DIARIES

THE ANDY WARHOL DIARIES by Pat Hackett

Extract from Andy Warhol Diaries

  

Tuesday, September 20, 1977

‘Watched Stanley Siegel. Brooke Shields didn’t show up so he did a live telephone interview with Sophia Loren, who’s in town at the Pierre. Her English is good now. But you know, seeing her on TV this morning, she’s just … trashy. She said she wouldn’t let her daughter be in a movie like Brooke Shield’s Pretty Baby, and I mean didn’t she just fuck her way to the top? Who’s she kidding? She’s so pretentious. I’m supposed to see her on Thursday.’

Thursday, January 5, 1978

‘Bianca [Jagger] had two blemishes on her face! She’s never had a blemish! I guess she’s depressed about Mick [Jagger], discoing the night away. She stays out until 6 and then gets up for her 8am exercise class.’

Sunday, March 19, 1978

‘Dali is so full of ideas, and he’s ahead in some things, but then he’s behind in others. It’s odd. He was telling me about a book that’s just been written in Paris about a brother and sister who were so in love that the brother (laughs) ate her shit.’

Sunday, March 26, 1978‘And Nelson called me from LA. He said that he’d been in the hospital because on St Patrick’s Day he and Bobby De Niro started eating a five-pound cheddar cheese with Jack Daniel’s and day by day that’s all Nelson was eating until finally he had pains and he went to the hospital and they said that the cheese had turned to rock and they gave him a laxative to break it up.’

Saturday, April 8, 1978

‘Mick wanted us to hear his new record, and we were going to bring it over to Studio 54 but it was at Earl McGrath’s house, so we went over there ($4). Jann and Jane Wenner were there and Stephen Graham who had something wrapped in foil in his pocket. It looked like drugs, but it turned out to be a Rice Crispie cookie.’

Sunday, April 16, 1978‘The gossip from Saturday night at Studio 54 before was that Jack Nicholson came in and Ryan O’Neal was there with Barbara Allen and everyone was trying to keep Jack and Ryan apart so they wouldn’t see each other. Barbara thought it was because of her, but it was the situation with Anjelica [Huston] – she’s been seeing Ryan lately. And Stevie called and said how hard he worked, that it was so much fun keeping them apart. And Tatum was dancing with Mona Christiansen. And Stevie said that Liza was dying for Marty Scorsese to get back to town, because [Mikhail] Baryshnikov just sees too many girls.’

Thursday, May 11, 1978
‘When we got to 54 Stevie said he’d just driven Bianca [Jagger] to the airport. He said he’s so in love with her, and that if he weren’t gay he’d really fall for her, but he just couldn’t get it up.’

Monday, May 29, 1978‘We walked over to have lunch at One Fifth, and on the way we saw Patti Smith in a bowler hat buying food for her cat. I invited her thinking she’d say no, but she said, “Great” … Patti didn’t want to eat too much, so she ate half my lunch. She said she only loves blonds and that she wanted to have an affair with a blond. All I could think about was her b.o.’

As what I gather, Andy Warhol kept these diaries faithfully from November 1976 right up to his final week, in February 1987. Written at the height of his fame and success, Warhol records the fun of an Academy Awards party, nights out at Studio 54, trips between London, Paris and New York, and surprisingly even the money he spent each day, down to the cent. With appearances from and references to everyone who was anyone, from Jim Morrison, Martina Navratilova and Calvin Klein to Shirley Bassey, Estee Lauder and Muhammad Ali, these diaries are the most glamorous, witty and revealing writings of the twentieth century.