by Andy Warhol
Thursday, May 22, 1986
I just read the interview the guy from Splash magazine did with me and I don’t know how he made it so good because I wasn’t good when he was doing it.
There was a camera crew waiting at the office, some English thing that d’Offay set up, I don’t know what it was. I mumbled.
Left early. Was picked up at 8:00 by Sam (cab $8). Got to the Beacon for the stage show Yoko was doing and she was on already. Met Stephen Sprouse there. She was doing the happy years from 1980-81 in men’s clothes and Reeboks, and I don’t know why she’s doing this. She looks great but this is so stupid, she should be up there in furs and Armanis and looking really rich. And she should let John rest in peace. All I can think of is that Sean must really want his mother to stop this. He must be embarrassed.
Then went down to Grace Jones’s birthday party at Stringfellow’s, it was like a trip back into the seventies, neon dance floor and Bunnies with asses. And there was no dinner, so we left there, we just wanted something to eat, we were all hungry, so we went over to the Caffé Roma for just something quick and quiet and we walked into this big scene, it was a dinner for Prince Albert and Bob Colacello was there and Cecilia Peck and Cornelia Guest. A hundred people to say hello to. Took the cheese off and ate the pizza.
Monday, May 26, 1986
Memorial Day. I went out with Stuart again and we went to the same places, the auction houses, and it’s so great to go back more than once because then the stuff starts to look bad to you and you get sick of it without even buying it. Ran into Tom Armstrong and his wife.
Tuesday, May 27, 1986
Fred’s going to Europe on Friday to the big Thurn und Taxis thing. I’m not going—he doesn’t want to take care of me.
Worked until 6:45 and then all the dishes from the lunch were still in the kitchen and I told Fred that the kitchen was dirty and he looked at me and said, “Well I’m not going to do the dishes.” Diana Vreeland has been really a bad influence on him. I should’ve broken that up. In the old days Fred would have been the first person to roll up his sleeves and start scrubbing. I had already called for a car so I just had time to clean the coffeepot and I guess Jay cleaned up the rest. Jay’s in a good mood lately. Maybe he has a new girlfriend. Thomas Ammann saw Jay’s art and loved it, but that was a one-time painting—he’s not painting like that now. The young artists are all now doing abstract paintings because they’re making fun of that now. They’re going through everything, making fun of every period.
Went to see Martha Graham with Jane Holzer and Halston. Halston did the costumes. They did ballets from like 1906 and 1930 and it was funny to see what dancers were like then—they were like hoochy-koochy girls. (laughs) Ballet needs a new defector—you watch these Russian dancers and we don’t have anything like that here. I was watching a Russian group do “Swan Lake” and it was just such a difference.
Thursday, May 29, 1986—New York—Boston—New York
Read an article about the “Billionaire Boys Club” kids who’re going on trial in L.A. for killing Ronnie Levin.
At 2:30 was picked up by Fred and Kate Harrington because we had to go to Boston. Cabbed to the airport. New York Air. I was reading this Peggy Guggenheim book and the best part in it was when Iris Love finds out (laughs) she’s Jewish—they take her aside and tell her in school.
Ted Turner’s on Donahue right now. He’s so smug. I hate him. Ever since he wouldn’t say hello to me once at the White House.
When we got to Boston Mary Richardson picked us up and took us to a Hilton Hotel. And Joe Kennedy came out and gave a speech and he’s not a good speaker. He said, “That great American artist who brought art down”—and Fred almost fainted—“to the American people.” Well I guess Pop Art did, but he really is a bad speaker. He sounded so false, no heart to it.
Sunday, June 1, 1986
Edmund Gaultney and Perry Ellis both died this past week.
Monday, June 2, 1986
Joe Kennedy came by with Michael Kennedy and I don’t know how he can be running for things, he’s kind of weird. And they had a bodyguard with them, they’d been down on Wall Street. And after they left I was having trouble blow-drying a painting.
Wednesday, June 4, 1986
There was a lunch for forty-five at the office for Cris Alexander because he’s retiring. Peggy Cass was there and I told her she should do a movie about when they operated on her leg and it was the wrong one and then she was crippled in both. And it was all because she wanted to be a good Catholic and be able to kneel, that’s how she won the case.
Kent Klineman came by the office and he didn’t like the Annie Oakley, and I said how could he not like it since that’s the way he made me do it. And so then I asked him if he got the John Wayne thing worked out and he said oh yes, that the son, Patrick Wayne, would give permission if I gave him a painting that he could donate to charity, so that was all worked out, and I said, “Uh, what?” He said Fred had agreed, but I know Fred never would have. I mean, this was Klineman’s responsibility and I’m not going to take it on for him. If Patrick wants a painting Kent can pay me to do it and then he can donate it. And then it was time to go up to the Museum of the American Indian to my opening, so I had to ride up to Broadway and 155th Street with him after this fight, just forgetting about it and putting it behind us because you have to—these days you have business fights and then just have to go on being friendly.
And Crazy Matty’s there to greet me, drinking wine. It’s a courtyard and small buildings. Really nice, and they did a nice show. It was packed.
Friday, June 6, 1986
There was a dinner for the Oreo cookie at the Waldorf, and I really want to do the cookie’s portrait. It’s having its seventy-fifth birthday.
I decided to take Wilfredo. All the cookie sellers were around, they were all dressed to the hilt, and it’s sad to see these people who have to come from all over the country and put on beautiful clothes to go to a cookie party. As we were edging in, the security man said (laughs), “Mr. Warhol? Are you crashing this party?” The P.R. lady had to come to tell him it was okay. And the big cookie looks so great. The new giant-size Oreo that comes just one-to-a-package. About five times the size of the regular one and lots of cream and the chocolate’s so black and bitter, just great.
I was dressed in black and white so I looked like an Oreo, and when the cameras were on I ate the cookies and said, “Miss Oreo needs her portrait done.” So I hope the bigwigs get the hint. Oh, it would be so good to do. Jerry Lewis was the emcee.
Wednesday, June 11, 1986
Rupert and I had a big confrontation at the office about Edmund’s memorial service, about if I was going, so I went. The traffic was so bad and now I know why commuters get heart attacks from stress, not that I was rushing to get there, but if I had been it would’ve been awful. We got there at the end. Edmund’s father looked like a Southern preacher, a movie character. He was peculiar.
Then Paige and I walked to the Plaza for the Yoko Ono thing and she had her shoes off and I told her she was crazy. I had her turn her Interview T-shirt around because it was black tie (cab $4). Yoko and Sean were there. Nona Hendryx was, too, and Roberta Flack got there an hour late. Cab Calloway got a medal. It was a benefit to get Harlem kids adopted. And when you see these kids you do really want to adopt one. They’re so cute. I’ll give money to anyone who’ll raise one of these kids. Spread the word.
Then went to Hunter College where there was a party for the Rodney Dangerfield movie Back to School. Got there and saw Sam and PH in the thick of it, and my God, what groupies. They were packed in around him with cameras and PH asked him to take a picture with me, and he was really nice, he said, “Andy, I gotta give it to anybody who’s hung in there as long as you.” Paige walked me home and everybody else went down to the Harley-Davidson Biker Night at Area.
Sunday, June 15, 1986
Fred said at that the Thurn und Taxis party the birthday cake was one of those old-fashioned cock cakes f
rom the seventies—you know, with hundreds of cocks on the cake and everybody got their own!
Monday, June 16, 1986
A crew that was filming me for English TV was at the office and I told them that they should just follow me around the city and do it without sound, so they said okay, and so I took Brigid’s dog Fame and we went around the block. Fame shit and I cleaned it up so that was a good scene, and then we walked to 27th Street looking for stores and there were two guys standing there and one said, “I took pictures of you and Brooke Shields,” and the other one said under his breath (laughs), “Cocksucker.” It was really good. I don’t know if he really knew me or what, but there’s a lot of color out there on the street.
Keith had a limo and I decided to go with him to the Carlyle for a party for the Ellis kid who wrote Less Than Zero. He graduated from Bennington. And as we were going in a bald girl with a fashionable ugly dress was going in. I wonder if regular nonfashion clothes are out forever, if these kids will ever dress normally like, you know, Phil Donahue again. It was such a cute party. I never read his book, but someone sent it to me. All the kids had the right fashionable hair and the fashionable right clothes. And I always think California kids are tall, but these kids were all three feet.
Nick Rhodes called from London and said to call him when I got there, and Julie Anne is expecting the baby in August. He said, “We’re expecting a piece of sculpture.”
Tuesday, June 17, 1986
Fashion show at the Pierre of Bernard Perris clothes. Paige picked me up. And these clothes, they’re like costume clothes. Like somebody just drew this stuff and then somehow it got made. Hookers from Harry’s Bar wear this kind of stuff, it’s expensive and you look at it and you know it cost money, but you can’t figure out who would have designed it. Well, now you know— Bernard Perris, they’re all wearing Bernard Perris. It’s sort of like Nolan Miller’s stuff, like TV clothes. And next to me was Hebe Dorsey, she writes for the International Herald Tribune and she raved about Peter Marino. I just love her name. Hee-bee. If I ever have a child I’m naming it Hebe.
Thursday, June 19, 1986
Got to the office and the lady from Florida, Dorothy Blau’s friend, was there, and she didn’t like her portrait, she wants me to make her hair fluffier which I know is not going to work. And Dorothy sent some of that really good candy. Finally I left and went up with the crew to 42nd Street. Why do these crews and everybody always want to go there? I mean, there’s nothing there. Went home and saw there was a party Mark Goodson was having for Norman Lear, so I went over there, to One Beekman Place (cab $4). Bianca was there with Carl Bernstein. Cindy and Joey Adams were there and I brought up Roy Cohn and she said he was on his last legs, that she’d seen him when he came into the city for a small cocktail party someone gave for him. And a lady was there and she said she’s so bored since she stopped working and her kids grew up and I said, “Why don’t you adopt a Harlem baby?” I told her how they’re so cute and that if you go up there and plunk your money down it’s cash and carry.
Monday, June 23, 1986
Fred went to Doc Cox for a blood test, he believes you should know everything, I don’t know why. But Rosemary wasn’t there to give it.
And Iolas called from the airport and said he’d be at the office in twenty minutes and he was! How could he get there that fast? And Brooks Jackson was with him, and he looked really bad. I didn’t want to ask about his wife Adriana, I hear she’s dying now. The cancer.
Jay gave his ticket to the premiere of American Anthem to Len, the new receptionist, who’s seventeen and about to go to Brown, so then Sam asked Len if he wanted to go with us, which surprised me, because he usually doesn’t do that, and Sam was shocked to find out that Len was only seventeen and that he wasn’t the youngest kid at the office anymore. But Len is really smart for a seventeen-year-old.
Wednesday, June 25, 1986
There was a screening of Ruthless People and that Danny DeVito is so cute, we should all marry him, really. He’s just adorable.
Sunday, June 29, 1986
It was Gay Day so the parade was on. Went down to the flea market and ran into Corky Kessler, who I haven’t seen in thirty years. Maybe forty. She’s the one who once gave me modern dance lessons. She’s fifty-five or maybe even fifty-eight. She had a nose job and everything so she has that out-of-town look but she has a great young body. But then I don’t know if her body is pulled together by bras and things. You never know. She asked me about the rest of the old gang.
There were millions of girls in the Gay Day parade.
Stuart called and said Mario Amaya died of AIDS, and he was so upset about it and I tried to make it light and he was just so upset saying Mario was the most important person in his life and that he’d taught him everything about art. And I said, “But Stuart, you’re not gay, why are you so upset?” And for some reason I always forget that it was Mario who got shot by Valerie Solanis, too, the day she shot me—he just happened to be at the Factory visiting. Just sort of a skin wound, though.
Monday, June 30, 1986
PH got back from her weekend in Miami interviewing Don Johnson, and the most fascinating thing was it turned out that in his down-and-out days Don used to do scams in L.A. with the disappeared-and-probably-murdered Ronnie Levin!
Tuesday, July 1, 1986
Arnold Schwarzenegger was having a party for the Statue of Liberty at Café Seiyoken and I wasn’t even invited. And I wasn’t invited to Caroline Kennedy’s wedding, either.
Friday, July 4, 1986
Sam picked me up at 2:00 in an All-City cab and we rode down to Tenth Avenue and 23rd Street. Bought some souvenirs ($20). Didn’t seem like the Fourth of July, there were millions of people all over town. The MTV boat left at 3:15. Everyone got drunk. There were no really big stars. Vitas Gerulaitis was there and Janet Jones, the actress from Flamingo Kid and American Anthem. No rock people except a Bananarama girl. Annie Leibovitz took pictures but only of the boats. Vincent and Shelly were there.
I had to hit a gong and I was terrible. The food was horrible, Dorito chips and undercooked hamburgers from the Hard Rock and pork and beans.
The MTV boat was the only ugly one—balloons all over it. The other boats were all plain and elegant. We watched the president’s speech on two TVs. At 7:30 Don Johnson came. A little boat brought him out to the MTV boat and he had fifteen bodyguards and he was in a big fat hat and he wouldn’t come on board unless they put steps down. He was with a girl who looked like Patti D’Arbanville—but it wasn’t—holding his baby, and then they came on board and went into a room and never came out to talk to anybody.
And at 9:45 the fireworks started, and we were pretty far away from it. Finally the boat docked and they whisked Don Johnson into a limousine and we looked around and found a couple of gypsy cabs.
Oh, and the best thing was that when we were getting off, the Z Z Tops saw us and took us into the Z Z Top room and that was fun, they want to visit us when they come back in August (cab $30). Dropped Sam.
Sunday, July 6, 1986—New York—London
Chris picked me up so early (limo $70, magazines $30, porter $10). Got the Concorde. Was met by Anthony d’Offay, went to the Ritz Hotel (porters $20). I had a really big double room, like three rooms. The phone ran and it was Billy Boy. Then Tina Chow called and said that dinner was on. I told her not to have a party for me but she did it anyway.
Cabbed to Mr. Chow’s ($7.50). It was fun, and she had all these great people. Mick and Jerry Hall, Nick Rhodes, Billy Boy, and all the English swells. Everybody was really sweet to us. Tessa Kennedy, Jennifer D’Abo, Ramon, Robert Tracy, Rifat Ozbek, Manolo Blahnik, Jerry Zipkin.
Monday, July 7, 1986-London
Billy Boy was around constantly. Went to the gallery and it was great, looked at the pictures, it was kind of exciting (cab $5). Before dinner I ordered tea sandwiches. Cabbed to Mark Birley’s club, Mark’s, for dinner (cab $7).
Tuesday, July 8, 1986-London
Went t
o lunch at the gallery because it was my opening that night. And then went back to the hotel (tip $5). Had more tea sandwiches. Got some jewelry from Billy Boy to wear to the opening. Then went to the gallery and it was really crowded, so I autographed for two hours. Those cute kids were there who want us to do their music video—“Curiosity Killed the Cat.” Chris followed up on them, kept calling. Lots of photographers. Then there was a big dinner after that at some old arts club called Café Royale where artists would have big openings, like Augustus Johns. D’Offay had about a hundred people, it must’ve been expensive. Then Fred took me home. Ordered up tea sandwiches.
Wednesday, July 9, 1986-London
This is the week in between Wimbledon and Fergie’s marriage, so it was exciting. The week Boy George was being in the papers for his heroin problem and they were trying to find him, big headline news.
Chris and Billy Boy came to my room for breakfast (tip $10). Then did the same old thing—wandered around London (cab $8).