The Andy Warhol Diaries

by Andy Warhol

  When I got home I cancelled out on a Regine’s thing, my sore throat was getting so bad. It was from that woman who kissed me the other night and then said, “I’m dying.” I took a sleeping pill and went to bed, but it didn’t help, my throat still got worse.

  Oh, and Carmen D’Alessio told Bob about visiting Steve in prison once a week. They have meetings in the waiting room where all the other prisoners are having their meetings. She met the right-hand man of Sindona who stole a lot from the Vatican. She said everyone’s really nice in the prison except for one guy with tattoos who’s the bowling-ball murderer. Carmen signed a contract with Mark Fleishman, the new owner of Studio 54, to continue doing parties and publicity. He thinks he’ll have a liquor license within twelve weeks.

  Thursday, April 10, 1980

  They were going to film me for another ABC show, Omnibus—they’re reviving it—and the car was picking me up at 10:00.

  The Omnibus people arrived at the office at 7:30, they’d worked it all out with Vincent the day before. This was a show on Carly Simon getting her portrait painted by me and by Larry Rivers and by Marisol. I’d said that I wouldn’t do one more thing without being paid, and Vincent worked out a contract with them—Carly was going to pay for most of it.

  I was in the limo alone, and we went down the West Side Highway. I had a camera with me because I’ve decided to take pictures everywhere I go to prove that I really do go to all these places every day. The windows of the car were black so to do it I had to roll them down. A few people on the West Side Highway said, “Hi, Andy.” Then we got off the highway at 23rd Street and this black kid said, “You filthy white rich person, all you think about is money.” And there were a few of them, and I got scared. Fred told me later that I should have screamed back, “All you think about is money! And mugging to get it.” And they kept following the car. It scared me so much.

  I got to the office and they wired me and sent the car back for Carly Simon.

  Carly was too nervous to come up until we sent some wine down to the car. Then she came up and was sociable. We made her put on lipstick and then after we worked she was hungry and we sent to Brownies for health sandwiches and she loved that. I taped it all (Brownies $8.30, $23.44). And then Ara Gallant came with Susan Strasberg and she twisted Bob’s arm to interview her, she’s just written a book.

  At 6:00 Jodie Foster came to 860. She looked beautiful. With her mother. She and her mother are a team. It’s like a marriage—Jodie’s the father. She’s very intelligent and she’s gotten into all the colleges she’s applied to except she hears from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton on Monday. In case she goes to Harvard we were telling her about John Samuels and how cute he is, but I don’t know what type she’d like because she dresses really like a boy—all in Brooks Brothers.

  While we were there Brigid called the restaurant to say that the 20/20 segment on me had just been on TV and she said it was great. Hugh Downs narrated it. And Brigid’s so critical of me, so I was relieved. I mean, if even she couldn’t find anything wrong with it, it must’ve been okay.

  They’re selling Kitty Miller’s everything. Christie’s is. I mean, her used underwear, her used potholders, everything. She has (laughs) three unused Halston shirts. And she’s got a few Revillon furs that cost $80,000 that’ll probably go for $3,000. Furs have no resale value … I know killing animals to make coats is sad, but look, even when you think about killing cows to eat they’re so big and beautiful and everything’s alive—the plants are screaming.

  I’m still weighing 140, I don’t understand it, I’m not eating that much, my metabolism must have changed. I should be 136. But now I’m eating the nuts and chocolate and things that I’m not supposed to eat because of my gallbladder, because I think the gallbladder pills are helping so that I can eat them. But I’m getting fat so for that reason I’ll have to stop.

  Walter Steding is performing at the Squat Theater on 23rd Street—that theater where they did that thing called “Andy Warhol’s Last Tape.”

  Friday, April 11, 1980

  Henry Geldzahler came by to talk about me doing a poster for New York City and Fred thought it was a good idea. Then Henry wanted to go right out and photograph a tree for the poster. He needs it in two weeks. But I’m just beginning to think Henry may be crazy. He said Ellsworth Kelly wanted to paint on top of my portrait of him, and I said sure, but then he admitted that he wanted me to print another one so he was just trying to get a free painting out of me for Ellsworth Kelly to paint on. He still wears his badge that Mayor Koch gave him under his lapel.

  Rupert came in and we were numbering portfolios. The Ten Jewish Geniuses portfolio really sold, so now Ron Feldman wants to do Ten Rock Stars, but that’s corny, isn’t it? Or Ten Phantoms, like Santa Claus. But I think the Jewish Geniuses only sold because they were Jewish, so we should do Ten Jewish something else. Like Ten Jewish Rock Stars.

  I called Harcourt Brace and screamed at them for not delivering the eighty books that I paid for. Jackie Curtis came up to get one and heard me screaming on the phone at them and got the message and backed right out. And I screamed at a few people, and finally the girl said, “Well, you paid with a personal check and we had to wait to see if it cleared.” Can you believe it! I think Jovanovich must be so petty himself because he runs the worst company, they’re small-time, they’ve got a name, Harcourt Brace, but that’s all. So that screaming took all afternoon.

  Saturday, April 12, 1980

  Got up early and watched the cartoonies. I had to carry a portfolio downtown for a lady who’s trading for an ad (cab $4). And then she went through them all and found a smudge mark on one of them, she was an anal retentive. I got that from Rupert, he called her that. She went through them from cover to cover.

  I called and asked Brigid how she was coming with transcribing the Jodie Foster tape, and she said she’d been working on it for hours, that it was great, great. And I asked her to be more specific and she said she was at the part where Jodie was looking around the office and I mean, we were only at the office for the first two minutes, so I knew she hadn’t done anything, and I screamed.

  Random House wants to do 400 of a special edition of the portrait catalogue. They’d make a lot of more money off it than I would, though, so we were trying to think of what to do.

  Monday, April 14, 1980

  Went out on the street with some Interviews and I was curious to see if people were still recognizing me all the time from the 20/20 TV show, but they weren’t. So this means that TV makes you famous for one day and then it fades. Passed out Interviews, wandered, and took a couple of cabs but was shocked out of my mind—the fare increase was in effect (cabs $4.05, $5.05). It really does seem to be a lot more. I’m just going to tip a small amount from now on and not even worry about it. I guess I’ll have to walk to work. Halfway to work. Eventually got to Union Square.

  We were having lunch for Henry Geldzahler. The eighty Popisms finally arrived from Harcourt Brace in the morning and I gave them out to everybody, but I’m going to be more stingy with them now, with inflation. Henry wanted to take me out to photograph the tree for the city poster, but just as we were having lunch it started to rain.

  Oh, and I forgot to say that during lunch Fred came in and told me there was a roommate of Steve Rubell’s from prison there who wanted to see me, and I said no! I mean, why would Fred even come and tell me that? Why would I want to talk to somebody like that? And Fred said that he thought I should see him, so I went out there, and this absolute creep is saying things like, “Steve says he can’t talk on the phone because it’s bugged”—like I talk to him, anyway, right? And he said, “Steve wants an Italian dinner.” So Bob finally said, “Well what’re you here for?” and the guy said he wanted money to buy the Italian food for Steve. So Bob gave him $20 and he said, “That’s not enough.” So Henry gave him another $20 and I had to pay them both back later ($40). But he was just shaking us down. And after he left I screamed at Fred for being so stupid, he should h
ave just gotten rid of him. I mean, Fred must have stayed out all night and not had his brains right or something.

  Then we went up to Polly Bergen’s apartment on Park Avenue (cab $3.50). This was the Academy Awards party. We were just in one TV room and we didn’t see all the others. Ex-Mayor Wagner and his wife Phyllis who used to be married to Bennett Cerf were there, and the Helen Gurley Browns.

  And Dustin won. Poor Bette Midler didn’t, and she gave that part everything she had, right down to the last—fart.

  Tuesday, April 15, 1980

  Did I say yet that David Whitney said that the townspeople have been seeing Truman’s car parked at Silver Hill and did some checking around and he’s there? He’s going into the local stores there buying those little doodads that he buys.

  Went with Henry Geldzahler to the Village where the Women’s House of Detention was, which is now a locked-up park. The trees there were just perfect to photograph for the poster. I gave an Interview to the lady with the key to the garden. Then Henry left me in the Village and I was stopped by a kid who said he grew up in the foster home with Joe and Bobby Dallesandro and he said he was really good friends with Bobby. So I had to tell him Bobby committed suicide and he was just stunned. I left him there on the street being shocked.

  Back at the office Bob was in a bad mood. I dropped him off (cab $5.50). Glued myself together, picked up Catherine, and cabbed to Bill Copley’s place. Bill’s secretary told me that Bill left Tommy the dog, who was the sweetest thing at the party, out on the terrace by mistake on the coldest day of the year, and somebody saw him out there and called the police who had to come and get him off. I said I wanted to take Tommy home with me, and Bill might let me have him, he’s thinking about it.

  Clarisse Rivers was there, just back from Mexico, and Vincent and Shelly and Michael Heizer. And Christophe de Menil was with Viva’s ex-husband, Michel Auder—she goes after the worst people. She looked beautiful, like one of those old-fashioned prints. Her hair was up and she has a tiny body.

  Wednesday, April 16, 1980

  Henry Post came by the office and we were all shocked that he would because he had his lawyer send Bob a letter saying that he could sue us if he wanted to because Bob said in Interview that Steve Rubell said the New York article Henry wrote on 54 was all lies. And Henry was supposed to be a friend. He looks terrific, he’s been going to the gym. But I think he’s still wearing makeup, like rouge. We were going to the Roy Cohn thing, it was for convicts who make art, prisoners who paint. There were about forty people there. Roy had borough presidents there and presidents of Revlon. And Cindy and Joey Adams were there and Joey gave a speech, he said, “I thought this was a party for Roy’s clients, Ian and Steve. How come they don’t paint?” Andrew Crispo was an organizer of this thing and he bought a painting. It was embarrassing because I didn’t buy anything.

  Went home and glued myself and walked to Quo Vadis where we were interviewing Nastassia Kinski. She was very pretty and tall and spoke English well. We were afraid to ask her anything about Roman Polanski until the very end and then she told us she didn’t have an affair with him. She was interesting, but not as fascinating as Jodie Foster. She speaks six languages and she could just redo every Ingrid Bergman movie. She looks like what Isabella Rossellini could look like. We dropped her off at the Navarro. She’s been in town three weeks and wants to stay forever. She’s staying with Milos Forman and I guess they’re having an affair, because she was saying something about making dinner for him during the Academy Awards. She was telling us that he offered her the best movie role, the one of Evelyn Nesbit coming down the stairs naked in Ragtime, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her that that’s the role Milos offers every girl he’s been going after —Margaret Trudeau and two others. It’s his line. So we dropped her off (cab $5).

  Then we went to the Tavern on the Green party for the opening of The Watcher in the Woods. It was a party for Bette Davis that we got a telegram inviting us to. I went over to her and I thought we were friends because once I had a long conversation with her and she knew about when I was shot and was very sweet and everything. So I went over to her to refresh it and I said, “Oh, hi—I’m Andy Warhol, remember?” And she looked at me and said, “Yeeess.” And she turned around and walked away. And then later somebody at her table said, “Oh have you met Andy Warhol?” and she said, “Yes, I’ve met Andy Warhol.” Very cold. So I don’t know what’s wrong.

  Sylvia Miles was there and she ran to get her pocketbook with all her clippings in it from Hammett and from some other movie to show me. Lewis Allen was there. We’re still talking to him about doing Exposures and the Philosophy book as a play.

  Saturday, April 19, 1980

  Fred called and said I had to pick up Lynn Wyatt, that the limo would be at my house at 8:00. The Saturday newspapers were great. There was the bathtub murders, the guy says he kills things and doesn’t remember—things like his wife and daughter—and that it used to happen to him with animals, too, that he’d wake up and look around and they’d be dead. And the full Barry Landau story, how he’s Miz Lillian’s best friend and he’s going down to Washington to testify again.

  Left the office at twenty to 8:00 and when I got uptown the limo was already waiting there (cab $5.50). So I went in and glued and Lynn Wyatt called and said that Jerry Zipkin was having cocktails first, at 95th and Park, and I told her it was Harlem. But we went up there.

  Then we went to the St. Regis where François de Menil was having his thirty-fifth birthday party bash and we went up to the roof. François had his new girlfriend from Texas there. And some of his old girlfriends, too. Lynn wanted to be at the table with Diana Vreeland and Fred. And Francois’s older brother, George, who keeps a low profile.

  Bob Wilson was there, he’s dating the Schlumberger girl from Washington, Katy Jones. Little Nell was there, the English dancer. Aileen Mehle was there. It was an okay party. There was no big movie star or rock star there, it was just in a funny way all his friends.

  Lynn couldn’t come down to 860 to see her portrait, she was going to Paris the next day.

  Monday, April 21, 1980

  When I got into the office I noticed that Robyn was typing up one of those things that says what you’ve done—what’s it called? A resume.

  Iolas was coming to lunch with a couple of clients and we needed a couple of boys to entertain. And I called Curley and he brought his cousin David Laughlin who works at the Coe Kerr Gallery. Iolas arrived and his contact that he never takes out of his eyes got lost in his eye and he had me look for it, but I couldn’t see it. Jackie Curtis came in in full drag and pink slippers and kept interrupting me to ask if he was interrupting anything. I told him no because actually he wasn’t. He didn’t eat anything because, he said, he was on a diet and had already had a half a pound of ham and three eggs that morning for breakfast. He wanted some Popisms so I gave them to him. He was on his way to a fashion show so he left. But then later he came back again. This time he was interrupting and he was drunk. But Kimiko and John Powers had come by and Kimiko loved Jackie and if you can believe it, she didn’t even realize it was a man. Jackie looked good, he’s lost weight. He said he wanted to take Brigid’s job, her typing job, and he said he’d be very good, that he’d just type in a corner. But oh, he talks right into your face. Jackie had a sequined shirt on and was wearing a bracelet he said I gave him but I don’t remember. Then he gave bracelets to Brigid and Kimiko to try to buy their affections.

  Tuesday, April 22, 1980

  Cheryl Tiegs and Peter Beard came by. Peter naturally wanted a free artwork and performance out of me. I had to give them a tour around the place.

  I had to leave early to make the 6:30 Martha Graham thing (cab $6). We got there and Martha was making her speech like she always does for an hour first. She wants to be an actress. Nureyev was terrible, he just doesn’t know how to be a modern dancer.

  Thursday, April 24, 1980

  Got up at 8:00 because Vincent said we had to be at th
e TV studio at the dot of 9:00 for the ABC thing on Carly Simon where Larry Rivers and Marisol and I had to show our portraits of her. We went over there and then Larry and Marisol arrived by limousine. We met the director who had a phony high-class accent. Larry was fun. He decided to make the director work and said, “Where should I stand? What should I say? How should I look? What should I think?” and things like that. I think Carly liked my portrait the best because she’s paying for it. I only had one there, but Larry had five and one of his had a Chinese couple fucking in the background, and they made him take it out. And then afterwards they wanted to shoot us in front of blank easels listening to Carly, and Larry said no, that he’d submitted to what they wanted by taking the fucking couple out, so he wouldn’t do this corny thing.

  Then Larry and Marisol came to the office for lunch. Marisol was cute. She invited me to her fiftieth birthday party at Chanterelle, that very chic small restaurant downtown, but she said not to tell anybody it was her fiftieth.

  Worked till 8:00. John Reinhold picked me up. Henry Geldzahler came and met us, we discussed the poster some more, and then cabbed ($2.50) to dinner at Da Silvano on Sixth Avenue. It was good but it wasn’t as good as the first time we were there (dinner $98.40). The owner went out and bought the Times because Henry had a half-page interview with him in it and he was afraid it was going to say something unfavorable, but it didn’t. Then we walked to the Ninth Circle because Henry wanted some interludes. The place was filled with intellectual fairies who wanted to talk to me about my art, but Henry told them I was too dumb to do it.