Liza Minnelli Refused To Be Mute And Lame After Encephalitis Scare


Liza Minnelli "rehearsed" herself back to health after suffering brain encephalitis in 2000 and learning she'd probably never speak or walk again.

The entertainer spent three days laughing uncontrollably before aides realised there was something seriously wrong with her and she was hospitalised.

Appearing on Ellen DeGeneres' U.S. talk show on Tuesday (11Oct11), she recalled, "I don't remember anything... but I do remember a team of doctors saying, 'Liza... you will not walk again and you may not be able to talk but you're alive, and, for the attacks of brain encephalitis you had - you had 16 seizures, that's wonderful.

"I thought, 'Nah, nah, nah... There's got to be a way.' I thought, 'I don't know how to do anything else. What am I gonna do? Rehearse. I know how to rehearse.'"

So the Cabaret star, now 65, started "rehearsing" her speech and motion and 18 months later, she was back on her feet.