by Andy Warhol
François Catroux was there with his wife Betty, and they were sitting with Ahmet Ertegun. And in a case like that who do you say hello to first—you go to the table and who do you kiss first? I know Ahmet was offended. Princess Ashraf was there with her boyfriend who likes polo.
Catherine was talking to a beautiful woman and it turned out to be Princess Elisabeth of Yugoslavia who seemed to know me, and she asked why I wasn’t at Sharon Hammond’s cocktail party the day before. She’s trying to get a green card and so is Ira, everybody wants a green card. And an interesting thing is that how she knows Sharon is that Mr. Oxenberg, Princess Elisabeth’s first husband, left her for Maureen McCluskey, Sharon’s sister, and I can’t figure that out.
But anyway, Ira’s son was so handsome, he had the slight kind of accent, just the right kind, like a kid that you would want to go out on a date with.
Friday, November 11, 1977
Sal Marciano from channel 7 Eyewitness News came to the office. They shot about five or ten minutes’ worth in front of portraits. Then the people on the fifth floor called and said there was someone stuck in the elevator around the second floor named Victor. Vincent and I went out in the vestibule and heard a little voice calling for help. The fifth floor had called the Tenth Precinct, but they should have called the Thirteenth. The Tenth was over on the West Side. When the police arrived the first two were emergency-unit types, with ski jackets and baseball hats, like SWAT-looking. Then two uniformed cops came.
They were doing everything by the emergency regulation rulebook. But one kidded and said, “Do you have any dynamite?” in a loud voice. One was peeking down into the shaft and the other was holding onto his coattails. Finally from the third floor they lowered a rope ladder down to the car and brought Victor up through the hole in the top.
Then afterwards they washed up in the bathroom and one took off his belt and holster, and it was lying on the table, the gun in the holster, while he washed up. They were both 6’5”.
Sunday, November 13, 1977
Victor called from San Francisco, he was getting dressed for a leather party. He said he’d been to a party the night before where it was a bunch of “straight” carpenters inviting a bunch of gay faggots. I don’t know what that means.
Cabbed with Bob up to 94th Street to Paul Jenkins and Joanne du Pont’s house. Ran into Linda Eastman’s father, the lawyer, and his wife on the street.
Paul Jenkins is nutty. He told Bob and me, “I nearly fainted when you called today to say that you couldn’t stay for dinner because you weren’t invited for dinner. You’re invited next week.” Instead of just not saying anything and we would have thought we’d been invited twice.
The du Pont lady told me that the first time she met me was at Mica Ertegun’s and we were in front of the fireplace and the screen exploded. She happened to be wearing the biggest diamond in the world, one of them. She just got it from a sultan the day before, and when she got back to the hotel that night—she wouldn’t say which hotel—she put it in the safe, and that night, she said, they switched ice on her, gave her a piece of glass.
Paul Jenkins showed us his collection—American Indian and Indian Indian stuff. When I was in India I could’ve gotten anything for nothing, but it’s one of those things I just don’t understand. Like Chinese stuff—I can’t tell which is the good stuff, it all looks like the same junk. And he told us, “Lincoln Kirstein had his annual birthday freakout, but this time he physically threw his boyfriend out of the house,” so Paul was setting the guy up in a little apartment, he said, that belongs to Zero Mostel’s son. I really want to do people like Lincoln Kirstein in Interview. I think it’d be so fascinating to do him our way and do it really good.
Sunday, January 1, 1978
I felt like my fever was coming back. I’ve taken lots of the drugstore pills, and it’s scary.
Monday, January 2, 1978
I cabbed down to University Place and it was bubbling and bustling (cab $4). It was a half-holiday. I got to the office and I was a secretary, answering the phone. Robert Hayes and Marc Balet came in to work on Interview.
I called Bianca and she said to come right over to Halston’s, so we did and Dr. Giller the cute doctor was already there. We cabbed to Saturday Night Fever ($3) and when we got there it was all sold out. So then we cabbed to the other theater where it was playing and that was sold out, too (cab $3). Then we decided to try to see the Buñuel film, That Obscure Object of Desire (tickets $14, popcorn $4). It was really good, more modern than his early ones because every once in a while when it would get quiet, they would look out the window through the venetian blinds at the Paris street, and a bomb would go off—somebody would be blowing something up. But none of us could understand the movie. It’s one role played by two girls, and they never explain why.
Larry Rivers and his girlfriend came in and they sat near us. Larry told me that he did Aly Kaiser’s portrait, and she’s the one that said she wanted me to do her portrait and Victor kept telling me to call her and I just didn’t. So Larry did her portrait, and I think he must have had to fuck her, I don’t know.
So we walked back to Halston’s, and he’d fixed those pastas with meat inside them, not ravioli but maybe they’re called cannellonis? And he’d made a chicken, and we had lots of drinks. And Stevie Rubell was there, and Bianca got upset because he reads the London papers and he quoted something Mick had said. It was in Earl Wilson’s column here today about him and Jerry Hall, so it probably was Stevie who gave it to him—I mean, he pretends to be so friendly, and then he calls up the papers. And there were so many English reporters outside Halston’s waiting for a statement from Bianca or Halston.
Bianca and Halston seem like they’re a couple now, they really do. It’s like a romance. But Bianca is so upset about Mick, and I’m surprised that she is, because she could get somebody rich in a minute. Somebody said to Halston, “Why don’t you marry Bianca?” and he put his hands on his hips and said, “Because I’m the hostess here.”
And then we all went over to a place called the Ice Palace on 57th and Sixth. It’s lesbians and hustlers. Bianca was dancing around, but she’s so unhappy, and she and Halston were trying to get Jed to go home with them, and they were asking me if this was okay. She said, “Nobody likes me.” Everybody was wet from drinks getting spilled on them.
Tuesday, January 3, 1978
There’s an article in People about my Athletes show that’s on now at the Coe Kerr Gallery.
When I got home from the office I made a lot of phone calls, then walked over to Halston’s to pick up Bianca, she was cooking like a Puerto Rican, and she had the whole house smelled up with onions and hamburgers, she had them out on the counter. We cabbed up to 86th Street ($2.75) and we finally hit Saturday Night Fever at the right time and were able to get in. Well, the movie was just great. That bridge thing was the best scene—and the lines were great. It’s I guess the new kind of fantasy movie, you’re supposed to stay where you are. The old movies were things like Dead End and you had to get out of the dead end and make it to Park Avenue and now they’re telling you that it’s better off to stay where you are in Brooklyn—to avoid Park Avenue because it would just make you unhappy. It’s about people who would never even think about crossing the bridge, that’s the fantasy. And they played up Travolta’s big solo dance number, but then at the end they made the dance number with the girl so nothing, so underplayed. They were smart. And New York looked so exciting, didn’t it? The Brooklyn Bridge and New York. Stevie Rubell wants to do a disco movie, but I don’t think you could do another one, this one was so great. But why didn’t they do it as a play first? What was this first, a short story? They should have milked it—done it as a play first and it would have run forever.
Bianca fell asleep. Somewhere in the theater we found Dr. Giller. But he had related to the movie so well that he wanted to see it again, so we left him there and went back to Halston’s.
Halston and Bianca were in the kitchen together cooki
ng, and he said he had so much energy he wanted to go dancing. He told me lots of gossip—he said that the night before when the doorbell rang it was Liza Minnelli. Her life’s very complicated now. Like she was walking down the street with Jack Haley her husband and they’d run into Martin Scorsese who she’s now having an affair with, and Marty confronted her that she was also having an affair with Baryshnikov and Marty said how could she. This is going on with her husband, Jack Haley, standing there! And Halston said that it was all true, and he also said that Jack Haley wasn’t gay. You see? I was right, I didn’t think so. Halston said Jack likes Liza but that what he really goes for is big curvy blonde women. So when the doorbell rang the night before, it was Liza in a hat pulled down so nobody would recognize her, and she said to Halston, “Give me every drug you’ve got.” So he gave her a bottle of coke, a few sticks of marijuana, a Valium, four Quaaludes, and they were all wrapped in a tiny box, and then a little figure in a white hat came up on the stoop and kissed Halston, and it was Marty Scorsese, he’d been hiding around the corner, and then he and Liza went off to have their affair on all the drugs.
Then Dr. Giller arrived from his second viewing of Saturday Night Fever. Bianca had been fighting with Victor before he came, because Victor was eating all the hamburgers she’d made and she was saying to save some for Dr. Giller. But I think she just wanted them herself—her ass has gotten really big.
The Sex Pistols arrived in the U.S. today. Punk is going to be so big. They’re so smart, whoever’s running their tour, because they’re starting in Pittsburgh where the kids have nothing to do, so they’ll go really crazy.
And Bianca loves Jed. She keeps calling the house, but he was off in Connecticut with Judith Hollander and Sandy Brant for his interior decorating business.
And they wanted to go out, but Halston didn’t like the way Bianca looked, so he put three feathers in her hair. Oh, and Victor had just come over to get an extra bottle of Vaseline from upstairs.
Wednesday, January 4, 1978
In the afternoon Edwige, the Queen of Paris Punk, came down for lunch, and she brought a hairdresser guy down with her. She just got married and her husband sent her on a honeymoon, she said. He stayed home. She’s a lesbian and he’s a fairy.
And Edwige doesn’t have any hair, and the hairdresser had hair down his back. Then about twenty kids that I’d met at Studio 54 and invited up came by, so they saw Brigid the Fat Lady. Then they saw the Lesbian. Then they saw the Hairdresser. Then the tour was over. But we got rid of lots of Interviews on them. They’re from Southern University, something like that.
Cabbed to Bianca-at-Halston’s ($2.25). Bianca wasn’t there. She’d slept all day and was out at her exercise class. Halston was on the floor having a fit and he told lots of gossip. He said that once Liza and Bianca were both at his house, they were in the bathroom peeing together—you know how girls like to do that, have people to talk to while they’re in the bathroom—and Bianca said that she had bigger muscles than Liza, and so they dropped their tops and were comparing muscles in the mirror and Halston walked in on them. And while Halston was telling me this, Bianca came in from exercise class and Halston had her show her muscles, so she dropped her top and showed them, and she really does have a good body on top. Then she made another Puerto Rican dinner.
And then Dr. Giller came in and he’d slept a few hours after being up all night dancing, so he was refreshed, and he started trying to find Halston’s energy center, and while he did that, Halston was having white powder, so finally when Dr. Giller announced that he’d found Halston’s energy center Halston had had enough white powder so that he did have energy. Then Bianca brought the food in and the doorbell rang and it was Victor in his underwear.
And then it was time to dress Bianca for Studio 54. Then over to Studio 54 and it was full of pretty people.
Thursday, January 5, 1978
Bianca had slipped her number to Nastase at the tennis matches that afternoon and when I got to Halston’s the phone was ringing and it was Nastase, and Bianca told him to come over. He arrived with a boyfriend, just one of his friends, and he was intimidated by the place—Halston was dressing the Disco Queen in a coat he’d made for her that day, and she came down the stairs and Halston was saying [imitates], “Come on, Disco Queen.” He talks like baby talk. He didn’t put any feathers in her hair this time. I told him he couldn’t, that the newspapers wouldn’t take her picture if she put one more feather in her hair.
And then Nastase’s boyfriend decided not to come to Studio 54 with us, and when we got in the limo Halston was yelling at the driver because he couldn’t find the black radio station, he said, “What do you mean you don’t know where the black station is—you’re black, aren’t you?” And then the driver said he couldn’t see, meaning the radio dial, and Halston said, “What do you mean you can’t see, you’re driving, aren’t you?” and then he told me that you have to yell at the help or they don’t respect you. He has over a hundred people working for him and they’re all so terrified of him, they’re always asking each other what kind of a mood he’s in.
And I noticed something—Bianca had two blemishes on her face! She’s never had a blemish! I guess she’s depressed about Mick, discoing the night away. She stays out until 6:00 then gets up for her 8:00 exercise class.
Friday, January 6, 1978
Victor came over to the office a few times because he was nervous about his party that night. Richard Weisman called and said Pelé was coming up to the Coe Kerr Gallery and so I had to go up there to sign (cab $5). Pelé’s nice, he invited me down to Rio as his guest (cab home $4).
Changed and went down to Victor’s loft (cab $4). Victor had a security guard at the door, and his loft was all set up, he had lots of liquor and beautiful boys I’d never seen before. And Chris Makos came and he just got a free camera from Polaroid so he was getting all the kids to do funny things, taking off their shirts and posing. And there was a drag queen there, a former Cockette named I think Jumpin’ Jack and he had about 18 pounds of tit. And Diana Vreeland came with Barry Landau and Bill Boggs and Lucie Arnaz. They’d just seen the Mary Martin show. Larissa was there and Edwige. Edwige was unhappy because she came to New York to see Patti Hansen, who wouldn’t see her again, so at the party Edwige put a four-inch cut in an X on the back of her wrist—later Victor found blood in his apartment.
And then, my dear, it was like a story-book fairy tale. Halston arrived in white, with Bianca on his arm in white fur, with Dr. Giller in white, in a white limo, with a white driver.
Saturday, January 7, 1978
The maid at Halston’s said Bianca was still upstairs asleep but that I could go up there. I woke Bianca up and she jumped up and put her clothes on over her pajamas, and that’s when I realized that Bianca doesn’t really take drugs—just a few poppers and maybe some coke once in a while, but otherwise she’s not on drugs, she’s normal.
Sunday, January 8, 1978
Got to Madison Square Garden for the tennis matches. The photographers were snapping, and Bianca told Jade to put her hands over her face, which is really funny, that Bianca has her trained, and Jade said, “But you have your picture taken, Mommy.” Bianca just wants all the attention for herself. The match was Connors against Borg. Connors won.
I read The New York Times at Halston’s, he was at the office. Someone called Bianca and she was on the phone for an hour talking about her problems and I wished I’d listened or taped, but I was just reading. For the first half-hour she was talking about someone who she said was using her in London just to get their picture in the papers—she’s so funny, because that’s all she ever wants herself—and then the other half-hour she was talking about what a stupid blonde Jerry Hall is. I think she’s really worried that she’s getting her permanent walking papers from Mick. While Bianca was on the phone Jade asked me for candy and I gave her some M&Ms and then she said, “You’ve got to give me my supply for the night.” So I gave her a few and she said, “You’ve got to give me
some more, we’ll go to the bathroom,” and I told her that her mother would think it was strange if we went all the way to an upstairs bathroom and she said, “Well, come under the stairs, then.” I slipped the M&Ms to her and she took them like drugs.
Monday, January 9, 1978
Worked a little at the office with Rupert and then with Alex Heinrici. I’m still using Heinrici to print screens but I’m giving more and more work to Rupert. Cabbed up through the snow. The whole ride was long and hard ($10).
Liza had sent six tickets for Bianca who wanted to see The Act. Bianca disinvited Victor because she wanted to invite Stevie Rubell and her dancing teacher who was in from London. Bianca kept calling Stevie but she couldn’t get him. It came out later on that Bianca only wanted to go because she’d heard Jackie O. would be there and she wanted to get photographed.
Jed and I went over to Bianca’s, thinking she’d have a car, but she didn’t. Jade was coming, too. When we got to the theater, everyone was staring, looking around for Jackie O. The Act was good again. Bianca was putting it down, but toward the end when she knew we’d have to go see Liza she started putting it up, saying it was great. Jade had to pee. Jackie and Swifty Lazar and Jack Haley and Bianca all had their pictures taken and everyone was staring while they did. And afterwards we went backstage to see Liza. I pointed my tape recorder in Jackie’s direction and I hope I got a little breathy talk (tickets $60).