The Andy Warhol Diaries

by Andy Warhol

  Went to see Mame with Jon and Cornelia (tickets $120). The audience was just a bunch of old decorators. Went to Orso’s, right next door, and Marion Javits walked in with Gil Shiva. And they had La Cage aux Folles programs and so did everybody in the place, and we had to hide our Mame programs because we were embarrassed.

  Friday, August 12, 1983

  Jerry Hall came to lunch to interview Bob Mackie for us (cab $6, supplies $102). And I told her that Halston wanted to see her and she said she’s always been so nice to him but he’s always snubbed her so why is he trying to be nice now. (laughs) She hasn’t figured it out yet.

  Sunday, August 14, 1983

  Decided to go see Private School (cab $4, tickets $10, popcorn $6). I wanted to see Phoebe Cates. These movies are just like remakes of those French comedies of the sixties, where it’s older women after young boys. In this one, it’s ugly boys peeping in windows at girls and taking showers and rubbing themselves, and these girls always have big tits. I guess that our movies didn’t make it because our girls always had such small tits.

  Monday, August 15, 1983

  Cabbed to meet Jean Michel Basquiat at the workout with Lidija, he was doing it with us (cab $5). He’s in love with Paige Powell.

  Got a call from Pia Zadora who said she wanted a Dollar Sign and she’d take it with her if it fit into her husband’s jet, so they were measuring it.

  Oh, and one of the Ramones was having brain surgery yesterday because he was kicked in the head on West 10th Street in a fight over some cheap-looking girl.

  Wednesday, August 17, 1983

  I’ve been getting notes and letters slipped under the door at my house from people I’ve given Interviews to in the neighborhood and I don’t know what to do about that.

  Went down to meet Jean Michel and did a workout with him and Lidija (cab $5). And he has b.o. It’s like Chris who also thinks it’s sexy when you exercise to have b.o., but I want to say, it sure isn’t. And all this b.o. has made me think about my life and how I’m not really missing anything great. I mean, I think of Paige having sex with Jean Michel and I think, how could she do it. I mean, what do you do, say some hint like, “Uh, gee, why don’t we do something wild like take a shower together?”

  John Sex came by. He said his python was home molting, so it was cranky.

  Saw the show Vincent’s working on and it looks really good. We got a great writeup in one of the video magazines.

  Whitney Tower called and he was having a party at Club A (cab $5).

  Whitney’s going crazy because his father’s young wife had another baby. Cornelia called him and said, “Congratulations, you’re a brother again!” And his mind is dividing the fortune, watching his share go down one more time.

  Then Madelaine Netter sat down and told me about how she’d been attacked in an elevator on West 96th Street. They had her on the floor and were ripping her clothes off and she was screaming, and suddenly she got the idea to say, “Jesus saves.” And they freaked out and glued her back together.

  Thursday, August 18, 1983

  Went to meet Jean Michel Basquiat and did a workout with Lidija (cab $5).

  The Scull kid called and yelled at me for messing up his limousine the last time, for spilling soda.

  Chris called and said that Peter’s mother wanted to adopt Brian, I mean …

  Keith Haring came by with his black boyfriend and I took pictures. They were so lovey-dovey in the photos, it was nutty to see. The big chalk drawing of a pregnant woman on 53rd and Fifth that we thought was his—it turns out it is, and we’re trying to get it. He did it a while ago.

  Picked up Cornelia and Sean McKeon and Maura in the limo, to drive out to Shea Stadium to see the Police, and Cornelia had hundreds of sandwiches and champagne. The rain came down in buckets.

  Ron Delsener was there and I guess he wants to be in society because he was smooching Cornelia and Maura. François de Menil came in with Laverne of Láveme and Shirley. And Cornelia just goes in and out. She falls asleep on your arm, she just passes right out, and then she wakes up and has this energy.

  Sting came over and said hello, he looked a little old. He was with a girl, I think it was his wife. And Matt Dillon! Matt Dillon was there. Oh he’s so good-looking. And the girls finally by the time it was time to go had just gotten to the point where they were talking to him and they didn’t want to go. We may get him for a cover after all.

  Left, dropped everyone.

  My sister-in-law just called. She said that she came by my house last night right when it started raining. So I guess I just missed her. And she said she’s stopping by today, but I told her I’m not going to be there.

  Saturday, August 20, 1983

  I was reading the Life Extension book and Connoisseur magazine, and I fell asleep, so I woke up with them on top of me.

  Halston called, he said he’d left his vacation in Montauk because Victor was going crazy and he’d gone too far. He said he’d send a car for me to come to dinner, but I said I’d walk over, so I did. And we sat there and then in the other room were three bodyguards that Halston had hired because Victor threatened to come and break all the windows from the outside. You know, Victor is saying he loves Halston too much to stand by and let him get so grand but I mean it’s Halston who works so hard, and if he wants to get grand then he can do it. I know, though, that the drugs do take over, so I guess that’s what’s wrong with Victor. And Halston called Victor’s brother who lives in town to go and help him, but the brother said, “I don’t want to interfere in my brother’s life.”

  Oh and Chris had come over to the office and told me everything that I wanted to hear. He said, “Oh it’s over between Brian and me. We’re not doing it anymore because we’re tired of each other.” And you can really see what a good hustler Chris is, because everything I wanted to hear he was telling me.

  Sunday, August 21, 1983

  It was a beautiful day. No one was around. So I was all by myself, but I had courage enough to go down to the office. I take a sharp stick with me in case the elevator doors stick, so I can pry myself out. And if I go over there alone on the weekend 1 always tell someone I’m going.

  Halston was trying all day to get Victor on the phone and finally he seemed calmed down because Dick Cavett and Bianca had come over and gone through The Importance of Being Earnest, playing the parts together, and that cheered him up. Worked till 7:00. Cabbed to meet Jean Michel Basquiat and Paige Powell ($5). And Paige is just so nutty, she laughs so loud at nothing. I would but her in the category of schizophrenia. Jean Michel said he never finished high school. I’m surprised, because I thought he went to college. He’s twenty-two. Cabbed to Mr. Chow’s ($5). And Lester Persky was there with the cute boy with white-blond hair who’s training for the pentathalon. He wants us to put him in Interview. Lester’s gotten so funny-looking, like a little fat Hitler.

  Monday, August 22, 1983

  Went to meet Jean Michel at the office and I took pictures of him in a jockstrap.

  Chris called me and he’s accusing me of just dropping him because I don’t approve of Brian, and I mean, I guess that’s true, but still … and I don’t know what to do about Chris. I mean, he can find a new sucker. And anyway he gets paid for his Interview pages every month. Worked till 7:00.

  Picked up Cornelia at the Waldorf (cab $6). She had a copy of the new Life magazine that has the big spread on her and it all looked so glamorous, really kidnappable (tip to doorman $5).

  Cabbed to the Gulf + Western Building to see Timothy Hutton and Amanda Plummer in Daniel (15). The movie is absorbing. Cornelia got so absorbed. She’s strange. I really don’t know if she’s smart or stupid. It’s like it used to be with like Ingrid Superstar. Cornelia just goes in and out and sometimes she’s a moron. But oh, she got so absorbed in this, it was like a history lesson for her, and I made a point of quizzing her on it later and she had understood everything. This is about the Rosenbergs but it’s fictional so they call them the Isaacsons.

 
And we went to Mortimer’s (cab $4) and Fred was there with his English accent really loud, so I know he was drunk, and I was getting scared because he was table-hopping, and I was dreading to think what he was saying at each table.

  Tuesday, August 23, 1983

  Cornelia wanted to go out, and I was invited to the opening of an escalator at Bergdorf Goodman, so I told her that and she got excited—“Oh what a great idea, I want to go. I want to go!”

  Picked her up. Got to Bergdorf’s (cab $7) and there was a waiter for every single guest. And at the top of each escalator a male model was waiting. John Duka from the Times was there so we were trying to be quotable and make the papers, telling him that we’d been to openings of doors, windows, envelopes, and now—an escalator!

  Wednesday, August 24, 1983

  It was a beautiful day. I left the house early in order to go see Karen Burke to get collagen injections. She wears high heels and rides a bike, which is so dangerous.

  After the injections, Dr. Karen walked me all the way to 66th Street. The injections did make me bleed on my face. The lines on the sides.

  Thursday, August 25, 1983

  I will never forgive Rupert for taking me to La Cage aux Folles on “Gay Night.” I didn’t know it until we got there and it was nothing but faggots and lesbians. And I thought that for $40 tickets we’d be in the orchestra, but we were way up in the balcony because it was a benefit so the tickets downstairs were over $100 or something. And these gays, you know, they refuse Interviews and always pretend they don’t know who you are, and then they go home and dish you. These two dykes came over and said hello, and I asked them what this event was all about, and they said it was for the “Islanders,” and I said, “The Islanders hockey team needs a gay benefit?” and they laughed and said oh ha-ha no. And then Rupert nudged me that they were talking about Fire Island. They said, “How’d you wind up here in the balcony?” and I pointed at Rupert and said, “Because this creep brought me.” Anyway the play was so boring that I fell asleep a couple of times. But this audience, this audience. I mean, they just jumped up and laughed and applauded every single gay line—I mean anytime anybody referred to anything, they clapped. And everyone had a mustache, eight out of ten people there. Finally it ended and we got out of there. The two dykes asked me (laughs), “Are you going to Cracker jacks? To the party?”

  But all that was at night. In the morning Benjamin arrived and I wasn’t ready. Didn’t have enough Interviews to take around, just had a couple. As we were walking on Madison between 66th and 67th, Raquel Welch came bouncing out of a shop. She had on dark sunglasses so you almost didn’t recognize her. She said she was looking for a Napoleon bed. I gave her Dr. Karen’s card for collagen. Fred likes the way my treatment looks and he’s going to get it done.

  We were on Page Six because of our interview with Georgia O’Keeffe where she called Philip Johnson a minor architect, and we left it in where I was saying that he’s not now, and she was saying that he was then, and so since she can’t see now, she didn’t know. So I’m bracing myself for a call from David Whitney.

  Fred says he’s not going to drink, that the other night was just too much.

  Got home and there was a note that Ara Gallant called. So I called him back and he said that Debra Winger and the governor of Nebraska were over there, and he invited me over, but it was so late that I didn’t want to go back out.

  Talked to Jon in L.A.

  Friday, August 26, 1983

  Cab to meet Jean Michel Basquiat and we worked out ($6). He’s going to rent the carriage house we own at 57 Great Jones Street. So Benjamin went over to get a lease and I hope it works out. Jean Michel is trying to get on a regular daily painting schedule. If he doesn’t and he can’t pay his rent it’ll be hard to evict him. It’s always hard to get people out.

  Sunday, August 28, 1983

  After getting bitten some more I decided that Archie must have fleas, so I checked and he did. Some years are good for fleas and this is one of them.

  It was a hazy grey day. And in the park the Puerto Ricans were having some sort of event. It wasn’t even Puerto Rican Day, they just create a party and call it some occasion and then they have the park all day with mounted policemen, beautiful mounted policemen on horses. Not one white person in the whole park.

  Monday, August 29, 1983

  I just stepped in dog shit. In my hall. And I’m usually wearing slippers but this time I wasn’t. And usually you can smell it a mile away, but it just didn’t smell, so I just finished cleaning it up. And I’m all fleabitten. When you know there’s fleas, you keep feeling them all the time whether they’re there or not. So I just took a shower to get the shit off my foot and now I’m thinking what disease I can pick up from this whole episode.

  Jean Michel and I went over to Yanna’s, and we had our nails done. And you know, my nails are getting better. The two of us would make a good story for Vogue (pedicures $30).

  Victor came by with his brother who’s so good-looking. And Victor says his brother’s cock is so big he used to hit the table with it at breakfast. I guess they were naked at breakfast, you know these South Americans. It takes years to get nervous and live in an uptight situation like civilization. But Victor’s actually made out better than his brother—his brother still has to work.

  Tuesday, August 30, 1983

  Chris came by the office and he was crying and saying that he wanted things to be back the way they used to be between us with me giving him lots of work, but I didn’t know what to tell him because I don’t. I don’t call him at all. I suppose I should. But I think about boys too much when I associate with him.

  The Argentine lady came and wrote out a fat check for her portraits, which was great, it pays a month’s mortgage on the new building. And last month Pia Zadora’s check did that, so that was a lift.

  Fred went to Dr. Karen for his collagen test and he said that she’s klutzy, and actually she is, when I think about it. One thing she’s got to learn is not to have people lie down. Because if you lie down, all the wrinkles go away, and how can you tell where to put the stuff? You should actually be hanging forward or something, so the wrinkles would really be exaggerated.

  Wednesday, August 31, 1983

  Cab to meet Lidija ($5). Worked out with Jean Michel who brought me some of his hair, cut off and put on a helmet. It looked great. He got Bruno to pay his first month’s security and rent. He wanted to buy the Great Jones Street carriage house from me but I told him that together with our other one around the corner from it on the Bowery it was a nice lot, and that we might put a theater on it some day. He and Paige had a big fight because they had a date for 9:00 and he didn’t show up till 1:00.

  And I’m so mad at Scavullo. Those pictures he did of me for the Jordan Marsh catalogue, he made me look so ugly. He didn’t air-brush at all, and he’s an air-brush queen! But he didn’t do it for me. I’d like to call him up and tell him off, but then he’d say, “We can only work with what you give us, darling.”

  Nelson called and said that Joe Dallesandro is driving a cab in L.A. Why can’t Joe just get some woman to support him? Or somebody. He still has a big dick. He’s stupid. S-T-U-P-I-D. And I don’t know what happened with Heat. They were showing it on Friday night at the New York Film Festival—they were doing a series on movies that had opened there in the past. I didn’t hear a thing about it.

  Then Christopher wanted to have dinner. He said he hadn’t eaten all day so he promised that he would actually eat the dinner and not have it wrapped to take home. We thought of the Water Club but then decided on the Jockey Club at the Ritz Carlton (dinner $250 with tip).

  Friday, September 2, 1983

  Jean Michel didn’t show up for the workout because he was up all night. He was in love that day with Paige. Pia Zadora called to invite us to a party at Bob Guccione’s on Tuesday. She wants me to present her with the portraits there.

  And the new building, the new building. I’m trying to start to pack up at 860, bu
t I just want to throw my hands up in the air.

  Monday, September 5, 1983

  Labor Day. Jean Michel called, he wanted some philosophy, he came over and we talked, and he’s afraid he’s just going to be a flash in the pan. And I told him not to worry, that he wouldn’t be. But then I got scared because he’s rented our building on Great Jones and what if he is a flash in the pan and doesn’t have the money to pay his rent (supplies $35.06, $6)?

  Pia Zadora called and said she was coming down. And they all came—her husband Riklis, his mother, and some other guy. I’d done twelve portraits of her. And they just liked two and they weren’t the ones that I thought were the best. So we have all these portraits left over. But we were lucky, she bought the Dollar Sign. Worked alone till 6:00. Got depressed. It was hot and muggy.

  Tuesday, September 6, 1983

  Sent Jay home early to dress up so he could come with Benjamin and me to the Penthouse party for Pia Zadora and carry the portraits. Walked over to the party at Bob Guccione’s in my neighborhood. And Guccione said to me that the time seemed “right” now to really do porno photographs with celebrities, and I put my foot in it, I said (laughs), “How about Cornelia Guest?” I don’t know what made me say it. Guccione was wearing a shirt and tie, he had his gold chains covered over. I’d heard he was in the hospital for a head tumor or something like that, but maybe it was hair transplants.