I see your point. However, I think Todd was referring to the difficultly finding the right actress in casting the role. This is the larger quote, and I've read other interviews where he's said something similar. "Mandy was the hardest part to cast in the film. It's a particularly demanding role due to the range Mandy has to display as she changes from the seventies to the eighties. This type of camp female character has basically vanished from our cultural landscape, as far as I can tell. The closest equivalent today is probably a Parker Posy-type character, but she's still quite different from the Liza Minnelli of Cabaret or the Angela Bowie of the glam era."

While Margaret Cho is fabulous, she is essentially a comedian. (We'll politely skirt over the dramatic range of dear Maddy) And as you say Cher and Bette – especially of the Divine Miss M years – are old school. So, in other words, can we imagine another actress portraying Mandy? This is a little similar to the casting of Curt Wild. Todd said most of the younger generation of actors are the moody brooding types rather than the extrovert he needed for the role.

As for Liza and her succession of gay or perceived to be gay husbands, she was just copying Judy after all.;-)