The Andy Warhol Diaries

by Andy Warhol

  While we were there one of her friends called her and said she was too tired to go fur-coat shopping. So Jaquine was upset.

  Tuesday, February 7, 1978

  Catherine called, she’s still down in Tampa with Tom Sullivan.

  I think Peter Beard’s in love again, with Carole Bouquet, the girl from That Obscure Object of Desire, the Buñuel movie that’s out now. He called and said he was having dinner with her up at Elaine’s and invited me. When I got there Elaine was jitterbugging with a guy from the bar. Lorna Luft was there. She said she’s got a part in Grease.

  And the Calvin Klein daughter kidnap is still in the papers. He gave an interview to Eugenia Sheppard about how brave his daughter was when she was kidnapped. Left around 2:00, dropped Bob (cab $3).

  Wednesday, February 8, 1978

  Before I left the house my nephew Paulie who’s been in Denver for years called from New Jersey and said that he was leaving the priesthood and going to get married. I told him to come by the office in the afternoon and we’d talk about it.

  When I got to the office ($3.60) Bob Colacello and Robert Hayes were having an important business lunch and so I went to sit in on it because I knew I was supposed to. But whenever it’s a sort of important lunch, it’s so stupid in that room, because Brigid will walk into the bathroom or Ronnie will wander through or someone will come to the door and say, “Barry Landau is on the phone for you” or “Crazy Matty is here to see you”—they don’t seem to know what’s important, and so it’s silly in there.

  My nephew arrived. He told me that he’d given up his parish in Denver. You’re still a priest even if you give up your parish, but after he gets married he’ll be excommunicated. I told him he should see Saturday Night Fever. Because remember the part where the brother’s leaving the priesthood? I didn’t know what else to say, he wasn’t listening to me anyway. He even said, “I’ll just do what I’m going to do anyway, so let’s not even talk about it.” But then he kept bringing it up. And after 5:00 when the rates were down he called Denver and had me talk to his Mexican-American fiancée who’s thirty-seven—older than he is—and she did actually sound nice.

  It was Ash Wednesday.

  Thursday, February 9, 1978

  Bob called in the morning and said that Suzie Frankfurt was becoming a Roman Catholic and that she was getting baptized this morning and that we should go up to the church (cab to 83rd and Park $3). It only took a minute, Suzie got baptized and her hair got wet, and we went back to her house for coffee.

  Cabbed down to Union Square ($3). Anselmino was calling from Italy all day, screaming hysterically about forgeries of my paintings that he was being offered. And my nephew was there all day writing letters and making phone calls. I worked until about 7:00.

  Friday, February 10, 1978

  Anselmino called to say, “They weren’t forgeries after all—they were stolen from me and cut down to a smaller size.” He must have just sold them for coke once and forgot.

  My nephew was at the office again all day making phone calls. He had a friend with him and Brigid said that he’d been making martinis (laughs) the new way with gin, scotch, and vermouth. He told me he’s staying with someone and there’s five people in one room and I guess he’s sleeping on the floor. I wanted to keep working late, so I told him it would be easier if he left with Vincent when Vincent locked the door. I think he got mad at me because he left without finishing his martini.

  Saturday, February 11, 1978

  Okay, the fire.

  I got up in the morning and I thought I smelled a wood-burning fireplace. I went upstairs and there was no fireplace going and I still smelled burning so I went up to the room on the fourth floor where two kids have been working, restoring furniture for Jed’s decorating business. I opened the door. There was a dropcloth all over the room with a big burned hole about ten inches across in it, and underneath the hole was a quarter-inch hole in the floorboards. I started to shake. My biggest fear had happened. There were open cans of turpentine around, the windows were closed, and the heat was on. I just don’t know what started it, and I just don’t know what stopped it. It must have happened while I was asleep because I didn’t smell anything when I came in. Do you think … ? I mean, it was like The Exorcist. Should I put a cross up there? I’m going to have a cross blessed and put it up there. Because in the same room once the whole ceiling had a flood on one wall, and now this. And then I was thinking that I was mean to my nephew the priest and that was bothering me. And when I looked at where the fire had been, right in the center of the room, it was like to show what would happen … I was absolutely shaking. The dropcloth had vein lines going out from the hole, and the floor underneath had vein lines. It was so weird.

  Then I spent the whole morning cleaning up. I called Judith Hollander for the phone number of the boys who were “restoring.” I called them up and screamed at them to come and get their junk out of there fast, and when they came I wouldn’t talk to them, I was so angry.

  I was so exhausted from this ordeal in the morning with the fire that after work I just went home and drank some wine so that I’d be able to sleep and not think about the possessed room upstairs. Remember when Tom Tryon used to live across the street and I would watch him in his window writing? Now I’m living a nightmare like one of his stories.

  Tuesday, February 14, 1978

  I couldn’t believe how many people were out celebrating Valentine’s Day this year. It was really a celebration, a big holiday. Paulette picked me up to go over to the “I Love New York” party at Tavern on the Green. Bella Abzug came in. Today was the election to see if she could win the seat Mayor Koch vacated. She’s running against Bill Green.

  A lady who works for the governor came over and wanted to meet me, she said she read my Philosophy book and that it’s her favorite book, it’s her bible. She asked provocative questions about should kids at thirteen see pornography and what about Roman Polanski, and Stan Dragoti who was there said that he used to live next door to Roman in Hollywood and that Roman actually did date eleven-year-olds. We concluded that Roman is now trying to relive his childhood. He’s is now in Paris where he can’t be extradited back. There were a lot of empty spaces at our table. Stan Dragoti is married to Cheryl Tiegs the model. He made it sound like they were really together, and I had to catch myself every time I started to say something about Vitas, because his wife Cheryl and Vitas are the hot couple lately around town, but I didn’t slip.

  Picked up Catherine to go over to Vitas’s Valentine’s party at Le Club. Catherine had her boots on (cab $3). Peter Beard and Tom Sullivan arrived. Tom and Catherine have a pact that each of them can go anywhere and do anything with others, and so he was with a ravingly beautiful sixteen-year-old model and she was (laughs) with me.

  Jerry Hall was there and she said that she was looking for a house for Mick and that she and he were going to live in together for six months. I think I told that later to a reporter but I don’t care. Nobody likes Jerry Hall, they think she’s plastic. But I like her. She’s so cute.

  We went over to Studio 54 and just everyone was there.

  Wednesday, February 15, 1978

  Hung over, couldn’t get out of bed.

  The Joan Crawford pre-auction exhibit was on from 9-12:00 at the Plaza Galleries—the second one.

  When we got there, they were taking the show down, getting ready for the auction the next day. The girl at the gallery was wearing one of Joan’s sweaters. Everything was for sale—there was lawyers’ letters and a collection of schoolteacher letters, all the things she’d saved. I really ought to auction off some of my time capsule boxes [see Introduction], that would be a good thing to do in an art gallery. But I would try to make every box a little interesting. I’d throw in one of my dresses, or an old shirt, a pair of underwear—something great in each one. The Negro guys there were rotten to us, screaming not to touch things, and we left. And Bella Abzug lost to Bill Green.

  We had to go up to Denise Bouché’s f
or her party for the chairman of the Guggenheim Museum, her cousin Peter Lawson-Johnston, who’s a Guggenheim (drinks $20). Bill Copley was there, he was drunk and fun. When he did that play a few months ago he hired a whore to be in it, and then he kept her on after the play, at $200 a week, to live in his house on 89th Street. And now she’s taken it over. He once told me he originally furnished his place so that no woman would ever want to live there—that he wanted to make it like a bar—he left his ex-wife in their old apartment on Central Park West. But then the kind of girl he found is the kind of girl who would like to be in a place that looks like a bar—that’s where a hooker would feel comfortable, so he picked the right girl. He said he’s starting to be nervous about her being there, though. She’s taking over and buying him funny presents and things. But he thinks it’s interesting, but now he’s not so sure about it. I told him I wanted to tape them fighting, and I wanted to start this weekend, but I have to go to Dallas. They don’t fight in public, but he’ll do it for art.

  Picked up Diana Vreeland and went to Doubles (cab $2). I talked to Norman Mailer and his schoolteacher redheaded new girlfriend from Arkansas. I was at table 9 with Diana and Lee Radziwill and Peter Tufo, and one of the Toni twins. Bob was next to Gloria Swanson! She has really grey hair. I told her, “You look so beautiful.” She said, “Say it again.” I said, “You look so beautiful.” Mrs. Vreeland was fighting with Peter Tufo. Then she started screaming and belting me, and she really hurts! And she does the same thing to Fred. She screamed at me, “You should know better than to OPEN YOUR MOUTH!” I just didn’t know what to do. She beats you to a pulp. She said that she just couldn’t stand to be around old people, including herself.

  Friday, February 17, 1978

  Liza came to the office to have her portrait done. She was a little nervous to begin with, and then Chris Makos went over and showed her a picture of his cock that I’d taken, and that made her more nervous, but she was wearing the right makeup and all the pictures came out good.

  John Lennon came by and that was exciting. He’s lost weight. Rupert’s working on some art thing with him. And he was sweet. He’d refused Catherine the autograph in the restaurant the other week, but Paul McCartney’s picture was in the paper the other day, and when she asked him again he drew a mustache on Paul and signed it.

  Meanwhile Catherine had invited two boys she met in the men’s room at Studio 54 to lunch, brothers from Washington, D.C., who have a rock band called Star, they’re staying at Bob Feiden of Arista Records’ house. And they were whispering to each other saying, “Can you believe this? Liza Minnelli, John Lennon—she calls this work?”

  Victor arrived and started screaming at some girl, calling her cheap and a whore and oh—just—all I can think of is someday he’s going to get mad at me and it’s going to get crazy.

  Monday, February 20, 1978

  Monique Van Vooren was having a sit-down dinner at Premiere at 9:30 and I’d said yes, I forgot that Tom Sullivan had tickets for wrestling because he’d met Dusty Rhodes the wrestler at an airport and they’d become friends. Then Fred called and said Camilla McGrath was having a cocktail party for someone, but I can’t remember who.

  Catherine picked me up at 7:00 and we went over to Camilla’s and it was very exciting there, a whole crowd of people. The Johansen boy, David Doll, was there, he looked unhappy, I guess it’s still from Cyrinda Foxe leaving him for the Aerosmith guy. And I met Stephen Graham, the Washington Post kid, and he was nutty, he was with Jane Wenner, who’d broken her leg skiing.

  Tom picked us up there at 8:30 and we went over to the Garden and there were like 26,000 people there! I thought wrestling was a dead sport, I didn’t know so many people went to it. Dusty Rhodes was wrestling a Japanese guy. They all wear sequins, all of them. I guess they got their style from Gorgeous George, he really influenced them. And they strip on stage. Catherine went to take pictures, but the fight was over in eight minutes. And now they’re getting good-looking wrestlers. Dusty Rhodes said he’d be right out, but he didn’t come out until about twenty minutes. He wore lots of jewelry, gold things, and he had dark glasses on but when he took them off it looked like he still had them on, he had huge dark rings around his eyes, and he had lots of bruises all over. We took him with us to Monique’s dinner (wrestling tickets $16).

  Then we went to the Lone Star and then they wanted to go dancing. Up to Hurrah’s. Dusty was a little apprehensive when he saw all the fairies and he asked for a girl. The owner got a girl from someplace behind us and fixed him up with her. Then after Hurrah’s we dropped Dusty and the girl at the Sheraton, and Catherine and Tom picked up hamburgers at the Brasserie and went to the Westbury. They dropped me off.

  Tuesday, February 21, 1978

  I went down to the office (cab $3.25).

  Brigid was training the new employee, Robyn Geddes, a kid I met at Studio 54. She told him, “The thing is, when you’re at home, you let the phone ring twice, and then you answer. But here, you get it on half a ring. There’s only one thing that Andy expects and that’s that you get five calls a minute, if it comes to that.” She was making it all up. He asked her if McDonald’s delivered. He said he was getting his master’s at the New School and Brigid said, “Oh, so you’re going to school and this is part-time? Are you a volunteer or will we be paying you?” He said he didn’t know. His mother is the head of the New York Cancer Society chapter. She married Amory and they live at the River House.

  Thursday, February 23, 1978

  Went to Regine’s. Andrea Marcovicci was there. And Tom Sullivan. Someone was saying that Andrea Marcovicci looked like Margaret Trudeau and I was saying oh yeah, and then I turned around and there was Margaret Trudeau, I didn’t know she was there, and Tom said, “I thought you knew.” And Tom was sad because he couldn’t be with Margaret, she was staying in the background so she wouldn’t be photographed with him because she’s still married. But then this photographer guy who was there with a foreign accent said to Tom that he saw him fucking Margaret in the balcony at Studio 54 the other night, and the reason he saw them was that he was up there fucking a girl, himself. And finally Margaret came and she talked to me so she could be near Tom, and the photographers took pictures. And Catherine was unhappy because Tom was in love with Margaret.

  Friday, February 24, 1978

  Robyn, the new kid, said he was going out to his parents’ place in Tuxedo Park to be a butler for $10 an hour for three hours this weekend, but that he got an advance so he could go dancing at Studio 54. He was reading the scrapbook and when he got to ‘68 he couldn’t believe it—he said to me, “Somebody shot you?”

  Roy Cohn’s birthday party was at Studio 54 behind the curtain. We missed the good heavy Democrats, they’d already gone, like Carmine DeSapio. There was a big birthday cake for Roy, and Margaret thought it was a cushion and sat on it, but she got up quickly and nobody seemed to notice. The cake was about 3’ X 4’. With a face like a 1920 cheap pillow, you know, like they had then for the World’s Fair. It was in the paper that the party was costing Stevie $150,000, but I don’t see how it could have, they were charging people to get in just like always.

  Saturday, February 25, 1978

  Catherine called and said that Tom would pick me up in his car but I said I’d rather walk, it was just to Diana Vreeland’s dinner for Cecil Beaton. When we got there Peter Beard was there in black tie, he said he’d had to rent it for Friday so he figured why not keep it for the weekend. Carole Bouquet was with him, she’s leaving for Paris in a week. Then Fred arrived with Cecil Beaton. Cecil had been staying with Sam Green but that got too hard so he moved to the Pierre, he was leaving town in the morning. He can hardly walk, he’s paralyzed on one side. He’d taken photographs of Carole and signed them for Peter with his left hand, which is great, that’s the hand he draws with now. He doesn’t talk much, he just said things like “Oh my” and “Yes.” And I guess Diana looking at him was afraid something like that would happen to her because she overreacted in the other
direction, she was running and jumping and dancing and humming and pushing forward with her tight body and her beautiful clothes.

  And Consuelo Crespi whose daughter Pilar is married to a Colombian, Echavarria, was also at Diana’s. Tom knew all about Colombia, so I just don’t know about him. He said that Pilar’s husband was the biggest smuggler in Colombia, but what does that mean he smuggles? For sure, cocaine? Or money? Echavarria owns an airline there, a small one. We were talking about plane crashes and Tom was telling about his—the one that wrecked his hand that he wears the glove on, and Consuelo said, “If you crashed in an airplane, you were probably in Colombia, right?” And he was. Tom doesn’t seem to take coke too much but I think he was missing Margaret so he was snorting some. He’s so free with it, it’s not like a dealer, he gives it away like it’s candy.

  The front page of the Post announced Liza’s separation from Jack Haley, Jr.

  Sunday, February 26, 1978

  Went to church, then cabbed to work ($4) to meet Rupert. Worked there all afternoon and took phone calls. Then went home at 7:00.

  Tuesday, February 28, 1978