The Andy Warhol Diaries

by Andy Warhol

  Streisand was wearing a black tuxedo. Elsa Peretti was there and she was saying how wonderful it was to be with me and not be on anything, that she didn’t take anything anymore. I admired a light bulb she had in her purse, a tiny one that lit up when you put a penny next to it, and she gave it to me, and then Victor liked it so I gave it to him and then Elsa saw that and took it away from Victor and shook her finger at me and put it back in her purse.

  Andrea was just sitting there waiting for Kristofferson to notice her, but he was busy.

  Friday, December 24, 1976

  Went with Jed to Fred’s Christmas dinner at 1342 Lexington. Jed’s brother Jay [see Introduction] and his sister Susan picked us up. Fred had invited Carroll Baker and she was there with her daughter, Blanche, who’s gotten to be a beauty in the last few months, she slimmed down. Anselmino, one of our Italian art dealers, was there and Chris Makos the cute photographer we met from Dotson Rader and Robert Hayes the assistant editor at Interview and it was an office Christmas Eve.

  Mick Jagger was there and he was in a good mood, he asked me what I thought of A Star Is Born and I told him and he said that he was so happy he’d turned it down, that he didn’t want to play a has-been rock singer, even for the million they offered him. Mick was asking for coke and finally got some from Anselmino. Fred’s housekeeper Hazel made turkey and ham and brussels sprouts. Paloma Picasso and her entourage were there.

  Then we went downtown to Fernando Sanchez’s and Halston was there and Kenny Jay Lane and André Leon Talley and that new really rich English kid in town who “has no money”—one of those—Nick Scott, offering to sell his body to the highest bidder. Kenny Lane offered $35. Maxime de la Falaise upped it to $36.

  Saturday, December 25, 1976

  Went out to Westbury to C.Z. Guest’s for lunch. It was a magazine Christmas—the decorations and the food and the house were just like a spread in McCall’s or House and Garden, like what a house should look like on Christmas. But you’d think with all C.Z.’s involvement with flowers and gardening that she’d have real stuff, but when you looked close the wreaths and things were half plastic. C.Z. gave everyone her bug repellent for gifts.

  Ninety-year-old Kitty Miller was there, she’s still putting blue shoe polish in her hair. The pies were great—apple, mince, and plum. The turkey had already been cut up like a magazine would tell you to before it got to the table, so it was like a Turkey Puzzle. Kitty was drunk and when the Spanish ambassador said a few words she screamed, “I can’t speak Spanish.”

  It started to snow a little. Said thanks and left to go home to get ready for the Jaggers’. Got to East 66th and glued [see Introduction]. Went up to East 72nd (cab $2.50). We were one of the first to arrive. Nick Scott was at the door, working. This was a job he’d come up with to earn money—being the Jaggers’ houseboy. Only he was supposed to get there at 8:00 in the morning to help and he didn’t arrive until 6:00 at night. I gave Jade the grey kitten from Rusty Holzer. She looked at it and said, “ ‘Lydia?’… No. Harriet.” I felt sorry for the cat, though, because I think it’s going to have a horrible home. I don’t know.

  Mick sat down next to Bob Colacello and put his arm around him and offered him a pick-me-up, and Bob said, “Why yes, I am rather tired,” and just as he was about to get it, Yoko and John Lennon walked in and Mick was so excited to see them that he ran over with the spoon that he was about to put under Bob’s nose and put it under John Lennon’s.

  Halston and Loulou de la Falaise put a lot of the pick-me-up in a covered dish on the coffee table and when someone they liked would sit down they’d tell them, “Lift it up and get a surprise.” Paloma Picasso was there. Jay Johnson brought Delia Doherty. The dinner was terrific. Mick and Bianca forgot to bring out the dessert, though.

  Monday, December 27, 1976

  Got the invitation to President Carter’s inaugural. It was addressed to (laughs) “Mr. and Mrs. Andy Warhol.” Don’t you love it?

  Wednesday, December 29, 1976

  Hoveyda brought the Iranian ambassador to England to the office, they came to see the portrait I did of the empress, and they liked it, so it’s going to be shipped out.

  Vincent drove out for the hearings on the Montauk property, wetlands commission.

  Friday, December 31, 1976

  Worked at the office until 7:00. Went home to change for Kitty Miller’s party. Walked over to 550 Park. Fred was there. Elsie Woodward, my Kitty-date for last New Year’s, had called and cancelled because she said she was dizzy and that she can’t fight it—“I’m old.”

  Princess Minnie de Beauvau was there with her father and stepmother and her sister Diane. She introduced me to her grandfather Antenor Patino who I then realized I’d just met at C.Z. Guest’s. He’s little. He looks like one of Paloma Picasso’s little boyfriends. He’s the tin king of Bolivia.

  I overheard Kitty describing me to somebody and I guess somebody must have talked to her about me because what she was saying was sounding like somebody had told it to her—“He’s one of the furthest off-Broadway, and a far (laughs) head of his time,” and things like that. Maybe it was Billy Baldwin or somebody like that she got that stuff from.

  I missed Kitty’s regular butler, the one that had the fight with Diana Vreeland’s maid. He was fired for being too familiar, but I really liked him—he’s the one who told me to watch those A.E. Coppard stories on channel 13.

  And after dinner, I sat underneath Goya’s “Red Boy.” Kitty has this most famous painting right there in her house, it’s unbelievable.

  Kitty’s parties used to be the biggest thing in New York with every Hollywood star there and now it was down to just her friends. Aileen Mehle—“Suzy”—didn’t even RSVP this year.

  Diane de Beauvau took my hand and we ran into the next room right as midnight was coming on. I sort of wanted to stay and kiss the old bags like I did the year before because actually it was so much fun to do—to kiss ninety-year-old Elsie Woodward and say, “Happy New Year, darling.” Then Minnie de Beauvau came in and got Diane and told her she had to go back in and say Happy New Year to their father and stepmother—because she knows where their bread’s buttered.

  And the food at Kitty’s—it was the canned frozen stuff again. At first you think that maybe these rich people don’t know any better because they’ve been going to charity dinners all their lives, but then they do go to La Grenouille, too, and that’s really good food. So they must notice the difference. And there were six servants serving the canned food.

  Right after midnight it was everybody grabbing their coats, they couldn’t wait to go on to the next party. Fred was really drunk. We got out on the street and he thought he was the “It Boy”—he gave Minnie his coat—the wind-chill factor was making it around twenty below—and he was just in his top hat, kissing everyone on the street. We walked Diane to the Westbury to pick up her boyfriend who’d stayed home to write a script, but when we got there he was in the nude waiting to fuck her, so we left her there.

  Went home. Called Brigid. Called PH [see Introduction]. Nobody was home yet. At 6 A.M. Jay Johnson woke me up calling to speak to Jed. He was drunk and I hung up on him and he called back and let it ring twenty times.

  Monday, January 10, 1977

  Fred had to go to a meeting at our lawyer Bob Montgomery’s about the New World distributing deal for Bad. Roger Corman himself hasn’t seen Bad but Fred says that doesn’t matter because Corman doesn’t pick the movies, that this other guy Bob Rehme does. They’ll try different ways of opening it around the country to see what works best before bringing it into New York.

  Bianca called and invited me to a dinner that Regine was giving for Florence Grinda, and Catherine and Victor got on the phone and said they wanted to come, too, so she told them to come for coffee.

  Andrea Portago had called me earlier and asked me to take her to the dinner, and I told her it wasn’t my invitation so I couldn’t, but to call Bianca and she did and Bianca was thrilled, because she’s after A
ndrea’s brother, Tony, and Andrea and Tony would come together. Andrea picked me up with her brother. We went to Regine’s.

  Bianca was wearing a strapless Halston dress. There were South Americans at a lot of tables. The dinner hadn’t started yet, and while they were still in pre-dinner, at the bar, Catherine and Victor walked in for “coffee.” When dinner started they were put at a separate little table, and when Victor pointed at my table and said he wanted the same thing, they said, “You’ll have to pay for it,” and he said fine. The food was awful. Regine was sort of rude to Victor and Catherine.

  Diane Von Furstenberg was there. She’d called me to be her date for a CBS filming of her on Thursday, she thought we’d make an interesting TV couple, and I told her I’d be out of town— I’m actually not leaving until Friday—but to come down to my party on Tuesday night with her TV crew. But when Regine invited me for Thursday night dinner DVF overheard me say yes— it’s for Russian Easter—and said how dare I have lied to her, so I was caught and I just said I’d made a mistake.

  Victor gave out fake poppers. Regine said they smelled like feet and I told her they were called “Locker Room” and she liked that. Bianca started to giggle and she was carrying on over a popper with Tony Portago, and they were sort of making out, but she pulled herself together, she realized that she couldn’t do that in public, but she’s the most beautiful when she giggles, and she loves those poppers. Some fans came over and I signed autographs. When Victor and Catherine and I left it was around 2:30 and the Portago driver dropped us.

  Then at 4 A.M. Tom Cashin called to talk to Jed because Jay had cut his arm and was bleeding and so Jed went to take him to the hospital. And then Jay called from the hospital, and that drama went on until 9 A.M.

  Tuesday, January 11, 1977

  At six o’clock everyone was still at the office waiting around to go to my opening down at Castelli, so we went and at first it was empty, but we grouped around the bar setup drinking champagne and then it started getting jammed. There was the big “Hammer & Sickle,” and eight small ones. David Whitney, Philip Johnson, David White were there. Paulette Goddard arrived, she said she wanted me to do her a Hammer & Sickle pin. Victor was there, performing, cutting up a shirt. Bianca arrived in the dress from Halston’s window that Victor had foot-printed. And Catherine was wearing the red outfit that Victor had also foot-printed. Tony Portago and his mother Carroll Portago arrived. Paulette and Carroll are old friends. Bianca wanted poppers but nobody had any. Halston came in with a little painting Elizabeth Taylor had done for me because she didn’t come down—he’d just been with her. When I think about that I’m really disappointed—it would have been so great if Liz Taylor had come to the opening. That would have made it something, wouldn’t it?

  Bianca and Tony Portago look really in love. This started over the holidays. C.Z.’s son, Alexander Guest, was there. Giorgio Sant’Angelo, Sylvia Miles, Ronee Blakley, Francesco Scavullo and Sean Byrnes, Irving Blum and Charlie Cowles. Moët Chandon champagne. The Soho News guy Michael Goldstein was there, being awful. I gave Jed money to entertain at dinner afterwards ($200) because I had to go up to John Richardson’s.

  I was disappointed with John Richardson’s because it was oldies. Marion Javits, Françoise and Oscar de la Renta, Marella Agnelli, Babe Paley—I guess she really was a beauty once. Babe and Marella raved to me about my paintings, they’d seen the show on Saturday.

  Sat next to Marion Javits. She told me how happy she was about Clay Felker losing New York magazine last week to Rupert Murdoch. Felker’s the one who exposed her Iranian connection last year.

  Catherine and Victor arrived for after-dinner. Victor had glued parts of his shirt together.

  Nima Isham’s mother and father came to the opening, and I couldn’t believe it—here they were back from their daughter’s wedding in Haiti that past weekend and Bob still isn’t back yet!

  Wednesday, January 12, 1977

  When I got to 860 a big CBS crew was filming Jamie Wyeth with Arnold Schwarzenegger posing for him for a show called Who’s Who. Cabbed up with Jamie and Arnold to a lunch at Elaine’s for Arnold’s movie Pumping Iron ($5). Stopped at the Ritz Towers, had to wait five minutes for Paulette Goddard to come downstairs. She was wearing all her jewelry and was funny. She said, “If you’d played your cards right, these could have all been yours”—to me. God, when I think of how many hours Bob and I spent taping her, trying to get the real story of her life out of her for that book Mr. Jovanovich wanted … I mean, if I’d been a big Hollywood star and married to Charlie Chaplin and Burgess Meredith and Erich Maria Remarque I think I could’ve come up with a few hot stories.

  At Elaine’s Delfina Rattazzi was there. She works at Viking now as a reader for Jackie O. Victor was there and Paulette was falling in love with him because she was calculating all the Halstons she could get out of him. Pat Patterson came and sat with us, and Charlotte Curtis from The New York Times was there, too.

  Dropped Jamie at the art store ($5). The office was jumping, Vincent was going crazy. Bianca called and said she was having a birthday dinner that night for Joel LeBon who works for Pierre Berge. Potassa the drag queen was at the office in a homemade black and gold fantasy dress and Jamie got fascinated and painted her in the dress with her cock showing. He’ll be painting at 860 for about two months. Then Victor got Potassa to pose in the nude. Nenna Eberstadt is now working for us, she was typing up an interview. John and Kimiko Powers came in with a lot of art things for me to sign. Alex Heinrici [see Introduction] came by with some acetates.

  Worked until 7:00 and then went up to Bill Copley’s to sign a painting he’d bought. He’d just made dinner for his little daughter, Theodora. A great dinner—hot dogs, ketchup, Coke, and vanilla ice cream.

  Dropped Fred off at Lee Radziwill’s ($2.75). Went to the party for Joel. Bianca was wearing the same dress she wore the last time—it’s strange to see girls who really dress up wearing the same thing twice.

  Friday, January 14, 1977—New York—London

  Arrived in London and didn’t expect anyone to meet us, but Lady Ann Lambton was standing there with a chauffeur and we were really happy to see her. She had a broken neck, it was in a brace.

  Stayed at the Ritz (tipped $5 for bags).

  Ann called her sister Rose and Oliver Musker and we decided to meet them at Morton’s. Had orange and champagne to drink, and a steak sandwich which was horrible ($55). Left for the Ritz, Jed and I, thought Ann would stay in Fred’s room but she didn’t because he had a small bed. Felt itchy and found a crab. Looked for more.

  Saturday, January 15, 1977—London—Kuwait

  Up at 7:00 for the flight to Kuwait. Tired. Packed, showered. Looked for crabs, still. Sent the hotel bill to the Mayor Gallery (tips at hotel $10). Picked up James Mayor at his place. He’d gotten us second-class seats, I was really mad, but there was one first-class one and I got it. Kuwait Air. The plane had to stop at Frankfurt and lots of people got on there. Read The Users by Joyce Haber, very boring, about a homosexual husband. Joyce was married to Doug Cramer, he’s a producer. There was a sheik on the plane up front with bodyguards in an even further front cabin. Took a pill. Fell asleep.

  Woke up when the plane was landing. Arrived 11:00 late at night. Met at the airport by some Arabs. There was a girl Nadja, from the Council for Culture, who’d arranged the show. They made us drink some strange coffee at the airport.

  Sunday, January 16, 1977—Kuwait

  Up at 9:30. Breakfast toast and tea (tip $2, laundry $1). James called, meeting downstairs at 12:00. We were taken to a place that looked like some dump, but then everything here does, and it wasn’t until days later that we realized it had been a chic place. Outside the sun was warm with a lot of cars going by—big Rolls Royces, big American cars. They gave us two cars but we only used one. Went back to the hotel to try to buy A-200 to kill the crabs.

  Bought Nick Carter mysteries ($4). At 4:00 had to meet Nadja and James again. Went to souk for local color. Ladies in
black hiding their faces, big marketplace, bazaar. It got very cold. Got an outfit to give to Victor as a gift (hat $4, dress $26). Spent time looking for antiques, but there are none in Kuwait—just a few old pots from a couple of years ago. We were the only foreigners in the marketplace.

  Went to Nadja’s gallery. Had some more of the sweet funny coffee they offer you all the time, you go crazy. We didn’t know that if you don’t shake your cup they keep pouring it in.

  Bought five more copies of the Kuwait Times ($1). Calligraphy beautiful, no Pop there. Went to different drugstores looking for A-200. To hotel. Ordered dinner before dinner (tip $2). The people we were having dinner with sent a silver Cadillac limousine. Arrived at Qutayba al Ghanin’s, a rich young Peter Brant type. His house was on the gulf, a little out of town. Land there was really expensive. He made it chic by moving there.

  Kuwaitis don’t serve hard liquor or beer or anything, it’s against the law, but the rich ones have some hard liquor, Jack Daniel’s or something.

  Read Nick Carter. Really good—sex and girls.