Chapter 5
Friday, June 24, 1977
Ronnie was drinking heavily at the office all day because he'd been woken up by Gigi at the door with two policemen and a restraining order, something like that. So since he was drinking, he was bossing me around, giving me art ideas, which was good.
n.o.body was around the office to go interview Diahnne Abbott except Catherine Guinness, so I went over with her. It wasn't a good interview, I felt bad about it. It degenerated into me interviewing her little girl of around nine from before she married De Niro, and I take the blame for the bad interview because she's a friend of Nelson Lyon's so she must be intelligent, and I just didn't do a good interview. Dropped Catherine ($4).
Gave Jed $20 for car expenses and he drove us to Montauk. We're now trying now to rent the place to Francois de Menil or Earl McGrath.
Sunday, June 26, 1977-Montauk-New York Sunny. Mr. Winters was thrilled all weekend because we told him he was going to get a new Jeep.
Earl and I discussed the cover of the Rolling Stones alb.u.m that I'm doing. He wanted me to put some writing on it. I was down by the beach, Vincent was surfing, and there was a guy walking his big dog. I ignored him for a while, and then realized it was d.i.c.k Cavett. We talked a while and he was fis.h.i.+ng for an invitation so I invited him over for lunch. Peter Beard came over with Margrit Ramme, who was kissing Peter in front of Barbara Allen, his old girlfriend, but the two girls got along okay.
d.i.c.k Cavett told a Polish joke-put dots on his hands and then put his hand by his ear- "What're you doing?" "Listening to the Ink Spots." And then Margrit told one about the Polish police lineup where the guy rapist steps out of the line and says, "That's the girl!"
Barbara was upset because Jack Nicholson gave the part she "auditioned" for to an unknown girl who did some New York theater things.
I left early with Francois. He's a good fast driver-got us from Montauk to East Hampton in ten minutes. Jann Wenner had John Belus.h.i.+ at his place. Jann gave us a tour of the house. If he'd rented Montauk, he could have had something great, but I guess he and his wife Jane just wanted something "adorable." I was thinking about an idea all weekend that I got from the Liz and d.i.c.k book about doing a love affair between two parallel streets that can never meet. Dylan Thomas had once told Richard Burton he wanted to do that, but then he died. It would be a good thing for me to do, a good art idea.
Philip Niarchos kept calling Barbara from his car all weekend from London. He went to a big ball there, all the rich kids were at it.
Monday, June 27, 1977 Looked through the new issue of Interview Interview. Barbara Allen really hates her cover, she says it makes her look fat. Jann Wenner sent the paintings of Mick back, they must have been too much money for him. Catherine was putting Interview Interview down and we had a fight when I told her she was lazy. Nenna Eberstadt at the office sewed up Valentine's pants, but then last night they split again, so she didn't do a good job. I made a mistake of mentioning a lisp Valentine has and he got upset because he said he went to therapy for four years to get rid of it and thought he had. down and we had a fight when I told her she was lazy. Nenna Eberstadt at the office sewed up Valentine's pants, but then last night they split again, so she didn't do a good job. I made a mistake of mentioning a lisp Valentine has and he got upset because he said he went to therapy for four years to get rid of it and thought he had.
Tuesday, June 28, 1977 Went down to the office where Interview Interview was having a lunch for the Schenley's liquor people. I was in and out of the lunch because I was painting with the sponge mop in the back. I haven't peed on any canvases this week. This is for the p.i.s.s paintings. I told Ronnie not to pee when he gets up in the morning-to try to hold it until he gets to the office, because he takes lots of vitamin B so the canvas turns a really pretty color when it's his p.i.s.s. Answered a few phone calls myself. A couple of cute kids from Sweden came by. Sent Ronnie for photo supplies ($5.95). was having a lunch for the Schenley's liquor people. I was in and out of the lunch because I was painting with the sponge mop in the back. I haven't peed on any canvases this week. This is for the p.i.s.s paintings. I told Ronnie not to pee when he gets up in the morning-to try to hold it until he gets to the office, because he takes lots of vitamin B so the canvas turns a really pretty color when it's his p.i.s.s. Answered a few phone calls myself. A couple of cute kids from Sweden came by. Sent Ronnie for photo supplies ($5.95).
Cabbed to "21" ($5.50). Vincent picked me up. It had just started to rain. Dinner was with Peter Beard and his friend Harry Horn from Kenya. People were streaming upstairs for a dinner that Diane Von Furstenberg was giving for Egon's birthday. I was surprised when I saw Diane's mother-she didn't look Jewish, she was small and blonde. Then Mick in a lime suit came in with Jerry Hall. I thought things were fishy with Mick and Jerry and then the plot started to thicken. Mick was so out of it that I could tell the waiters were scared he'd pa.s.s out. His head was so far back and he was singing to himself. The top part of his body was like jelly and the bottom half was tapping 3,000 taps a minute. He was putting his sungla.s.ses on and off. Mick started going after Vincent, but it was just a ruse, because I found out later from Fred he's really pa.s.sionately in love with Jerry, and it looks like there's trouble for Bianca. Jerry was saying, "I really have to go," and when Peter was going to go with her to get a cab she said, "Oh, that's all right, Mick will drop me off."
Then we went next door for a continuing party for Egon, this one given at New York/New York by Diane de Beauvau. Franco Rossellini was there with a big black and blue nose, and you couldn't see anything but that, but I wanted to be discreet in case somebody had hit him, so I ignored it until Franco said finally, "By the way, have you noticed my nose? My little dog bit me." He has a dachshund, so I got nervous. He took it to a funeral and the dachshund, Felix, got upset and bit his nose and wouldn't let go.
Wednesday, June 29, 1977 Worked. Victor came by after his trip to Fire Island. He had some come samples with him and I told him to start coming on the sheets and bring them in and we'd have an exhibit together in Victor's loft-his Come paintings and my p.i.s.s.
Thursday, June 30, 1977 George Mason called and invited me to dinner on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. Stan Rumbough was going to the dinner, too, and that got me excited, he's the young rich Post Toasties son of Dina Merrill. Dina is in A Wedding Wedding, the Robert Altman movie that they're filming in Chicago. It just has a little bit of a storyline. Altman's doing all the things we tried to do in the late sixties and early seventies.
George Mason picked me up. Stan Rumbough is very big, about 6'3", and he's handsome, but he talks like a fairy. I've seen him a few times with cheap, sort of Oriental-looking girls. He's got a high, nelly voice, but I guess he likes beautiful girls-he was disappointed that Candy Bergen cancelled out, he said he'd gone swimming with her when he was seven years old and wanted to see her again.
It was an Armenian-Turkish-African-Arabian-type restaurant. Mashed chickpeas, mashed eggplant, three guys playing music. George had his model girlfriend Maret from Finland there.
Barbara Allen was there. She still just really hates her Interview Interview cover. The man with the new model agency came, he brought about five girls and boys. Valentine was in heaven. The owners came over a lot and took pictures. A nun came over to me to autograph a bottle but my pen didn't work. She said she'd just gotten out of an operation and that seeing me was the most exciting moment of her life since she won $500 in the church lottery, cover. The man with the new model agency came, he brought about five girls and boys. Valentine was in heaven. The owners came over a lot and took pictures. A nun came over to me to autograph a bottle but my pen didn't work. She said she'd just gotten out of an operation and that seeing me was the most exciting moment of her life since she won $500 in the church lottery, (laughs) (laughs) I mean, if these are high points for a nun... I mean, if these are high points for a nun...
Stan Rumbough seemed to like Barbara and was saying something that sounded like "b.l.o.w..j.o.b" a lot and blowing into a bottle. Philip Niarchos is probably not going to marry her, so she should get him worried, or something like that. She should live with him and get more things before he drops her.
Stan says he's a "photographer." These rich kids, it's so funny to hear them sit there and say, "I have a job, oh yes, doing pictures for a catalogue, I work for a man who does catalogues, and this is the second time I've been to Brooklyn-the first was yesterday, I came here to pick up some wax fruit to shoot...." I asked him if he wanted to do pictures for Interview Interview. I mean, Dina interviewed herself just to get Stan's picture of her published. And he said, "I'm in a busy time now, what with the catalogue work...."
Then on to Earl McGrath's party for the Star Wars Star Wars people-Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and another girl, but by the time I got to 57th and Seventh they were gone (cab $8). people-Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and another girl, but by the time I got to 57th and Seventh they were gone (cab $8).
MacKenzie Phillips asked Vincent, "Got any blow?" Jann Wenner was there and I introduced him to Stan Rumbough, but Stan is so stupid-sounding and I forgot to clue Jann who he was, so Jann probably thought he was just some kid who took pictures of waxed fruit, because that's all he was talking about again.
Good food. Fran Lebowitz and Marc Balet were there, they may have come with Jerry Hall and Bryan Ferry. Jerry seemed to be back with him.
Earl showed a videotape of the s.e.x Pistols.
Barbara and Stan and I left together, and when I left them they were still together.
Friday, July 1,1977 Suzie Frankfurt and Jed left early for Montauk in order to spruce it up for the prospective renters.
Victor invited me over to Halston's house for dinner. Halston had gone to Joe Eula's for the weekend in upstate New York, and he lets Victor use his house on 63rd Street while he's away but he never tells him when he's coming back, just to keep Victor on his toes. So Victor invited lots of people for dinner with me. One of them was Peter Keating, a top male model. His hair is receding, but he didn't start to get popular until it started to recede, he thinks it's because this way he doesn't "pose a threat" to men.
Victor made a chicken. The house was freezing and I was the only one cold because everyone else was taking c.o.ke. Halston has a freezer stacked full of vodka, so it's like drinking liquid oil. I had about four small gla.s.ses. Also there were a couple of John Waters people from Baltimore. The one guy who looked like a heavier John Waters said that he was Divine's roommate. I asked if he and Divine were lovers and he said, "Well, after all these years, you really fall in love with the mind mind...." Victor said he'd made it with someone in a van in front of Halston's, because they weren't sure when Halston was coming back.
Sat.u.r.day, July 2, 1977 Victor called and said he wanted to take me to dinner in the Village. I picked him up (cab $4). We went into p.o.r.no magazine stores for research materials for the "landscapes" ($36) and another one where the guy wouldn't give us a receipt ($17). Bought a "fairy s.h.i.+rt" that has my name on it. It's just a list of names of people who're gay all over it like Th.o.r.eau, Alexander the Great, Halston, me-but they have Richard Avedon on it. And there was somebody else on it who I've never heard was queer, either, but I forget who. Cruised the whole area. The Village was so packed with everybody who couldn't afford Fire Island. Victor had a "big black number" coming over to his house that he wanted me to photograph as a "landscape," so we cabbed back ($3.60). Then the big black number called and said he wouldn't be there for hours, so Victor and I cabbed to Studio 54 ($3). It was filled with beautiful people.
Went back to Halston's, Halston wasn't home, waited for the "landscape." Took pictures when he got there until I ran out of film. When I opened the door it was bright daylight. I was surprised. Home at 7:00.
Sunday, July 3, 1977 The kids called from Montauk, everybody was out there. Jan Cus.h.i.+ng, Jackie Rogers, Francois de Menil and Jennifer Jakobson, Barbara Allen. Mick had moved over from Peter Beard's and spent time in one of the bedrooms with Barbara.
Walked over to Victor's-at-Halston's. I ran into Stevie of Studio 54 on the street. Victor was trying to call his big black number again. Halston came in just as I was leaving, and that was awkward, really awkward.
Victor is my new Ondine, he even uses a TWA flight bag like Ondine used to to. But it's getting kind of too heavy, seeing him so much. He should get his art career going, but he thinks he doesn't have to have s.e.x with somebody to get ahead. I told him, "You've got to f.u.c.k your way to the top." Then I told him the Barbara Rose/Frank Stella Story.
Some blacks recognized me a few times this weekend, and I'm trying to figure out what they recognize so I can somehow sell it to them, whatever it is.
Tuesday, July 5, 1977 Rupert came by. He was wearing a lady's jumpsuit. Ronnie had told me that Rupert wasn't gay, that he lived with a girl, so I teased him and said, "What are you wearing that that for? Are you a for? Are you a fairy?" fairy?" and we all fell over when he said, "Yes, I am." Ronnie's eyes popped out. Suddenly it all started to make sense-the blond hair poofed up, the walk, the women's clothes-he was gay! and we all fell over when he said, "Yes, I am." Ronnie's eyes popped out. Suddenly it all started to make sense-the blond hair poofed up, the walk, the women's clothes-he was gay!
Victor called. He said that Halston threw him out, accused him of stealing the
Wednesday, July 6, 1977 Victor came by the office to loaf. Halston took back the key to his house because of the gang bang. Or maybe it was because he caught me me there. We'll see if he's mad if he starts sending the paintings back. there. We'll see if he's mad if he starts sending the paintings back.
Cab ($4) to Elaine's for dinner with Sharon McCluskey Hammond, and her favorite cousin who she just met for the first time a week ago, Robin Lehman. My ears perked up, because he's the son of the guy that left the Lehman wing to the Metropolitan Museum.
Steve Aronson said he wanted to look at the menu but Sharon told him, "If you ask for the menu, Elaine charges twice as much." Steve flashed a wad of money and said, "I can afford to hear the menu. There isn't a menu in the world I can't afford to hear." hear." Sharon said, "Okay, Steven, have it your way. Waiter? The menu." Later, when Steve and Catherine were leaving, Steve threw $40 on the table. Valentine said oh no, no, that that was too much for two people and that we shouldn't take it. Then the bill came and it was $148! I hadn't even had anything to eat. Robin had a steak. Sharon had spaghetti. Steve had spaghetti. And n.o.body even drank. Sharon said, "Okay, Steven, have it your way. Waiter? The menu." Later, when Steve and Catherine were leaving, Steve threw $40 on the table. Valentine said oh no, no, that that was too much for two people and that we shouldn't take it. Then the bill came and it was $148! I hadn't even had anything to eat. Robin had a steak. Sharon had spaghetti. Steve had spaghetti. And n.o.body even drank.
Thursday, July 7, 1977 Bob and I cabbed to the Pierre Hotel for the lunch in honor of the empress of Iran. There were demonstrators out front and it was scary, they wore masks, but they were Iranians, you could tell, because their hands were dark. We were special, so we went to shake hands with the empress- the, you know, queen. Governor Carey and Mayor Beame were in the receiving line, and Zahedi.
The queen was reading a prepared speech and it was going along okay, and then a woman in a green dress in the press section stood up and screamed, "Lies, lies, you liar!" and they dragged her out. The queen kept on reading her prepared statements and then afterwards apologized to everyone for the noise and demonstrations that were going on because of her. She said that women's rights in Iran may not seem so much to Americans, but in Iran it was big steps.
Cabbed to meet Ronnie ($2.50) and look at uncut stones for my Diamond paintings. Then cabbed down to the office ($3).
Cabbed up to the Iranian emba.s.sy ($2.50). There were no demonstrators out in front. Inside I saw Otto Preminger again and it was the second or third time in a few days, so he asked me what we were going to do tomorrow. I posed for pictures with the queen in front of my portrait of her. She said she was jealous of Hoveyda because he had eight Warhols and she only had four. The queen is taller than me.
Cab to Marina Schiano's for dinner ($3). Francoise de la Renta was there, she put the Shah down saying he was greedy and awful but she said she liked the queen. She said he had twenty-five mistresses an hour. Suzie Frankfurt was there. Bob was in the bedroom where there was c.o.ke. Giorgio Sant'Angelo came in and then Suzie and I were sitting right there and Giorgio says to Bob, "Who is this Suzie Frankfurt?" This is that thing that people on drugs do. It's just like they do in Hollywood when they don't like somebody-they talk about them as if they weren't there. In a way it's great-if it could only happen more. Marina and Giorgio are the ones who really do it a lot. I said, "Suzie, they're talking about you!" Bob said to Giorgio, "She's a good friend of Andy's, it's all right." "But who is is she?" Giorgio said. "She's very rich," Bob said. This is all with us sitting she?" Giorgio said. "She's very rich," Bob said. This is all with us sitting right there right there, with Giorgio and Bob acting as if we couldn't hear couldn't hear. Finally I said, "Oh come on on, Bob. You're talking about people in front of them."
Dropped Suzie ($2.70).
Barbara Allen told Bob that Mick is very unhappy, he says it's over with Bianca, that he has no feelings for her. He thinks she uses him and he doesn't want to go go to St. Tropez where she is. Barbara says she just thinks of Mick as a friend, the way she thinks of Fred and Bob, and that she has s.e.x with him only because he's lonely now. to St. Tropez where she is. Barbara says she just thinks of Mick as a friend, the way she thinks of Fred and Bob, and that she has s.e.x with him only because he's lonely now.
Friday, July 8, 1977 By the way, Valerie has been seen hanging around the Village and last week when I was cruising there with Victor, I was scared I'd run into her and that would be a really weird thing. What would happen? Would she want to shoot me again? again? Would she try to be friendly? Would she try to be friendly? [see Introduction, Valerie Solanis is the woman who shot and nearly killed Andy in 1968.] [see Introduction, Valerie Solanis is the woman who shot and nearly killed Andy in 1968.]
Went to Nippon with Marina Schiano, and Franco Rossellini was there. Franco was saying that he doesn't know how the story about Imelda being "married" to Cristina Ford got all over the world-"because I only told one person and it wasn't my story anyway." But he did tell everybody in the world-it was his joke story-of-the-week once. So now I think Imelda and Cristina are mad at him.
They dropped me off, and it seemed like they wanted me to to invite them in, but I didn't. invite them in, but I didn't.
Sunday, July 10, 1977 Was going to go down to work but the phone rang and it was Julia Scorsese. She was with a girlfriend, a writer who's working on a series. Julia said they were going to meet Barbara Feldon at Serendipity, so went to the Sherry to pick them up.
Julia was driving me crazy, sometimes when I'd catch her eye she looked just like Valerie Solanis, and then she also acts like Viva. She got it in her head that I "saved" her the night of New York New York New York New York. She said that she wasn't next to Martin at the table and I went over and sat her down there and that that squelched rumors that her husband was having an affair with Liza Minnelli so the papers didn't get it. She went on about that a lot and she was walking sort of drunkenly on blue high heels and her pupils were dilated.
When we got to Serendipity, Barbara Feldon was there. Julia started doing what I hate more than anything, patting my head all the time. She drove me crazy. And she kept trying to fix me up with her girlfriend who was tall and kind of pretty, and it was them saying, "You're so wonderful wonderful wonderful" to me for hours, and I didn't know what to do. Since I told her they didn't have liquor, she brought champagne. I don't understand these girls, they talk and say things and I don't know what they're doing.
Barbara left and we cabbed to Elaine's. We ordered, and it was more "Aren't you wonderful"s. Julia said she wanted to set up a date for me to meet the writer of Annie Annie, she said it would be nice for me to meet some real men, and I didn't know what that meant, if she was saying "real men" and the real men meant fairies, or what she was talking about. Julia told me how they do things on Marty's movies-they rehea.r.s.e the people, do videotapes, then Julia picks out the best things and they have the people redo them that way on camera later during the shooting. She said they change the plot and twist it during the shooting. Like in the original story of New York, New York New York, New York, Bobby De Niro goes into the record business.
She said that Marty has c.o.ke problems and he got blood poisoning and now he takes medicine to clean himself out. He's cutting three movies now. She said she wrote a lot of Taxi Driver Taxi Driver. I started saying people act like it's the directors and the producers and the writers who make a movie when it's actually the stars stars, and she took offense saying her husband had created created Bobby De Niro and Harvey Keitel and some other people. But I said they were new faces and people always want to see new faces. Marty is now in Chicago doing a musical called Bobby De Niro and Harvey Keitel and some other people. But I said they were new faces and people always want to see new faces. Marty is now in Chicago doing a musical called s.h.i.+ne It On s.h.i.+ne It On with Liza. with Liza.
She said that she gave Robert Altman the idea to film A Wedding Wedding in Chicago, to take it out of L.A. and give it a different atmosphere. The producers gave her three days off, she said, so I took that to mean she must have been driving them crazy. Julia was getting a little too drunk. She dumped her pocketbook on the table and all the credit cards spilled out. She went to the bathroom and I put them back in (dinner $70). in Chicago, to take it out of L.A. and give it a different atmosphere. The producers gave her three days off, she said, so I took that to mean she must have been driving them crazy. Julia was getting a little too drunk. She dumped her pocketbook on the table and all the credit cards spilled out. She went to the bathroom and I put them back in (dinner $70).
Monday, July 11, 1977 Forgot to say that on Friday Paulette G.o.ddard called. She sounded a little drunk, cranky. She's very mad at Valerian Rybar who's decorating her apartment in the Ritz Towers-he made it all pink and blue and even though she approved those colors she said she doesn't know how she could have.
Wednesday, July 13, 1977 Cabbed up to Rockefeller Plaza to the Warner Communications offices to see Pele, the soccer player who was being photographed for Interview Interview. He was adorable, he remembered meeting me at Regine's once. We were on the thirtieth floor. He's sort of funny-looking, but then when he smiles he looks beautiful. He has his own office up there, and they're making Pele T-s.h.i.+rts and hats and cartoons.
Mark Ginsburg had called and said the interview with Irene Worth was on for that night, and I said I'd meet him at the Vivian Beaumont where her play The Cherry Orchard The Cherry Orchard was. We were going to see it first. was. We were going to see it first.
Irene's voice was good, and that's all that really matters-everything she says sounds like real acting. The lights went down and I thought it was the end of the act, but it wasn't. It was the Blackout of '77. They kept acting on stage in the dark, and the girl who played the daughter announced, "Isn't this fun? Let's keep going!" A guy came on stage and said that anybody who wanted to leave would be shown the way out, and that they'd just keep going with the play, they had guys on stage holding candles.
So everybody was a real trouper, and this was the moment these actors had been waiting all their lives for-to make the show go on.
Then after the play, as Mark and I were walking backstage to see Irene, a man said, "This is the most thrilling thing that's happened to me, pa.s.sing Andy Warhol in the dark." Irene changed and put on bluejeans and turned out to look young. She served champagne. I had enough tape for three or four hours' taping. A Lincoln Center guy was saying, "Stay in the crowds, they're mugging people all over" (cab $4, big tip).
For some reason it was so simple to get a cab, we just walked out and got in one and went with a friend of Irene's who I also know, Rudy, to his apartment on 67th and Lexington, right on the second floor. He had candles all over because he always eats with candles. He made omelettes on his gas range, it was all so easy. They were delicious. Did the interview with Irene.
The phones were sort of working-you had to wait for a dial tone, but then it was okay.
Thursday, July 14, 1977 My power on 66th Street went on about an hour ago [Friday, 8:00 [Friday, 8:00A.M.] On TV the reporters showed the looting, they had TV crews right there, filming the looters, and the lights from the TV enabled them to see better to steal more. It was like the TV people asked them where they were going to steal next so they could set up. On TV they're all chained together and they're all black and Puerto Rican. It looks like Roots Roots.
Maxime de la Falaise called the Factory to see if there was electricity there. She's been moving down to her loft on 19th Street from the Upper West Side all week. She tried to save money by getting hippie movers, and it's taken a week instead of a day. The hippies carry things out leisurely and look at chairs and ask each other, "How old do you think this is? Eighteenth century?" Professional movers just crate up dead bodies, if that's what you have in your apartment, they don't miss a beat.
Had dinner with Sharon Hammond and Robin Lehman and afterwards we walked down Eighth Avenue through the drag queens and transvest.i.tes and wh.o.r.es over to Studio 54. Steve Rubell was thrilled to see us and let all ten of us in free. He reminded me that I'd asked him to marry me a few weeks ago, and I couldn't believe he would remember something casual and offhand like that. I said it once once and didn't even think he heard me. I mean, he's a young kid doing well, being successful-I'm so tired of working I propose all the time to people who're doing well. Why would he remember that as if it was serious? and didn't even think he heard me. I mean, he's a young kid doing well, being successful-I'm so tired of working I propose all the time to people who're doing well. Why would he remember that as if it was serious?
Sat.u.r.day, July 16, 1977 Son of Sam is still out on the loose, and that's an old-style crime-notes to the police, an M.O., killer on the loose, all that. People seem sort of happy to see a pattern. Son of Sam is nostalgia, almost. Goes after long brown-haired girls.
Up very early. Had lunch at the office for Victor and a kid he knows from NBC, Andy Wright, and Victor's new beautiful girlfriend who gives him c.o.ke, from Greenwich, Connecticut, Nancy something, who models. He's been f.u.c.king her to get the c.o.ke.
Monday, July 18, 1977 I'm reading the Evelyn Keyes book Scarlett O'Hara's Younger Sister Scarlett O'Hara's Younger Sister, and she describes everything in detail in her s.e.x life, it's great, s.e.x with King Vidor and with John Huston-how he put it in and everything. And she says that Paulette G.o.ddard was her idol, that she copied everything about her, her hair, her voice.
Called Paulette and told her about the book, how much Evelyn loved her. She said, "Oh yeah, she loved me so much she stole all my boyfriends, and when she stole my last boyfriend, I dropped her."
Cabbed up to Suzie's ($2.35). Sandra Payson who's married to George Weidenfeld was there and as I sat talking to her, a c.o.c.kroach was running on her. I didn't know if I should say something or not. But then maybe she knew because she stood up and said, "Shall we get moving?" And that knocked it off. What would Emily Post do?
I decided to really really hustle so I took Lady Weidenfeld home. We walked a little, and then she was overheated and we cabbed to 25 Sutton Place ($2.50). We talked about Diana Vreeland's nose. She popped the question about how much a portrait is and I said, "Oh, I can't talk money, talk to Fred." That effect.
On my way home, a cab stopped and I really wanted one, but since it had stopped for me I was suspicious to get in and didn't. Went to a magazine store ($4).
Tuesday, July 19, 1977 Stanley Siegel had looters as guests on his TV show and also Adela Holzer to defend herself against the fraud charges. She said that the investors had started to wors.h.i.+p her and so they expected to make a fortune and when they didn't right away they got mad. She kept correcting Stanley that she'd been "booked, not arrested."
All day was preparing for the Interview Interview advertising party at 5:00. People started coming around then and by 6:00 it was jammed. Everybody likes Gael Malkenson, who just started working full-time for us now that she graduated from college-she's aggressive and everybody thinks she should really be the one selling ads. advertising party at 5:00. People started coming around then and by 6:00 it was jammed. Everybody likes Gael Malkenson, who just started working full-time for us now that she graduated from college-she's aggressive and everybody thinks she should really be the one selling ads.
Ruth Kligman came by and kissed me smack on the lips and told me she was off Jack Nicholson for her Jackson Pollock story, and the new he-man screen-man of her dreams is Bobby De Niro, he's all she could think about.
Wednesday, July 20, 1977 Tom Seaver came down to pose for an Athletes portrait. Richard Weisman came, too, in a limo that parked downstairs. Tom Seaver was adorable. Athletes really do have the fat in the right places and they're young in the right places. The person taking the photographs was Mr. Johnson, a nice man who did the story on Jamie Wyeth and me once. He wanted Tom to wear a Mets hat, so they went out and bought one, and then he wanted Tom to do a Cincinnati-uniform with-a-Mets-hat picture, half and half, but he refused. Tom's wife Nancy was calling on the phone. He hates the Mets now. He'd just bought a new house in Connecticut and everything when they traded him.
I haven't been feeling well for the past two weeks, I think it's the pimple medicine. I'm going to the pimple doctor again early in the morning.
Thursday, July 21, 1977 After the pimple doctor I went to the office. Lunch for Christopher Wilding and his stepsister, the adopted Liz Taylor-Richard Burton girl, she was pretty but not a raving beauty, about sixteen, shy. Firooz Zahedi was there, and the Blondie girl was being interviewed and photographed by Chris Makos. Her real name is Debbie Harry, she's been around for a long time, sort of on the fringes. She knows everybody. If she had a body like Cyrinda's she'd be really great, although her body's okay, like a Sandra Dee-Tuesday Weld-type body. She's small.
Allen Midgette came up earlier to show his wares, he's making leather clothes, and he really works hard on them. He stayed for lunch. He keeps in shape dancing. We reminisced about the sixties when I sent him on that college lecture tour with Paul and Viva to impersonate me and then the places found out and made me redo the whole tour.
Monday, August 22, 1977 Cabbed to Chembank ($3.40). Walked over to University Place to look for things to paint.
Then cabbed to Richard Weisman's with Susan Johnson and Jed ($4.50). Susan needs a new man-the Billy Copley affair didn't work out. When we got there, everyone was already watching the Wimbledon match between Bjorn Borg and Vitas Gerulaitis. Those last two weren't there yet, they were having dinner together. The match went on three hours, and somewhere in there Vitas came in with a girlfriend but Bjorn had gone home from dinner. The joke is always that Bjorn sleeps for four hours then plays tennis for two, and that Vitas plays tennis for two hours then discotheques for four. Now Vitas has just discovered New York/New York. Susan Johnson was hurt, all the butch athletes had girls that were tall, slender, blonde, long-haired. She's just cute and little and brown-haired.
There was a lot to drink, no cocaine. Everyone teased Gerulaitis that he was wearing his gold c.o.ke-cutter razorblade around his neck in the match. He's in training now, he left early and only ate a plum.
Tuesday, August 23, 1977 Dinner to interview Diahnne Abbott was at Quo Vadis. Picked up Catherine. Bob began asking Diahnne (laughs) (laughs) in many different ways how it felt to be colored. "Are you really colored? How do you feel about your skin? Do you like to dance?" And then he got it down to what did it feel like to be colored and in bed with Bobby De Niro. Then I think she must have slipped Bob some c.o.ke-he went into the bathroom and came back a zombie. in many different ways how it felt to be colored. "Are you really colored? How do you feel about your skin? Do you like to dance?" And then he got it down to what did it feel like to be colored and in bed with Bobby De Niro. Then I think she must have slipped Bob some c.o.ke-he went into the bathroom and came back a zombie.
Diana Vreeland was there for dinner with Alessandro Albrizzi from Venice, at a table behind us. Then later as we were leaving, I introduced Diahnne to Diana and Diana said, "I'm madly in love with your husband." We went over in Diahnne's car to Studio 54. Fred and Ahmet Ertegun and Earl McGrath were there. Earl said he was thrilled that Fred had agreed to so little money for the billboard I'll be doing for the Stones.
Diahnne didn't like the music that was playing, it wasn't right, she wanted to leave. Went up to Elaine's. She played some songs on the jukebox that she wasn't able to hear at Studio 54. Bob continued the questioning on how it felt to be colored.
She told about her waitressing jobs in the Village at the Left or Right Bank, places like that. Then Bob asked her about politics, and she said she didn't think about it, and then Bob brought up Idi Aminl Idi Aminl I mean, I mean, everything everything he said was colored (Elaine's $50). he said was colored (Elaine's $50).
Then Diahnne invited us down to her apartment. It was peculiar, it was like this meant she was really accepting us or something. Barrow Street. She had clothes all over, she was buying lots and lots of clothes. They're looking for a new apartment and I suggested Park Avenue, but she said they have an image to protect. She served Dom Perignon, showed us baby pictures. She let the limo go, which was tacky, and we had to cab home. As we pa.s.sed the Studio 54 neighborhood, Bob screamed, "Let me out, let me out" (cab $5).
Tuesday, August 30, 1977 Up early to go to see Dr. Lyons for a teeth-cleaning. Went to Park Avenue to get a cab downtown and one pulled up and the door opened and it was lovely Barbara Rose saying, "Let's share a cab downtown." The fare on the meter was already past $3, I noticed. She's now going with Jerry Leiber, the Leiber-Stoller guy who wrote "Hound Dog" and so she talked about Elvis, although I don't think Leiber went to the funeral in Memphis. She said she and Leiber are writing or have written a play and they want Al Pacino to play Elvis. G.o.d, I just hate her. She's so awful (cab total $7).
They're saying that the article Caroline Kennedy did on the Elvis funeral for Rolling Stone Rolling Stone made fun of the local people, but I can understand that-Caroline's really intelligent and the people down there really made fun of the local people, but I can understand that-Caroline's really intelligent and the people down there really were were dumb. Elvis never knew there were more interesting people. dumb. Elvis never knew there were more interesting people.
When I got to 12th Street I walked around University Place for ideas. Then over to the office. Sandy Brant was there with Jed going over decorating schemes for Peter Brant and Joe Allen's office building in Greenwich that Philip Johnson designed. Jed's in the decorating business now.
Cab to Alkit Camera ($3) on 53rd and Third. The cab driver didn't even turn around to look at me but he knew who I was. I asked him how he could tell. He said that he'd been buying art since he was twenty and just "stacking it around the house like the Collyer Brothers." He went to auctions and places for art bargains, and he was thrilled to have me in the cab. I got a new camera because I had to take pictures of Chrissie Evert later in the afternoon. For the Athletes series.
Had Bettina, the famous Chanel model from the fifties, to lunch. She's the beautiful one who was in the car with Aly Khan when he died. She's here to open an Ungaro store on Madison around the corner from my house. She was wearing a purple dress.
Chrissie said she and Burt Reynolds were talking about me recently, and that's why she wanted to do this. Victor came in and he started dragging out the Shadow paintings of c.o.c.ks and a.s.sholes that I've been doing-the paintings all the "landscapes" have been posing for-and somebody had to tell him not to. I gave her a copy of the Burt Reynolds issue of Interview Interview.
Thursday, September 1, 1977 Went to the eye doctor and tried about another fifteen pairs of soft contact lenses. Finally a pair that was very very thin, the thinnest, felt the best.
Sunday, September 4, 1977-Paris Got up late and went back to sleep and I still wasn't ready when Fred was ready to go at 1:00. Taxi to YSL's for lunch. Fred had to lie and say that I was a cripple so that the driver would take us such a short distance. The driver looked me over and said, "Yes, I can see that" ($2).
Pierre showed us his birthday present to Yves: a sixteenth-century vermilion lion with ruby eyes. Yves also had on a lion ring. I taped the entire lunch. They spoke a lot of French so we stared around a lot. After lunch we went to the garden and the dogs were let out and Pierre played with them. He told us that he uses a c.o.c.k ring. Pierre said that they were putting silicone in c.o.c.ks now so that they stayed hard all of the time. Yves said he hoped everyone would do it so he could design new pants.
Tuesday, September 6, 1977-Paris Went to Castel's for dinner. As we were going upstairs Fred noticed that Joe Dallesandro was there so he went down to ask him to come up and join us but Joe said no and that began to bother Fred. So then Fred began drinking champagne. Lots of people there-Caroline of Monaco's fiance Philippe Junot, Florence Grinda's brother, and Pam Sakowitz who's getting divorced. Fred kissed her hand. Then Fred had an argument with a waiter about the fish forks. I asked Fred why he was so upset, if that meant he'd had an affair with Joe, and he didn't answer me. We learned more about Fred with every new champagne bottle. Then he decided to go and make Joe come up. Joe looked so dirty, his teeth were so dirty, like licorice. He talked loud, said he drinks a bottle of bourbon a day. He's making a movie with Maria Schneider-they're playing zombies. He put down his girlfriend Stefania Ca.s.sini who left him. Said that he bought her $5,000 necklaces that she'd hide in the safe and then go run around Rome calling herself a Communist. Now he's having affairs with boys and girls-just anybody, he said. He asked us to join him downstairs because he had a table. We said that we'd be down. Later he came back and screamed that they were taking away his table so we should hurry up. He had some rich ill.u.s.trator paying for it all. Joe started dancing with two black guys, and Fred was getting drunker and started dancing with them, too. I got so embarra.s.sed that I left.