02/11/2010 5:00 am
Culture
Liz Smith: Donna Karan Gets Her Hands Into Haiti
Our Gossip Girl also dishes on Ron Galella -- Stalked ... And a Dame Edna and Michael Feinstein rendezvous.
Donna Karan/Image: David Shankbone/Wikipedia
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But sometimes we have to look back to get a historical perspective. The other day Felice Quinto died at age 80. He was the original Italian paparazzo (slang for mosquito) used as a model by Federico Fellini in making his epic film "La Dolce Vita."
Legendary paparazzi are still with us in the U.S. and have become celebrities themselves all over the globe as they stalk stars, entertainers and the upper crust. I wrote recently about Ron Galella, who has a documentary, "Smash His Camera," coming from Sundance and has just sent me two more of the big coffee-table books that display his work.
New York’s Clic Gallery at 255 Centre Street will celebrate the life of the late Andy Warhol with an exhibition of Galella’s photos. This show runs until March 8. Here you will find the book Warhol by Galella:That’s Great! as well as Ron’s book Man in the Mirror.
I loved the Warhol book because in addition to all those grand photos of Liz ‘n’ Dick, Liza, Bianca, Halston and the like, taken during the Studio 54 era, there are several quotes that totally sum up Andy Warhol. Here are two of them: "Art is what you can get away with" (nobody ever proved that better than Andy himself) and "I like boring things."
If you find yourself down in St. Barth’s, you can catch this same show at Christiane Celle’s Clic Bookstore and Gallery there. Paparazzi have come into their own!
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EVERYBODY IN the New York fashion world knows the following, but for you out-of-towners, I feel the need to report that when one goes downtown in Greenwich Village to the Donna Karan loft, one is in a sweet spot that has its own story.
This loft was formerly the studio of Donna’s much-loved husband, the artist Stephen Weiss, who died all too young in 2001 at the height of his amazing wife’s fashion fame. (Donna, who started out with Anne Klein, had a remarkable rise and created The Donna Karan New York and DKNY labels. Her charity works for Beth Israel Hospital and others has become legion.)
Donna doesn’t live in the loft space, which became the Urban Zen Initiative, but keeps this incredible black-and-white multi-floored space for charity events. She’s generous that way. (Looking around the other night, I remembered Andy Warhol’s remark: "My favorite color is black. My other favorite color is white.")
The other eve, Haiti was the recipient of Donna’s generosity and she, with certain important cohorts, laid on quite a party. It was so alluring that Vogue’s Anna Wintour, PR chief Paul Wilmot, writer Billy Norwich, Carolina and Reinaldo Herrera, Jane and Mac Nagle all showed up to support the effort. (Many more VIPs were there but I’m just reporting on the ones I actually saw.) This event was put together in only a few days and opened up with Bobby Kennedy Jr. giving us a 20-minute lecture on the history of Haiti under the French and under U.S. oppressive interference.
Mr. Kennedy was followed by Donna, who was super effective when she spoke and I think maybe this wonder woman should run for office.
"Help Habitat Help Haiti" has the idea that if we overcome the arriving rainy season in Haiti by sending tents and shelter equipment to the suffering of Haiti, then someday they will be able to abandon their tents and move into real buildings, which they’ll have helped build. This is a great "Habitat for Humanity" idea. Many others followed Kennedy and Karan and all of them told us the same things. But never mind that.
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Ann Richards…think..big hair and shoots from the hip….the silver spoon analogy…priceless. Reminds me of Sarah…big hair…shoots moose!!! Sarah is looking for an analogy…even in the palm of her hand! Both made an impact on politics.
Andy Worhal…an inventive artist…think soup cans…in this day in and time might have been thought of as a meth freak! Graffiti art, have been toured around Austin, actually my neighborhood, and their is art on the building sides. It is intriguing.
Donna Karan dresses Barbra….enough said. Classic.
Legendary paparazzi are still with us in the U.S. and have become celebrities themselves all over the globe as they stalk stars, entertainers and the upper crust.
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I hope you didn’t intend to imply that stalking them is normal and acceptable. Many stalkers do become celebrities. And not just for the photographs.
As for Donna Karan and the Design Divas they probably would do more to help the Haitians by speaking out against the garment industry sweatshops that are still in operation and which were subsidized in great part by the billions poured into Haiti by our government.
Donna Karan of course knows all about sweatshops. She had to settle a lawsuit over them in China while denying any knowledge of them.
Having read a article from last year’s Hello! Canada, on Prince Charles and his Duchess of York, Camilla Parker-Bowles and judgmental comments by Anna Wintour, I was not impressed. I got the distinct impression that Anna had NO idea what was behind the pressure for Prince Charles at the time he got engaged to Lady Diana Spencer, to get married, to produce an heir.
It was basically an arranged marriage and it was clear during a U.K. interview, that HE didn’t love Lady Diana although she was smitten with him and now that he’s wed to long-time Lady Love, who likes to go "mucking around" horses and the Princess would not ever have likely done the same thing, the comparison was lacking in sensitivity. Had Ms. Wintour taken time to read about Lady Diane Spencer’s background, she might have understood the dysfunctional family that Diana was born into as her mother drove off into the sunset without reason and that Diana got married to a man who didn’t even love her. Diana was a contemporary woman and I see in Camilla, the same thing as I see in her mother-in-law and another woman….Ann Landers. None of these women EVER changed their hairstyles over the years. The Queen, because her "subjects" don’t like change in their Queen and Camilla, having married Prince Charles, is the same. She’ll likely have her same hairstyle when she’s in her 80’s because THAT’S what the public expect of her.
I occasionally wonder if the Queen was even aware that her son was carrying on a discreet affair behind her back or did nothing to discourage it. The Queen of course, considering the type of woman Camilla is, has welcomed her into the FIRM with open arms while despising Princess Diana.
Even Royal men can be jerks and Prince Charles proved himself to be a jerk while being married to one woman he DIDN’T love, all the while being the father, sort of, to two fine outstanding boys, now men. As Princess Diana often said, there were three people in her marriage, Prince Charles, herself and….the ugly presence of a second woman. Does Anna Wintour even CARE how Diana must have felt knowing Prince Charles’s attention and devotion was always directed towards Camilla?
Despite all the negativism towards Princess Diana and the way she lived her life, I think even a Royal spouse, is a dirtbag for cheating on his Princess. Take that…..your ‘Royal Highness’ Anna Wintour. ‘Tis very easy to judge when you DON’T really know that much about the person you’re criticizing and judging.