Liza Minnelli to Join Ugly Betty

Veteran entertainer Liza Minnelli is heading to New York for a new show - she will reportedly join the cast of the Big Apple's most fashionable comedy Ugly Betty for the next season.

The Cabaret star will play an "outrageous drama teacher" in the hit series, which focuses on the daily life of a lowly assistant at a top fashion magazine.

Minnelli will appear as Betty's camp nephew Justin's high-school teacher in several episodes, and will start shooting later this month, according to www.Fox411.com.

A source tells the website, "There were massive rumours last year, then again in early January, that Liza was being courted for the show, but Liza originally hadn't planned to do the show. Ugly Betty producers presented her with a great offer and a hilarious story and they kept coming back to her.

"She's going to be playing an outrageous drama teacher and it is going to be fun!"

Previously, Minnelli was a TV regular on hit comedy Arrested Development between 2003 and 2006.

Why Liza Minnelli Can’t Watch “The Wizard of Oz”

If your mom was the star of one of the most beloved movies of all time, you’d probably want to watch that film from time to time.

Not Liza Minnelli.

Her mother, Judy Garland, is the star of The Wizard of Oz which is celebrating its 7oth anniversary this year and continues to enchant generation after generation of kids.

But Garland’s character of Dorothy and her friends Scarecrow, Tun Man and the Cowardly Lion have to fight off the Wicked Witch of the West and other horrors as they make the journey to Emerald City to seek the help of The Wizard of Oz.

“I just loved her so and for some reason ‘The Wizard of Oz’ bothers me when I see it,” Liza tells the Associated Press. “They do terrible things to her. … That’s ’cause it’s my mom.”

Spoiler Alert! Sex and the City Mysteries Revealed

Eighties outfits? Appearances by Penélope Cruz, Miley Cyrus and Liza Minnelli?

Little by little, the secrets of the sequel to the Sex and the City movie are leaking out.

"It's Star Wars for women all over the world," Field joked at the 2009 Angel Ball for cancer research on Tuesday in New York City.

Warning: Don't read any further if you don't want to learn titillating details about the movie.

So what was the real story behind those '80s outfits that Sarah Jessica Parker and her three pals were dressed in – and widely seen in photos from a shoot on the streets of the Big Apple?

Flashback Time

"It was in the beginning of the movie," Field explained. "Carrie was waiting to meet her girlfriends and she was thinking about when she first moved to New York in the '80s and how she met Samantha and Charlotte. They're all, in real time, meeting to go shopping. And in her flashback time, she is thinking of when she first met each one of them."

What's with the guest appearances by Cruz, Minnelli and Cyrus? Cyrus recently filmed a scene with Kim Cattrall, where the two ostensibly showed up to a movie premiere in matching outfits.

"That's in the story line, but I'm not going to tell that one," Field teases. "But, it's fun. Miley's a very good character. She's a really nice girl. She's happy and with it! She's a very cool girl."

Road to Morocco

What about the films' increasingly exotic locales? After all, in the first movie, Carrie and friends fled Gotham for Mexico after Mr. Big stood her up at the altar. The new movie doesn't disappoint, Field promises, saying they'll be visiting Morocco.

"[We're shooting] there for about six weeks," she said. "You'll probably see belly dancers and Bedouins!"

But Field zips her lip when it comes to the biggest question of all: Will Carrie be expecting a baby?

"I don't know," she says. "You're going to have to see for yourself because then what's the fun?"

Minnelli's Plea to Garland Producers

Liza Minnelli is urging filmmakers to avoid focusing on her late mother Judy Garland's drug addiction in an upcoming production.

Actress Anne Hathaway will be tackling The Wizard Of Oz star's hits as part of the Weinstein Company's planned theatre and film project, based on biographer Gerald Clarke's 2001 book Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland.

Garland's daughter Minnelli has approved of casting Hathaway in the role, but is convinced the new versions must focus on her mother's talent instead of her well-documented personal problems.

Minnelli tells Canada's Citytv, "Well, I love Anne Hathaway. And I hope that it's a good movie and I hope that it's true. You know, that they don't just concentrate on the crap like they usually do.

"(I hope) that they talk about her the way she should be talked about which was she was a fabulous entertainer, a great mother and just a wonderful human being."