The Andy Warhol Diaries

by Andy Warhol

  Halston called and invited us to dinner with Liza and Liz and Dolly Parton and Lorna and so went home to change. Walked over to Halston’s, but then Liza wanted to take me and Jed over to her place at 40 Central Park South to look at her boyfriend Mark Gero’s sculpture. She said she’d only keep us five minutes.

  He wasn’t there—he was playing poker with his buddies at some Mexican restaurant on 86th Street and she was going there to meet him—but she made me write a note saying how good the stuff was and that I would get him a show. It was tits out of marble and alabaster and wood, and she was rubbing the tits while we talked. Liza hasn’t moved into her house in Murray Hill yet. It’s so sad to see her apartment, because she really has no taste, and Halston’s trying to give her taste, trying to get Jed to do her apartment, but I think all she really cares about is working, she doesn’t care about decorating.

  We dropped her off at the poker game and I dropped Jed off, this was around 2:00, and then I went back to Halston’s. Dolly didn’t show up, neither did Liz. Halston and Dr. Giller said they were “unwinding.” I don’t know from what.

  Thursday, February 8, 1979

  Worked at the studio then had to leave early. Dropped Bob (cab $4). Went to Neil Sedaka’s place, 510 Park Avenue, for cocktails before the Police Athletic League dinner. I met Leba a few weeks ago and she said they wanted a portrait. The Sedakas are subletting this place until their apartment is finished. All the talk was about how hard it was getting into a building because they’re Jewish and entertainers, and an older couple was there who got them in. A lot of the people were in black tie. I looked the worst, in my old jeans and a sweater, but Neil was casual, in a sweater, California-style, although he’s from Brooklyn. He seems like a fairy but he’s not. I don’t know how his portrait will come out, though, because he’s chubby. The decorator who’s doing their apartment was there with his boyfriend and we had cocktails, it was fun.

  Friday, February 9, 1979

  Fred was going off to Berlin and Diana Ross called and said she wanted me to do a portrait of her and her kids and that her manager would call about it, so now with Fred out of town I guess I’ll have to deal with that myself.

  At Studio 54 I met young John Samuels, who’s really handsome, like a young Robert Wagner.

  Saturday, February 10, 1979

  I hadn’t gotten to bed until about 6:00 and then Victor called and started talking about ideas, did I have any “sophisticated ideas.” He was working, he said, and also in the middle of hosting a party for twelve kids he’d picked up at the Anvil.

  Went over to Truman’s for his facelifting party. He had to check into the hospital the next morning, Sunday, and have the lift on Monday, but he wasn’t telling anybody which hospital. I had Janet Villella and a “Du Pont” twin with me—these two twin brothers who say their name is Du Pont but I think they just made it up. When we got to Truman’s Truman wasn’t happy about seeing the twin because once at Studio 54 Jacques Bellini who this twin is in love with had him go over to Truman and say awful things, and Truman remembered. The other twin is Rupert’s boyfriend. Bob Colacello was there, and Bob MacBride and Halston were there, and Dr. Giller who said he’d tried to call me and gotten very jealous when another man answered the phone. Jed picked up my line. Truman was trying to get me to eat lots of chocolate, he thinks I like it so much, which I don’t, really. Commissioner Geldzahler was there with his new boyfriend who’s cute. Henry said he told Mayor Koch he wanted a badge for being commissioner so the mayor gave him one. He flashed it. Christopher Isherwood’s boyfriend, Don Bachardy, was there.

  Sunday, February 11, 1979

  Mica Ertegun called and told me that the lunch at Mortimer’s was changed from 1:00 to 1:30.

  I went out to church and ran into Gary Wells in bright green pants coming back from church, and I was surprised to see him out so early because I’d seen him at Studio 54 so late the night before.

  After church cabbed to Mortimer’s ($2). The place was jammed, but I was the first person there for the lunch which was for Hélène Rochas and Kim D’Estainville. Jerry Hall was there, she was putting down Bianca now that Bianca is suing for half of what Mick’s got. The case is in the California courts where all the live-in suits are going on now—like that’s where the Hunt girl got support from Mick for the illegitimate kid. I told Mica we have to turn Ahmet gay so he won’t be pinching all the girls. He really is funny—we were thinking of dumb ideas for musicals, like jogging—Jogging. And they’re all surprised that I’m talking so much lately, they think I’m a new person.

  Monday, February 12, 1979

  Forgot to remember the most important thing—lunch on Friday at Christie’s. I picked Bob up and we walked over there and this guy had all this jewelry there for me to look at and he said, “You can get it cheap.” And that’s when it started to dawn on me—these auction houses can put the gavel down any time they feel like it. Right? Right? Think about it: Like you’ll be at Sotheby’s and the guy will go, “Twennnty dolllars … thirrrrty dollllars …” You know, really milking it, so slow. But then some other time it’ll be: “Nine thousand-nine five-ten-ten five-sold! History!” You know? So fast. So then they took us down and showed me the drawings of mine that are up for sale, and there was one fake.

  And Christie’s is doing a big dress sale, selling Diors and Schiaparellis and things. They’ll get $8-10,000 for a Fortuny. So I’ve just got to track down that man who had that great shop in the Village—Fabulous Fashions. He had to move and now he’s somewhere on West End Avenue, selling out of his apartment. I’ve got to find him.

  And Iran really fell. It’s so weird watching it all on TV, it really could happen here. And Brigid was telling me about the boy on the news whose mother died and he didn’t tell anybody, he just kept her in the house for eight months.

  Tuesday, February 13, 1979

  Truman said he thinks Interview should become more like the original Vanity Fair. He was telling Brigid lots of ideas for Interview, saying he wanted to have regular Monday morning editorial meetings of the staff. But meetings like that are just a big waste of time. Other magazines do it that way, but everybody at Interview just sort of does their own job. Other magazines schedule those big long meetings and that’s when all these people’s ideas about themselves and their positions come out—the “power” things. The meetings just bring out whether people think they’re better or you’re better.

  Thursday, February 15, 1979

  John Fairchild, Jr. called and said he would pick me up at 6:30 to go out to the Brooklyn Academy to see Twyla Tharp at a Hair benefit Lester Persky was putting on. He came in a limo with Henry Post and William Pitt and Marita and Teri Garr, she’s very nice. The driver got lost but we were there on time. Everybody was there. Mike Nichols even said hello to me. I guess he felt he had to after making me meet the Polish Warhol. Dr. Warchol.

  The dancing, it’s a funny new kind of dancing, falling and tripping, and it looks like disco dancing. It looks like if you had a creative person on the disco floor, that they would do this (intermission drinks $10). Jack Kroll was there.

  Henry Post told me that John Fairchild, Jr. snuck him into Studio 54 the other night—Henry’s been barred for what he wrote in his article about the club and when Ian Schrager saw him he asked him to “leave in a gentlemanly fashion.” He said he started to argue that it was a public place, but then he got scared.

  I really don’t know why Pat Cleveland and Sterling St. Jacques never did any other of their dancing up into an act. Although Ronnie tells me that Pat’s going to be performing down at the Mudd Club. That’s the latest club for young kids, it’s down around White Street. Ronnie’s the oldest one there—he’s booking a reggae concert. They dropped me off and it was snowing and pretty.

  Friday, February 16, 1979

  I called the Neil Sedakas and they were out but the decorator was in, and he invited me up first to his office on 81st and Park and then to go over to see the Sedakas’ apartment that he deco
rated before they move in, on 85th and Park. I went up to the decorator’s and he has like a private entrance in a big building. It’s a beautiful office but it’s decorated horribly. He had paintings like I’ve seen at other people’s apartments, they’re just like scribbles and I don’t think he paints them, but it’s somebody’s paintings. I just couldn’t face asking him whose they were. I’m going to, though. He wears Christopher Street clothes, army boots and a leather jacket and chinos, and he has a mustache and a beard. He looks like Victor, like a Gay Bob doll. Then he took me upstairs to see his partner’s apartment, and she had a duplex with more scribble paintings.

  Then we went over to the Sedakas’ apartment. The renovation job looks like it’s costing $3 or $400,000 and they’re doing things like moving a door one inch. But they’re putting in saunas and things.

  Cabbed to U.N. Plaza ($3). Truman looked like Dr. Frankenstein had just finished with him. He had scars up and down and across his face. He looked like he had the little screw missing. Then we cabbed over to Dr. Orentreich’s office ($4) and we slipped in the back way. It was like sneaking in with Garbo. Okay, let me describe Truman’s costume: He had a scarf over his head, then a funny little hat with folds in it and a babushka and a jacket and a scarf over his mouth and dark glasses and a leather jacket and a coat. I mean with these scarves and funny hats draped all over him, he was so conspicuous. Otherwise nobody would have noticed him and he would have been just a strange person with blood leaking down his face.

  And he decided he wanted more done—he wanted more pain, I guess—so he was going to have the fold on the bridge of his nose done, too, right then. It’s an operation that Truman says he invented and that Dr. Orentreich has rehearsed on two women first, and now he was ready to give it to Truman.

  There were eight really beautiful nurses. It was like watching Hugh Hefner and his Bunnies. And they said to Orentreich, “What a great sewer you are, doctor.” When he was done tucking Truman’s furrow—the furrow had been about a quarter-inch and the scar was about three inches—they glued him up. Truman was awake, and he said it didn’t hurt, but I don’t see how it couldn’t have. He made an appointment for Monday to take the stitches out.

  Then we cabbed back to U.N. Plaza and Truman was talking about “our magazine.” He said that in addition to the big editorial meetings, he wanted to have an opinion page and letters-to-the-editor column and now I’m just bracing myself for some letter to arrive from his lawyers.

  He says his next improvement is hair transplants. He said his troubles were all because of John O’Shea and that now he really hates him. But then later Brigid told me that he had her send O’Shea a subscription to Interview.

  Saturday, February 17, 1979

  I told Susan Blond I’d meet her at the Palladium Theater down on 14th Street to see an English group called the Clash (cab $5). Ron Delsener took us to a little room. We sat around there and then a couple came in who I didn’t recognize but it turned out to be Carrie Fisher and Paul Simon. I never recognize him. Bruce Springsteen came in and I didn’t recognize him, either. He was sweet, he said, “Hello, remember me?” and he took off his glove to shake hands. I met him at Madison Square Garden when I took a picture of him that I wasn’t supposed to.

  Blondie—Debbie Harry—was there and when we got backstage there was Nico! With John Cale! And she looks beautiful again, absolutely beautiful, she’s finally thin in the face. Her hair’s dark brown, but John’s having her dye it bright red. They’re opening at CBGB and she’s going to sing “Femme Fatale” from the first Velvet Underground album and John’s going to play his violin. She’s staying at the Chelsea.

  The Clash are cute but they all have bad teeth, sticks and stumps. And they scream about getting rid of the rich. One of them said he didn’t want to go anywhere downtown—that he wanted to be shown uptown. So I said okay, we’d go to Xenon and Studio 54.

  Monday, February 19, 1979

  George Washington’s Birthday, it was twelve inches of snow,

  Had lunch with Peter Beard and Cheryl Tiegs. She’s a toughie, so she’ll probably make Peter marry her. I’ve decided Peter’s just a playboy, though. He’s really looking great, he never ages (lunch $100, tip $30). Cheryl said she wants to be in movies, so I told her she’d have to lower her voice, like Betty Bacall did—talk from the lungs, not from the nose. She said that people like her the way she is, though. They’d let their limousine go, so they walked home.

  Wednesday, February 21, 1979

  Before I left the office Mrs. Neil Sedaka called and invited me to a party for Neil, so I cabbed up there ($5). Everybody was thrilled I came. When I saw Neil, I couldn’t help it, I like him so I told him he was just too fat to have his portrait done and that he had to lose weight. I just can’t face painting him so fat. He said that fat was his image, that people like him fat, but I mean, I’m sure he overeats. He said he’d just had three vodkas. Maybe I went too far. I’m supposed to do him next week.

  Saturday, February 24, 1979

  Got up early. Brigid called, she was all the way up to 150 pounds. It was warm and rainy outside and I wanted to go down to Heiner’s gallery early so I could pass out 1,000 Interviews that afternoon (cab $6). Got there about 12:30 and I started working. I can’t believe that I actually gave out 1,000 but I did. Rupert and the Du Pont twins came by and for a break I took them and the gallery kids over to Robata, the Japanese restaurant around the corner ($90). Left the gallery around 6:30. A girl who said she went to high school with me was there and she’d brought a copy of the school yearbook and asked if I wanted to see it and I told her I’d like it better if she didn’t show it.

  Sunday, February 25, 1979

  Went to church, bought batteries ($12.22). Cabbed to U.N. Plaza ($3). Truman was having a lunch for Buckminster Fuller—Bob MacBride just did an interview with him for Interview. He’s eighty-three, he can’t hear so well, he was cute. Truman looks great. He’s going for hair transplants this week. He’s going down to Georgia to do an interview for us, but he won’t say who it’s with. I issued him a tape recorder and a camera. Two travel agents were there and Bill Lieberman, the curator of drawings and prints at MOMA for years, he’s an old friend.

  Monday, February 26, 1979

  Cab to Chembank ($4). I worked all afternoon painting faces’ backgrounds at the office. Joe Dallesandro called from Paris. He says he drinks a bottle of whiskey a day. He wants money, and I don’t know what we’re going to do with Joe. We were warned he’d call because Terry Dallesandro came by the other day. She’s still living on Staten Island, and she looked good, she had makeup on. She said Joe wasn’t sending her any money. I wonder if she’s on welfare? Little Joe wasn’t with her, he was in school. He’s eight now. She still doesn’t have any interests. She said she never even picks up something to read, and she said she can’t really do anything, she doesn’t even know secretarial stuff, and she only has a tenth-grade education. I asked what little Joey was interested in, and she said he was (laughs) taking karate lessons.

  Joe said that he had a “film on the fire,” but that’s what he said the last time. Oh, and Terry said that six months after Joe’s brother Bobby hung himself, another boy who lived in that same foster home on Long Island that Joe and Bobby grew up in also committed suicide.

  Rupert called—both of the Du Pont twins have moved in with him on White Street.

  Thursday, March 1, 1979

  Walked to the office and I ran into John Head and Lorne Michaels coming in for the meeting that we were having with them to talk about a TV show. They said they’d give me a show if we could give him the right look. I think they just wanted to come and get ideas, though, because when you do a TV show, you do run out of them. But unless you’re the producer of your own show you never make money so I think we should start at the bottom and do it ourselves and learn everything that way.

  Went home and changed and cabbed to the Plaza ($2) to meet John Fairchild, Jr. and Belle McIntyre, and William Pitt and Rupert (drink
s $70). John had invited a bunch of fairies so that he wouldn’t have any competition for Belle. They have a strange relationship—I don’t think he’s going to bed with her, but he somehow feels that he is and gets jealous.

  We walked to Regine’s. It was so beautiful out. Belle started dancing with one of the twins and John got so jealous and he was going crazy and I just tried to hold him in my arms—he was so schizo—and then William Pitt said that the only way to stop it was to leave, to go to Studio 54. So we did (cab $4).

  Friday, March 2, 1979

  Brigid was eating and eating and when I tried to stop her we had a confrontation. She said, ‘I’ll eat whatever I want to and don’t try to stop me, I’ll go over 150 if I want.” So then I just took all the food and lined it up next to her on the table and told her, “Go ahead. Eat.”

  Went uptown to a meeting with Bob Guccione. He wanted to talk to me about photographing nude girls for twelve or thirteen pages. He lives in a sort of Renaissance Italian place on East 67th Street. It looks awful. Everything looks so dirty, that look, that feeling.

  Sunday, March 4, 1979

  One of the Du Pont twins told Susan Blond that he’s so in love with me. He told her all these nutty things, and I mean, all I do is (laughs) hold his hand and feel him up.

  Then Jim, the agent or manager of the Beach Boys—he’s interested in art—invited me to the Beach Boys concert at Radio City, and I invited Tom Cashin. Then the phone rang as I was leaving, and I thought it was Dennis Wilson when he said, “It’s Dennis,” but then five minutes into the call I realized it was Dennis Hopper when he said, “The Beach Boys? They’re in town? Where’re they playing?” I told him to meet us at Radio City (cab $3).