Liza Minnelli says affair with Martin Scorsese had 'more layers than a lasagne'

In her memoir Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!, Liza Minnelli says she and Martin Scorsese had a secret, tumultuous affair that began on the set of their 1977 musical New York, New York while they were married to other people. She describes the relationship as having "more layers than a lasagne," and recalls the pair’s "volcanic tempers" — including an episode in Greenwich Village when Scorsese berated her after hearing she was seeing Mikhail Baryshnikov, a liaison she admits occurred.

Minnelli writes that the affair became consumed by drugs. She calls it an "amour fou," a passionate, self-destructive obsession, and says cocaine use grew heavier for Scorsese and herself until it was "day and night" — on set, between takes and in the evenings.

She recounts turning up at Halston’s Manhattan home asking for drugs, and leaving with cocaine, marijuana, Valium and quaaludes. The shoot ran over schedule and budget, and the film ultimately fell short of box-office expectations.

United States, Greenwich Village

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