A file image of actress and singer Liza Minnelli, with her husband David Gest. The couple, who were married last year in a star-studded ceremony, have separated, Minnelli‘s spokesman said Saturday 26 July 2003. Minnelli and Gest wed in March 2002. PHOTO - TASR/EPA

NEW YORK – Liza Minnelli parried estranged husband David Gest‘s lawsuit charging her with beating him up by filing for divorce, in a court action made public on Thursday. The suit was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday. Details are sealed because it is a matrimonial matter. Minnelli‘s move came one day after Gest hit his wife with a $10 million civil suit alleging spousal abuse. The two weremarried in March 2002.

Minnelli‘s lawyer, Allen Arrow, did not return calls for comment about the divorce filing. Gest‘s lawyer, Raoul Felder, said he had not yet been served with papers. „I could care less,“ Felder said. „This is a dead marriage. It died in July when the couple separated.“

On Wednesday, Minnelli replied to Gest‘s allegations that she often attacked him during drunken rages.“I hoped very much that the end of my marriage would be handled with mutual respect and dignity,“ she said in a statement. „The allegations in this lawsuit are hurtful and without merit.“

Gest said in his lawsuit that she had injured his head with her fists and that he suffers „throbbing pain, severe headaches, vertigo, nausea, hypertension, scalp tenderness and insomnia.“ The suit states he takes 11 medications a day to treat his pain and injury. Gest said Minnelli, daughter of the late singer Judy Garland and film director Vincent Minnelli, once threw a lamp at him when he tried to calm her down. His suit said Minnelli‘s heavy vodka drinking gave her „remarkable force and strength.“

Reuters