Happy birthday to youHappy birthday to you
VH1 has pulled the plug on the "Liza & David" show after weeks of frustration trying to deal with David Gest - a svengali who continually restricted access to his new bride, Liza Minnelli. "We discovered what a lot of people already knew: David Gest is impossible to work with," said a source close to the aborted reality show. "David Gest redefines the term 'control freak.' He was almost insane."
The heavily hyped cable show was originally supposed to debut Dec. 8, then was pushed back to January. Yesterday, VH1 lawyers wrote to Gest's lawyers informing them the deal was off because Gest had breached the contract repeatedly. "In light of your . . . inability to cure these breaches, it is with great regret and sorrow that we must notify you that we have no choice but to terminate the agreement," the letter states.
Rob Weiss, VH1's head of East Coast programming and development and one of the show's executive producers, told PAGE SIX: "We've made the decision not to move forward with the 'Liza & David' show on VH1. Although we continue to believe that Liza is an amazing talent, we were not given the cooperation that we were promised."
Weiss would say no more, but insiders said Gest:
* Kept Minnelli locked in their apartment. "She'd want to come out to shoot, and he wouldn't let her," said one source.
* Banned Liza from watching dailies.
* Made the crew take off their shoes and wear surgical booties inside the apartment. Gest was such a "neat freak," insiders said, he once ordered a female member of the VH1 crew to stick her head in the oven to examine some dirt.
Another time, Gest made a crew member stand with a portable vacuum cleaner while a hole was drilled in a plaster wall. link.
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Page Six also hears: THAT Andrew Cuomo is being touted to replace Eliot Spitzer as state attorney general when Spitzer becomes a candidate for governor in four years. Greenberg (Westchester) Town Supervisor Paul Finer, the political oracle, thinks Andrew's aggressive temperament is suited to prosecuting.
I don't think it's quite enough to be "aggressive." Some intelligence, competence and experience might be helpful, and I don't know that Andy knows anything about law enforcement (most liberal Dems seem to oppose it, in fact).