Sometimes, he’d be seated at Carter’s table. He was paired with friend Diane von Furstenberg often, but not always. Once, a seating chart led to some awkwardness.
“I was next to this lady, and she was very attractive, but I had no idea who she was,” he recalls of a past party. “She’s this Colombian comedian who was on a big show on TV. It’s got family, something family. She’s a very attractive brunette. She’s about 45, 50, very sexy lady. She’s very, very famous, and great. I forgot what her name is.”
I suggest a name. He shrugs. It doesn’t seem too important to him.
“It was embarrassing, because I did not really know who she was, and she was semi-upset that I didn’t know who she was because I don’t really watch the American TV. It was kind of odd because it’s like sitting next to Marilyn Monroe and not knowing who Marilyn Monroe is.”
It wasn’t just the party’s guest list that appealed to Pigozzi—he also appreciated the “pigs in the blanket,” as he calls them, an appetizer for which he and Carter apparently share a passion, and which he said his friend always had on the catering menu.
“It was a great place to take pictures,” he adds, “people were very relaxed.”
“Some people I knew, some people I didn’t know, but they’re so happy to hold the gold Oscar in their hand that they would let Fidel Castro take their picture. They were so happy to have their picture taken that anybody could—Kim Jong Un could be working on the camera, and they would have their picture taken.”
But what, one wonders, is it all for? Pigozzi has taken up a sort of junk journaling practice recently, collaging photos and hotel door hangers and other ephemera from his life into the pages of bound A3 journals. He’s in it all for the experience. He wants to be there, and after, have something tangible to prove it. Here he is with Michael Douglas, there’s Martha Stewart.
