Daily Warhol

Leave It at That

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:21:09 -0800

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.

Everybody is Boring

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:23:24 -0800

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.

Say Hello to Andy

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:23:38 -0800

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.

"People look the most kissable when they’re not wearing makeup. Marilyn’s lips..."

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:19:35 -0800

“People look the most kissable when they’re not wearing makeup. Marilyn’s lips weren’t kissable, but they were very photographable.”

Playing Around

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:18:35 -0800

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.

She Blew It

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:11:36 -0700

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.

More Champagne and Caviar

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 20:13:21 -0700

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.

Great Party

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:54:13 -0700

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.

You Can Do Anything

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:05:24 -0700

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.

Book Party

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:20:34 -0700

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.

Boring and Corny

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:00:53 -0700

Jamie Wyeth had invited me to lunch for Ted Kennedy’s birthday party, but in the morning he called and said that Rose Kennedy was only having a small one and he didn’t realize that, so I couldn’t go after all, but I think it was just maybe Jamie changing his mind. Went home at 8:30.

Saw on Metromedia that they took the idea from our proposal that they turned down and then went and did it themselves - they had Dinner with Bella Abzug on TV. But they did it boring and corny and it made me so sad.

It Was Night in a Minute

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 01:05:28 -0700

Took five hours to get to Miami. Paid for Catherine’s ticket. It was night in a minute, a long flight. Charlie Cowles met us in a great car, warm and wonderful, but it was 11:00. Time changes. Past the Fontainebleau, things like that. Took us to his mother’s place on Indian Creek Island on the grounds of a private club, had a lot of waterfront property. Met the mother and father, Mr. and Mrs. Cowles. Had sandwiches. Fred and I were in the guest house, Catherine was in the main house. Read Anforum which Charlie Cowles owns and went to bed.

On the Beach

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:44:26 -0700

Doug Christmas’s P.R. woman, Esther, arrived from church with an autograph from Jane Wyman, she’d asked for it while Jane Wyman was kneeling.

First supposed to have lunch with Bianca Jagger, but Wendy Stark said we could all have lunch at Coco Brown’s and I didn’t want to but Fred thought it was a good idea. The first car left, we were in the second, and we had a house number 36912 in Malibu. When we got there we couldn’t find it, but then the first car came along with Richard Weisman in it and he went to knock at 36910 because there was no 12, and the person who opened the door was “Mary Hartman,” with her funny braids on.

She said she’d have a party for us if we couldn’t find the party we were going to. But just then Coco Brown came by in another car with Wendy Stark and they said it was just down the block, that Wendy’d got the number wrong.

We got to the house and Bianca was there. She’d had a fight with Mick and he’d left that morning for New York - she’d accused him of an affair with Linda Ronstadt.

Walked down the beach with Bianca past the house of Larry Hagman, and he was standing on the beach in a funny uniform like a foreign-legion outfit, doing funny hand things, and I guess he’d gone off his rocker. While we were going by the sea came up and wet my shoes.

Spent three hours trying to make dinner plans, Bob Ellis, Diana Ross’s ex, and Alana Hamilton seemed too drunk. Bianca didn’t want to be with Miranda because she was the sister of Sabrina, Jed said he was hungry and he’d eat anywhere, and Wendy wanted us to go to Max Palevsky’s because she thought it would be good for us - he was going to have us over to see his art collection.

And so finally when we got together we went to a restaurant called Orsini’s, Italian food. Fred screamed at Catherine and told her how rude she was to him in front of everybody.

Everyone Was Drunk

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:05:28 -0700

Suzie Frankfurt arrived with Marcia Weisman. They had a Rolls Royce so we Rollsed over to the hospital, Cedars-Sinai. Lots of people waiting, I sold $1,500 worth of stuff for a benefit. Marcia was very pushy. If anyone took a picture they had to pay $10. If I signed a can they paid $5. She told them that my prices would go up in the afternoon to $100 a poster, when actually they were going to go down to $6.

Dropped back at the hotel. Picked up by Doug at 1:30 and a camera crew filmed us in the limo on the way out to Venice for my opening. Before the opening we went to see Tony Bill’s apartment, he bought a building across from the Ace Gallery with the money he’s making from either Taxi Driver, The Sting, or Shampoo.

The Ace Gallery was very crowded, people around the block waiting to get in. Russell and I signed the Russell Means posters. Viva and Paul Morrissey were there. There were a couple of other people from the old days - Cockettes.

I got so tired of signing posters all afternoon that I skipped out at 5:00 to the limo. Suzie invited us along to have a drink in Bel Air at her model friend Cheryl Tiegs’s and her husband Stan Dragoti, who works for Wells Rich Greene. Fred was bitten by a big dog when he opened the wrong door when he was looking for the bathroom, but he didn’t say anything about it until there was lots of blood coming down his leg. He just put some alcohol on and then we left at 7:30.

In the lobby ran into Annie Leibovitz and Jann Wenner. Susan Blond left a message saying she was with Michael Jackson at Top of the Rox. Jann and Annie had just gotten back from there, the Grammys had just finished up, so everyone was drunk. A couple of boys in the lobby tried to pick me up.

"After you PAY SOMEBODY BACK you never run into them any more. But before that, they’re..."

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:14:57 -0700

“After you PAY SOMEBODY BACK you never run into them any more. But before that, they’re EVERYWHERE.”

Andy Warhol Day

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:14:17 -0700

Rode out to the Ace Gallery in Venice to do a press conference. Called the office in New York in the morning and Ronnie told me it was Andy Warhol Day on The Gong Show. Back at the hotel I had lots of messages. Dinner at Marcia Weisman’s. Ryan O’Neal was there and Sue Mengers. Ryan was leaning against the Morris Louis and put a big dent in it. He was sour. I had all the Guinness kids with me - Catherine, Erskine, and Miranda - and it turned out Miranda’s twin sister Sabrina had been Tatum’s nanny and Ryan’s secretary when Ryan was filming Barry Lyndon in England, and Ryan hated her, so he was taking it out on Miranda, and she went to the bathroom to cry. Sabrina is actually a groupie, even though she’s a Guinness.

Sue looked terrible and so did Ryan. They left early because, I think, they thought “nobody” was there. Hollywood people are rotten. They all play these games with their A, B, and C groups and it’s just too stupid. That’s why when they come down, they really come down. One thing about Bianca, she really has class because she’ll go anywhere.

Jackson Browne

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:33:15 -0700

I went to tour the Gemini Gallery with Sidney Felsen and his partner. At Gemini I got an idea. They can now print 10’ x 10’ and I’m going to think about it. Done an hour earlier than supposed to, decided to walk around, the shops just so exciting.

A person ran after me and it turned out to be Jackson Browne. He invited me to come to the recording studio across the street to hear his new record. He was adorable.

The cab strike was on so Catherine and I found a limo outside, had to meet Tyrone Power’s daughter Taryn at 5:00 at the Imperial Gardens restaurant on Sunset. Back for Fred, had to give him money. He went off to Paul Jasmin’s cocktail party for Divine where he met Tab Hunter.

Sunny California

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:11:43 -0700

Arrived in sunny California. Dropped Suzie Frankfurt off at the Simon’s on Sunset Boulevard in glamorous Beverly Hills. Called the Beverly Hills Hotel but they were out of rooms so we had to stay at the Beverly Wilshire. Catherine called her half-uncle Erskine who was in town, he’s just a little bit younger than she is. He’s been traveling around the world all year with his cousin Miranda Guinness, the twin sister of Sabrina. Went to Allan Carr’s. He has a great house. As soon as we got there he wanted us to leave because he was having a dinner and his guests were arriving and when we turned the corner Jed and Catherine almost fainted because they saw the Fonz sitting there. Allan gave us a tour of the house, he said Ingrid Bergman built it and Kim Novak lived there after her. Took us to every bathroom and closet, showed us how the bed went up and down like a barber chair. Meanwhile Suzie was talking to the Fonz. She asked him what he did, he said he was “An Olympic Swimmer,” and Suzie was so excited because she’d “never met one before” - she kept asking him what year and if he knew Mark Spitz, and everything. By this time the Fonz sort of got annoyed and couldn’t believe anybody didn’t know who he was. She still didn’t know who he was after I said, “He’s the Fonz.” The Fonz talked very serious, he tries to be very heavy. He told me how much he liked me because of “famous for fifteen minutes,” and something about closets from the Philosophy book - empty spaces and things like that. I was so excited meeting him that I couldn’t think of anything to say.

The David Begelmans arrived. We had to leave because the dinner was about to start. There were white orchids on the girls’ plates. Allan took us in and showed us the table and the food before he kicked us out. That was funny.

A Funny Idea

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:17:19 -0700

Cabbed up to Suzie Frankfurt’s and there was a lot of traffic. Suzie is designing clothes for women who’re over the hill, and it’s a funny idea, they’re the wrong colors and they emphasize the wrong places, she’s going to try to get into that business on Seventh Avenue and she’s also trying to go into antiques as a business. She’s going to go with us to California on Wednesday - Norton Simon, remember, is her cousin.

Vogue

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:15:52 -0700

Leo Lerman called in the afternoon and commissioned a portrait for Vogue’s one-time-use only of Queen Elizabeth.