The Andy Warhol Diaries

by Andy Warhol

  Like at Madonna’s wedding, they should have let guests take pictures because people at a wedding, they’d just be doing it for themselves anyway. Maybe years later you’d use them but you wouldn’t rush them to the New York Post in the morning.

  The food was so good, raw vegetables that they steamed while you watched. Grace and Ted Kennedy danced. Then Grace and Arnold were having a talk about what she should do about Dolph because he’s fucking all her girlfriends. I told her she should marry Dolph just for a minute, because it’d be such a great wedding. But I always give Grace the wrong advice. I’m the one who told her she’d never make it unless she toned down her look, that people would never go for anything so extreme.

  The cake was six or ten feet high. Everybody was coming up and telling me how they loved the painting. Shriver gave a speech, he was in tails. And he was talking about “losing a daughter.” Well, I mean, she’s twenty-nine—he’s lucky to lose her.

  And Arnold gave a speech and was saying wonderful love things like that he’d make her happy. It was the first time I’ve seen really announceable love, saying everything all out loud.

  Then it was time to leave and two Kennedy boys had Grace by the door and one was rubbing his cock against her and then we went to the airport.

  Sunday, April 27, 1986

  The day started out early with my brother John and his wife. And it’s so odd, it’s two people you don’t really know who look so different from you and their ideas are so weird and it’s one more thing to make you think what is this life all about. Their son Donald is still in college, he’ll get out in August and he’s a computer expert so maybe we should hire him at Interview if it’s not too late, if we don’t need somebody before then.

  Went to the flea market and ran into Billy Boy with Mel Odom. When the sun was out it was hot, but when it was in it was cold. Billy Boy wasn’t in a money-spending mood. They really see him coming and jack the Schiaparelli prices up. He could be good-looking, he has good proportions, but he stoops over and he’s pigeon-toed, so you don’t notice. But then he is about 6’2” and he had on a leopard jacket and tights and pointed shoes and a Chanel-type cross and dark glasses and no makeup.

  Imelda Marcos was on the news crying that she’s still in Hawaii and it’s like those English movies where the relatives come into the dungeon and say, “We love you darling, but we have to cut off your head because it’s the thing to do.”

  Monday, April 28, 1986

  Went over to see Dr. Li and she said, “You’ve had champagne and cake,” because obviously she’d seen in the papers that I’d been at the wedding. So she blew it.

  Then went to the office (cab $6). Fred ranted and raved at me when I walked in, with his teeth showing and everything, saying that he couldn’t entertain these people, that it was me they were waiting to see. And I said, “Well I was at my doctor’s.”

  Some lady was getting made up for a portrait. She’s one of those people plastic surgery couldn’t help because it wouldn’t be much different. But she has a nice pretty smile, and an open and loving personality. It was a lunch from Café Condotti and there was so much of it. I screamed the other day at Valerie from Interview who was dumping into the garbage all these beautiful fresh tomatoes and basil, and she said she was doing it because it was 3:00 and nobody had eaten it yet. These kids are so spoiled.

  Then a TV crew with fifty people came to film me for a one-second thing for Chemical Bank and they set up for so long and I did it.

  Suren Ermoyan called and asked me to do the cover of Madison Avenue magazine of Ted Turner and I said yes because he gave me one of my first jobs, he was the art director at Hearst in the fifties, and then Fred screamed at me. I feel bad because I also turned down doing an American flag for them once.

  Tuesday, April 29, 1986

  Got to the office and had a talk with Fred about his mood the day before. He’s still referring to what I told him in Paris, it stuck with him, about how he should have a young attitude and stop being grouchy.

  Keith called and said he was picking me up at 6:00 for the AIDS benefit that Calvin was giving at the Javits Center, where they were going to take a huge picture—done in sections—with Liz Taylor there and lots of celebrities.

  Got to the center, there were 100 students from F.I.T. and Parsons. The place is huge and then it snakes around. Liz Taylor was late because she was getting a dress from Calvin. And the little boy from Indiana was there who they say has AIDS so they won’t let him go to school. He was really cute. Brooke Shields was there looking so glamorous. She’s the most beautiful living breathing doll I’ve ever seen. And I always thought Cornelia was beautiful, but when she stood next to Brooke she looked like an ugly duckling, everything was wrong, and she was saying things sort of to Brooke but under her breath like, “Get away!” She didn’t want to stand near her—she knew.

  The mayor finally arrived and got in the center and Liz hadn’t shown yet. It was supposed to be a shot of her and Calvin and the mayor. I was talking to a kid and then he said he was an AIDS patient and you don’t know what to say—“Gee, what a great party?” And then you looked and there were spots, and that was back to reality.

  Then Liz came in and everybody went crazy and mobbed her, and Keith said, “What do you have to do to be that famous?” And then they dragged her across the room and then all the photographers rushed at her and smothered her and crushed her and when they had used her up, they just dumped her and she was left standing there, alone, they’d gotten what they wanted. It was so strange to see.

  Jumped in the limo and went to Mr. Chow’s and said hello to all the people we’d just said goodbye to. Grace Jones was making phone calls to Rome—I don’t think Tina knew.

  Thursday, May 1, 1986

  Fred was being nice to me and then it came out what he wanted. He said, “If you come to Europe to the Thurn und Taxis party it’ll ruin my whole trip.” Because he thinks he’d have to take care of me. I guess he wants to kick up his heels or something. But I can just take someone else with me, I don’t know what he’s so worried about, I don’t have to go with him. It’s the huge birthday party Johannes’s wife Gloria is giving for him—it’s days and days of events.

  And Sam was in a foul mood so we had a fight, I asked him to get me some potato chips and he turned me down. He was just moping. And Vincent asked him to do something and he didn’t. He says he wants a more “important” job.

  Saturday, May 3, 1986

  Stopped at Sotheby’s. Looked at my paintings. Somebody put one of my Ticket to Studio 54 paintings up for auction and somebody’s going to make $5 or $7,000, that’s the estimate on it … I wonder who’s selling it. I gave them to Halston and Barbara Allen, people like that.

  Paige picked me up and we went to Kenny’s opening, but first we went to the Pop Shop, Keith’s store that opened the other week that I still hadn’t been to. And he has five people working there, two bosses and three kids. And they get paid $8 an hour. But the store is hard to find, it’s that little bit out of the way that makes a big difference. I don’t know if people will go, but there were people in it. Bought watches.

  Went to Kenny’s. It was a good party. They had three cooks there making pasta under the right kind of light and it looked so chic. Kenny was unusually high.

  Monday, May 5, 1986

  Cabbed to the office ($6) and it was really busy. Anthony d’Offay from London was there and he’s decided he loves the Self-Portraits. They acted so unsure before that I didn’t think they were going to take them, so when Keith saw them and wanted to use them on T-shirts for his Pop Shop I said sure, and I think they’ve made up 200 of them, so now I guess we have to buy them all back.

  And Bruno came by, and Senator Dodd, I don’t know why, and Peter Beard dropped in and everything just all converged. I gave tours.

  Then Sylvia Miles said to pick her up at 8:00 for the Liz Taylor tribute at Lincoln Center. Cabbed uptown ($5). And Sylvia was all dressed up and we walked over to Lincoln Center.
Liz was an hour and a half late. Finally she came and they showed clips and gave speeches. And I don’t know how she gets work, she’s so late. And her mother was there looking so beautiful. She was the one person Liz thanked. And Liz’s one beauty problem now is that when she lost the weight her nose never did get smaller. The liquor’s still in it. She has a twenty-inch waist now, though.

  Tuesday, May 6, 1986

  Wilfredo picked me up and we went over to Calvin Klein’s on 38th and Broadway which seemed like a firetrap, you wait for the elevator for hours. John Fairchild was twenty minutes late and they held the show for him. It was great to read in Page Six that Jerry Della Femina’s ad agency did a Perry Ellis ad and the boy model was reading a book and there was the word “fuck” and Fairchild wouldn’t run it in WWD and Della Femina said something like, “Who does John Fairchild think he is? He may be able to push Jerry Zipkin and all the other walkers around, but not the ad agencies.” So that was kind of great, hearing Fairchild get told off.

  I thought the show was like mild Halston, with the sweaters tied around the shoulders and things like that, coats and hats and pants and all lengths, but Fred said it was “Rich Wasp.”

  Tried to get work done (cab $4). Bruno had left candy for me and it was all I could think about, sitting there, so I ate it and it gave me energy.

  Rupert came up and he still has the same cough, but he said his psychiatrist says it’s just a way of hanging on to the boyfriend who died.

  Wednesday, May 7, 1986

  Ran into Bianca and she thanked me for saving her life by sending her to Eizo for shiatsus and now he gave her another person who’ll do additional work on her. She’s not walking with the cane now.

  Claudia Cohen Perelman was giving a party for Bill Blass, I went up at 7:30 (cab $5). It was heavy-duty. Their house is so chic, she had Jerry Zipkin and Nan Kempner and Carolina Herrera. Do you think they’re buying Bill Blass? A girl from WWD was there, and she’s the type who wears no lipstick and asks tough questions, she’s going to go far.

  And the big media news of the day was that Joan Rivers was going into competition with Johnny Carson, and it was Barry Diller who got her for the Fox network. She’s going to go on a half-hour earlier than Johnny. I don’t know, though, it could backfire. You can get sick of people, it can be overexposed, that same style over and over. Poor Johnny—one more woman to worry about.

  Thursday, May 8, 1986

  Wilfredo picked me up and we went to the Perry Ellis show at 40th and Seventh (cab $6). And at the end there was a pause and they carried Perry out. And some people were crying, they said he had AIDS. Before they’d been saying that he was just upset and having a nervous breakdown because his boyfriend died of it.

  Went to the Palladium for the late version of the Andre Walker fashion show. And as we were standing looking over the balcony my crystal fell out of my stomach onto the dance floor and I had to go down and find it. Wilfredo actually found it. Tony Shafrazi was next to me when it fell. It could’ve killed somebody. I wear it over my stomach between the surgical corsets and it just fell out.

  Saturday, May 10, 1986

  On Madison Avenue all the people filing into the doorway of the new Ralph Lauren store on 72nd—it looks like people walking into the subway entrance at rush hour.

  I had a weird confrontation with Tama at a blind-date business dinner at Odeon. She started saying things to me like, “Do you believe in children?” and “You can always adopt” and “You should get married.” And then she said, “Maybe this is too personal for you, we can go into it another time.” So now I’m thinking that maybe Tama has put ideas about me into Paige’s head, because it was odd when Paige got so upset that I didn’t call her from Europe. But then I thought maybe Tama’s doing this for herself. I don’t know, it’s too odd. What’s wrong with them? Can’t they see they’re barking at the wrong tree? Someone should set them straight.

  Thursday, May 15, 1986

  Vincent on the other line just said our Fifteen Minutes show won the Fashion Show Video Award at the Palladium thing last night. I was avoiding Paige because I felt strange about all that stuff Tama was saying to me the other night.

  Oh, and I’d talked to Halston and he said that I should get the “art press” for the Martha Graham benefit and I told him, “Uh, Halston (laughs), art doesn’t really have a ‘press.’ “ And he said, “No art press? No art press?” This was news to him. He said, “Well then we’ll have to get UPI and AP.”

  Friday, May 16, 1986

  Worked till 8:00. Was picked up by Thomas Ammann at 8:45 to go to dinner at Aurora on East 49th. Joe Baum who had the Four Seasons and Windows on the World and the Brasserie has it. Met Stuart Pivar and Barbara Guggenheim there and the place had sixty lamps, it seemed like a lamp store. Stuart loved it, though. Why is Stuart looking for other girls, with Barbara so in love with him and she’s pretty and intelligent and now is even making lots of money? Why? It’s crazy. I mean, why did he leave his family to just live alone the way he’s doing and worry all the time about finding girls to have sex with? And actually, I think he’s only interested in twelve-year-old girls. I see him looking at them. It’s sick. Creepy. I have a feeling he likes to do things like smell dirty underwear, though. I just (laughs) have that feeling about him. Barbara likes him because she says it’s like not being with anybody, that he’s just absorbed in his own things. He’s really interesting, though, he knows so much about art and music and history and everything. The food was cold, but it came with those covers on it like it was supposed to be hot.

  Saturday, May 17, 1986

  Fred was upset because I’m doing the Martha Grahams, that 300 more prints of mine will be in circulation. And I’m upset because the Kent Klineman contract for the Cowboys and Indians gives Klineman “final approval” and I can’t believe Fred would let that happen.

  And there’s that problem with that John Wayne print, they can’t get permission for it because nobody can give it. It’s a still from a Warner’s movie and I don’t know why it was even called a John Wayne because otherwise you couldn’t tell who it is.

  Ran into Tama, she said, “I’m sorry for asking you all those personal things the other day.”

  Sunday, May 18, 1986

  We went to the Javits Center for the accessories show. Gave out 250 copies of Interview. And I was so shocked at the show because I had just bought some balls from a girl at the antiques flea market who had become sort of a friend, she was from Max’s and everything, and she even told me this story about how she got these one-of-a-kind balls, and then I go to the accessories show and there was a whole crate of them! I was so hurt because I thought she was a friend.

  It’s why I stopped buying American Primitive, because people could just paint it and bury it for a day and sell it to you. That’s when I got into Art Deco because it was with a label and in books. But Stuart thought of a great way to get even with her, he’s going to tell her, “You know that horse I bought from you for $12? I sold it for $10,000. It turned out to be the prototype for all those fakes.” He’ll just tell her that. Isn’t he smart? Isn’t that great?

  Oh, and did I say that Tama told me she once knew a girl who worked for Stuart at his apartment, and this girl thought he was so peculiar because he kept a quart of sour milk in the refrigerator and he would go to it once an hour and smell it.

  Wednesday, May 21, 1986

  Anthony d’Offay flew in from London and he said he didn’t like my Self-Portraits. Here’s a gallery owner being an art director. He said he liked the other ones that I did but he didn’t like these where my hair’s up like Jean Michel’s. And Rupert’s been working so hard on these. Edmund is still in a coma. They’re talking about pulling the plug out. I’m so afraid I’ll get senile and how will I know? I told PH it was up to her, that she’s the one I’m assigning to tell me when I get senile, and she said, “I promise I will tell you but I promise you won’t believe me.”

  Stephen Sprouse called and he was going to the Pa
lladium to Keith’s birthday party. We went over to pick up Debbie Harry at the Chelsea (cab $5). The party was fun, except that a cute actor named Tim stole my date, Sam (laughs), because when Tim said he was staying, Sam said, “I think I will, too.” I wasn’t upset, though, I was glad because then that means I don’t have to feel guilty about going places with Wilfredo. Really I was.relieved because I don’t want to get involved. It’s so nice not to get bothered by anybody. Somebody asked me if Sam is homosexual or just immature. I don’t know. He likes older women, but maybe he wants to be mothered. Who knows? I wish I were twenty and could go through all this again but I never want to go through anything or anybody again in my whole life. Sam and I just kid around. But he cleans up well and he learns things fast. But when somebody corrects him he gets an attitude sometimes and that’s hard to change.