Sat Nov 22nd
Brigid called yesterday, says she’s down to 161 pounds. She’s coming by tomorrow to pick up her Christmas present and her birthday present from last September which she said she didn’t want to pick up at the time. The reviews came from England and they were bad for Bad. Stupid people like Frank Rich can write four pages on some nothing movie, but about Bad they just describe what it is and leave it at that. Don’t they know what their job is? To say what something means? I read the reviews and it sounds like the censors didn’t take out the baby being thrown out the window the way they threatened they were going to.
Ahmet and Mica Ertegun called to invite me to dinner at Gallagher’s that night for the Traamps, a thirteen-member black group on Atlantic that was going to be playing at Roseland. So we went there and the best thing at Roseland was a girl with real gold - like 14K - fingernails that you buy and she got my number so she’s going to call to get interviewed in Interview. She’s a famous singer.
Mon Nov 10th
Fred says I should stop telling people the TV dinner show was our idea because the show they came out with is really awful. He thought Halston and everybody made fools of themselves. He said Mick actually had hated Bianca in it.
It was raining hard all day long. Went to church. Paulette called and we talked about Dinner with Halston and I told her it was ripped off from me and she also said better not tell anybody, it was so bad. The thing is, I guess, in that long amount of time, everybody’s real personality just comes out and it’s too revealing of how boring they are.
Wed Nov 5th
Up early, beautiful day. Went down to Subkoff’s Antiques to see ideas. Walked over to the office. Bob was there, looking through pictures for the photo book Bob and I are doing. Vincent went out and got the paper, and that’s where the headline was: “MOVIE DIRECTOR CHARGED WITH RAPE.” Roman Polanski. With a thirteen-year-old girl he took to a party at Jack Nicholson’s house, and when the police went over to Jack’s the next day after the girl’s parents called them, they searched the house and Anjelica got arrested for coke.
Victor had told me that I absolutely had to watch the Dinner with Halston show on channel 5 - Metromedia.
This is the idea that we submitted to Larry Freeburg at Metromedia and they turned down, and now they’re doing with other people. Halston’s guests were Bianca, Joe Eula, the acupuncture doctor - Giller, Jane Holzer, Victor. It was very boring. They’d asked me to go on this show and I said no because they’d ripped off my idea.
It was a live dinner with a seven-second delay. Joe Eula said “bullshit” once and it was cut. The only real-life thing missing at the table was coke, and no runs to the bathroom. Victor was the life of the dinner, he took his fake mustache off. He used to have a real one but he’d shaved it off probably because he hates the acupuncture doctor who has one, but he put one on for the show. He also had a plastic chicken with him and kept talking to it, telling it to “say hello to Andy.” Joe Eula and Victor had a tiff at the table, something about me. Joe told Victor, “Let Andy speak for himself, why he’s not here,” and that’s when Victor - on Metromedia - said that Metromedia had ripped me off. So he was great.
Sun Nov 2nd
People look the most kissable when they’re not wearing makeup. Marilyn’s lips weren’t kissable, but they were very photographable.
I had a talk with Rick Li Brizzi at the office, told him he was selling my Maos and Soup Cans too cheap. Went home to change, picked up by Catherine, went to Nima Isham’s for a birthday party for Firooz and her husband Chris Isham.
The apartment was decorated with streamers and balloons. I was playing around, attaching some of the helium balloons to people who didn’t know it. Bob kept getting annoyed, brushing his balloon away, he didn’t know it was tied to him. After the dinner two cakes were brought out and somehow the whole table collapsed and both cakes went on the floor.
And Ronnie and Gigi are back together.
Thu Oct 30th
Barbara Allen was bringing Princess Firyal of Jordan, who’s dating Stavros Niarchos, down to the Factory.
The big drama was the Ronnie-Gigi-Spyro triangle. Ronnie called the Waldorf Towers late last night looking for Gigi and the desk wouldn’t put the call through to the Niarchos apartment so first he left a message saying that “Gigi’s husband called” and later he left a message saying that “Gigi’s brother died.”
So this morning Spyro called Ronnie and asked if it was all right if he came to Firyal’s lunch, he said he hadn’t known that Gigi and Ronnie were “together,” etc. Ronnie said he could come, but that if Spyro said so much as hello to him, he would beat him up.
Spyro told Bob that Gigi had just walked up to him at the de Menil party and said, “Remember me?” and he didn’t, so she refreshed his memory and then said she wasn’t with her boyfriend anymore and since they were both alone why didn’t they be together for the night. Spyro told Bob that now he thought Gigi was awful to involve him in her mess with Ronnie. So she blew it.
Sat Oct 25th
Read an item in the newspaper that Liz Taylor was selling her diamonds on Madison Avenue secretly to help her husband’s campaign with money, so I kept an eye out. Walked over to office. Ronnie wasn’t at work for two reasons - first because Gigi had run off with Spyro Niarchos the night before at the party, and second because Wim Wenders was shooting a movie down at his loft - Dennis Hopper is the star of it.
Lee Radziwill and her son Antony came down for lunch. Antony has gotten even bigger. Thicker. She said that since she didn’t go down to the Washington dinner Zahedi gave me the other week he reacted by sending her champagne and caviar, and when she sent a thank-you note, he sent her more champagne and caviar, and when she sent another, etc. etc. So he’s really going after her.
Walter Stait from Philadelphia had called to ask if I wanted to have dinner with him and Ted Carey and I said yes. Ted Carey was having health problems and he went to Dr. Cox, and Doc Cox was a good doctor because he recognized symptoms Ted had and said it was syphilis of the throat. The Doc must have other patients with that problem, probably. So he sent him for treatment, and the only problem left is that Ted keeps getting worms, they keep recurring. At dinner, Ted was very good to talk to for Popism, we reminisced about when we posed together for our Fairfield Porter portrait.
Thu Oct 23rd
It was a pretty day, walked around uptown, then went to the office. Jamie and Arnold were there. I thanked them for a good time the night before. Jamie said that Nureyev had fallen in love with Erskine, and that Erskine had almost given in, but didn’t, and that Nureyev’s last words were, “We can just watch TV.” He gave autographs to Erskine and Catherine.
Was picked up by Bob at 8PM, cabbed to the Iranian embassy. Bob made me go in black tie, but we were the only formal ones and then his excuse was that we were invited to so many parties he didn’t remember. We’re starting to feel used by the Iranians. It started in Washington a couple of weeks ago when we realized that Ambassador Zahedi isn’t “in” now with Carter - he was so Nixon and Ford-affiliated, but now he wants to be in with the Democrats and needs help and that’s us. It was a heavy dinner for the Swedish ambassador.
Our excuse for leaving early was that we had to go to Francois de Menil’s party for Princess Marina of Greece who had an opening at the Iolas Gallery. It was jumping - Arman and Corice, Larry Rivers - great party.
Wed Oct 22nd
Cabbed to Elaine’s to meet Jamie and Arnold and Rudolf Nureyev. Jamie was having a meeting of their minds. On the way in the friend of Lester Persky’s who always feels me up and grabbed me and introduced me to Neile McQueen, and she was actually pretty. He whispered “Ex-wife, Steve McQueen” in my ear.
Arnold walked in with three little girls, one of them was a sportswriter on The New York TImes, and she’s in love with him.
Then the most fascinating thing happened. A guy who Elaine introduced me to did his card tricks, and it was where he flashed the deck and the said think of a card and then he guessed the card eight times! I couldn’t get it out of my mind, I thought about it all night. I’ve just got to know how he did it, because if you can do that, you can do anything. Dropped off Catherine and Uncle Erskine and Miranda.
Woke up very cranky, left the house early, around 9:30, cabbed to Chembank. Got a letter at the office from the White House from Jimmy Carter. I wish I’d talked more last month when I met him, but I was so nervous. He’s really nice, though, a really nice man.
Jamie Wyeth still was painting Arnold Schwarzenegger who was still posing. Lunch for Jamie and Arnold. Alex Heinrici came by to touch up something. Worked all afternoon.
Picked up Bob Colacello and cabbed to 45 Sutton Place South. A book party for Anita Loos given by Arnold Weissberger. I had forgotten my tape and camera and there were lots of celebs. Arnold Weissberger and Milton Goldman have the longest-running gay marriage in New York. Arnold is seventy-something, the biggest old-time show-biz lawyer and amateur photographer. He takes pictures of everyone who comes to his house. He had a book out last year called Famous Faces. He had the book on the dining table at the party and he was making the famous faces sign it next to their pictures. Milton Goldman is sixty-something and a big agent at IFA. Bob noticed that he was the only person under thirty there - barely - and I said that Arnold must be afraid to have young kids because he might lose Milton. All the butlers and bartenders were over sixty. They brought one drink at a time and the tray shaked.
