.
LIZA Being the daughter of Judy Garland is the central fact of Liza’s life, conferring Olympian gifts and equally outsized burdens. “Don’t make my mistakes,” her mother warned her. “If only,” writes Liza. She watched her mother’s addiction destroy her, yet couldn’t stop herself from heading down the same path.
Cross To Bear
BARBRA This powerhouse performer took 27 years off from live performance due to terrible stage fright. When Barbra forgot the lyrics to one of her standards during a live show in Central Park in 1967, she was so humiliated and traumatized that she almost never sang onstage again until New Year’s Eve 1993, when she agreed to perform in exchange for a $3 million donation to charity.
CHER Due to severe dyslexia, Cher dropped out of school at 16. Six decades later, it was impossible for her to record the audio of her 480-page memoir by herself. Cher reads the opening pages of every chapter before Stephanie J. Block, who won a Tony Award for playing Cher on Broadway, takes over. Block does such a good job you almost can’t tell.
LIZA Liza has now been sober for 15 years, though most people associate her with decades of revolving-door trips to rehab. One particularly horrific low point: “I collapsed, falling to the sidewalk, almost comatose. I lay on the ground for God knows how long. And the most horrific thing is that hundreds of people rushing down Lexington Avenue stepped over or around my body.”
The Love of Her Life
BARBRA James Brolin, husband of 27 years, also soulmate and best friend. Even before the pair fully realized the profound compatibility they shared, he had checked one of Barbra’s secret boxes. “He has great teeth,” she writes, which readers learn is one of the first things she notices about a man to this day.
CHER Sadly, it may be the late Gregg Allman, whom she married days after her divorce from Sonny in 1975. Though she filed for divorce just nine days later, having fully grasped the depth of Allman’s addiction to heroin, there is no romance she describes as rapturously. The pair had a son, Elijah Blue, in 1976.
LIZA It’s co-author Michael Feinstein, with whom she’s been “joined at the hip” since they met through Ira Gershwin, Feinstein’s employer in the 1980s. Though “Michael, a proud, openly gay man, hadn’t signed up for a love affair with a straight woman,” Liza reveals that their friendship also included a period of physical intimacy.
Marion Winik, author of The Big Book of the Dead, hosts the Weekly Reader podcast on NPR.
