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Health fear for Liza as UK tour is axed

The Daily Mail, 30 May 1998

By Paul Bracchi.

Liza Minnelli has pulled out of a British concert tour with less than a week's notice, amid growing fears for her health.

The 52-year-old star is suffering from 'chronic pain due to arthritis, fatigue and exhaustion' and has been advised by her doctor that she needs to rest for at least a month.

Fans were shocked by her bloated appearance when she attended the funeral of Frank Sinatra last week.

The Oscar-winning actress, whose figure is said to have ballooned by almost three stone, was barely recognisable as the precocious talent who enthralled the world in Cabaret or even the woman who starred alongside Dudley Moore in Arthur a decade later.

Those close to her say that she has also been depressed by critical attacks on her US concert tour last year and mixed reviews of her brief stint in the Broadway musical Victor/Victoria.

Her friends and family see parallels with the self-destructive tendencies of her mother Judy Garland, who died from an accidental drugs overdose at 47. They are concerned that her condition may have more to do with her much-publicised history of dependency on drink and tranquillisers.

The three-times married star, who divides her time between homes in New York and Los Angeles, was admitted to the Betty Ford Clinic in 1979 and again in 1984, in a bid to combat her reliance on Valium, telling friends: 'I didn't want to end up like momma.'

News that Miss Minnelli has been forced to cancel her five-concert tour at the 11th hour will disappoint her legions of British fans.

The first date was to have been the Nynex Arena in Manchester on Friday, followed by an appearance at Birmingham's NEC two days later and three performances at London's Royal Albert Hall between June 10 and 12. Thousands who had bought tickets were last night being offered a full refund.

The cancellation is a further blow to the star who had earlier this year confidently predicted: '1998 will be a wonderful year for me. I have my life organised. I can take the workload. I have fresh, pristine vocal cords now. I'm just finding it a bit hard to learn how to steer them.' Miss Minnelli, who won a best actress Oscar for her role in Cabaret, showed signs of strain in March when she failed to turn up for a historic photocall of past Academy Award winners.

It later emerged that she had checked into an addiction clinic reportedly suffering from 'nervous exhaustion'.

'Despite medical warnings she goes on burning the candle at both ends', said a friend at the time. 'She has been in quite a state and we've been very worried about her.' Miss Minnelli, who underwent hip replacement surgery three years ago, was yesterday resting at her New York apartment.

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