Saturday, July 30, 2005

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Friday, December 24, 1982

I made people come in to work and Brigid spent the whole day like Madame Defarge, she sat around needlepointing, thinking about not having the day off. My nerves were shattered, I couldn't put anything together. Worked at the office trying to wrap paintings up for the Halston group. Had Benjamin meet me at home.

Went to pick up Sondra Gilman, her kids are grown up now. The girl's a model type. The boy is tall, too. They're beautiful, like Village of the Damned kids. The girl said how these old photographers tried to pick her up and one took her to dinner at Le Relais and tried to impress her, saying he'd made this one and that one--made their careers--and this young girl was telling me about it and laughing at him.

So then finally we went to Halston's and Halston wasn't anywhere insight. It was odd. Although we were four hours late. But finally we found him upstairs with Steve Rubell, next to the tree. Halston gave me--maybe--two Elsa Peretti candlesticks from Tiffany, but I had to sign a note saying that I would return them to Halston if it turned out that he couldn't get another pair for himself. So that's a new one. And I was a wreck, trying to figure out what size paintings to give to who. It was harrowing.

And Steve Rubell gave me five cassettes. And he kept saying it over and over: "I gave you five cassettes. Isn't that just the greatest gift? " I mean, they were just tapes that you can buy, like a Michael Jackson tape, that cost $3 apiece. I mean, Steve was cheap when he had money, and now that he doesn't have any...

ORIGINAL ENTRY: December 4, 1982

I invited Curley to see Tootsie. We couldn't get in at first, they were giving us a hard time, there weren't tickets for us that Charlie Evans was supposed to leave. And if I'd known at that time that I was actually in the movie which I didn't even get paid for--that I appear on the cover of People magazine with Tootsie when she gets famous--I would have been pushier and said I could take in as many people as I wanted.

And the movie, they play it really straight, Dustin does. It's not really like a drag queen, it's like having an aunt that you didn't know was a man. it's something else entirely.

Then we went over to Charles Evans's. It was packed with stars, so we sat by the food so we'd see everybody. Dustin was sweet, and the director Sidney Pollack was, too. I talked to Teri Garr who was great in the movie, and we talked about Henry Post and does he have gay cancer--that's the rumor. And Curley got me to drink. I had vodka.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Monday, November 29, 1982

I'd invited Pierre Restanay and his wife to lunch. He was so nice to me in the sixties I wanted to be nice to him. He's the French art critic. And his wife is very striking, 6'2"--I guess she was a model. French women if they're chic have the dykey look. Mrs. Restanay was wearing an old Lanvin men's coat.

Ronnie Cutrone came by and while I was working out with Lidija, he entertained Pierre and his wife, he didn't know who they were, and Pierre said that he'd seen his show at Shafrazi and liked it. Ronnie's selling everything he does. He could have been doing this for years. He actually was doing all that stuff first that the Italians now are doing.

And then later, I decided to go see Twyla Tharp do dances to Frank Sinatra songs. Called Jon. Picked him up (cab $6). And as we were riding up to the Rainbow Room in the elevator, we realized there was a Paramount party on the floor below.

Got to the Rainbow Room and it was star-studded. Saw Sam Spiegel and Peter Duchin who said, "This is my live-in girlfriend," and it was Brooke Hayward. That's a strange couple. And Leo Castelli was there, and he doesn't hug me anymore. He's never with Laura de Coppet anymore, either. And this performance, I guess Twyla just decided to do something just straight, she had nine couples doing nine ballroom dances, but any people at Roseland would have done it better. And afterwards I talked to Twyla for a minute. And then, as we were leaving, I saw Dick Avedon, Tuesday Weld, "Laverne," and Paul Simon and they said Ann Reinking was there and Baryshnikov and Treat Williams (coats $2).

So then the elevator stopped on the floor where the Paramount party was and Nick Nolte got on and Eddie Murphy. And NIck Nolte's fat and his hair is over his eyes, like one of those dogs, but he's so good-looking. They say their movie is really good, 48 hours. And Eddie Murhpy's really handsome. That intelligent look. They say he's going to be bigger than Pryor. And I was just speechless, and I said how thrilled I was, but then I remembered I'd met him at something once before. And then some girls were lined up to get Nick Nolte's autograph so I did, too, and he just kept his head down and signed, he didn't even look up to see who it was (cab $4). Bed at 12:00.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Saturday, November 13, 1982

Chris had invited us to the Shafrazi Gallery for the closing of the Keith Haring show, he's the one who does those figures all over the city, the graffiti. His boyfriend is black, and so he had 400 black kids there, so cute, so adorable. Just like the sixties, except (laughs) black.

And Ronnie was there looking very chic with his girlfriend. his art's selling like crazy.

Then there was a party for the show in the basement whre it was all in blue light and they wanted me to go down, but I knew my hair would turn completely blue, so I didn't go.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Thursday, November 4, 1982--Peking--Hong Kong

We left the hotel to catch the 8:45 flight. Had some tea ($12). You can't tip people. Everybody tells on everybody. Then we found out that if you give them a couple of cigarrettes, that's what they really want. Should have done things like that, but we hadn't figured it out. So got to the airport and sat around for hours. Then a lady and her husband had lost their passport and for an hour and a half they were going through everything looking for it, and the lady was screaming at her husband, it was just such a movie scene, and then two minutes before the plane was ready to leave, the lady put her hand in her pocket and found it. They were really old, it was sad. it was so horrible. They were old and they couldn't get out of China. "Where is it?" "You had it last."

Ran into one of those English groups, like maybe the Clash, on the elevator. On the same floor as us.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Tuesday, October 5, 1982

There was a lunch and Gaetana Enders brought a politician from Venezuela and his wife. He's really good-looking, he has a cane, and his wife's beautiful. I'd met him at Halston's years ago. They got away again, though--he said that "maybe someday" he'd "surprise her with a portrait."

And then Governor Carey's wife--the Greek lady, Evangeline--came and she came prepared for a free portrait. She wasn't wearing a hat like she always does, and so I said, "Where's your hat?" and she said, "None of your girls wear hats in their portraits." So I took pictures of her and then I didn't know what to do so I called Bob in, and he talked to her, and then he told her how much the portraits cost, and I think she must have fainted because after she left, she had her guy call and say a governor's wife couldn't spend that much on a portrait while he was in office. But before, she'd been saying that she wanted to have it done while he was in office because then it would have "more prestige." So she was trying to do all these maneuvers.

And I forgot to add that with Jean Michael Basquiat the day before, he reached into his pocket and said he'd pay back the $40 he owed me from the days when he painted T-shirts and used to borrow money from me, and I said oh no, that's okay, and I was embarrassed--I was surprised that's all I'd given him, I thought it was more.

So we were busy all afternoon. And miniskirts are really back, Cornelia was wearing one at Xenon later.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Monday, October 4, 1982

Down to meet Bruno Bischofberger (cab $7.50). He brought Jean Michel Basquiat with him. He's the kid who used the name "Samo" when he used to sit on the sidewalk in Greenwhich Village and paint T-shirts, and I'd give him $10 here and there and send him up to Serendipity to try to sell the T-shirts there. He was just one of those kids who drove me crazy. he's black but some people say he's Puerto Rican so I don't know. And then Bruno discovered him and now he's on Easy Street. he's got a great loft on Christie Street. he was a middle-class Brooklyn kid--I mean, he went to college and things--and he was trying to be like that, painting in the Greenwich Village.

And so had lunch for them and then I took a Polaroid and he went home and within two hours a painting was back, still wet, of him and me together. And I mean, just getting to Christie Street must have taken an hour. He told me his assitant painted it.

And by the way, Ronnie Cutrone's art is selling like crazy, too--Steve Rubell's brother just bought a Cutrone.