Photo credit: Janet Donovan
Only in Washington could a lunch meant to celebrate Warhol’s legendary muses be hijacked by a man in robes who’s never heard of Studio 54. At Café Milano — that eternal stage for the capital’s who’s who — owner Franco Nuschese invited the city’s most artfully ambitious to toast Laurence Leamer’s latest book, Warhol’s Muses, a dazzling peek behind the curtain of the Factory’s myth-making machine. Between bites of burrata and murmurs about who might be the Edie of today, the conversation was all about the ups and downs of Warhol’s muses.
Then, like an act of divine intervention, the television behind the table flickered to life: white smoke. A new Pope. Gasps. Forks down. In a heartbeat, the sacred and the scandalous collided. One minute we were debating Warhol’s superstar Candy Darling’s legacy — the next, it was papal succession and whether the Vatican’s new occupant would ever make the cover of Interview. The new Pope popped up on the TV like he’d RSVP’d. Leamer’s lunch and it turned from art world gossip to Vatican breaking news faster than you can say ‘papal conclave.’ In a town where timing is everything, Leamer managed to launch a book and get photo-bombed by the Holy See. It felt like a scene out of a Fellini film. Leamer, of course, was in his element — equal parts chronicler and conductor. “Andy would’ve loved this,” he said, “He always said everyone gets their fifteen minutes — apparently, even Popes.”
By dessert, the news cycle had moved on, but the moment stuck. In a town built on optics, power, and timing, Leamer had managed to host a book lunch that somehow straddled the sacred and the surreal. As the guests filtered out into the Georgetown afternoon, someone quipped, “Only in D.C. could Warhol be upstaged by the Vatican — and still win.”
Leamer offered a raw and riveting look behind the glittering facade of Warhol’s Muses, his latest book chronicling the women who orbited Andy Warhol’s chaotic world. Known for his bestsellers on American dynasties and social icons, Leamer delved deep into the drug-fueled culture that defined the 1960s New York art scene—and the heavy emotional toll it took.
“The majority of them end fairly badly,” Leamer said of Warhol’s inner circle. “And one of the things in this book is the use of amphetamines, the use of drugs. They’re all taking amphetamines. Andy romanticized it in his film, including Chelsea Girls. People shoot up. . Andy stood back and watched.”
Leamer described one tragic figure, dancer Freddie Herko, who died by suicide while on drugs: “One day he takes a bath in flowered bath water and he turns classical music on and jumps out the window. And Andy’s response was, ‘Gee, I wish I had been there. I would’ve filmed it.’ And he would’ve filmed it because he just stood at a distance from everything.”
Franco Nuschese and Larry Leamer
The book draws extensively from Warhol’s own audio recordings—an obsessive habit of the artist.
“Andy, from 1966 on, started recording everybody in the morning. He gets up in the morning, he was on the phone, he turns on his recorder, records all day long. He doesn’t tell you he’s recording you. If he was sitting here today, he would be recording us and not telling us.” According to Leamer, there are 3,400 tapes—many inaccessible due to the Warhol Foundation’s restrictions. But for the period covered in Warhol’s Muses, Leamer was granted access to transcripts. “It is amazing stuff… Nobody can say it’s not true. It’s based on these tapes.”
The book closes with the tragic end of Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick:”She’s 28 years old, she’s a heroin addict and she dies… Bridget calls Andy. And because Andy was taping everybody, Andy tapes her. She tapes Andy—that conversation. And Andy said that this is a woman he loved beyond any in his life. He hears she dies—there’s just no effect. There’s really no concern. His only question is: Who gets the money?”
Kevin Chaffee, Chris Murray, Marilyn Thompson and Tom LoBianco
Leamer admitted he feared backlash for challenging a pop icon: “If I made this stuff up, I would be in a lot of trouble… But so far, it’s gotten the best reviews of my life and everybody feels I got it right.”
When asked why he focused again on women—as he did in The Swans of Fifth Avenue—Leamer replied: “People said I wrote well about women. I like writing about women. I find women more interesting than men. I find women more complex… So if I can write a book featuring women, I’m going to do it.”
During the discussion, guests reflected on their own brushes with Warhol and the ‘60s drug scene. One noted, “I grew up in the sixties, but I never used amphetamines… There was a group of us into peace and love and pot or something—not everybody got high.” Another guest, Chris Murray who owns Govinda Gallery, that exhibited Warhol, pointed out, “Andy had seven shows at the gallery… I launched the Indian series… I knew Andy well. He was as much a scene-maker as an observer.”
Leamer’s Warhol’s Muses offers a stark, unsentimental portrait of an era, and the women whose beauty, chaos and unraveling helped define it.
