Saturday, July 31, 2004

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Monday, January 2, 1978

I cabbed down to University Place and it was bubbling and bustling (cab $4). It was a half-holiday. I got to the office and I was a secretary, answering the phone. Robert Hayes and Marc Balet came in to work on Interview.

I called Bianca and she said to come right over to Halston's, so we did and Dr. Giller the cute doctor was already there. We cabbed to Saturday Night Fever ($3) and when we got there it was all sold out. So then we cabbed to the other theater where it was playing and that was sold out, too (cab $3). Then we decided to try to see the Bunuel film, That Obscure Object of Desire ($tickets $14, popcorn $4). It was really good, more modern than his early one because every once in a while when it would get quiet, they would look out the window through the venetian blinds at the Paris street, and a bomb would go off--somebody would be blowing something up. But none of us could understand the movie. It's one role played by two girls, and they never explain why.

Larry Rivers and his girlfriend came in and they sat near us. Larry told me that he did Aly Kaiser's portrait, and she's the one that said she wanted me to do her portrait and Victor kept telling me to call her and I just didn't. So Larry did her portrait, and I think he must have had to fuck her, I don't know.

So we walked back to Halston's, and he'd fixed those pastas with meat inside them, not ravioli but maybe they're called cannellonis? And he'd made a chicken, and we had lots of drinks. And Stevie Rubell was there, and Bianca got upset because he reads the London papers and he quoted something Mick had said. It was in Earl Wilson's column here today about him and Jerry Hall, so it probably was Stevie who gave it to him--I mean, he pretends to be so friendly, and then he calls up the papers. and there were so many English reporters outside Halston's waiting for a statement from Bianca or Halston.

Bianca and Halston seem like they're a couple now, they really do. It's like romance. But Bianca is so upset about Mick, and I'm surprised that she is, because she could get somebody rich in a minute. Somebody said to Halston, "Why don't you marry Bianca?" and he put his hands on his hips and said, "Because I'm the hostess here."

And then we all went over to a place called the Ice Palace on 57th and Sixth. It's lesbians and hustlers. Bianca was dancing around, but she's so unhappy, and she and Halston were trying to get Jed to go home with them, and they were asking me if this was okay. She said, "Nobody likes me." Everybody was wet from drinks getting spilled on them.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Sunday, November 13, 1977

Victor called from San Francisco, he was getting dressed for a leather party. He said he'd been to a party the night before where it was a bunch of "straight" carpenters inviting a bunch of gay faggots. I don't know what that means.

Cabbed with Bob up to 94th Street to Paul Jenkins and Joanne du Pont's house. Ran into Linda Eastman's father, the lawyer, and his wife on the street.

Paul Jenkins is nutty. he told Bob and me, "I nearly fainted when you called today to say that you couldn't stay for dinner because you weren't invited for dinner. You're invited next week." Instead of just not saying anything and we would have thought we'd been invited twice.

The du Pont lady told me that the first time she met me was at Mica Ertegun's and we were in front of the fireplace and the screen exploded. She happened to be wearing the biggest diamond in the world, one of them. She just got it from a sultan the day before, and when she got back to the hotel that night--she wouldn't say which hotel--she put it in the safe, and that night, she said, they switched ice on her, gave her a piece of glass.

Paul Jenkins showed us his collection--American Indian and Indian stuff. When I was in India I could've gotten anything for nothing, but it's one of those things I just don't understand. Like Chinese stuff--I can't tell which is the good stuff, it all looks like the same junk. And he told us, "Lincoln Kirstein had his annual birthday freakout, but this time he phisically threw his boyfriend out of the house," so Paul was setting the guy up in a little partment, he said, that belongs to Zero Mostel's son. I really want to do people like Lincoln Kirstein in Interview. I think it'd be so fascinating to do him our way and do it really good.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Friday, November 11, 1977

Sal Marciano from Channel 7 Eyewitness News came to the office. They shot about five or ten minutes' worth in front of portraits. Then the people of the Fifth floor called and said there was someone stuck in the elevator around the second floor named Victor. Vincent and I went out in the vestibule and heard a little voice calling for help. The fifth floor had called the Tenth Precinct, but they should have called the Thirteenth. The Tenth was over on the West Side. When the police arrived the first two were emergency-unit types, with ski jackets and baseball hats, like SWAT-looking. Then two uniformed cops came.

They were doing everything by the emergency regulation rulebook. But one kidded and said, "Do you have any dynamite?" in a loud voice. One was peeking down into the shaft and the other was holding onto his coatrails. Finally from the third floor they lowered a rope ladder down to the car and brought Victor up through the hole in the top.

Then afterwards they washed up in the bathroom and one took off his belt and holster, and it was lying on the table, the gun in the holster, while he washed up. They were both 6'5".

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Thursday, November10, 1977

Got a cab downtown, saw the driver's name and I liked it--Vincent Dooley. He was a really cute little boy, so good-looking. He said, "I don't want to be rude, but what does it feel like to be in Iran?" He had the Voice with my picture on the front page on the seat next to him, the article about torture that also mentioned Raquel Welch, Liza Minnelli, and Farrah Fawcett-Major. I got flustered and told the kid that he was so good-looking, why was he a cab driver. He said, "Well, the closest I ever came to acting was I bought Joe Dallesandro's dog." He meant Caesar, Joe's big dog that was in Trash, that Paul brought back from Hollywood out of Jack La Lanne's dog's litter. What he actually said was, "My girl and I bought his dog." The kid had a high voice so I had high hopes he was a fairy until he said that. He said that he's still with the girl and they still have the dog. I was embarrassed about Iran so I gave him $5.

Cabbed to the bank ($3) then walked to the office. Then Rupert came by and he'd had a facial all morning from the famous health lady--he's more interested in having his hair dyed and facials than in working. And if you're going to go for facials you have to go every day, and anyway, you might as well do it yourself, all a "facial" means is that you take more than five minutes to wash your face. Jay and Tom stopped by for a while, they were mourning Michelle Long, their drag queen friend who just died.

Went ot Regine's dinner for Ira Von Furstenberg (cab $2). Regine never showed up. Talked to Ira. And then her son came in and he was so good-looking. We did his brother for Interview recently, Kiko Hohenlohe, but this one was even better-looking. Ira said, "I could be the best stage mother in the world." But his father wants him not to be an actor. Princess Ira has always wanted to be a movie star. Always. She's been in lots of movies that never made it . I saw on TV the other night the Darryl Zanuck movie that he made for his girlfriend, Genevieve Gilles, and Ira was the second lead.

Francois Catroux was there with his wife Betty, and they were sitting with Ahmet Ertegun. And in a case like that who do you say hello to first--you got to the table and who do you kiss first? I know Ahmet was offended. Princess Ashraf was there with her boyfriend who likes polo.

Catherine was talking to a beautiful woman and it turned out to be Princess Elisabeth of Yugoslavia who seemed to know me, and she asked why I wasn't at Sharon Hammond's cocktail party the day before. She's trying to get a green card and so is Ira, everybody wants a green card. And an interesting thing is that how she knows Sharon is that Mr. Oxenberg, Princess Elisabeth's first husband, left her for Maureen McCluskey, Sharon's sister, and I can't figure that out.

But anyway, Ira's son was so handsome, he had the slight kind of accent, just the right kind, like a kid that you would want to go out on a date with.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Monday, November 9, 1977

I forgot to say that one of these late nights, I watched the Tom Snyder show. He had Roy Cohn on. Roy Cohn is now Stevie Rubell's lawyer. Also Carmine Galante's. He was incredible, such a creep. he was saying Archie Bunker things like "If I could get my hands on the Son of Sam I'd kill him myself" and talking about the "reds," and this crazy-looking person goes into courtrooms, he looks like such a creep. You could just imagine him like down at the Anvil in black leather, he would look perfect. I bet he does go to those places. He would. Or maybe he's just the opposite. Yeah, he's probably just the opposite--he wears dresses. But the things he was saying, like "Put everybody in the chair"--it was like hearing Paul Morrissey talk... Yeah, they asked him how he could defend mafia people since he's so concerned about everything, and it was that "rights" thing. It always is, you know--"they have a right to say they're not Mafia and to be defended."

I was the centerfold of the Post, a photo in front of the Sports paintings with a text by Jerry Tallmer. But I keep saying the wrong things. I said that athletes were better than movie stars and I don't know what I'm talking about because athletes are all the new movie stars. and here we're getting all this publicity and it's a month ahead of when the opening is. I think it should be more toward the opening.

I read John Simon's review attacking the way Liza looks. He was just so awful. I mean if she ever say that it would just crush her so badly. And she's actually nice-looking, I mean, I see her, she's not hard to look at. What does John Simon think he's doing? His philosophy must be, that only good-looking people should entertain and I guess that's what I think, too. But Liza isn't ugly!

I was also on the front page f Voice, photographed next tothe empress of Iran for an article about torture in Iran.

Fred had tickets to the International Center of Photography benefit that Jackie O. was putting on at the museum up on Fifth adn 94th. I asked Jed if he wanted to come but he said he was too tired (cab $2). Big Mansion. the dinner was a horror. They put us at such a nothing, nobody table. You can't imagine--I was sitting next to Fred.

So here we were in this room where we didn't recognize anybody except each other and this girl comes over to me and says, "I know you have a camera, and you can take pictures of everyone here except Mrs. Onassis." I didn't think too much of it right then, I just thought she was one of those nervous-type girls who run these events. And then that rich old guy Nate cummings was screaming at Fred to open a window, and at first Fred was offended--Nate Cummings somehow picked him to scream at--but then Fred figured hout he was turning senile, so he decided to be a nice boy and do it, and then the girl started screaming at Fred not to. And left that room and Fred went ot find Diana Vreeland and when we walked into the other room, there was everybody we knew! Peter Beard was having fund with Barbara Allen and Lacey Neuhaus. I mean, Catherine was sitting at Jackie's table! but that's not the most incredible thing. When we walked into this room there were 4,000 photographers taking picttures of Jackie. and that horrible girl had come over to tell me I couldn't! Fred's really going to scream at her. It was like a Bobby Zarem event, there were so many cameras flashing.

I cabbed with Fred and Diana Vreeland to Sutton Place to Robin West's party for Jamie Wyeth. I didn't have change so I gave Fred $5. He gave the money to the guy, the fare was $2.80, and he toldhim to keep $.60 and the guy said, "How much is that?" and Fred started screaming fighting like they were a screaming old married couple. And the cab driver was butting into the conversation with, "Wasn't that Peter Beard's opening I picked you up outside of? Wasn't he on the cover of the Sunday Times?"

I talked to Carole Coleman from New Orleans. She's Jimmy's Coleman's sister. Then Bo Polk came into the room and it got crazy. He'd met Carole at a bar and they'd gone out, and now he said things like "I want to eat your pussy," and on and on like that, they were just talkingi in front of me and Carole wasn't even embarrassed. I was surprised because she's older than most of the girls Bo Polk goes after. She has beautiful eyes and she's rich and never married, she could have bee like Jennifer O'Neill, but she has problems, I guess, and not too many boyfriends, but very attractive. And he was saying things like "I want to lick your toes and up to and into your cunt," and then he'd turn to me and say, "I want you to be there and take pictures, Andy," and oh, he's just nuts.

I went to say hello to Phyllis Wyeth and then Bo Polk and John Larsen came over and Bo yelled to some girl that he'd put some coke on her clit and John laughed and called him a coke tease. And then Bo and Carole left. but then in a few minutes they came back in and talked about if ithey should leave and she wanted to know what they were going to do and that went on and on.

And then Carole and Bo and Jay Mellon and Catherine and I left and walked. We passed a place that had Famous Amos cookies in the window. I had never seen the package. It was the most beautiful picture of a cookie that I've ever seen, and I went in and bought it, but when I opened the package, the cookies were really little. It was the first time I was ever deceived! They tasted good, but they weren't big and beautiful like the one on the package.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Sunday, November 6, 1977

David Bourdon called to say that Valerie Solanis had just called him, so she's still around town. He said she wanted the address of someone who had put her S.C.U.M. manifesto into their book on Women's lib, she wanted to shoot them or sue them or something. Victor called from California, not quite over his acid trip. he wants to stay out there, I told him he'd be wanting to come back soon.

when I got to the Iranian embassy (cab $2.50) it was full of movie directors and producers--Elia Kazan, Elliot Kastner, Milos Forman, Lester Persky, Barbara Loden--thirty to forty people.

Ambassador Hoveyda said we should od Polaroids right then for the portrait of Princess Ashraf, and get it over with, so we went into a room. It was so easy. The Iranians have the best plastic surgeons in the world and every picture--if you keep it very white--comes out great. The princess said they've seen and done everything in town--every movie, every play, even Outrageous. Dinner was great, the best ever there. The princess ate a lot, but the queen when she was there didn't eat much at all, maybe because she was afraid of poisonings, although the food is pre-tasted. Then everyone went upstairs and in barged Barry Landau with Margaret Trudeau. He got in by saying he was my very best closes dearest friend. But it worked out fine. And Bella Abzug and her husband Martin came with Shirley MacLane. Milos, who I really like, offered Margaret a part in Ragtime as Evelyn Nesbit, but she's have to go nude, he said, and she's thinking about it. I told Milos that I wanted a part in Hair and he said that if Margaret and I were in Central Park tomorrow morning at 9:00 we could have bit parts. I told him I wanted to be in Ragtime, too.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Monday, October 29, 1977

Barry Landau called and said he had tickets for Liza Minnelli opening in The Act.

So we picked up Diana Vreeland and Jamie Auchincloss, the half-borther of Jackie O., and Ruth Warrick, who I know from years ago. She was on As the World Turns, and now she's Phoebe in All My Children. She was Orson Welles's first wife in Citizen Kane. She's very good. The first thing she said when she saw me was "Your Soup Can changed this country." We got to the theater and I've never seen a crowd that big, not for anyone, so many people.

Liz Taylor and Halston sat behind us, Sammy Davis was in front of us with his wife, Altovise. Liza was on for the whole show. The Halston clothes were beautiful, they really were. I asked Halston to make me up a black sequined tuxedo with light blue shoes, too. It was so beautiful, the boy suit. Everything was sequins in all different colors. Liza's lost a lot of weight.

Martin Scorsese's parents were saying hello to me. He directed The Act. Victor was putting down the clothes saying there was nothing creative about them, which surprised me, that he would put down Halston's stuff. But he's into punk now. When the show finished, people were doing the "bravo" thing. Sammy Davis was standing up doing that.

Liz Taylor yelled at me for leaving Diana alone. She was glaring at me for some reason, giving me that look like she'd scratch my eyes out. And Liza came over and was kissing Liz so much for the photographers that I didn't talk to her. She and Jack Haley weren't accepted into River House yet, so they're at the Park Lane Hotel. Jack haley was sweet, he told me that Liza may want a portrait.

We dropped off Diana and then victor and I went over to Studio 54 ($4). It was jammed with beautiful people. Now Studio 54 has its liquor license. Stevie took me over to meet Vladimir Horowitz and his wife who's the daughter of Toscanini. He was thrilled to be there, in his seventies there were so many beauties trying to get my phone number and I was inviting everybody dwon to the office, so I had to leave.