Marc Jacobs in Andy Warhol Drag Homage

Designer Marc Jacobs covers the June/July 08 issue of Interview magazine (celebrating what would have been Warhol's 80th birthday on August 6), donning false eyelashes and a classic white Warhol wig for a series of portraits that seem to shift from illustration to photograph.

Two more shots, AFTER THE JUMP...

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Zac Efron Wanted for Gay Warhol Twins Movie

Page Six reports that a movie is being made based on the New York magazine article "Factory Boys" which detailed Andy Warhol's relationship with the Dupont twins, Richard and Robert. The movie is being directed by Steven Klein and the twins want Zac Efron to play them.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Robert: We always said no when Andy asked to film us having sex or pose naked. “You’ll be famous,” he always said. “You’ll be a star. We’ll make a movie.”

Richard: There’s one afternoon in 1979 I’ll never forget. It was winter, and Andy’s “Shadows” paintings were up. He, Rupert, Robert, and I went to lunch on Canal Street, and this short man came and joined us. After lunch, it felt like I’d had six drinks instead of one. I must have been drugged.

Robert: Me too.

Richard: We went to this loft with high windows.

Robert: It was all white and very sterile.

Richard: And there was a bed. Somebody started to unbutton my clothes. And there was a video camera there. The short man wanted Robert and me to do it together. Andy was watching.

Richard: I was like, What the hell? What’s the scene, Dean? I said, “No! This is freaky!” And I just stormed out. Andy followed. Two blocks away, Andy went into a store and bought me a down coat from Japan.

Robert: He felt guilty and he bought us something.

***

If he's looking to dump "squeaky clean" for his list of descriptors, this is the way!

Factory Boys [new york magazine]
WE HEAR . . . [ny post]

Twink Who May or May Not Be Zac Efron 'Busted' in Gay Kiss Photo [tr]
'Bulletproof' Zac Efron Can Handle Suggestions He's Gay [tr]
Zac Efron and Elijah Kelley Make a Dapper Pair [tr]

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Tom Cruise Did Not Attend Gay Artist Party with Gay Cowboy

Nor will he be appearing in any book named after a gay disco anthem.

The NYDN's Ben Widdicombe reports on a chat he had recently with the Village People's original gay cowboy Randy Jones, who recently sold his memoir Macho Man to a publisher:

"Jones had a story about meeting Cruise in 1982, when the young actor's most notable film was 'Taps.'...'Tom and I had the same management company at the time,' Jones told me at the new Bowery hot spot Antik. 'I met him at a party Andy Warhol threw for Peter Gatien's Limelight [nightclub offshoot] in Atlanta.' To hear Jones tell the story, it was quite a party. But after calls went out to a spokeswoman and attorney for the 'Mission: Impossible' star yesterday, the book's editor assured me that Cruise's name had been removed from the final version."

Tom Cruise outguns the Cowboy [nydn widdicombe]

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News: Bill Gates, Warhol Scent, Gyllenspit, Vegas, Britney Spears

I think now she's doing it on purpose. Britney Spears has run over another foot.

Striking gay WGA writers are holding their own march: "It will totally be "Norma Rae" meets the Abbey."

Closet Idol fan? Bill Gates spotted at Kelly Clarkson concert.

In wake of progressive Democrats move to censure Dianne Feinstein, her spokesperson defends: "[Feinstein] has been an independent voice for California."

Barack Obama says there are no existing records from his days in the Illinois state senate: "'I don't have _ I don't maintain _ a file of eight years of work in the state Senate because I didn't have the resources available to maintain those kinds of records,' he said at a recent campaign stop in Iowa. He said he wasn't sure where any cache of records might have gone, adding, 'It could have been thrown out. I haven't been in the state Senate now for quite some time.'"

Meet the Dixie Chicks of competitive Bridge.

Andy Warhol Foundation launches first of several fragrances: "The scent developed by Aurelien Guichard is a smoky yet spicy cocktail of incense, grapefruit, wood resin, amber jasmine, cedarwood and violet, one Warhol’s favorite aromas. The term is no longer '€˜unisex'€™ but '€˜universal'€™ to indicate that the perfume can be worn by both men and women and is said to smell like metallic rubber."

For you Scissor Sisters fans (or haters, I suppose): Whack-a-Sister.

Scab-lash: Ellen DeGeneres cancels NYC tapings. "We're delighted that Ellen DeGeneres has decided not to come to New York to tape her program. She knows that the Writers Guild East would have been there to protest her lack of solidarity, not only with her Guild writing staff but all the striking members of the Writers Guild, of which she is a member. We will be even more delighted if she does not cross the Guild picket lines at the NBC Studios in Burbank, where her show usually is produced."

Scientists identify oral sex "swallower" gene...in fish.

Yes, Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon have been captured swapping spit in public.

Broadcast of McCain supporter calling Hillary Clinton a bitch sparks war between McCain campaign and CNN: "Now McCain's campaign is trying to turn this to its advantage -- by opening fire on the network and portraying it as both a Hillary ally and a liberal media foil to McCain. McCain campaign manager Rick Davis has just blasted out an email to supporters demanding that CNN apologize to the Arizona Senator for smearing him."

Bjorn Borg unveils new underwear line, and invites folks to send in pictures of themselves wearing it. Flashback: Model Search.

In July 2006, Patricia Todd became Alabama's first openly gay elected official when she ran a run-off race in the House. Pam Spaulding over at Pam's House blended has posted a series of videos of Todd talking about some of the homophobia she faced during her election.

BOOK: Gay community in Vegas on the upswing.

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Hugh Grant Banks $17 Million Profit off Liz Taylor

Christie's contemporary art auction set records for 12 artists last night including Lucian Freud, Jeff Koons, and Richard Prince.

Andy Warhol's 1963 Andy Warhol portrait failed to meet its presale predictions, netting a paltry $23.5 (under its predicted sale price of $25 million) and a $17 million profit for its seller Hugh Grant (the auction house, of course, took its commission), who paid $3.6 million for it in 2001 at Sotheby's.

According to Bloomberg, "Christie's top lot last night was a sultry 1955 blue-and- orange canvas by Mark Rothko, 'Untitled,' which sold for $34.2 million, above the $30 million high estimate...Richard Prince's drippy red 'Piney Woods Nurse' (2002), from his series of masked nurses ripped from the pages of pulp fiction, sold for $6.1 million, almost triple the $2.2 million high estimate. Prince's works have been selling all week and, not coincidentally, he has a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum...Freud achieved a record for a 1992 painting of his daughter entwined with her husband. Estimated to sell for up to $20 million, it made $19.4 million. Lucian is a grandson of Sigmund Freud...Jeff Koons's 'Diamond (Blue),' a 7-foot-tall stainless- steel sculpture resembling a faceted stone in a setting, sold for $11.8 million. It was a record for the artist even though the price didn't reach the $12 million-$20 million presale estimate."

Recently
Rothko, Warhol Set Records at Christie's Art Auction Blow-out [tr]

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Fred McDarrah, NYC Photographer who Covered Stonewall, Dies

Village Voice photographer Fred McDarrah, who chronicled life in New York for nearly fifty years, died in his sleep in Greenwich Village yesterday. He was 81.

Lots of examples of McDarrah's work can be seen here. He was really one of the greats.

The photo above, right, was taken two nights after the Stonewall Riots on June 29, 1969 outside the Stonewall Inn. The chalk message scrawled on the brick wall reads: "To fight for our country, they invaded our rights."

The Voice writes: "Fred captured Jack Kerouac frolicking with women at a New Year’s bash in 1958, Andy Warhol adjusting a movie-camera lens in his silver-covered factory, and Bob Dylan offering a salute of recognition outside Sheridan Square near the Voice’s old office. Not just a social chronicler, McDarrah was a great photo-journalist. He photographed the still-smoldering ruins of the Weather Underground bomb factory on W. 12th Street. His unerring eye for gesture and detail caught lawyer Roy Cohn whispering what appeared to be tough orders in the ear of a young Donald Trump. For years, McDarrah was the Voice's only photographer and, for decades, he ran the Voice’s photo department, where he helped train dozens of young photographers, including James Hamilton, Sylvia Plachy, Robin Holland and Marc Asnin. His mailbox was simply marked 'McPhoto.'"

A few more of McDarrah's shots, after the jump...

Fred W. McDarrah, 1926-2007 [village voice]
Former Village Voice photographer dies, chronicled tumultuous era [newsday]

Above, Robert Mapplethorpe in his studio in 1979, and Andy Warhol trying on a bandleader's uniform at a vintage clothing store on St. Mark's Place in 1966.

Below, a photo taken on gay pride on Christopher Street near the Stonewall Inn in 1982.

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News: Hillary Clinton, Estonia Pride, Gael Garcia Bernal, Mike Jones

Jim David on The Gay Squirm Factor: "It's enough to make you want to move to Scandinavia, where nobody cares about the gays. If it just wasn't so freaking cold."

Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna host human rights benefit in Mexico City: "The $300-a-plate meal in the capital will benefit Mexico's Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights as well as Witness, an organization founded by singer Peter Gabriel that promotes the use of video and film to document human rights abuses."

Former Andy Warhol sidekick Bob Colacello to W magazine: "I'm presumably gay. I believe in going out, not coming out. It takes more courage to be openly Republican than to be openly gay in New York today. I'm a bit of a contrarian."

Putting it all online? Recent developments in "cloud storage" solutions from Google, Microsoft, and Apple.

Tropical Depression 4 forms in Atlantic. Will become "Dean" if named...

Ricky Martin shows off his skills.

Gay Pride march in Estonia takes place peacefully: "An estimated 300 people gathered in the historic part of the city to celebrate their sexuality, protected by private security officers and an increased police presence. Despite fears of a repeat of last year's violence, when Estonian skinheads injured several marchers by hurling missiles, the event passed off without any significant incident. About halfway down the route, anti-gay demonstrators formed an alternative procession. About a dozen mostly Russian-speaking men, women and children chanted 'no pride' at the marchers."

Ted Haggard escort Mike Jones in new play about soldiers who "go AWOL after being exposed to friendly-fire nerve gas in an all-base orgy."

British military puts gag order on soldiers' blogs: "Members of the Armed Forces and MOD Civil Servants must seek prior permission from [MoD media authorities] if they wish to communicate about defence via books, articles or academic papers; self-publish via a blog, podcast or other shared text, audio or video; take part in external questionnaires, polls, surveys or research projects, speak at conferences, private engagements or other events where the public or media may be present; or contribute to any online community or share information such as a bulletin board, wiki, online social network, or multi-player game..."

Britney Spears' hot tub hook-up talks to Access Hollywood.

Inside the Hillary Clinton fundraiser at The Abbey in West Hollywood: "...we hear people starting cheering loudly in the VIP room and camera flashes seep through the curtain separating us common folk. She's coming! The crowd begins to chant "Hillary! Hillary!" and it really starts to feel like a rock concert. Then at about 9:00 we see it, her bright red jacket slips through the maroon curtain and the crowd is in a frenzy! 'We Love You Hillary!' and 'You're Fabulous!' seem to be the shouts of choice."

Artist constructs Stephen Colbert portrait out of 768 mini Rubik's Cubes.

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News: NSA Wiretapping, Lee Hazlewood, Mars Probe, Kurt Russell

Iran newspaper banned for interviewing gay activist. PAPER: "We had an article which was an interview with an expatriate writer. They said she had moral problems, they say she is homosexual and promotes that in her weblog. But we talked to her as a poet."

AfterElton interviews Paul James, who plays gay teen Calvin on the hit ABC Family series Greek: "My parents are very great people. My dad grew up in Alabama, in the Civil Rights movement, and so there just wasn't any tolerance for bigotry in the house at all. And then I went to college and I majored in theater and was around a lot of gay and lesbian people. Everyone was shocked at first, [because] you know in high school you weren't really around that. But you just realize that they're the same people as you are. It probably comes from being black, too. You hear people discriminate against gay people, you can just replace gay with black and go back 30 or 40 years and it's the same thing."

Singer/songwriter Lee Hazlewood dies at 78 after battle with cancer. Wrote Nancy Sinatra hit "These Boots are Made for Walkin'" and many others.

Arjan previews a new single from Ari Gold: "Where The Music Takes You".

Bush signs legislation expanding right to eavesdrop on American citizens: "Congressional aides and others familiar with the details of the law said that its impact went far beyond the small fixes that administration officials had said were needed to gather information about foreign terrorists. They said seemingly subtle changes in legislative language would sharply alter the legal limits on the government’s ability to monitor millions of phone calls and e-mail messages going in and out of the United States."

Warhol vs. Banksy to open in London.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy not happy to be photographed by Associated Press photographers while vacationing at New Hampshire lake: "'He was happy and smiling and he waved at the security people as he was coming out,' [photographer Jim] Cole said of the president. 'And then he noticed us taking pictures and his happy demeanor diminished immediately.' The men said they watched through their lenses as Sarkozy pointed toward them and his boat began moving in their direction. Coming alongside Cole's boat, Sarkozy, clad only in swim trunks, jumped aboard and began shouting at them. 'The president was very agitated, speaking French at a loud volume very rapidly,' [freelancer Vince] DeWitt said."

UCLA releases independent investigator's report on student tasering incident.

Kurt Russell in his birthday suit.

Space probe on its way to Mars: "If all goes as planned — a big if considering only five of the world's 15 attempts to land on Mars have succeeded — the spacecraft will set down on the Martian Arctic plains on May 25, 2008, and spend three months scooping up soil and ice, analyzing the samples in minuscule ovens and mixing bowls. The Phoenix Mars Lander won't be looking for evidence of life on Mars but rather traces of organic compounds in the baked and moistened samples, which would be a possible indicator of conditions favorable for life, either now or once upon a time."

Now that's butch: Gay sports bar "Nellie's" opens in D.C.

Newsweek interviews gay historian and professor John D’Emilio about the August 9 Forum on LGBT issues, aka the "gay debate": "They’ll be up on the stage for [two hours] articulating their stands on gay issues. What will they actually say? Are they trying to not antagonize anyone? Are they trying to carve out a really clear position? Who are they trying to appeal to in their statements? Are they trying to appeal to the gay audience or are they trying to appeal to the non-gay audience? No matter what their position, I think that candidates who waffle will really be hurt in the gay community." And more on the candidates' lip service.

Roseanne Barr has blogorrhea: "Barbara Walters is well over one hundred years old now. She is all head, like joan rivers. I am only at the pee in your pants stage of old ladyism, but look forward to having a huge head in the future."

Tragic Indiana case illustrates discrimination gays face in visitation rights.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference to honor disgraced dogfighting football pro Michael Vick at annual convention: "We will recognize Vick for being an outstanding human being. We will work with anyone who opens their heart and arms to us." (americablog) And in related news, buy your dog a Michael Vick chew toy.

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Interview Magazine for Sale

Interview , the magazine founded in 1969 by Andy Warhol which helped feed a cult of celebrity that today has become a full-blown industry, is once again up for sale.

Peter and Sandra Brant, who purchased it in 1989 from the Andy Warhol Estate, have reportedly begun shopping it around, according to the NY Post:

"Under Warhol's direction, the monthly magazine was a pioneer in chronicling both pop and underground cultures from a downtown perspective. The Brants had become art collectors who were fascinated with original Warhols and soon had befriended the man himself. Two years after Warhol's death, Brant and wife agreed to buy full ownership of the magazines from the estate for $12 million - but it ended in bitterness. Their new company was eventually sued by the estate, which claimed after Brant paid the first $4 million up front, he backed out on the remainder and never paid the $7.2 million balance. The case was eventually settled."

Interview would neither confirm nor deny the rumors, but told the Post: "Sandra Brant, president & CEO, and Ingrid Sischy, editor-in-chief, are as devoted as ever to Interview and excited about its future."

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Rothko, Warhol Set Records at Christie's Art Auction Blow-out

Andy Warhol's "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)" missed the record for post-war art at auction yesterday by a margin of $1.12 million. The Warhol sold for an astonishing $71.72 million, nearly double its estimate, but couldn't catch the hot item of the night before, Mark Rothko's "White Center (Yellow,Pink and Lavender on Rose)" which went for $72.84 million.

The buyers of both the Warhol and the Rothko are unknown, but New York magazine has some speculation on the Rothko piece: "Indeed, internal speculation is that two of the four bidders, if not the winner, were Russian. (Rothko was actually born Marcus Rothkowitz in Dvinsk, Russia, in 1903.) Sotheby's had given a hard sell on the painting to buyers who bid on behalf of an art-collecting suite of Russian vodka, metals, and oil oligarchs. Sotheby's auctioneer Tobias Meyer had even argued, perhaps implausibly, that the filmy abstract painting was about 'the immigrant experience.'"

Some background on the Car Crash piece: "[Warhol] painted the Green Car Crash by repeating a photo of a bizarre accident published in Newsweek. During a police chase, a fleeing car crashed into a telephone pole, overturned and hurled the 24-year-old driver against a spike in the pole. The multiple images show him limp and impaled. The painting last appeared at auction in 1978, when it fetched about $72,000 at Christie's London."

Another Warhol, "Lemon Marilyn", which has been in the hands of a single owner since it was acquired in 1962, went for $31 million.

All-in-all, Christie's took in $385 million, the second-largest amount for any auction in history.

Said Christie's honorary chairman and auctioneer Christopher Burge: "The market wasn't just hungry, it was ravenous."

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Art Market on Fire: Auctioned, Sold, and Stolen [tr]

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A Visit to Andy Warhol's Grave

Discovered this on YouTube and thought it an appropriate post for today. Andy Warhol died 20 years ago today in New York City, at the age of 58 from a sudden heart attack while recovering from gallbladder surgery.

"Dying is the most embarrassing thing that can ever happen to you, because someone's got to take care of all your details."

"I never understood why when you died, you didn't just vanish, everything could just keep going on the way it was only you just wouldn't be there. I always thought I'd like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I'd like it to say "figment".

"Isn't life just a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?"

Love the soup can.

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Philip Johnson's New York Apartment for Sale

For a cool $2.5 million you can inhabit the apartment once owned by architect Philip Johnson:

"Mr. Johnson, one of America's most celebrated (gay) architects designed a glamorous coffered ceiling in the living room which overlooks the famed MOMA Sculpture Garden that Mr. Johnson designed in 1964. The apartment also looks toward the pink and granite AT & T building designed by Mr. Johnson in 1984. Viewed from the floor to ceiling windows, Mr. Johnson chose this apartment as his own for these special views."

Special bonus is that you get an Andy Warhol artwork with your purchase. The powder room is papered in the artist's "cow wallpaper" signed by the artist himself.

15 West 53rd Street [elliman]
The Real Urban Ass House [curbed]

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Banksy and Warhol: They're a Steal

With prices for street art prankster Banksy through the roof, many of his actual "street paintings" have become targets for thieves eager to cash in. So it wasn't a surprise when a cleaner at Jacaranda Developments discovered a group of men posing as workmen trying to pry a rusty metal door off one of the buildings. On the door (above left) was a well-known Banksy that has come to be known as the "Liverpool Love Rat". The door has not yet been valued but it has since been put under lock and key.

And the Montauk, Long Island estate of that other pop culture commentator, Andy Warhol, finally sold. The price had been hacked down from $50 to $40 million after being on the market for years. Mickey Drexler, the CEO of J. Crew, scooped it up, reportedly for less than $30 million.

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Warhol Portrait of "Sugary" Dolly Parton Questioned

Controversy has sprung up around a Dolly Parton portrait said to be an Andy Warhol that was put on the block at Sotheby's blowout contemporary art auction last week. Expected to fetch $1.5 million, interest in the portrait fizzled and it failed to sell.

Horst Weber, an artist who produced thousands of Warhol images from stock photos that Warhol sold as his own, tells the New York Post it's likely one of his: "Although we made many paintings of Dolly Parton, I remember this particular one as I decided to make it with sugary colors. And the fact that this painting of Dolly Parton is unsigned means there is a very good chance that Warhol had never actually laid eyes on it."

Weber also claims it's a painting that Parton's manager Sandy Gallin rejected in 1985 because it wasn't Warholian enough, citing an entry in Warhol's diary: "[His] secretary got on and said, 'Ohhh, Sandy's soooo embarrassed' - that it just doesn't look like my art . . . And after 15 minutes, she popped the question: Could he get his $10,000 deposit back?"

Sotheby's stands by its claim that the work is authentic.

The New York auction season has resulted in an "astonishing" $1.3 billion taken in by auction houses in the last two weeks.

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Art Market on Fire: Auctioned, Sold, and Stolen [tr]
Dolly Parton Gets Ready [tr]

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Art Market on Fire: Auctioned, Sold, and Stolen

An auction of contemporary art at Christie's set records yesterday with 64 individual works going for a whopping total of $239.7 million.

Among the standouts were three Andy Warhols (a Mao, an Orange Marilyn, and a Sixteen Jackies) each going for over $14 million. The International Herald Tribune notes: "Together, the three prices underline the dramatic expansion of the market for "historical contemporary," as works consecrated by the passage of time and the lasting fame surrounding their name may be characterized."

Other records were a 1968 Robert Mangold sculpture which went for nine times his previous record price, a Willem de Kooning which went for $27.12 million, and an Eric Fischl which broke a record for his work at$1.92 million.

Private transactions are also reflecting the trend. Recently it was reported that David Geffen sold a Jackson Pollock to financier David Martinez for $140 million, which would be the highest price ever paid for a painting. However, since the NYT's original report, others have said the sale took place but not to Martinez. In any case, the Pollock and Ronald Lauder's $135 million Gustav Klimt still went for a hell of a lot of cash. Oh for a bit of pocket change.

Those with limited wallet funds can get in on the action too, in London. At the end of the month the Royal College of Art will be selling hundreds of postcards by "famous and obscure" artists for 52 Euros each. Among them will be works by Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. Buyers are limited to four postcards each.

Art lovers and Goya fans in particular will find themselves wanting when an exhibit at the Guggenheim which was supposed to feature the Spanish artist's "Children with a Cart" (above right)opens on Friday. The "children" were carted off by thieves when the truck transporting the painting was left unguarded at a rest stop or restaurant near Scranton, Pennsylvania. A $50,000 reward is being offered for the painting's recovery.

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News: Warhol Jeans, Barry Diller's Big Bucks, Brazil

Rainbow flag disappears from Minnesota campus following campaign on the Facebook website calling for its removal.

Does Warhol have the fit that's right? Andy: "Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art."

Vancouver postal workers angry about delivering hate mail from fundamentalist Baptist group: "It says AIDS is 'the plague of the 21st century, the consequences of the sin of homosexuality,' which it also describes as 'ungodly, unhealthy and unnatural.'"

Barry Diller is the highest paid executive in America according to reports, with one-year salary estimates ranging from $85 to $295 million, most of it in stock options.

Madonna takes adoption case to the Court of Public Opinion.

Guitarist Andy Taylor splits from Duran Duran. The band had come back together in 2000, but unfortunately, few noticed.

Patent application for full-screen video iPod revealed.

Gay vote increasingly important in Brazil: "In Sunday's presidential run-off, even the conservative candidate, former Sao Paulo state Gov. Geraldo Alckmin, supports a stalled bill in Congress that would legalize gay civil unions. That has won him points with gays who attended the parade, but most support President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva."

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Bidding Frenzy for Banksy Warhol Fakes of Kate Moss

Street artist and pop culture prankster Banksy is probably the only artist I can think of who could copy a Warhol and get an extravagant price for it. Sotheby's described the bidding as "frenzied": "Originally valued at £10,000 they eventually fetched £50,000." And if Warhol were alive today, he'd probably approve.

If you caught the recent PBS American Masters documentary on Warhol, you might remember a clip where a reporter questioned Andy about the famous Brillo boxes. The reporter asked, "Why have you bothered to do that? Why not create something new?" Andy replied: "Because it's easier to do."

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$643K: Mapplethorpe Portrait of Andy Warhol Sets Record

An unknown bidder paid $643,000 yesterday for this portrait of Andy Warhol, a platinum print on linen with four silk panel, according to Christie's New York. It's the highest price ever paid for a Mapplethorpe. Last year at this same time, one of Mapplethorpe's flower photographs sold for a price of $251,200.

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Warhol Fans, Pop Art Lovers, Set Your DVRs

Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film screens tonight and tomorrow night on PBS. The four-hour documentary cost nearly $4 million to make and filmmaker Ric Burns is still looking to raise the money ($225,000) he needs to finish paying for it, according to the NYT.

The film is a sweeping look at Warhol's life and art that was apparently quite difficult to get made. Said producer Daniel Wolf: "The difficulty raising money was a confirmation of why we needed to make this film. He was branded this gay, weird, partygoing genius and not the great artist he should have been known as."

Here's another review of the film from the Seattle Times.

You can watch a short preview at the PBS website.

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News: Suri Cruise, DC Murder, Tennessee Williams

DC killing of attorney Robert Wone in home of gay rights lawyer is probed after evidence doesn't add up: "While processing the crime scene inside 1509 Swann St., NW, technicians were able to determine that the crime scene had been tampered with, including that the area where the victim’s body was located had been cleaned."

Warhol "Beautiful People" exhibition to open in East Hampton.

So far, JonBenet murder confession raises more questions than answers. Jeffrey Toobin: "Is he a guilty sicko or an innocent wacko?"

Vanity Nightmare? From the email newsletter popbitch: "A source from the Vanity Fair shoot of Suri Cruise says the baby looks enough like Cruise and Holmes for their parentage to be plausible, but that it is a bit of a runt, and required 21 days of photography, plus three days of digital touching-up, before the magazine and celebrity parents had a cover image they liked."

Stipe and Douglas shop together, stroll, nibble gelato on Italian date.

Poll: cracks appearing in Bush NASCAR support.

The Parade or Approaching the End of a Summer: Unproduced autobiographical Tennessee Williams play set in Provincetown is to have its world premiere there on October 1st.

Martina Navratilova has urged Lance Bass to become a role model in a letter to People magazine: "Coming out to your family and friends is hard enough; to do so to the world is a lot harder. I know, as I took this step more than 25 years ago...So as our fight for equality continues, I will not be surprised to one day see Lance Bass marching with the rest of us, right there in the front row." If anyone has a copy of People, feel free to post the full text of the letter in the comments.

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News: Clinton Bust, Stinky Flower, Joe Dallesandro...

Hillary Clinton bust goes on display at New York's Museum of Sex: "Edwards said his work features a soft 'presidential smile' and wrinkles framing her eyes. A floral pattern runs across her breasts, part of Edwards' effort to present Clinton 'as a woman -- not a covered up person, but as a woman.'"

The fitness modeling films of Andy Warhol subject Joe Dallesandro. (warning: NSFW)

Ahh, the stench of it: corpse flower ready to bust in Brooklyn.

Bums, pecs, and bulges: more of the Times Square underwear parade.

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Hockney and Warhol Items Set Auction Records

One of Andy Warhol's silver wigs, which was estimated to go for between $4,000 and $6,000, sold for $10,800 at Christie's yesterday. The wig came complete with the toupee tape which Warhol used to stick it to his head. You may not be able to get the wig anymore but you might still be available to get the action figure from Kid Robot.

Other Warhol items of note at the Christie's sale: "A 1977 Polaroid photo of Muhammad Ali, signed by Warhol, sold for $19,200. And a Warhol Polaroid of Mick Jagger from 1975 went for $15,600."

At the end of May I posted about Sotheby's auction off the David Hockney painting "The Splash". At that time, folks were prediciting the painting would sell for $5.6 million. Last night, "The Splash" was scooped up for just over $4.7 million, not as high as predicted but still breaking records.

The previous record for a Hockney painting was $3.4 million for his work "A Neat Lawn".

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Hockney Work Expected to Make Biggest Splash
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Andy Warhol Estate Gets Big Price Cut

$40 million will get you Andy Warhol's Montauk compound on the east end of Long Island. The Beach reports that the property just got a $10 million price chop. The estate is being sold by its co-owner, Warhol collaborator and friend Paul Morrissey. It has been on the market for years.

From someone whose vision was so graphic and commercial, the bare interior is a rustic surprise.

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Andy Warhol Factory Going Condo [tr]
Broken Flowers [tr]
Candid Moments from Pop's Past [tr]

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