ANDY WARHOL’S 15 MINUTES (ep. 1)
I don’t know why it’s taken three years (post-obsessively watching Netflix’s The Andy Warhol Diaries), for me to start watching Andy Warhol’s 15 Minutes. I mean, I’m certifiably obsessed with Andy Warhol in the ‘80s, for all the playful, ironic experimentation he did in that era. Like remember how he signed with the ultra-chic Zuli agency as a runway and print model… yes, when he was well into his fifties… because he was so obsessed with youth and beauty? I love how he just owned that obsession, and rode it out to its logical extension. As a fellow middle-aged wannabe runway and print model, I relate. Yasss Andy. ❤️
But Andy wasn’t just a pretty face. He also signed on to host a playful, ironic, experimental interview-format/variety show for MTV, which was called Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes, that ran for five episodes between 1985-1987. Actually, six, including the pilot episode.
Right now I’m on Episode One, where Andy:
a) visits the New Wave drag queens at the Pyramid Club in NYC. Lady Bunny and John Kelley are so good looking, as a woman/man, respectively.
b) Andy talks to Jerry Hall about the fact that they’d rather buy fashion than art.
c) Andy talks to Debbie Harry about her neon pink/yellow/orange Stephen Sprouse dress, and her new video “French Kissin’,” which he tells her he is dying to see. Then she has him sign her Stephen Sprouse pant leg.
d) Andy presents a sexed-up, avant-garde, runway/dance exposition by the very sexed-up looking fashion designer Katharine Hamnett, while the model Marla Kay emotes “languid"‘ as she explains why she models. She says, “I just got into it because I like the money… and, the attention.” Again: I just love people who own it. ❤️ So did Andy!
e) Andy agrees with Jerry Hall that they both like “the preppy look.” Jerry offers that “the more you do to yourself, the better time you have [when you go out], because it’s all mental, you’ve spent all this time preparing to have a good time.” This is logical.
f) Andy displays a coloful montage of Interview covers from the past few years.
g) Andy interviews Tracy Johns, who played the lead in Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It. Johns talks seriously about her contributions to the script and filming process. Also, about her sister, who goes to Stanford and got in a car accident recently. Then, later, Johns verbally confirms what most of us know already: that Black people have slow and sensual sex, too.
h) Andy presents “Andy’s Guest Room,” a segment featuring actress Sally Kirkland and Paulina Porizkova spinning around in avant-garde lounge chairs. Porizkova was a well-known ‘80s model who is introduced as an “actress” here. That’s because Kirkland and Porizkova just starred in a movie, Anna, together, that I don’t think anybody ended up seeing. Kirkland jokes about being surprised she liked Porizkova, “because we’re both beautiful women.” OMG, did Sally Kirkland just compare her own blowsy Jersey City boardwalk-type charm to Paulina Porizkova?!? That’s some balls, lady.
I don’t know. There’s just something about this font and the way it’s laid out that turns me on. Yeah, that must be it. And not the tingling I feel in my veins when I see the words “John Oates…”
i) Andy features… wait for it… THE PARACHUTE CLUB WITH JOHN OATES. Say what?! I’m dying and we haven’t even gotten past the titles, which are so good I took a screenshot (see above). But, it turns out that this segment is just John Oates talking about how he came to produce the Parachute Club’s latest album. And here I thought the Parachute Club was going to be like the Pyramid Club. No, they’re just another quirky, progressive three-person band from Canada.
j) Andy’s topics of the day are as follows: Sex. Vegetables. Brothers and sisters. All of Andy’s guests get asked their opinions about them. Tracy Johns talks about broccoli. Jerry Hall has four beautiful sisters back in Texas. But my favorite? “There hasn’t been any real sex in New York since 1983,” is John Oates’ offering.
SIDEBAR: Andy tries to convince Jerry Hall to leave Mick Jagger so she can become a groupie for the good-looking boys in an obscure (but hopefully up-and-coming) band called Curiosity Killed the Cat. Jerry laughs. No dice, Andy!
k) Back at the Pyramid Club, we see a knockout performance by a lady (I’m pretty sure she’s a real lady) named Carla Stiener. Again: I think she’s a real woman, but I can’t be sure. There’s hardly any Google results for info. But apparently she performs again in Ep. 3.
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