The Andy Warhol Diaries

by Andy Warhol

  Thursday, November 8, 1984

  Went to Diane Von Furstenberg’s and in the same little room were Bianca and her boyfriend, and Mick and Jerry and her two sisters, and everybody was trying to stand with their backs to each other. And so finally to break the ice Bianca went over to Mick and said, “Oh, you’ve slept with everybody in this room,” and she was giggling, and he said, “Oh yes, why look! There’s Mark Shand! And Andy Warhol! I’ve had them all!” He was funny.

  Marina Schiano was there and Jean Michel asked me if she was a drag queen. And Annina Nosei was there. She had a gallery in Soho and Jean Michel used to do paintings in her basement. She would bring people down to look at him like an attraction and he would yell, “Get the fuck out of here!” He destroyed twenty paintings once, he ripped them off the walls. And after she reminded him of all these old days he felt funny being at this chic uptown place. He’s not happier now that he’s uptown because it’s all before him now and he doesn’t know what to do. I told him, “Look, those tantrums weren’t real anyway.” He’s confused. Stayed till 11:30.

  Monday, November 12, 1984

  Went to see Stranger Than Paradise. It isn’t good.

  Oh and the day had started out with Eugenia Sheppard dying of cancer. She invented fashion and gossip together. I guess she started in 195 5. Is that when Princess Grace got married?

  Wednesday, November 14, 1984

  Went to Dr. Karen Burke’s new office on 94th and Park and had my collagen treatment and it really, really hurt. There’s supposed to be novocaine in the stuff as it goes in but it doesn’t feel like there is. There must be a way to have this done without pain. The last time I had it done was a year ago. Fred said he screamed in pain while he was having his face done. I mean, there’s a thousand needles sticking in your face.

  Cabbed to Mr. Chow’s for Jean Michel’s party ($7). And it was great. I feel like I wasted two years running around with Christopher and Peter, just kids who talk about the Baths and things, when here, now, I’m going around with Jean Michel and we’re getting so much art work done, and then his party was Schnabel and Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmusch who directed Stranger Than Paradise and Clemente and John Waite who sang that great song, ‘’Missing You.” I mean, being with a creative crowd, you really notice the difference. It’s intriguing both ways, and I guess both ways are right, but …

  And now Chris is thanking me for not using him anymore to print up my photographs, because he says it’s made him hustle more and work harder. And Bianca who I’d invited called and wasn’t coming and then was coming, and finally she arrived, and she acted grand as if she wasn’t looking for movie work. She changed her seat and took Alba’s when Alba went to the ladies room and when she came back Alba said in a voice loud enough for Bianca to hear, “She’s taken my place again” meaning like with her husband Clemente, but it seemed from how they were acting here like Bianca and Francesco didn’t know each other.

  And Jean Michel became the hostess with the mostest last night. He said it cost him $12,000 —the Cristal was flowing.

  Thursday, November 15, 1984

  Vincent said I had a big video shoot to do and I said that my face was still all marked up from the collagen thing the day before and he promised that he wouldn’t shoot my face.

  There were a lot of parties this night but Dustin Hoffman called and said he’d left tickets for Death of a Salesman so Benjamin and I got to the theater and met Jean Michel there at 7:58. At intermission the people behind us tapped Jean Michel and asked if I was really who I was. Dustin was actually good, but the play is so old-fashioned. I’d seen it years ago with Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock, and they were more like real old people.

  And afterwards we went backstage and there was coffee and everything and Dustin was really up up up, he was camping and screaming, “Andy Warhol is here! Andy Warhol is here!” And he came over and told us this story about seeing a girl at Sotheby’s who was exactly like the first girl he ever fucked, and he invited her to the show and then on that exact same night, the first girl he ever fucked that she looked exactly like came to see the play. And he took the two of them to dinner and they got to talking and one said she didn’t have a place to stay and the other said she could stay with her and they went off into the sunset together. They still looked alike, he said. And Dustin has a sidekick who writes everything down. He’s collecting art and wrote down Jean Michel’s number, and when I saw his hair and everything shaved off, I don’t know why he does the play in so much makeup when he could just do it straight. And he told me that one day when he saw me on the street and we talked it was the day he’d broken up with his first wife, which I didn’t know then, and he remembered every word of our conversation because it was such a traumatic day for him.

  Friday, November 16, 1984

  Lucio Amelio wanted me to hear an opera singer singing falsetto and so they came to the office and the guy sang and I thought it was supposed to be comedy—it was like the castrati singing— but when I started to say how funny it was Fred kicked me. And this boy is very good-looking, he’s supposed to be straight. We were all stunned. It was like the old days at the old Factory when once in a while somebody with real actual talent would shock everybody with it.

  Saturday, November 17, 1984

  Got to the office by 12:00 (supplies $11.96, $3.50, $4.20).

  Cabbed downtown to Keith’s ($5). Madonna arrived with a black wig on. Downstairs there were three limos and we went out to see the “Greener Pastures” thing at BAM in Brooklyn. Keith had done the sets and Willi Smith did the clothes. I was next to Stephen Sprouse and he’s so hard to talk to, but I’m just crazy about him, he’s adorable. And we were all wearing Stephen Sprouse. It was really a great show. And they had really good hair in the show. Like brown underneath and red on top and they used twine. I talked to Stephen about doing show-biz stuff. Then that was over.

  We went to Mr. Chow’s for dinner. Then we went to Area and saw Keith make dresses on John Sex. I asked Madonna if she would be interested in doing a movie and she was smart, she said that she wanted more specifics, that she just didn’t want to talk and have her ideas taken. She’s very sharp. She’s really hot right now. Stayed till 3:00, too many people coming up to me to talk (cab $8).

  Tuesday, November 20, 1984

  We went to the perfume department at Bloomingdale’s and this old lady next to me kept saying, “I’m standing next to him. I never dreamed it would happen. I’m standing next to him.” And I didn’t even have an Interview left to give her, I’d given them all out. We left and I told Benjamin I’d had my fame fix for the day. We went to 47th Street and got hustled into some silver junk. Benjamin got a piece himself, actually—it’s only the second time that’s happened. He saw it and wanted it first. I should have gotten it for him but it was too awkward. I remember when I was with John Lennon and he was buying thousands of dollars’ worth of clothes and didn’t say, “Do you want a shirt?” Years ago. And I’ve found more Polaroids of him and Yoko Ono, only I did that thing that Brigid did, I glued them onto wood and they wrinkled.

  Vincent just called and said there’s a picture of me—of the robot—in People. The dummy that’s going to star in the Evening with Andy Warhol. They’re getting an awful lot of mileage out of nothing yet.

  Thursday, November 22, 1984

  Thanksgiving. Went to see Boy George at the Garden with Jean Michel and Cornelia. I just couldn’t like him because it reminded me of what Jackie Curtis could have been, but Jean Michel really liked him. Boy George is so fat.

  And then Jean Michel started remembering Halston’s last Thanksgiving for turkey and wanted to get there, so we left (cab $6).

  The turkey was already put away and dessert was out. Bianca started punching Jean Michel and me really hard, I actually got a black and blue mark. She was screaming about how we had to contribute to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. And I mean, this cheapo—this cunt! Why should she be asking artists when she should be out whoring herself to get money
from rich people! Who does she think she is! I mean, she thinks she knows all about artists, and she knows—shit! She puts on this serious face and interviews them and she thinks something’s happening, I mean … She’s like a teenager, too, with this boyfriend, Glenn Dubin—she’s always rubbing up against him and kissing him. I can’t figure out what she’s using him for. Maybe just a place to stay.

  Sunday, November 25, 1984

  The big call of the day was from Nelson Lyon, and the news with Nelson is that he’s engaged to Barbara Steele now. She’s not an actress anymore, she’s a producer. And he said he’s so humiliated and embarrassed by all the stuff about him in the Belushi book, Wired, that he can’t face anybody. I told him nobody cares, that it’s chic to be in it and to forget about it.

  They’re selling Halston’s floor in the Olympic Tower out from under him. It’s so sad. Where did Halston go so wrong when he sold his name? What should he have done that he didn’t? That’s what I want to know. And I want to know it from him, I want to sit down and find out what I should do if I ever sell myself. Find out when and where he made his mistakes. In case I ever want to let a big corporation buy me out and just be a figurehead. Because there’s got to be a way to do it where you don’t lose all your power the way Halston did.

  Monday, November 26, 1984

  Dr. Linda Li can’t find out what’s causing my allergies. She said my spleen was traumatized fifteen years ago.

  Had a talk with the Harper & Row editor, Craig Nelson, and had to tell him what I thought of what he’d written for the America book: He can’t write.

  Wednesday, November 28, 1984

  Did the East Side with Benjamin. Passed out the Christmas issue. Went to Dr. Bernsohn and he said he and Dr. Reese went to the pyramids and that he threw these big crystal balls around that he’d taken with him. I went to see him to get rid of a cold and then (laughs) he had one, too (cabs $4, $5, $5).

  I went to Regine’s for Cornelia’s birthday. Barry Landau was there. Barry’s as bad as Cornelia for attracting sleazes. And I guess that means me because I’m right in there. But Cornelia’s smart, she sat Marty Bregman next to her and Roy Cohn on the other side. I sat next to the guy who gives the after-hours party in Aspen after the Jimmy Buffett party. And for a present to Cornelia he offered her his credit card for a couple of hours.

  Thursday, November 29, 1984

  Jean Michel came in and painted right on top of the beautiful painting that Clemente did. There was lots of blank space on it that he could’ve painted on, he was just being mean. And he was in slow motion so I guess he was on heroin. He’d bend over to fix his shoelace and he’d be in that position for five minutes.

  Friday, November 30, 1984

  It was final moving hell day, leaving 860 Broadway forever. Stephen Sprouse’s friend came for the keys and I asked if I could stay and paint, and so I did, until 8:30. And Stephen Sprouse called and thanked me for the air conditioners we’re leaving in the windows for him. So then Jay dropped me off and I just stayed home, exhausted.

  Saturday, December 1, 1984

  Picked up Jon and cabbed down to the Tony Shafrazi Gallery for Kenny Scharf’s show ($8). The blond kid who tells people he’s my lover was there. And the kid told me that he’s the one who’s been planting flowers outside my house. I pretended that I didn’t even know anybody was putting them in, but I’ve seen him there. And Kenny’s paintings are now going for $30,000 and so Keith felt funny because they’re both with Tony’s gallery, but Keith’s never wanted his prices to be too high. His go for eight, ten, fifteen.

  Then afterwards there was a dinner for Kenny at Area. The new theme over there is “Religion,” they’re trying to take over the Limelight theme.

  And the front page of the Sunday Times “Arts and Leisure” section is plastered with Schnabel, Grace Glueck calling him better than Pollock.

  The dinner was fun. Kenny sold all his pictures. Then I went to the dance floor and toured, saw the burning crosses and things. Benjamin’s friend Bernard was St. Sebastian. Keith and Kenny were going to do more work on their article for Interview. Gael told me she took out the part where Kenny asked Keith if it was true he went to bed with Chris Makos in order (laughs) to meet me.

  Sunday, December 2, 1984

  And I forgot to say that on Friday, Sean Lennon sent down the tablecloth from his birthday party in October for a souvenir. Maybe he wants a Christmas present. What can I get him? I was so disappointed when his song didn’t make it to the top ten—I thought it would.

  Monday, December 3, 1984

  It was the first day of going to the new building for a full day’s work. No more Union Square. It’s going to be hard to get cabs in the new area. I’m taking that whole big floor up there. And it was great to see Brigid frazzled, not knowing what phone buttons to push, really working finally—not knitting. I’ll miss ordering out from Brownies, all the carrot juices and stuff. What’re we going to do for food in this new neighborhood? I’ve only seen greasy coffee shops.

  Jean Michel had a date with Paige last night and I think they made it again, which would be a mistake.

  And I was just on the phone talking to Gael, there’s a thief at Interview—$20 was stolen from petty cash. I should do that, it’s an easy way to make money. Just go into Brigid’s wallet and take money out.

  Julian Schnabel called and said that Arne Glimcher has “an empty spot” for Jean Michel and me at the Pace Gallery. I mean, poor Leo. Everybody’s trying to get us away from Leo.

  Wednesday, December 5, 1984

  The Boston Museum came and looked at 100 pictures and then offered half of the asking price for one.

  Waited till 7:00 for the nighttime armed guard that we hired while the building’s still under construction. Worked on ideas, sorted through the mail. Left, couldn’t get a cab until I’d walked a long time. I think I may just start taking the bus up Madison. How much is it now—$.90? Yeah, that would be so much easier.

  Thursday, December 6, 1984

  Fred called and reprimanded me because I’d invited a lot of people down to the office for lunch. Very grand about it, very calm: “You shouldn’t do that, you know.” And I invited John Sex to come and do the Liberace interview with me. Liberace wanted me to do him. He seems to think we know each other, but I don’t remember ever meeting him. But he came and he was just wonderful. He walked in like a butterball because of the big fat coat he was wearing, but he’s very normal, nothing like his show-business personality, which explains why he’s so big, because if he were really that kind of person he’d be too crazy to make it. But gee, he must have a lot of money—he has like eighteen houses. He said he taught Elvis how to dress. Badly. Glenn O’Brien was originally going to do him, but then John Sex has been idolizing him for years and he came and then he just had such dumb questions like “What’s your favorite color?” that I was going to then go back to having Glenn do it. But when John Sex and Liberace saw each other (laughs) they fell in love, sparks flew. But Liberace’s so normal, you can see why he won all his court cases.

  Sunday, December 9, 1984

  Well I wanted to go down to work, but in the morning Jed called and said he was coming over in an hour to get the dogs, so an hour later when the bell rang I opened the door without looking and who should be standing there but Crazy Matty! God, after all these months and months of trying to convince him I didn’t live there, and everybody’s been trying to tell him he had the wrong house. And I just couldn’t believe it. He laughed and said, “You’re in trouble.” So then the whole day I didn’t leave the house, I was too nervous.

  Tuesday, December 11, 1984

  Got up early, talked to PH who was in L.A. Maybe that’s where we should move the big offices of the magazine. She said her Harrison Ford cover interview is still up in the air, he probably won’t do it but he hasn’t given Gael a definite no.

  Interviewed Chris Reeve yesterday, Maura and I did, and he was good, he was still drunk from the night before. He’s got a good att
itude now, not like he had when he started. Now he’ll take any role.

  Fred’s been so crabby lately. We haven’t been hitting it off. I don’t know if he’s bored and wants to be a decorator or if he’s just crabby. He gets these attitudes. And it’s scary because he used to have the best memory in the world and now he says softly to me, “Now tell me, who is this person you introduced me to?” And he’s talking about Dawn Mello who he knows! It’s scary.

  Burt Reynolds was on Letterman and was so funny because there he was acting so straight and copying Clark Gable and then he said that he arrived in New York with George Maharis! So now I’m so surprised I never knew him in the fifties in New York.

  Wednesday, December 12, 1984

  Went to Dr. Bernsohn’s and who should be there in the waiting room but the star of my movie, Blowjob. I never did know his name. He goes to Bernsohn, too.