I blame it on being distracted while on vacation: last week was Liza Minnelli's 60th birthday! What can you say about this showbiz icon? So much. She's is an Oscar winner ("Cabaret"), an Emmy winner ("Liza With a Z"), the recipient of the Grammy Legends Award, and a two-time Tony winner ("Flora the Red Menace" and "The Act"). She also won a Golden Globe for her dramatic work in the TV movie "A Time to Live" and was Oscar-nominmated for "The Sterile Cookoo," has been in successful comedies on the big screen ("Arthur") and on television ("Arrested Development"), starred opposite Robert DeNiro in the musical "New York, New York" and has performed in sold-out concerts around the world - including a memorable late-80s tour with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.
She is every bit her mother's (Judy Garland) daughter and more. While Judy died tragically young, Liza is still here and is still kicking despite battles against alcohol and other addictions, bad marriages (most notably to the very strange David Gest) and health problems that include hip replacement, bad knees and struggles with her weight that she seems to be winning.

I was at the GLAAD Awards two years ago when Liza was honored with the Vanguard Award and she was a sensation, singing for us and making us love her as much as we ever did. I also got to see her at this terrific event where her father's (Vincente Minnelli) movie "Meet Me in St. Louis" (starring her mother) was screened with a remastered print. When she walked out on the stage at the DGA to intoduce the movie, I got goose bumps. That is some serious Hollywood royalty who has lived up to her lineage.
They really don't make superstars like Liza Minnelli anymore.