{"id":1341,"date":"2003-10-23T00:35:23","date_gmt":"2003-10-23T04:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/nateptest\/2003\/10\/23\/lady-peaceful\/"},"modified":"2003-10-23T00:35:23","modified_gmt":"2003-10-23T04:35:23","slug":"lady-peaceful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/2003\/10\/23\/lady-peaceful\/","title":{"rendered":"Lady Peaceful"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

I know I shouldn’t laugh, but this had me rolling.  I think my
\nfavorite line may be: “But instead, he said, she started drinking vodka while
\nshe was out and returned to the hotel intoxicated. He claims she threw a lamp at
\nhim and tried to beat up their security guard, screaming and running from room
\nto room.”<\/p>\n

I am still laughing, but I feel bad
\nabout the misfortunes of others….<\/p>\n


\nNew York Times<\/font>
\nOctober 22,
\n2003<\/font><\/p>\n

Liza Minnelli’s Almost-Ex-Husband Sues Her, Claiming She Beat Him<\/font><\/p>\n

By
\nSUSAN SAULNY<\/font>
\n
\n<\/font>
\nDavid Gest sued Liza Minnelli yesterday, claiming that while
\nthey lived together she went into numerous alcohol-induced rages and beat him so
\nbadly that he “suffers from virtually constant, unrelenting pain” in his
\nhead.<\/font>
\n
\n<\/font>
\nAccording to Mr. Gest’s lawsuit, Ms. Minnelli gained physical
\nstrength from drinking vodka, and would routinely turn that strength against him
\nwith her fists. Mr. Gest’s complaint, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan,
\ndetails several instances in which he says he was beaten. The couple has been
\nseparated since July, and Mr. Gest’s lawyer, Raoul L. Felder, expects that
\nformal divorce papers will be filed within a week or so.<\/font>
\n
\n<\/font>
\nIn a union that
\nfrom the start had all the makings of a publicity extravaganza, filing a lawsuit
\nclaiming assault before filing for divorce could have been Mr. Gest’s way of
\nairing his grievances before the court — or the public — in advance of any
\nprocedure to end the marriage. Mr. Felder would not discuss the specifics of the
\nlawsuit.<\/font>
\n
\n<\/font>
\nMs. Minnelli had not yet filed a response in court last evening,
\nand a call to her lawyer, Allan Arrow, was not immediately returned, nor were
\ncalls to one of her aides, the agency that represented the couple when they were
\nmarried, and Ms. Minnelli’s booking agency.<\/font>
\n
\n<\/font>
\nIn the papers submitted in
\ncourt, Mr. Gest described himself as “a world-renown event and concert
\nproducer-promoter,” and Ms. Minnelli as someone whose “career had been eclipsed,
\nshe was an alcoholic, overweight, unable to be effectively merchandised, could
\nnot get insurance to perform concert dates on stage, or in any other artistic
\nmedia.”<\/font>
\n
\n<\/font>
\nDescribing one of their typical fights, Mr. Gest said in the
\ncomplaint that while he and Ms. Minnelli were visiting London in June, she left
\ntheir hotel saying she was going “to fetch take-out food.” But instead, he said,
\nshe started drinking vodka while she was out and returned to the hotel
\nintoxicated. He claims she threw a lamp at him and tried to beat up their
\nsecurity guard, screaming and running from room to room.<\/font>
\n
\n<\/font>
\nIn the suit,
\nwhich asks for $10 million, Mr. Gest said that he “limited his actions to trying
\nto avoid the blows by crossing his arms over his face and shouting repeatedly,
\n`Liza, stop it, stop it!’ “<\/font>
\n
\n<\/font>
\nWhile Mr. Felder would not comment on Mr.
\nGest’s case, he said he would welcome the opportunity to talk about domestic
\nviolence against men. “I think it takes a certain kind of strength to reveal
\nit,” he said.<\/font>
\n
\n<\/font>
\n
\nMs. Minnelli and Mr. Gest were married with much ado in March 2002
\nbefore 1,100 guests at Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan. At the
\nreception, Carol Channing, a guest, compared the whole thing “to when
\nthey opened the World’s Fair.”<\/font>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know I shouldn’t laugh, but this had me rolling.  I think my favorite line may be: “But instead, he said, she started drinking vodka while she was out and returned to the hotel intoxicated. He claims she threw a lamp at him and tried to beat up their security guard, screaming and running from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":709,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ontheweb"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5G3PH-lD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/709"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}