The Andy Warhol Diaries

by Andy Warhol

  Paige said there were big advertising dinners on Wednesday and Thursday, and Nikki Haskell called and invited me to a couple of parties at the Tunnel on those nights. I don’t know about these advertising dinners—you give up a night of your life just to try to get one ad. But on the other hand you do meet people, and sometimes it turns into other business with them.

  Nick Rhodes called and wanted to go to dinner. Cabbed to II Cantinori ($5). And when Pino doesn’t do the food it’s just awful. It was also with Elizabeth Saltzman and her new boyfriend— Glenn Dubini! And it was so odd to see him there making out with her. And I guess he does have money after all, I wasn’t sure when he was with Bianca. They had just flown to the Superbowl in a private plane and stayed at the Beverly Hills and come back the next day. Simon LeBon and Nick Rhodes arrived (dinner $240).

  Oh, and I talked on the phone to Glenn O’Brien about why the sixties were coming back or something, he was doing an article for Elle, he was fun.

  Got home and at 12:00 the phone rang and it was Billy Name. Have I forgotten to say that he’s been calling? He’s up there in Poughkeepsie and he’s organizing a sixties reunion and he has like three jobs up there, deputy sheriff and everything, and he was just chattering away—“You know how deeply I love you, honey”—about how Gerard is coming up and Ingrid Superstar and how I’d be picked up and taken to Stephen Shore’s house—he works at Bard College now—and all this stuff. But I’m going to just have to tell Billy that I can’t face the past. And I’d walked into the house and didn’t look where I stepped and so I was talking to him with dog poop all over my shoes.

  Tuesday, January 27, 1987

  Manson was on the Today Show and he was saying why did he kill so few people—that he could’ve been really big and killed everybody. Here’s all this money wasted on keeping him alive when he should just be killed.

  Michelle Loud came to work, she’s back from vacation and she’s working on the sewing machine stitching together the porno photos I’ve been taking, but I have to call the office and say to hide them because those kids we’ve got around the office now—the ones from Interview who I don’t even know—they’d probably report me to the police. It’d be the sixties all over again. I bet they could still arrest you for taking porno pictures, if they wanted to.

  Wednesday, January 28, 1987

  Howard Read said Victor Bockris came to interview him for his book about me. I’m surprised Howard could give an interview—he doesn’t know anything about me.

  I met a boy named Cal who’s cute but only has half his teeth, he’s a messenger, and messengers really are the best dressers, but I guess they already did the Kevin Bacon movie about a bike messenger, but nobody’s done a print spread on them yet. He’s been hit by a bus a couple of times.

  Thursday, January 29, 1987

  At 9:30 A.M. I was already rushing out because I’d promised Phoebe Cates I’d go to the Hard Rock Café for a benefit for Covenant House which is for runaway kids. Went with Ken. He’s nice but he’s real slow. But he’s a better walker than Tony because he picks out good-looking Interview-type people and hands the magazine to them. Mathilda Cuomo was there.

  After that I cabbed to Chris Makos’s to photograph more nudes ($4, modeling fees $300). Did that from 1-3:00 and while I was there I heard Chris call Paige so I got on the phone to tell her that La Vie en Rose might want to advertise and she started screaming at me that I hadn’t shown up for an important advertising lunch, and it was like having a nagging wife. And then she accused me of just being down at Chris’s to take male porno photographs, which I was, but I mean, it was for work! I mean, I’m just trying to work and make some money. I mean, there’s a lot of hungry mouths to feed at the office! I have a business to keep going! I mean, the porno pictures are for a show. They’re work.

  Saturday, January 31, 1987

  Paige had an advertising dinner planned at Caffe Roma. I worked till 8:00 (cab $7). Heather Watts wanted to meet the poorest kid in New York because she’s been spending so much time with Anne Bass, so Stephen Sprouse brought her a cute messenger who has a twelve-inch tattoo. They put two tables together for us in the front, and there was a Mafia-type guy at the bar who said stuff about Stephen’s punk hair, and Stephen got so scared he left and then Paige went over and started telling the guy off, and she almost got it, she really almost was history. He was a greaseball, a big ox, about 6’5”. Huge. So then Peter Martins was obligated to go over and defend Paige and then Jock Soto got up, too, and all I could think of was that the whole New York City Ballet company would be wiped out by this Mafia bruiser at the bar. It was scary. A lot of talk like “asshole” and all those words. Heather loved it.

  So Peter was a man and defended Paige but after the bruiser left, he was so relieved that he sank in his chair and he told her, “Paige, I’m never going out with you again—you’re too much troubled

  Dropped Wilfredo off and went home to bed (cab $6.50).

  Monday, February 2, 1987

  Was picked up by Ken. Stuart’s friend Christopher O’Riley, the pianist, got great reviews in The New York Times in an article on virtuosos.

  And Liberace’s dying. He looked so healthy when he came to the office last year, didn’t he?

  I called Nell to ask her to be that week’s emcee for our TV show but she said she was on the other line talking to Australia and she’d call me right back but she never did, which I thought was weird.

  A couple of people have called and said they were doing biographies of me. Fred told them we didn’t want them to, but they said they’ll do them anyway.

  Worked and then they picked me up for the black-tie dinner at the Saint that Rado Watches was giving and it was all built around the painting I did and Sarah Vaughn singing. And we were all afraid to eat anything because the Saint has the gay taint from when it used to be a gay disco. It was so dark there and they were serving the food on black plates.

  But Sarah Vaughn sang and she was great—fat and sweating but she’s still got a voice. And then they wanted us to go to her room and so they took us there and it was past all the bad rooms where all the sex things used to happen. We were holding our breath. And we told Sarah she was great, but she was just interested in her drink, she told somebody, “Cap my brandy,” or something like that. She’ll be at the Blue Note in April.

  Then we were hungry so Paige and Wilfredo and I went next door to that place called “103” on Second Avenue and that’s where we should take people to dinner because it came to $11 for three teas, a Coke, a bowl of chili, and two sandwiches. Could that have been a mistake? Left a big tip ($20). And we picked up a couple of waiters for Wilfredo to use as models in the shoots he’s setting up in Atlantic City for Interview.

  Tuesday, February 3, 1987

  Ken picked me up and he’s good because he’s big and strong so he can carry all the interviews. I just have to sign them. It was such a beautiful day out. It was hard to think about going to work so we went to eat ($15, phone $2, newspapers $2, cab $7.50). Didn’t run into anybody.

  Nell finally called back and when I asked her to do the TV show she said she’d have to check with her partners, but I think she just wanted to think about it. I think she’s like Ann Magnuson, that’s why she just hasn’t made it. I mean, in show business. They’re both the same—at the last minute they get odd and don’t want to “give it away,” but they’re not doing anything else anyway. They need more exposure.

  Wednesday, February 4, 1987

  And the Post had a picture of Ingrid Superstar with a big story: “Warhol Star Vanishes.” I thought she was going to be at the reunion Billy Name is setting up. I wonder if Gerard gave this to the papers just to get his name in. Brigid never even told me they called about her. I would’ve cared that Ingrid was missing. People magazine had been calling because they’re doing a story on Ivy Nicholson and they wanted me to give a quote and for her I did tell Brigid to tell People we’d “never heard of her,” but that was only because it was Ivy—Ingrid
I would’ve cared about. But I bet something did happen to her. It said she went out for a pack of cigarettes and never came back. This is in upstate New York. And People said Ivy was doing a “comeback,” but I mean, what would it be as? Could she still model? I wonder how she looks these days.

  Alba Clemente came to have her picture done for a portrait, and she’s so beautiful. I photographed her nude.

  Andre Balazs invited me to a Details screening of Black Widow with Debra Winger and Teresa Russell. Cabbed ($5) to 58th and Third. And the movie was nothing, a lesbian movie. The only thing I really wondered was whether that black-widow pin she got as a wedding present was real or costume, and I looked across the aisle to PH and she was wondering the same thing.

  Thursday, February 5, 1987

  Went to E.A.T. and our favorite girl gave us extra food (tip $15). I ate it all, which was a mistake (phone $.50, newspaper $1, cab $5).

  And then at the office, Sam had potato chips with vinegar and salt and I ate so many of those because they were so unusual. Vincent was doing the TV show and there were no celebrity hostesses available so we used a cute girl model. But when I did my scenes with her, I sat in a funny position and I got a pain and it didn’t go away.

  Paige was home sick so I had a free night, no advertising dinners, and Sam and I decided to go to a movie and then John Reinhold wanted to join us so we could talk about the jewelry business at dinner first. So went to Nippon (cab $6). And we did that stuff, and then we decided to see the Bette Midler Outrageous Fortune movie since it was the big money-maker of the week, but as we were leaving the restaurant I felt a sharp pain and I couldn’t go on. I got scared and said I couldn’t go and they dropped me off. I was trying to think positively and mind-over-matter and when I got to my front door it was like a miracle, it suddenly went away. It was completely gone. And then I wished I’d hung on for a few minutes because then I wouldn’t have had to tell anybody something was wrong. But I went inside and locked the dogs out of the room because they were bothering me and they got mad, they didn’t understand I was mentally unstable. And I fell asleep and woke up when Joan Rivers was on and she was doing something odd on her show, solving a mystery of somebody being killed, like a game.

  So now I’m throwing out all the junk food. I guess it was a gallbladder attack. And then I remembered that when I got the first one was when Fred took me to the Waldorf to meet the old Mrs. Woodward who was about ninety then—it was ‘73 or ‘74 I think—and he had to take me to the hospital, and then this week is when that novel Nick Dunne wrote, The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, is on TV, which was really the Elsie Woodward story, so I felt like there was a connection.

  Friday, February 6, 1987

  Ken picked me up and we walked up Madison with interviews.. It was a beautiful day. Then went to lower Broadway with Stuart and looked for stuff, then he dropped us off at the office. Rupert was closing down his office so he didn’t come in. He finally unloaded the Duane Street building he owns for $1.1 million. These kids who were living there were so horrible, they wouldn’t move out. Rupert offered to pay them off but they wouldn’t move. He sold it to Israelis, and you can bet they’ll get them out.

  Worked all afternoon and then decided to try again to see Outrageous Fortune. Wilfredo came and Len and Sam, and we went to Nippon first to discuss Interview articles that they’re working on (dinner $175).

  We couldn’t get into Outrageous Fortune, the line was too long, and so we went and saw a movie about the KGB, an English movie, and we all fell asleep, it was absolutely boring (tickets $24, popcorn $5).

  Wilfredo dropped everybody off ($10). And then watched MTV and waited for commercials for our show on Sunday, which I finally did see and the show looks like it might be interesting, it’s on Romance.

  Sunday, February 8, 1987

  Stuart picked me up at church, and it was embarrassing to walk from the church steps into a big black limo. And we went to 76th Street to the flea market to get books. This one guy bought somebody’s library so he’s got forty boxes of books to sell and he brings one box in every week and people line up for it at 9:00. I got some books, even a Museum of Modern Art catalog from 1962 when the de Menils had a show, and I didn’t even know them then.

  Stuart always buys an old hat and always loses it. He loves old clothes, he loves to smell them.

  We were going to see Johnny Mathis and we got Alba Clemente and John Reinhold tickets, too, so Stuart dropped me off and then Paige rang my bell and had pineapples for me and I had to just dump them in the hallway because I’d already locked up. She had high energy and it was, “Hi-i-i-i-i!” It’s just too much. So we went to Radio City (cab $5). It turned out to be two hours of hits from Henry Mancini, he opened the show, so it was the Pink Panther and everything else and it was sooo boring, and Paige was going, “Isn’t this greeeaaat!” She’s got to get cooler, I wanted to slap her out, my nerves were jumping. Then Johnny Mathis came out and he’s still got his voice. I never noticed that so much depends on how you hold the microphone. And then finally it was over, but then he came back and did an encore. And then we left. Paige dropped me and I watched MTV.

  Monday, February 9, 1987

  I went to the dentist really early in the morning. Dr. Lyons and his perfect American family are doing fine. Then Ken picked me up there. The temperature was dropping fast from the time I went out in the morning. Cabbed to the West Side to Dr. Li ($4, newspaper $3).

  Cabbed downtown ($6). Brigid had to go home to give her mother a morphine shot. She was back in a couple of hours, it didn’t take long—she’s really upset at the idea that her mother’s going to go in the winter and it’ll be another funeral in the cold ground, she would rather it would be in spring. And I don’t know why they didn’t cremate Liberace right away and not give him an autopsy—they should’ve just rushed him through.

  I asked Paige to go to the Dionne Warwick perfume thing at Stringfellow’s and we went down there. She brought the issue of Interview to show to Dionne that had the writeup we gave her perfume last year when it came out, but then Jacques Bellini took it from Paige before she had the chance to give it to her. And Dionne’s distributing the perfume herself, it turns out. It smells like lemon chiffon pie. Very strong. And Stringfellow and his daughter were there, and it was just so easy—got photographed and got out of there. Tipped the doorman ($5) because I thought it was the guy who always got me cabs at the Palladium and Studio 54, but it wasn’t him. Went to Nippon (cab $6). Had dinner, lots of free food—Paige paid. We talked about the shows I’ll be having this year—another photography show at Robert Miller and then some new paintings at Mary Boone … I don’t know yet what they’ll be.

  Finally made it to see Outrageous Fortune and it wasn’t much—they didn’t even give Bette Midler one really great scene to do.

  Tuesday, February 10, 1987

  In the morning I bought so much big stuff—huge painted backgrounds that I’ll have to find someplace to store at the office. Fred will scream when he sees them about the room they’ll take up, they’re huge.

  I got to the office early. Vincent showed me the the video for this week’s MTV show, and it looks interesting, different, kind of odd.

  Cabbed to Clemente’s ($5). I thought they entertained all the time but they said the last dinner party they had was the one we were at. Robert Mapplethorpe was there. He looked more healthy than I’ve ever seen him, he had color in his face. I think they’re trying out a new drug on him, I hope he makes it. And we talked about the people from the seventies. I asked him about his old girlfriend Patti Smith and he said he’d just shot her and I said why didn’t he give the pictures to Interview and he said Vogue already had them. And then that reminded me that I’d bought People magazine and there was their article about Ivy Nicholson—she’s now a bag lady in San Francisco and her twin sons are twenty-one years old. She looks like the most beautiful bag lady you’ll ever see, though. It says she’s fifty-three. She’s up against the wall with her legs straight out and a
form-fitting top. It’s like with Nico—everything just looks right when she does it, so it’s these raggy clothes, but they look great. And it’s sort of the hippie look, really, with three crinolines and just the right (laughs) raggy bow. Left at 11:00, Paige dropped me.

  Wednesday, February 11, 1987

  Fred called to tell me that he heard Bob Colacello was writing a book “on the seventies” so that was, uh, swell to hear.

  Oh, and Nancy Reagan was on TV reading one of her six billion drug letters and crying—big tears just whaling down her cheeks, it was the best acting ever—she’d never do it over Ron Jr. or Doria. And Ron Jr. still hasn’t made it, and it’s because he just isn’t good-looking. If he were, he’d have a big career by now. And Prince Andrew has gotten so ugly, he’s looking like his mother. And let’s see what else …

  Okay, went to see Dr. Reese, he’s in town. He looks a lot younger, like he’s using Grecian Formula to get rid of his grey hair.

  So I left there and Paige was having a lunch for condom advertisers, and she said that Sam had called her and said that she couldn’t mix her (laughs) dirty condom people in with my Italian guy who was a shoe manufacturer from Italy who wants his portrait done. When I got to the office (cab $6) I told the condom people that I wanted a demonstration (laughs) and then they all took out their rubbers and they showed how the rim of it has adhesive so it wouldn’t slide off. So I said (laughs), “Oh great, so you can reuse it three or four times and not take it off!”