Monday, August 13, 2012

Michelangelo Sistine Chapel ..



So, in a stunning move in 1964, still talked about in art circles, and art Blogs today. Norton Simon bought the entire inventory of Duveen Brothers Inc. in New York for $15 million. The sale included 146 Old Master paintings and sculpture, porcelain, tapestries and furniture assembled by legendary dealer Joseph Duveen, plus a 12,000 - volume art library.. The ephemera for this collage is from, one of four art books that Simon gave me to study.. Before we bought the "Resurrection of Christ" by 15th Century Flemish master Dieric Bouts. For $4.25 million.. I cut those Priceless Art Books and used them in making the collage work.. A purchase that made news also, was when he bought an Edgar Degas gouache and pastel. "Repetition De ballet" in 1965 for a reportedly "breathtaking" $410,000.. In yet Another highly publicized London auction of the Robert von Hirsch collection in 1978 he paid $923,500 - "The Branchini Madonna," the central panel of an altar piece by 15th-Century Italian master Giovanni Di Paolo ..

Saturday, May 26, 2012

"Havana" the Movie/Jaragua Hotel 1990 !!



So, In 1990 I was working on the Movie "Havana" with Robert Redford/Sydney Pollack a very expensive Picture/Movie. They were filming in  Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic !! They made the old city to look like old Havana with fifty's cars etc.. It was a drama - get out of Cuba/Casino stuff .. Macho Redford Gambler, hot Swede Babe Lena Olin/actress in it - 'Damsel in Distress' story line .. Sydney Pollack going on about how much it is costing,  he brings me down from Hollywood for two months.. My scene was with a blonde actress who had been in some scenes with Redford already and we rehearsed and shot for a month and then Sidney changed his mind and cut it out.. Sydney Pollack said he was "out of money" but it was a blast to party with Redford/Pollack and there A+ capital F .. Filmmaker crowd... I stayed at The Jaragua Hotel !! And "Casa de Campo" I  rented an Oceanfront Estate. Played Polo several times with some very rough South American guys.... 

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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Grace Robbins .. Trophy Wife !!

So, in 1973 I met Grace and Harold Robbins, they came to Marbella, Spain, the Puerto Banus on there yacht and I gave them two parties .. I really liked them both .. he was the richest author,  he really cared about the wealth/money "Thats the name of the game" he used to say to me, but, I think his talent was underestimated ..Some back story:  the Blogger E-Book story is: His scandalous books were risque his live style was even more of a scandal .. I liked Grace Robbins she was  Grace Palermo a real beauty from a Sicilian background and had been an advertising agency woman ..  I used to spend a lot of time in West Hollywood/Beverly Hills as well as Marbella .. I liked acting as much as dressmaker..  The Robbin's invited me to every party they gave, and I knew them as friends.. I have lots of stories about them but this blog/E-Book  story is: Harold Robbins had a birthday party for his wife in Beverly Hills at a disco/night club had to of cost a lot, no food that I saw anyway but there was the birthday cake with French Champagne & open bar for hundreds of people.. He had four body builder muscle/hunks jump out of a cake another four carried her in to the party on a chaise lounge to a Donna Summer song! Eight guys in Speedos swim wear. After the party in his less-than-subtle mastermind, best-selling author of all time way, he selected the participants to go back to there Mediterranean Mansion on Tower Grove Road, for an orgy. So, you had to be good looking; famous; well endowed; to be invited. The best selling novelist invited me and also our friend Fernando Allende the Mexican actor/star, who was smoking hot - and Jaclyn Smith the 'Charlie's Angel' but she said "no way" to Harold.. That kind of bummed me out because she had flirted with me and I had some hope there and really would of liked for that to happen .. Anyway, Grace was drunk and was a reluctant participant. She said to me, when we got to there house, and she gave me a bath robe .. "Where does he find these people"? He wanted her to play the 'Sexy Hostess' it was her birthday April 6, 1977 and she had a lot of choice in men, handsome guys, muscle men .. Fernando & I were her guy buddies from Marbella and Acapulco the only two men she knew at the 'Orgy Party'.. The eight hunks were there, bought and paid for my Harold .. and more hot women than you could ever imagine. Real playgirls, boob jobs. Playboy & Hustler Magazine women, you name it for the babes 'Oh my God' - Grace Robbins didn't want to be blindfolded and 'Gang Banged' by the eight muscle guys. So, when she said to us "You and Fernando fuck me".... "I will have done my trophy wife duty"!! Her aquiescence to him, as it were. I was reluctant. She was a beauty but sex can change things in a buddy/friend type thing with a women and I was afraid it would hurt our friendship. But, I did what the 'Birthday Girl' wished for ... I was first and then Fernando, we were both in our twenty's and took turns with her for a couple of hours.. Maybe four/five times each. We really 'Grinded her down' !! We both liked her a lot and were a lot less rough on her than those eight muscleheads would have been. We kept them off her!! It was a kind of conspiracy against Harold, too ....

She said to us "Better it be you two", because, "I never met those other guys or will ever see them again"!! It didn't hurt my relationship with her, it was better after that I think she trusted me more.. Harold not so much .. When they divorced, I took her side. He moved to Palm Springs and she bought a condo in Century City. Then she sold it, and moved to New York, Grace used Marvin Michaelsen the famous divorce lawyer in her case with Harold, she didn't do that well .. he got her some of the rights to the books that they published when they were together .. I used him myself in a divorce case, I was involved in, later on, and he turned out to be a dishonest/crook. Grace/Harold Robbins were incredible, cinema 'social' contacts for me and I really loved them both ..

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Nicky 'Guinness' Browne / Widow of Tara Browne ..........


So, I knew Nicki Browne in the 1970's! She lived in a small village in Spain and was part of the Jet Set, real name was Noreen McSherry and was the widow of Tara 'Guinness' Browne (1945-1966) the heir to the beer money who was killed in a car crash in London a couple of years after they were married and she had two sons, with him, and was in a court fight for the two children at the time of his death...she lost the case.. The Guinness family gave her a small income to live on but took away the boys .. she was a 'hippie-babe par excellence'. So, the story goes that in 1966 her estranged husband the Hon. Tara Browne who was the son of Oonagh Guinness his mother and father was Dominick Brown 76 years in Parliament. Nicki and Tara were cult figures in the swinging sixty's of psychedelic era London and I do mean CULT!! She was an Irish farmers daughter that secretly married him in 1963 in Paris.. So, he was with another women when his Lotus hit another car maybe he hit a pot hole too and crashed and he was killed but not his new girl friend who was in the car too. Some say Paul McCartney was the occupant of the other car, maybe a conspiracy of some kind.. This was the 1960's the decade that changed the world and it was swinging London and he was on L.S.D.. He was a society luminary in London the 'Hippie Underground' with a propensity for carousing and to be seen, lots of fast women and fast cars. Drugs with Paul McCartney, John Lennon and the Rolling Stones, Brian Jones was a boyfriend, all of that. He sat in on the making of the Beatles record 'Revolver'. They were the beautiful people, rich aristocracy. In Paris his social circle was the likes of Samuel Beckett, Salvador Dali, and Jean Cocteau to name a few ... Lord Foley told me that Nicki had cheated on him with some Italian men and he was hurt by that however it was the swinging 60's .. anyway, the Beatles wrote there most famous song ever at the end of there most famous album ever, "Sargent Pepper's" the song is at the end of the album the last song the whole album some say was full of Illuminati/Freemason symbolism the song is very hauntingly strange and beautiful, especially if you are on L.S.D.. Its called 'A Day in the Life'!! It was about him and the car crash and the way the media distorts reality. He was the dandy of Kings Road Fashion and this became a big myth about the Beatles, were they just another conspiracy. A plot, an illusion, they mesmerized us with there magic spell type thing !! Illuminati/Queen Elizabeth of England, the counter-culture and Magic with a very large M.. A big conspiracy story back then and the topic of many a conversation at my dinner parties .. Tara was involved with Britains first transsexual scandal April Ashley and the other transsexual Amanda Lear who was with Dali. Anita Pallenberg, John Paul Getty the second and Talita .. the effete elite, you name it. Anyway, it is an interesting thread of magic, and spawned the story about Paul McCartney and a body double.. and Nicki did feel guilty, I'm pretty sure of that ... he "blew his mind out in a car" is right John Lennon, but what did you and Paul do.. I met John twice in San Francisco he may of sold out most likely did to the establishment/Illuminati in the beginning to be as rich and famous as he was you have to.. but like JFK and maybe Diana, and maybe Martin L. King he changed his heart/mind and was murdered but now Paul he is still around.. Nicki hung out with all us 'Hippie' types was at the 'Hippie' parties but not so much the High Society ones in fact I never saw her at one of those she was kind of out of that after the scandal she was always at the party of Sara Skinner the chimney sweep heiress from London with a super cool house. She did not do well in the divorce case, not much income, she lived in a rustic farm house in a small village called Benahavis, Spain, close to Marbella back in the mountains.. and when Oliver Tobias was my house guest I did see a lot of her. The London newspaper 'The Telegraph' said she was involved with Oliver Tobias, I can believe that he was in our tribe as they say in Hippie speak.. The thing about looking back is,

was this all just a myth or did the 'Beatles' really sell there souls to make it rich and be famous by getting us hooked on drugs for the C.I.A. and the Banking Establishment and  the evil Queen of England - Nicky died last June, someone sent me the Obits from 'The Telegraph' in London they quoted me about the hippie-babe par excellence and said that I was her admirer, they were right  - 1941 to June 11 2012 at age 70 .....

Beverly d' Angelo .... "In the Mood" ...

So, in 1979 they made the movie of the Broadway play of 1968 called 'Hair' where a draftee meets a tribe of 'Hippies on his way to the army to go off to the Vietnam war not really the same plot but still good, Beverly told me about the audition .. Beverly had luck and talent and was in the movie..  I met her in 1977 at a party for Roman Polanski in Beverly Hills given by Jorge Guinle...  Also, I knew, Paul Jabara he was in the original cast on Broadway of Hair and also did 'Jesus Christ Superstar' in London he played King - Beverly was friend of Pauls..   I loved him in the movie 'Day of the Locust' -   Paul lived in Laurel Canyon in the late 1980's close to Beverly's house.   Paul was also a friend of  Egon von Furstenberg the rich German Prince whose sister was Ira married to Prince Alfonso Hohenlohe -  Agnelli the Fiat family..  He too died young most likely from AID'S .. I had my best year ever in Marbella -  1985 black was big, saved me from going out of business..   'In the Mood' AKA ' The Woo Woo Kid'... My friend Richard Arrington did her make up and Elle Elliott did this blonde hair style .. She looks great !!!! Rachel Perry gave us that lipstick red to match the hat ... 

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Cary Elwes ... 1989 ... 'Glory' .....



So, in 1989, I get a call from Cary Elwes in Hollywood....  He was back from  Georgia finished  the movie "Glory".  His brother Damian, an artist,  who hit it big in 1984 in New York, was having an art show of his work in West Hollywood an art gallery on Melrose across the street from Morton's restaurant .. I was invited! So, I go and the first person I meet and  talk to was Freddie Fields, the Producer of 'Glory' about his wife in New York Polly Bergen.  Who I knew from a lunch party that Vera Swift gave  and spent a lovely afternoon her and Joan Collins. Rob Lowe was at the party  both Cary and Rob are killer good looking, so cool . I  said to Cary about how in 1974 I remembered his family member .. the Earl of Lucan and the big scandal in Europe .. Cary's mother was a rich Heiress .. and was old money .. So, the story was that the wife of Lord Lucan who "They" think did kill Sandra his wife in London in 1974 and "They" never found him .. I think he flew off over the Atlantic until the gas ran out in his plane..  is what I heard..  So, this gallery art show was fun. The next night we all went to a 
screening of 'Glory' in Beverly Hills I sat next to Sean Penn's mother Eileen Ryan. Cary is a doll I just love this guy .. the kind of guy I would like to go to my favorite Chiringuito on the beach in Marbella/Spain with and close the joint .. He would not say no to a class of Champagne .. I told him Adnan Khashoggi owed me ten thousand dollars. He said that he had heard a lot of people say that lately. I wondered what ever happened to Lord Lucan !! Not sure if he was gay Rob Lowe maybe, those English Nobleman you never know. His other brother was there too, Cassian Elwes .. very influential in the movie business !!!!