So, do all the forks have to go back?

Liza Minnelli has separated from husband David Gest, less than a year-and-a-half after Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, Phyllis Diller and a cast of 1,500 helped the fun couple toast their love in an old-fashioned, seven-figure media circus/wedding.


The split was announced Friday by Minnelli's publicist, as a growing number of tabloid stories said all was not well with the pair.


Rep Warren Cowan told the Associated Press he had no details on the separation, other than that it's happened.


The marriage is the fourth for multihyphenate Minnelli, 57; the first for producer Gest, 50.


So far, none of the concerned parties are publicly broaching the "D" word.


Of late, Minnelli and Gest have been residing on opposite ends of the country, their living arrangements being the point of origin for the aforementioned tabloid reports of their romantic demise.


Earlier this week, Cowan said there was a perfectly logical explanation for the 5,000 miles between them.


"David has been in Hawaii getting their house ready while Liza is in New York recovering from her fall in Italy," Cowan said in the New York Post. "They are still together."


It seems like only yesterday that Minnelli and Gest were together. Technically, it's been 16 months since their March 2002 nuptials, attended to by co-best man Michael Jackson (news) and bridesmaid Liz Taylor. The ceremony's price tag, including reception, came to a reported $4 million. Their couple registry at Tiffany & Co. requested 389 pricey pieces of giftware, including knives, forks and flat-handle butter spreaders.


Minnelli and Gest coupled in September 2001 as they worked on Jackson's 30th anniversary tribute concert to himself. (Minnelli performed; Gest produced.) By December of that year, the two were engaged.


"I just fell madly in love with her," Gest said in a honeymoon interview on CNN's Larry King Live in May 2002. "I loved her personality. She was everything I've always wanted in a woman. She's just--she's everything I've always wanted."


For her part, Liza said Gest was everything she knew and admired, a producer in the mold of Arthur Freed, one of the architects behind her mother Judy Garland (news)'s storied movie-musical career at MGM.


The two seemed to know that few observers gave their union a chance, and they seemed to delight in proving the cynics wrong.


Shortly after their wedding, they announced plans to adopt a three-year-old "Christian," as Liza described the girl.


But the adoption, to date, hasn't taken. As it turned out, more than a few of Minnelli and Gest's plans didn't take.


Their bid to become reality TV stars ended before it began, with cable's VH1 axing the show before an episode even aired, accusing Gest of being uncooperative. (Dueling lawsuits ensued.)





Their desire to celebrate their first anniversary in a party more opulent, if possible, than their wedding was cooled, they said, by the then-looming Iraq (news - web sites) war.

In postponing the Times Square bash, scheduled for April 15, Minnelli said she wanted to wait until "the world [was] at peace." At the time, she was at a rehab clinic for an eight-week course in what was termed routine sobriety maintenance.

Minnelli, the Oscar-, Emmy-, Grammy-, Tony-winning show-biz trouper, has long battled for her sobriety and health. In May, she suffered a broken kneecap in a fall at an Italian hotel.

The entertainer's three previous marriages also took nasty spills. She divorced first husband Peter Allen, the singer/songwriter, in 1974; second husband Jack Haley Jr., the producer, in 1978; third husband Mark Gero, the sculptor, in 1992.

Despite her experience at the altar, Minnelli said her wedding to Gest was the first time she wore white.

"Have you ever known a love like ours?," Gest asked her during a November 2002 Entertainment Tonight segment.

"Not like ours, no," Minnelli replied.

She wasn't alone.

Michael Jackson was co-best man? I thought for sure he was co-maid of honor.

To add insult to injury, performance artist Karen Finley (you know, the one who's infamous for covering herself in chocolate and screaming about sticking yams in her granny's ass?) is currently doing a tribute to Liza Minnelli at Fez nightclub in NYC...I love me some Karen Finley, but that can't be a pretty sight.

this is tragic!

Poor Liza!