Saturday, December 11, 2004

One has to wonder if there was more to the bust than getting Steve for cheating on his taxes, especially when he is offered to give information on politicians taking drugs at the club. It kind of sounds like glamorous gossip to some degree, but given the fact that Andy was "reporting" to Hackett what when down from day to day, there must have been some truth to the facts. Or maybe this is just really juicy gossip in the name of mythmaking: "Then Steve arrived and said his lawyers told him he could get off if he gave evidence to the government about the Washington people that've come to Studio 54 and taken drugs and things."

Here is another take on such myth, being only part of an overall seventies decadent experience, where the FBI looks like crashing an extended party. (I meant paateee!!):

Studio 54 in 1977

Before you got down, you had to get in.

One night at studio 54, a woman, thinking she’d hit upon a foolproof strategy for getting in, rented a horse and arrived Lady Godiva–style. The doormen, sizing up the situation, made a Solomonic decision—the horse was in; the lady would have to wait outside. In or out: For the couple of years of Studio 54’s reign, there was no in-between (except for one man who got stuck in an air duct trying to sneak in and died there, in full black tie). New York City was on the edge of bankruptcy, but at Brooklyn kids Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager’s Studio 54, that was a mere detail. On any given night, you could see Baryshnikov, Bill Buckley, Betty Ford, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Mick Jagger, David Rockefeller, and (of course) Andy Warhol. In the warren of low-ceilinged rooms downstairs was the inner sanctum, with coke by the yard, a place where you could meet anyone doing just about anything. When the FBI raided, they found Hefty bags stuffed with cash and a pathetically minuscule amount of coke—and Rubell and Schrager found they were out of celebrity friends."

Andy was in with the in. Check Hoyeyda out:

H. was born in Syria, the son of an Iranian diplomat. He was educated in Beirut, Lebanon, and obtained a doctorate in law from the Sorbonne in Paris in 1948. H. joined the Iranian foreign service and was press attaché at the embassy in Paris from 1947 to 1951. He joined UNESCO in 1952 as a mass-communications specialist, but returned to Iran in 1965 to serve as undersecretary for international organizations in the foreign rninistry. He was the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations from 1971 to 1978. He now lives in the U.S. and paints, lectures, and writes books and articles, on a range of political and literary subjects.

Hoyeyda paints... couldn't find any of his art though. The letter Andy mentions had to do with the Shah's political contention. He be hanging with da'man.

And so Andy is remembered for the quote "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes." He even made a movie called Fifteen Minutes, starring himself. He is also credited to have created the term "superstar."

Here is a (in)complete list of his TV roles[TVland]:

Movie/Mini-Series/Special Roles

Look (2001) - Himself
Detroit Rock City (1999) - Himself (archive footage) uncredited
Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart (1998) - Himself (archive footage)
Fame in the Twentieth Century (1993) - Himself (archive footage) uncredited
Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (1990) - Himself (archive footage)
Andy Warhol (1987) - Himself
Portfolio (1983) - Unknown
Tootsie (1982) - Himself
The Blank Generation - (1976) - Himself
Dynamite Chicken (1971) - Himself
The Velvet Underground and Nico (1966) - Himself
66 Scenes from America - Himself
A&E Biography: Andy Warhol - Himself (archive footage) uncredited
Andy Makes a Movie - Himself
Andy Warhol's TV - Himself (Host)
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol - Himself
Ciao Manhattan - Andy(uncredited)
Cocaine Cowboys - Himself
CS Blues - Himself
Diaries, Notebooks and Sketches - Himself
Donald Duck's 50th Birthday - Himself
Identikit - Man at Airport
The Illiac Passion - Poseidon
Invisible Thread - Unknown
Jonas in the Desert - Himself (archive footage)
Match Girl - Unknown
Mein New York - Himself
Nico Icon - Himself (archive footage) uncredited
Painters Painting - Himself
Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story - Himself (archive footage) uncredited
Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships and Intersections - Himself
Superartist - Himself
Tally Brown, New York - Himself

Being cool can be cruel at times. Today I went to my favorite diner to have breakfast and one of the waitresses, with whom I had a very interesting conversation in the past about new media, completely ignored me. the initial conversation happened because I had a book she was about to read. This was nothing like a date, or anything. She had a boyfriend who was doing research in the same field as I am, so we exchanged info so that we could meet, possibly later with her boyfriend. I was cool with all this, and then I forgot to e-mail. Then again, she or her boyfriend did not e-mail either...

So there I was hoping to say hi and catch up, but she managed to ignore me--never made eye contact. She was being cool, but I don't know why she felt she had to be cool at ignoring me... Not that I wanted her to throw her arms around me like Diana in Andy's account, but a simple hi would have been good. Everyone else in the Diner were friendly as usual--the manager came over and said hi. She is cute.

Got to stay social, socialites unite! Stevie being out of jail is cool. Like I said before in this journal, I wondered if Andy would be friends with him after he got out of jail, and it appears he still was in 1979. Studio 54 was open in any case, so Andy and his crew kept attending it even after Stevie was in jail. In the club business, someone like Stevie being in jail might be make the club even cooler--that "bad boy" stereotype can kick in to benefit business in unexpected ways.

Dancing. Modern Dance is a tough business--a German/American development at that. Martha Graham is definitely a diva. Her company is still around, long after her death. In such tough business that is quite an achievement. How do I know? well, I was close to a dancer at one point.

There is a stereotype of dancers. Everytime I mention to friends my former close relationship, they tell me, "Oh... that must have been an experience for you. They have issues." What? This is one of the oddest stereotypes I have heard.

Regardless, a dance career is really tough and short for most people; unless she/he starts a company, like Graham did. That's as much as I can say before I get too self indulgent.

Jessica wants to be a "serious" actress, Truman looks the same--not younger, while Catherine was fat... and the watches sucked! Cartier. I wonder if Paulette Goddard worries about being serious... It may be Andy's projection, who knows. Jessica did do a few good movies, I think. This fan site does a pretty good job at listing them. Maybe Andy had an issue with how "pretty she was." I mean he keeps mentioning her good looks over everything else. Then again, she made all those movies after 1979... how could Andy know?

Truman trying to hide behind that scarf and dark glasses reminds me of Michael Jackson. MJ also loved to hide behind scarfs, long coats and dark glasses, and like Truman he also ended up attracting more attention. And like Truman MJ was and is obsessed with plastic surgery.

Truman's surgery's may not have been as extreme as MJ's. Here is truman at a young age, and here he is at an older age. Here is MJ at a young age, and here is MJ now. Here is MJ before and after. But the cartoons, got to love them. got to, got to, got to.

Truman apparently wrote a "non-fiction novel" about a murder of a family in Kansas: In Cold Blood, which was made into a movie by the same name, and which was recalled by a book critic when reviewing a more recent book called To Dance with the Devil.