Saturday, September 30, 2006

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Tuesday, December 31, 1985

Well, it was a pretty starless new year's Eve. I feel left out. I think Calvin had a party and didn't invite me, and Bianca's in town and I didn't hear from her, she never even called to say she was coming by for her Christmas gift. And I mean, she doesn't have many other friends. But New Year's was easy and unemotional. Nobbody was mushy.

During the day, Jay was moping around the office but he's been better since I had the talk with him about all his negativity probably causing the cold sores on his mouth.

Bought the papers and saw that the eyeglass place had given an item to the newspapers that I buy my glasses there and that they're bulletproof like the president of Nicaragua's (Newspapers $5, cabs $3, $2). I mean, I'm not going to go there anymore. Why would they make that up? I mean, what are bulletproof eyeglasses? What could they do for you?

I was going to call lots of people and wish them Happy New Year but then I couldn't get it together to call anybody.

Sam picked up PH and they came to pick me up (cab $10). So we got to Jane Holzer's and of course she wasn't ready, after telling me she wanted to get to Roy Cohn's party at 9:00 so she could really work the room for her real estate. She was still in her bathrobe. So then she got into her makeup and a black Armani jacket and pants. She's a little heavier.

And so we went to Roy Cohn's townhouse, and it was sad to see him like that, it really was. He didn't look old but God, he looked so sick. I don't know what to describe it as. And it was people like Joey and Cindy Adams.

Steve Dunleavy the Australian journalist said, "Give me a bon mot for the new year," and I couldn't think of one. Roy's ninety-year-old aunt was there, she owns Van Heusen shirts, she was the one who gave permission for me to use Ronald Reagan's old Van Jeusen ad in my painting. she was like a WASP dowager, only with a hook nose, and she still has everyone of her marbles. Jane went over to her and said, "I'm sure you don't remember me," and she said, "Oh yes Ido, Jane, and how is your wonderful son Rusty and his horseback riding?"

And Doris Lilly was there. And Roy's nephew or something from Palm Beach who writes for the Miami Herald and wants to write for Interview. Monique Van Vooren was there, she walked into the front room shielding her face, she said, "Oh my , it's the same wonderful lighting as always." Because it was horrible and bright and with this old crows it was really a horror show.

And then Regine was there and she invited us to the $2,000-a-plate Julio Iglesias dinner-concert right afterwards at the Essex House, so we got ourselves excited for that.

Oh, and I got a Christmas card from Jann Wenner and his wife and a baby. Did they have baby or did they adopt one? The name was "Wenner." I don't remember her being pregnant.

At Essex House the best thing was a girl came over and gave us all brass key chains that were engraved concert tickets that said: "Julio Iglesias, Essex House, December 31, 1985, $2,000." And Angie Dickinson was there, who's always so nice. Sam went over and took her picture and told her he worked for me and she said, "Oh, I love him." Regis Philbin did a comedy introduction about people calling him Phebus Region and Rebus Philbin and things like that and then he introduced celebs and the spotlight went on me, and I froze. And then at midnight they shot big spangles out of the cannons. And there were orchids and it was fun, and Julio's great line was how we were all one family. And everybody who heard the price of this thing said that it must be a benefit, but it wasn't , it was just for Julio.

Left there and went over to the Hard Rock Cafe and there was the most corny corwd in the world. It always is. Some CNN people interviewed me on what I was going to be doing next year and I said I was working on a Barbie doll. And then somebody who came in told us that Ricky Nelson had just been killed in a plane crash in Texas.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Tuesday, December 24, 1985

Was picked up by Benjamin. It was fifty-four out, but it felt like sixty, real nice. Went everywhere and had a lot of fun. When we got to the office the Interview party was in full swing. I never went over to it, but people drifted onto our side of the building. It was over right about 4:00.

And I told Gael to come up and pose for pictures because I was going to do a drawing of her because Fred told me that I had to. She looks good now, very thin. Her hair's beautiful and her skin is strong and she doesn't wear makeup. Peter, her husband, had come to pick her up and she was wearing a pale pink leather dress and I said, "Oh, where'd you get that pretty dress?" And the first thing she says is, "Well, you know, I never ever take anything for free, but they sold this to me for $10 because nobody wanted it!" She was very defensive rightaway to tell me that, as if she knew that I was hearing about al the stuff she gets for presents from her business admirers in L.A., sending her flowers and candy and stuff. I forget that these Interview editors actually are powerful. And I told her she should be going out to dinner with people constantly like Annie Flanders from Details does, and she said, "I'm not a hustler."

And Greg Gorman the photographer from L.A. was at the Interview party and told me that Joe Dallesandro's got a big role in a new TV cop series that's starting in January. Then went home and Gael and Peter dropped me off.

I ran into the 6'5" son of my neighbor, Dr. Hamilton. He got so tall suddenly this year now that he went off to college. he's handsome. He's the one that used to play ball in the street with the father and the one who said he used to see Yul Brynner run into the building across the street to see some woman and this kid would time how long it took them.

Took a gang to Nippon for Christmas Eve dinner and I gave out the little Be Someody with a Body paintings. (Dinner $280).

And then we went down to Kenny Scharf's loft on Great Jones. In the bedroom Kenny had these original Flintstones and Jetson cartoon drawings, and he said, "Jon Gould got these for me." He actually said that to me. that was so odd to hear. He said Jon got them at an auction. I mean, you know somebody, they're living in your house, and then suddenly they don't know you anymore but they still see all your friends. I didn't know the people there, they were a bunch of weirdos.

I dropped off PH and Paige and Bernard (cab $20).

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Monday, December 16, 1985

Brigid just called on the other line and she's reading me an article in The New York Times and I think it's about Rupert's boyfriend. Hold on... it says "Patrick McAllister," and I don't know if that's his last name, but he has AIDS and it doesn't give Rupert's name but it says he has a boyfriend who works for a "famous artist." And now I feel bad because I've always been so mean to Patrick. He found out he has AIDS in August--oh, but I've hated him for years. But still I do feel bad now, and that would explain a lot of things that Rupert does now like going into macrobiotics and things and taking courses like EST.

Chrissy Berlin was at the office and she loved her portraits. It was sort of busy. Fred was going off to Europe to sell art.

My old model date Sean McKeon's back in town, he's been away about a year doing plays in France. And this girl asked me about Sean, she said, "Is he straight?" And I told her yes. Because I mean, how do I know different? I met him when he was with a girl! And you have to believe what people tell you, don't you?

Worked till 8:20, then walked to the Ritz Cafe, which is the new restaurant where La Couple was. I was going to meet a Ford model that Paige invited for me. He was just back from Japan and he hated it there, and it was just like listening to an exact copy of every other model--from New Jersey, talks about motorcycles, modeling, eating, and hating Japan. But they're good-looking and that's enough. The perfect nose and so much like Sean McKeon you would think they're from the same mold. And if you put glasses on them they could look distiguished, but they're brainless.

Paige brought a black Jewish lawyer named Rubin for tama and he looked (laughs) black and Jewish. And Tama brought for Paige a novelist who's written four novels and he was jealous because Tama was in The New Yorker and Tama was jealous because he's had four novels published.

And this was all about looking for new faces and brains and ideas. We were in a booth for six people and it was fun.

Home before 12:00 and didn't watch Letterman. I'd seen the news earlier, about the Mafia shooting in midtown which is so abstract. They're just doing it on better streets now.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Saturday, November 30, 1985

Got up and went down to the kitchen and ate the turkey that Nena and Aurora had cooked. I was going to call Dr. Karen but I couldn't face being tortured with collagen needles. I didn't even call to wish her a Happy Thanksgiving.

So I'm at the office and the phone rings and it's Geri Miller calling from the women's shelter and she goes back and forth from "You scumbag!" to being sweet. And she's screaming in the background calling some policeman "You nigger!" and I could hear him getting mad and then she's saying that Mario Cuomo is her father--the other day she called and said Muhammad Ali was--and then she knows everything--like she knew the cover I did of Cuomo for Manhattan, inc. magazine. And she's saying, "He has a birthmark there and I have a birthmark there, so he's my father!" it's like talking to Crazy Matty. And they both have all this energy. She said, "When you saw me on the street I was working in real estate for Alice Mason." That's exactly what she said. And I have a funny feeling she's a young senile person. After seeing these Donahue shows. Because she says they say they say it's schizophrenia, but I don't think so. A Jewish girl who came from New Jersey--in her Trash days she was our most sensible superstar--then in the seventies she suddenly got crazy. One day she was very down to earth, worrying about her topless dancing career, and then the next week she showed up barefoot at 860, saying that the Mafia gave her LSD because she knew too much! From working in all those topless bars they own on 45th Street, I guess.

And so she's calling from shelters and the odd thing is, she remembers all these details of things that happened to her way in the past. Like she brought up when she had sex with Eric de Rothchild in the sixties and she said that after they had sex he called up Jane Holzer--why didn't he take me for a walk?" I mean, every detail. Does that mean nothing's happened in her life since then?

On, and more sixties updates: My sixty-year-old cousin called and she was in town with her son and said they wanted to come and see the office, so they came down. And her son is the one who knew Ondine in Pittsburgh. He once took the film courses that Ondine was (laughs) giving there, and he told me that Ondine is now selling hot dogs at Madison Square Garden. I'm serious. You know, Ondine "rented" all those films from us and then never returned them. Loves of Ondine, Chelsea Girls. And there was a story about Gerard Malanga in New York, about him being the new archivist for the Parks Department and for some reason Vincent was upset that Gerard was saying he was thirty-eight. I took a picture of Gerard the other week, though, and he does look great. But how old is he really? About forty-two or forty-three? And oh, God, on my blue Cross I just scribble and make it up all the time and then I get these things that say my birthday is August 28, 1982, so if I have an accident I probably won't get (laughs) my money.

I'm starting to think that crystals don't work. Because look what's happened lately when they're supposed to be protecting me--my rug has cancer from the moths, I stepped on a beautiful old plastic ring and crushed it, and I was assaulted at the book signing. But I've got to believe in something, so I'll continue with the crystals. Because things could always be worse.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Sunday, November 24, 1985

Jean Michel hasn't called me in a month, so I guess it's really over. He went to Hawaii and Japan, but now he's just in L.A. so you'd think he'd call. but maybe he's getting tight, mabye he's not throwing money around the way he used to. I heard he locked the door to his bedroom when he left so Shenge can't get in, and he didn't leave him any money, either. Can you imagine being married to Jean Michel? You'd be on pins and needles your whole life.

Then Philip Johnson had gone to Dallas and David Whitney was having a dinner for Michael Heizer and me at Odeon (cab $8). David was having his first of about seven martinis and a beer. And he was talking again about " when Pops pops off." But David will probably pop off before Pops. He wears the same glasses that Philip does, now. He looks like Philip did twenty years ago when I first met him. And David did Mike Heizer's show at the Whitney, and he did my show, and next he's doing Eric Fischl's, who's the hot new top artist, I guess.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Wednesday, November 6, 1985

The prices were really low at the Philippa de Menil and Heiner Friedrich auction last night. Thomas Ammann had offered Dagny Corcoran #350,000 for the blue Liz she thought it would go for $500,000 so she put it in the auction and it didn't sell, the highest it went was $250,000. and the Jasper Johns that should have gone for $2 million went for $700,000.

I don't know why the de Menils and Dagny didn't sell the paintings privately, why they put them at auction. Oh, and Philip Johnson bought the Stamps for $150,000. he was bidding against Thomas Ammann. That should've gone for $500,000, though.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Wednesday, October 30, 1985

I guess I can't put off talking about it any longer.

[[Note: For days Andy postponed giving the Diary his account of this day. Finally, on November 2, he did.]]

Okay. Let's get it over with. Wednesday. The day my biggest nightmare came true.

The day started with Benjamin not picking me up (phone $2, magazines $2). I didn't go to the Matsuda fashion show. I'm just going to talk through this quickly because otherwise I can't face it.

Nobody from the office would go with me to the Rizzoli Bookstore in Soho, but Rupert's old assistant Bernard had stopped by to visit and he said he would. Rupert dropped us off. The store is long and the signing was on the second floor in the balcony.

I'd been signing America books for an hour or so when this girl in line handed me hers to sign and then she--did what she did. The Diary can write itself here.

[She pulled Andy's wig off and threw it over the balcony to a male who ran out of the store with it. Bernard held the female while the store called the police but Andy declined to press charges. The staff at Rizzoli asked him if he'd like to stop, but there were people with books still waiting so he said no, that he would finish. The Calvin Klein coat he was wearing had a hood, so he pulled it up over his head and kept signing.]

I don't know what held me back from pushing her over the balcony. she was so pretty and well-dressed. I guess I called her a bitch or something and asked how she could do it. But it's okay, I don't care--if a picture gets published, it does. There were so many people with cameras. Maybe it'll be the cover of Details, I don't know. If I would've hit the girl or something then I would've been wrong and there would be lawsuits and everything. It's getting violent out there again, like the sixties. I usually stand up at those things but there I was sitting down and people were above me and the setup was all wrong and I was so worn out and hating Craig Nelson and I wasn't fast enough and it just happened so fast and Bernard was really sweet. But you know, you're in this place and everybody's being so nice and you don't think anything will happen. She was really pretty, and nice-looking well-dressed girl. They had her cornered for a while and then they let her go. It was too unusual. I guess these people had gone around telling everybody they were going to do it, because a lot of people later said they'd heard things. It was so shocking. It hurt. Physically. And it hurt that nobody had warned me.

And I had just gotten another magic crystal which is supposed to protect me and keep things like this from happening. So I was too nerve-racked, it was like in a movie. I signed for one and a half hours more I guess, pretending that it didn't mean anything, and eventually it doesn't. You have to live with it. It was like getting shot again, it wasn't real. I was just the comedian there, pleasing the people. And it was so close to Halloween. Then Bernard dropped me and I gave him $10.

And I got home and had two English muffins with margarine which isn't so good, and garlic, and two cups of tea and carrot juice and I tried the Campbell's dry soup. It was good. And no accessories in it.

And then PH called to see what time I was leaving for Washington in the morning, but I got off the phone fast, I didn't tell her what happened because I couldn't face it.

She found out, though, I guess, because she called back an hour later and told me she was proud of me that I was "a great man." And (laughs) that sure was a first. So that's that and now I never have to talk about it again.