Saturday, September 23, 2006

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Thursday, October 3, 1985

Ohhh, why do we have to get old? The Enquirer article that Frank Sinatra is suing over said that when he gets up in the morning he's so worried about aging that he asks his wife Barbara, "How do I look today?" Oh, Frankie. I remember when I walked all the way into Pittsburgh to see him to see what all the girls were swooning about, and there weren't any girls there swooning. I went in and met this other kid to go see him sing with Tommy Dorsey. It was one of my first thhings that I did alone, going into town and seeing him.

Went to the Whitney. I was there to "advertise" my Campbell's Soup Box painting. And for all the work and publicity, I should've charged them like $250,000--I mean, they're a huge company--instead of just the cost of a portrait. We must be getting desperate. Me standing there twenty years later and still with a Campbell's soup thing, it felt like a New Yorker cartoon. And Rita Moreno was there, I guess she's a spokesman for Campbell's and they were treating me more important than her, saying they only wanted to photograph me, and she said, "But he asked me to be in the picture," and they said, "We only want him." Because it's just that it's a different category. It's like when I've done done the portrait of a big baseball player, they photograph him and I'm shoved aside.

And I was so hurt--I saw Dolly Parton's picture in the paper, she's in town, and she and Sandy Gallin went to a Broadway show, and they didn't even call me. I haven't gotten the real story of the portrait yet. I'll get it out of Steve Rubell sometime when he's drunk.

All the headlines were that Rock Hudson died.

Keith called to tell me that Grace Jones would be performing at the Garage at 4:00 in the morning. So how can I do that? Go to bed and get up early?

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Wednesday, September 18, 1985

Benjamin and I walked out and there was my bodyguard, Matty. I handed him a dollar and told him to beat it, but he didn't he stayed with me. And he's skinnier and dirties and he had a sore leg and was limping, so that was said--he's walking the streets too much. And then I went to Dr. Bernsohn's.

I was there a long time finding out about the ghost they were throwing out. Judy the secretary wouldn't come in for three days and then she did and caught Dr. Bernsohn crying because the force was so strong. And they said he shouldn't have called the ghost because he's Jewish, that Judy should have done it because she's Catholic and more easygoing, and it's different than if they were telling you some phony stuff. I mean, why would they make this kind of stuff up? It must be real. So I left there. And Matty was still waiting.

I told Matty he should go to museums and auctions and be learnign things. He should get a job at one of these places and stop being on the outside and he had a long answer for that--something about being in a plane and zeroing in on Madison Avenue and killing the Jews. He was talking about that a lot. The thing is, we have the same life. We go to all the same places. He kept saying how attractive I am. But all I'm attracting is him (magazines and newspapers $4).

And the Campbell soup Company hated the painting they commissioned. it turns out they wanted exactly what they'd said--a painting of their new box. I'd tried to do something clever and make it more, but they hated it and now I have to do it over again.

Adn the horrible news of the day was that finally after not hearing from Sandy Gallin about the Dolly Parton portraits, I called, and the secretary got on and said, "Ohhh, Sandy's soooo embarrassed," and saying that it just doesn't look like my art. Sandy just doesn't like the pictures, she said. And after fifteen minutes, she popped the question of could he get his $10,000 back. And I said, "Well, sure, you know but doesn't he want me to do it again?" She said they'd thought it would be more colorful, more Pop. But I mean, I should have known, because it all started out so strange, with Dolly calling and saying that she was the one who wanted to buy it--as a gift for Sandy--and then that was just so they could get a better price, I guess, because when I said, "Well, I'd loke to give you one, Dolly, for being so nice to Sandy to give these to him," they called back and said, "Well, since you were going to give a free one, why not just knock down the price instead?" You know? Hollywood. Well, I've learned things. Next time I'm going to make them work for it, like come in and see if they like the pictures and everything every single step of the way--make them work hard. Oh, and then they even said that I could try to sell it. They said they'd give "permission." So that was horrible.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Wednesday, September 4, 1985

I can't tell which nights Fred's been drinking and which nights he hasn't. I don't know if he's grand when he drinks or grand when he doesn't. it's like he thinks he's Conde Nast or something. And I said that the Stallone issue of Interview was great, but that I cant' see it paying for itself. And he said yes, yes, that he knew very well how much it cost, that he knew e-v-e-r-y-thing. And I said, "Oh, well, okay if you know everything, you know everything. But I do remember that time when we had a big debt nobody knew about, but if you knwo everything, that's great."

Went to Keith's party in his new loft (cab $3). And Keith had a good group, too, a lot of girls. Martin Burgoyne was there and he told me that Madonna was upset because we let People photograph the paintings Keith and I gave her for a wedding present. They'd called me and I said no but then I told them that if they wanted to try Keith they should call him. So Martin said Madonna hates us for that and I told martin he should've made her not hate us.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Friday, August 16, 1985--Los Angeles

It was just the most exciting weekend of my life. Martin went down to the hairdresser earlier in the day to have his hair done. We rode in a limo out to Malibu and when we saw helicopters in the distance we knew we were at the wedding. Somebody had tipped the reporters off about where the wedding was and about ten helicopters were hovering, it was like Apocalypse Now. And the security people found camouflage--outfitted photographers in the bushes. And I looked really close at Madonna and she is beautiful. and she and Sean are just so in love. She wore white, and had shot at the helicopters the night before. the only boring celebrity there was Diane Keaton, really. And it was the right mixture of nobodies and celebrities. Sean came over to say hello, and the good-looking family of Madonna was there, all the brothers. And you can see Madonna and Sean love each other so much. Really, it was the most exciting thing ever.

And at the wedding Steve Rubell was really out of it on I guess Qualudes. And I think I saw Madonna kick him away from her and later he threw up in the car. She was dancing with the only little boy there. And you could see everybody who was there, it was under a tent, it wasn't too crowded. And those young actors seemed like they were in their fathers' suits, like Emilio Estevez and Tom Cruise. All those movie-star boys with the strong legs who're 5'10" or so. I guess that's the Hollywood look. Like the actors in Matthew Rolston's big photo spread in the Stallone issue. Have I said how great that looked? Matthew is our best photographer now--he uses good locations and give the kids "a look." He made these new kids look stunning--like stars--he gave them all class. Oh, and as we were leaving I just couldn't believe my eyes because Tom Cruise jumped into our car to get away from photographers. His car was down the road. I took a picture of him.

Fred and I thought of Marisa's wedding was more glamorous, but this one was spectacular because of the helicopters.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Monday, August 5, 1985

The Enquirer and Star and People and Newsweek and Time all had Rock Hudson on the cover. we shoud've had him on Interview's cover. It would have been funny to have a phony baloney interview with him on all the newsstands now--"Why I'm straight," by Rock Hudson.

Gael called and said that Kim Basinger is going to be the cover for November and I said, "Whaaat?" I mean, she's older and she's not going to be anybody and even if she is, so what, you know? I'm just so bored with movie-stars-for-yuppies.

I was at Dr. Li's and she told me to give up bananas and wheat and broccoli and hot food. And I want to do a Madonna headline--the Post one "MADONNA ON NUDE PIX--'SO WHAT?'"--and use a photograph of her from a different day that would fit right in, but Keith wants to use a photo he took of her and Sean Penn. Which is kind of grey. But I'll do it both ways. We're doing a painting together for her wedding present.

Walter Stait called and said that Ted Carey had passed on in East Hampton. He was having an opening on Saturday out there of all his paintings. I didn't know he lived in Jed's building on West 67th. In Stuart Pivar's building. With this Italian kid. I knew he was about to go, Walter had called me last week.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Saturday, July 27, 1985

I called Keith to tell him I was invited by Martin to Madonna's wedding. Keith's invited, too. We cabbed with Paige down to Wooster and Broadway ($5). It was a party for Clemente that the Artforum girl was giving in a big beautiful loft. Bianca was there on crutches so I was glad I'd sent her flowers. She thanked me for telling her about Eizo because he helped her leg. Rammellzee the black graffiti artist was there and he threw me by saying, "Entertain me, show me why you're great." And I froze up. He has long long eyelashes. We decided to go to Il Cantinori to dinner. We got there and we were waiting for Jade and her boyfriend. And Jade, she really has to grow another head or she's finished--you know what I mean? She's beautiful, but she's still smaller than Bianca. And for a while she'd been the tallest girl in her class. She was saying how everybody thinks she's the luckiest girl in the world for having these two great parents, but that ehy just dont' know how hard it is. She also said that she couldn't wait to get married and have a baby who'll scream "Grandma!" and "Grandpa!" at Bianca and Mick. I told her she should marry Steve Rubell and she said, "He woudn't be faithful," and Steve said, "Well would you be faithful to me?" and she said, "I'd have to think about it." Which was a good answer.

Keith said he was going up to 108th Street for an acid party, so he dropped us off.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Tuesday, July 9, 1985

I met a guy from Paramount last night named Michael Bessman, and I guess he has the job that everybody wants--in charge of development. I think he must have just gotten the job that Jon was wanting. I don't know if Jon would have been good at it. He never liked any of the projects I thought of, but now that he's trying to go into production, I'm just waiting--I'll probably see my ideas being announced as his new projects. Like the "Music Hotel," that one I was doing with Maura Moynihan. Jon always thinks it was his idea after the movie comes out. Like Footloose. He knew Dean Pitchford, the friend of Peter Allen's, and he rememebered that they were all talking about it at a party once and then after Dean Pitchford did it as a movie Jon would always say it'd been his idea, too. But these things are all in the weather, and it's whoever does it that counts.

They were telling me that Cosima von Bulow cancelled her shoot for Interview because she got a sunburn. but I mean, she lives in Newport, and she doesn't know about the sun?

Sent Benjamin out on a simple errand and it cost me a thousand dollars! I'd given him $2,000 to go get the large-size sculpture of the Last Supper that we'd bargained the guy down from $5,000 to $2,000 on. so he went there and it wasn't there anymore. The last supper comes in small, medium, and large. So then at this other place, I'd gotten the guy down from $2,500 to $1,000 for the medium. But Benjamin forgot we'd gotten them down, and he bought the medium one for $2,000! He didn't remember! It was actually the size I really wanted, anyway, but he wound up giving the second store the medium one what he was supposed to buy the large one for. So this means he hasn't got a head for figures--a thousand dollars is a lot to waste. I just couldn't believe it, after I'd haggled so hard.

Went to Marylou's on 9th Street for a models dinner (cab $5). Joey Hunter was there. And all the boy models at one end of the table were desperate that they didn't have girlfriends, and then the girl models were at the otehr end of the table tired and complaining that they didn't have boyfriends.