Friday, September 30, 2005

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Monday, December 24, 1984

Stephen Sprouse came by and brought two wigs for me. But I thought they would be some kind of wild style or color, which I would have preferred--a new look. But they were grey. Stretch. And we never know what to say to each other, it's always awkward.

Called a cab and Benjamin dropped me. Then called Halston and it was weird, he said not to come by, that he really wasn't doing anything this Christmas.

Called Chris Makos and he was having a party for his neighbors and it sounded sort of bad. Christmas parties always are. Except at Halston's--they were always sort of nice. Went by and ran Claudia Cohen's bell on 63rd Street because I want to get invited to her wedding to Ron Perelman because Liz Taylor is going to be the matron of honor and her husband-to-be Dennis Stein is going to be I think best man. He works for Perelman, that's where I met him. Every light i the house was on but they weren't home. Dropped their scarves off.

Benjamin picked me up and we went to Steve Rubell's new hotel, Morgan's, to the penthouse party (cab $4). Steve's letting Bianca live there. And her personal stuff was all over the room where the party was so anybody could have taken anything. And I gave her and Jade scarves and hers was framed, and then later I saw it on the bed and she'd taken it out of the frame, and I don't know why. I mean, even if she didn't like it, it was art.

And Dianne Brill asked me if I knew Jayne Mansfield and I guess I lied when I said yes because I couldn't remember if I really did or not. Because I've read so many books about her. Dianne wanted to know if it was voodoo that killed her.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: 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.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: 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.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: 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 everyobody with it.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Tuesday, November 6, 1984--New York--Washington, D.C.

Election Day. It was the worst start imaginable. I was up at 7:00, ready at 8:00. I called Fred and he was just out of it. It drove me crazy. he was rambling. Maybe he'd just slept for fifteen minutes, I don't know.

Anyway, an hour later we were in Washington. Went to the Madison Hotel. Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia came with us. her daughter, Catherine Oxenberg, starts on Dynasty next week and she was coming down later. And then some of the people went off to the White House but we weren't invited so we stayed in our rooms.

So we ordered lunch and that was expensive. Jean Michel ordered a '66 Chateau Latour wine for$200 (lunch $500). Then we limoed to the Sequoia, the presidential yacht, and it was cold and miserable and getting dark. Same old people. Peter Max and his girlfriend, who's so beautiful, tall and Texan, and I don't know why she's with him. She was at the beginning and ending of Heaven's Gate. A top model, I forget her name. I talked to Chip Carter while I was there.

Then we went back to the hotel and Jean Michel rolled a joint. Then we ordered dinner, which was disgusting (tip $5). Fred didn't realize that he had only yellow socks and brown shoes, so he couldn't wear his black suit. Entertainement Tonight got me on the way in and asked me who I voted for andi I said, "For the winner," and they said, "who's that?" and I said, "The winner is the winner." I don't even know what I meant. If they ever put all the clips they've ever gotten of me together they'd see that I'm a moron and finally stop asking me questions.

I took pictures of Melvin Laird dancing. Jean Michel was so hard to deal with, he gets so paranoid. This was a "Non-partisan Party" that the Weismans were having because at the last election they gave a party for the Democrats and this time everybody was a Democrat but pretending to be a Republican.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Wednesday, October 31, 1984

Bruno just called--at the Christie's auction Jean Michel's painting went for $20,000. I think he's going to be the Big Black Painter. It was one of his sort of big paintings. I think Jean Michel's early stuff is sort of better, because then he was just painting, and now he has to think about stuff to paint to sell. and how many screaming Negroes can you do? Well,I guess you can do them forever, but... And he bought a $700 mask for Halloween yesterday. Mexican. he just spends money. he did give up the room at the Ritz Carlton and he doesn't take limos now, so that's an improvement. but what he should do--and I've told him this--is keep his early paintings and store them so that he'll have them to sell later on. Because Bruno just buys up everything and then sells them off slowly. but Jean Michel really should be keeping them for a nest egg. The paintings that get good prices are Rauschenberg's early pieces and anything by Jasper and Cy Twombly. Wesselmann's sort of selling off... Rosenquist's prices are just medium, but I think he's the best, I really do.

I guess I'm going to finally face moving out of 860 because Stephen Sprouse has rented the place.

Glued myself together, picked up Gael, and we walked to jams to meet Fred. And this dinner was really horrible. It was just me complaining. I should've been like a cheerleader, saying, "What can we do to make our magazine ever better than the wonderful thing it is?" But I didn't turn out that way. Gael was explaining the printing costs. And really, I should have been positive. I know that you get more out of people by encouraging them. Although I did encourage someone once--Chris Makos. And what I got out of that is that this week they're auctioning off a picture of me in drag from the ones he took. And Gael wasn't eating so I thought it was because I'd made her upset, but it turned out that she was just trying to diet because she's gotten really fat. But she just rubs me the wrong way--she thinks she's so great or something. We just don't communicate. I don't know if she's stupid or if she just plays dumb so she won't have to do what you're telling her to do (dinner $140).

Then we talked about the covers, when would be the Mick, the Health issue, when Mickey Rourke. it was just a very frustrating dinner, nothing was accomplished, just arguing. it was all my fault. We all would've been better off going to a Halloween party. Fred walked us both home.