Fourth-time lucky for love-struck Minelli

Liza Minnelli is to be married in a lavish New York ceremony with Dame Elizabeth Taylor as her maid of honour and Michael Jackson giving her away.

The star will tie the knot with her fourth husband, David Gest, in New York’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in February.

And the ceremony will also feature Whitney Houston singing ‘‘Here Comes the Bride’’.

Minnelli, 55, announced her engagement to Gest, 48, last month and is now converting to Catholicism to allow her to marry in America’s premiere cathedral, the New York Post reported.

Her 48-year-old fiance produced Jackson’s comeback concert in New York in September, where he met Minnelli, who has now recovered from debilitating hip-replacement surgery.

Minnelli said she was ‘‘so happy’’ at becoming engaged to Gest.

Jackson will also be best man at the ceremony. The last time he performed the role was when Dame Elizabeth wed her seventh husband, Larry Fortensky, from whom she is now divorced.

Minnelli’s sister, Lorna Luft, expressed optimism for the marriage.

‘‘Everybody was a little shocked when they heard the news,’’ she said.

‘‘But she sounded very happy when she invited me to the wedding.’’

Minnelli, the daughter of screen legend Judy Garland, has been divorced three times.

Her first marriage, to Australian singer and songwriter Peter Allen, was in 1967, but ended in divorce seven years later, and was immediately followed by her five-year marriage to filmmaker Jack Haley.

After their divorce, she married sculptor Mark Gero, but that union collapsed after 13 years, and since 1992 she has been single.

She battled bad health, undergoing back surgery and two hip replacements, forcing her to cancel 14 concerts in 2000, and putting on two stones in weight, which she has now shed.

But Minnelli made her first public appearance in New York on September 7, at Jackson’s comeback concert and made her own return to showbusiness at the Madison Square Gardens venue, singing You Are Not Alone.