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Bob Colacello

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Bob Colacello
Colacello at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival Vanity Fair party
Born
Robert Colaciello

(1947-05-08) May 8, 1947 (age 77)
Bensonhurst, New York, U.S.
EducationGeorgetown University
Columbia University
OccupationWriter

Bob Colacello (born May 8, 1947) is an American writer. He began his career writing for The Village Voice before becoming editor-in-chief of pop artist Andy Warhol's Interview magazine from 1971 to 1983.[1] As part of Warhol's entourage, they collaborated on the books The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975) and Exposures (1979). Colacello has been a contributing editor for Vanity Fair since 1984 and has been a special correspondent since 1993.[2]

life and career

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Robert Colaciello was born to John and Libby Colaciello in Bensonhurst, New York on May 8, 1947.[3] He and his two sisters, Barbara and Suzanne, were raised in Plainview, Long Island.[4] He graduated from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1969, and also has an MFA degree in film criticism from Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts.[5]

Colacello began his writing career around 1969, when he began publishing film reviews in the Village Voice weekly.[6] As a graduate student in the Film department at Columbia University in New York, his first publications doubled as his class essays and homework assignments.[7]

In 1970, Colacello wrote a review of Andy Warhol's film Trash, which he hailed as a "great Roman Catholic masterpiece". This review garnered the attention of Warhol, and Paul Morrissey, the director of many of Warhol's films, who approached Colacello to write for Interview magazine, a new film review magazine Warhol had recently begun to publish.[8] Colacello was made editor of Interview within six months and, for the next 12 years, remained directly involved in all aspects of life and business at The Factory— Warhol's studio—as he developed the magazine into one of the best-known lifestyle magazines of the time.[7] Early on, he still wrote his name as Robert Colaciello.[9] Colacello recalled that Warhol suggested he change his name to Bob Cola, in order to sound more "pop."[10]

In 1972, Interview underwent a revamp and became a reflection of Warhol's social life. In 1974, Colacello began writing his "Out" column: "Andy said, just write about everywhere you go, every lunch, every dinner, every art opening, every movie premiere, every person you see there, whether they're famous or not. And then everyone mentioned will have to go out and buy the magazine and tell ten friends—'I'm in Interview, you have to buy it.' That was the idea for my column. It was very tongue-in-cheek."[4]

In addition to writing for Interview, Colacello traveled with Warhol, attending parties and events with the task of asking celebrities, socialites, heads of state, and princesses if they wanted their portraits commissioned by Warhol.[9] They also collaborated on the books The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975) and Exposures (1979).

For a time Colacello lived with a boyfriend, Kevin Farley, who worked at Iolas Gallery in New York.[11]

In 1983, Colacello left Interview due to tensions with Warhol. He cited not receiving credit for books he ghostwrote, and Warhol's jealousy over the attention Colacello received from Nancy Reagan among the reasons for his departure.[12] According to Warhol: The Biography by Victor Bockris, Colacello and Warhol's relationship deteriorated partly because Colacello had been "trying to stake a claim to an inordinate share of control over Andy Warhol Enterprises."[13]

In 1984, Colacello began writing for Vanity Fair magazine,[14] and has been a regular contributor since, writing extended profiles on a wide range of public personalities, including Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles,[15] Balthus,[16] Rudolf Nureyev,[14] Liza Minnelli,[17] Estée Lauder,[18] Doris Duke,[19] and Naomi Campbell.[20]

Colacello is also a biographer. He is the author of Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House, 1911-1980, about the social and political rise of Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy Reagan.[21] His memoir of working with Andy Warhol, titled Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up (1990),[22] was called the "best-written and the most killingly observed" book on the subject by The New York Times.[23]

In 2007, a book of Colacello's photographs titled Bob Colacello's Out was published in 2007.[24]

In 2022, Colacello appeared in the Netflix documentary series The Andy Warhol Diaries.[25]

Books

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  • Colacello, Bob. Ronnie & Nancy: Their Path to the White House, 1911 to 1980. Warner Books, 2004
  • Colacello, Bob. Bob Colacello's Out. New York: 7L, 2007
  • Colacello, Bob. Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up. New York, New York: HarperCollins. Vintage reprint edition, March 11, 2014

Awards

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Notes

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  1. ^ "November: Bob Colacello". November: Bob Colacello. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  2. ^ Fair, Vanity (2007-03-05). "Bob Colacello". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  3. ^ Martindale, Stone (26 August 2007). "Bob Colacello misses the Seventies". Monsters and Critics. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012.
  4. ^ a b "My Life in Parties: Bob Colacello's Off-Kilter Views of New York Society". W Magazine. 2020-09-04. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  5. ^ Feeney, Mark (12 August 1990). "Of Andy and Co. there is no end". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
  6. ^ Shaw, Kurt (13 February 2009). "Brigid exhibit showcases Warhol confidante". Pittsburgh Tribune.[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ a b Cohen, Claudia (October 2004). "Bob Colacello: you never know who you'll end up meeting at Interview". Interview.
  8. ^ Harrod, Horatia (23 September 2007). "Bob Colacello: 24-hour party person". London: Daily Telegraph.
  9. ^ a b Colacello, Bob (1990). Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up. New York: HarperCollins. pp. 48, 116. ISBN 978-0-06-016419-5.
  10. ^ Dault, Gary Michael (8 September 1990). "Warhol: The life and death of the party Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Up Close by Bob Colacello (review)". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012.
  11. ^ Colman, David (2007-09-16). "Let the Music Play, or Maybe Not". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  12. ^ Rea, Naomi (2023-06-13). "'You Can't Stay at the Side of a Genius For Too Long': Bob Colacello on the Ups and Downs of Life in Andy Warhol's Orbit". Artnet News. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  13. ^ Bockris, Victor (2009-04-29). Warhol: The Biography. Hachette Books. p. 447. ISBN 978-0-7867-3028-5.
  14. ^ a b Dunphy, Catherine (4 September 1990). "Bob Colacello: Andy Warhol's mouthpiece seeks his own fame". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on January 31, 2013.
  15. ^ "Charles and Camilla begin US tour". BBC News. 1 November 2005.
  16. ^ "Bob Colacello archive". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 30 November 2009. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
  17. ^ "Liza sure liked to party, goes her sad little story". Spokesman-Review. 2 October 1986. p. 10.
  18. ^ Donnelly, Shannon (2 October 2005). "SAIL-ABRATION".
  19. ^ Smith, Liz (2 February 1994). "Woody's "headaches"". News Day.[dead link]
  20. ^ Colacello, Bob (September 2008). "A league of their own". Vanity Fair.
  21. ^ Seitz, Raymond (28 December 2004). "The two halves of the president". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  22. ^ Mansfield, Stephanie (8 September 1990). "Warhol's Soiree Sidekick; Bob Colacello and His Tell-All Memoir of the 'Holy Terror'". Washington Post.[dead link]
  23. ^ Glueck, Grace (August 9, 1990). "The Artist as Icon, Busybody and Chief Executive". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-07-15.
  24. ^ Times, The New York (2007-11-29). "Fine Print | Bob Colacello's Out". T Magazine. Retrieved 2024-08-30.
  25. ^ Colacello, Bob (March 5, 2022). "The Real Andy Warhol Diaries". airmail.news. Retrieved 2024-08-30.
  26. ^ "Bob Colacello is the recipient of VAEA's Páez Medal of Art 2017". VAEA. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
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