Frail Liza Minnelli’s NY friends worry about her care in LA

Fifty years after “Cabaret” made her a superstar, Liza Minnelli lives a quiet life in an apartment in West Hollywood.

At 76, and with enough headlines behind her for three lifetimes, the singer and actress is rarely seen in public.

But in what would prove to be the second most surprising moment at March’s Oscars, the icon joined Lady Gaga to hand out the Best Picture award — and her frail appearance and confused demeanor was a shock to many.

Now in a wheelchair after battling years of ill health, an emotional Minnelli was given a standing ovation by the A-list audience.

“Oh! It’s so exciting,” Minnelli exclaimed as Gaga — who had stepped away to allow her a moment in the sun  — told her: “You see that? The public, they love you.”

It was Minnelli’s former publicist Scott Gorenstein who helped make the moment happen, after he was approached by Academy officers who said that Gaga personally asked that the actress present with her in honor of the anniversary of “Cabaret.”

“Liza is living her best life, not having to be in front of the cameras,” Gorenstein told The Post. “She’s been under tremendous pressure her entire life to perform for audiences. The past couple of years have allowed her to relax and enjoy another phase of her life.

“She has had some health problems. However, when an opportunity comes in front of me that says ‘Would Liza Minnelli like to present the Best Picture Oscar with Lady Gaga?’ the quiet life goes out of the window! Liza is a legend and she deserves to be at the Academy Awards, so I put it in front of her people and recommended that she do it,” he added “I said it would be an historic occasion.

“I wanted to remind people who she is,” he added.

Minnelli was to be the big surprise of the evening — until Will Smith slapped host Chris Rock onstage.

“Unfortunately, Will Smith stole a little bit of that thunder,” Gorenstein said. “But Liza earned every bit of that ovation. They were standing for her, for her mother and for her father. There was a lot of history in that moment.”

Minnelli’s life is the stuff of Tinseltown legend. Born to “The Wizard of Oz” actress Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli — and named after the Ira Gershwin song “Liza (All the Clouds’ll Roll Away),” she made her silver screen debut as a toddler alongside her mom in 1949’s “In the Good Old Summertime.”

At 18, she performed with her mother at a London Palladium concert that was released as an album. A year later, Minnelli won a Tony for “Flora the Red Menace.”

She released a slew of records — usually standards and songs from musicals — and acted in such films as “New York, New York” (the title song would become her signature number) and “Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon.” That one…