Yoo-hoo! Yoo-hooooo” wailed Holly Woodlawn, twirling a white cloth napkin over her honey-colored curls to flag down the waiter-for-the-night model with the tray of wine. “White, get me a white,” came out her scarcely audible plea over the throngs of revelers cramming the lounge at the Chateau Marmont.
“Don’t you just want to hit somebody?” her sofa mate Mary Woronov, still as lithe, silverhaired and fierce as ever, growled as if to reply.
The sight of two Warhol Factory Superstars still fronting it for le scene after all these years was among the deliciously staggering sightseeing on parade Tuesday night at the Hollywood bash for the newly released “The Stephen Sprouse Book.”
New Yorker’s Mauricio and Roger Padilha were on hand to sign their prodigious, foil-covered Rizzoli tome, and even they couldn’t believe the turnout: China Chow chatting about her mother Tina’s friendship with the late designer (Sprouse died in 2004 of heart failure; Tina passed in 1992, also too soon); Linda Ramone conspiring with designer Tarina Tarantino on a jewelry line (and later yelling at Blondie’s Clem Burke about something he said about Johnny Ramone in an Argentine rock mag); septuagenarian sex-kitten Mamie Van Doren posing with Dita Von Teese; Jimmy Jane founder Ethan Imboden's surprise at seeing fellow San Francisco boys Ian Hannula and Joe Haller of Nice Collective; retired fashion covergirl Leza Cruz reuniting with makeup artist Kathy Jeung; Vogue editor Lawren Howell navigating her way by theremin virtuoso Armen Ra and Kevin Haskins of Bauhaus/Love & Rockets. Over there, photographer Greg Gorman and Paul Zone (a former deejay at Max's Kansas City); nearby, Party Monster James St James, designer Gregory Parkinson, Magda Berliner, Danzig's Howie Pyro, and so on went the breathlessly endless list of It personalities stretching back to the 1980s. With daddies Donovan Leitch and Gilby Clarke introducing their children to it all, thankfully, the freak show will go on.
Guests took the celebrated subject to heart, and many dug deep into their closets for their Sprouse gems. Mauricio and Katy Rodriguez each flaunted their coveted rosary necklaces depicting the designer on the cross, while Ann Magnuson happily lifted her skirt to flash her neon graffiti-scribbled stockings.
Just as blindingly colorful in his neon sequin blazer was co-host Michael Schmidt, who was a friend of Sprouse’s in his earliest dirty downtown days. Michael, who continues to metalsmith elaborate mesh for Chrome Hearts and corsets for the likes of Madonna and Fergie, shared MC duties on this evening with Annie Flanders, among the first to broadcast Sprouse’s work in the pages of her magazine, Details.
At the much more intimate, late, late-night dinner, the Brothers Padilha were also quick to give props to party organizer Bryan Rabin, who pulled out all the stops to assemble the mad mix of guests. The recent birthday boy (see previous post) was nearby, mid-tango with Courtney Love (who looked seriously ravishing in a crystal-covered dress Givenchy’s Ricardo Tischi sent her).
What really sent us gasping, though, was Julie Newmar approaching the long table to finally join us. Despite dealing with the debilitating disease CMT, an incurable condition attacking the nerves to the muscles, Catwoman appears as sinuously sexy and elegant as ever. Anyone would’ve been hard pressed to recognize she cannot walk most days. As we waited for our steak frites, Mme. Newmar shared with Michael Schmidt and me the details of the PSA she’s shooting at month’s end for CMT, a Betty Grable-type pose in which she’ll flaunt her newly crafted leg braces, covered in chevron-seamed stockings. “So Helmut Newton!” Michael and I cried. On telling us about a quilted leather jacket she’d hope to borrow from Chrome Hearts for the shoot, Michael was immediately texting CH owner Laurie Stark to help in the cause.
Just imagine: Julie Newmar vamping it up in Chrome Hearts, seamed stockings and an arched brow for CMT.
It gives new life to the whole reality of growing older. Me-ow.