Liza with a Z has become Liza with a Shhh! — Liza Minnelli has struck a secret deal to end the sordid $100 million sexual harassment lawsuit by her former right-hand man.
M’Hammed Soumayah had filed suit against the Oscar winner back in 2004, charging she’d beat him during booze-fueled rampages and forced him to have sex with her.
“After many repeated attempts by Minnelli to compel plaintiff to have sex with her,” the married father of two “eventually succumbed” after she threatened to fire him from his $283,000-a-year job as her chauffeur, the suit said.
Soumayah said he even had “physical evidence of his sexual relationship with Minnelli.”
The purportedly pugilistic performer — who’d also been accused of beating her oddball ex-hubby David Gest — battled her employee of 10 years tooth and nail in court, filing a $250,000 counter-suit charging him with violating a confidentiality agreement and dragging their litigation out for years with numerous appeals.
Minnelli was ordered to face the music last month and sit for a deposition where she’d finally have to answer questions about their relationship under oath.
Court records show the two sides struck a deal to end the case on Nov. 13 — just four days before Minnelli was supposed to sing. The deal is now official — the judge who presided over the case, Paul Feinman, issued a ruling saying “the entire action has been settled and discontinued.”
Soumayah’s lawyer, Harvey Mars, declined comment, except to say, “The matter is resolved.”
Israel Rubin, one of Minnelli’s lawyers, also declined comment, citing a confidentiality agreement.
The hush-hush deal brings an end to sensational suits charging the “Arthur” star is a loutish lush.
In 2003, Minnelli’s then-husband, Gest, sued her for $10 million, charging she’d repeatedly beaten him during drunken rages that gave her almost super-human strength. “Liza, stop it! Stop it!” the suit quoted Gest as pleading. She allegedly countered: “I am the star!”
Minnelli filed a $2 million counter-suit, charging Gest was a manipulative clean freak who was trying to siphon off her cash. He later countered that she had tried to give him herpes by having unprotected sex with him, and they sued each other for divorce. All four of their lawsuits settled in 2007, the terms of which were confidential.
Soumayah’s suit said the Minnelli told him he was “the love of her life,” and that she spat on him and hit him when he rejected her. Minnelli’s lawyers accused Soumayah of a “shakedown,” and accused him of working with Gest to “destroy” their client.