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back to JUNE 11, 1974: ROSEMARY KENT IS FIRED

Rosemary Kent is fired from Andy Warhol's Interview magazine

Bob Colacello:

"She [Rosemary Kent] was fired... in what we called 'the coup d'etat.' The final battle was over the cover of the special English issue we were doing that summer: Fred [Hughes] wanted Charlotte Rampling... Rosemary wanted her fat-and-happy English bulldog, Sedgwick's Boogie Woogie. After a meeting with Peter Brant, who had been pushing for Rosemary's dismissal for months, Fred said that he would do it 'at the first convenient moment'. That came while he was conveniently in Paris, and the task fell to Rosemary's arch-enemy, associate publisher Carole Rogers. After Vincent [Fremont] had the locks changed first thing in the morning, Carole called Rosemary at home and told her, 'on behalf of Peter, Joe, Fred, and Andy, I'm callling to say that your services are no longer required at Interview.' Andy was sitting nearby, reading the papers, as if he had nothing to do with it. Later he said, 'I'm sure Rosemary's going to sue. We should never have given her a contract.'

When Fred came back from Paris, he appointed me editor, and Peter Lester, a young Englishman who had come over to help on the special English issue, managing editor. Within a month Peter Lester complained that his title sounded 'too businessy' and Fred agreed to give him my title and I was given the title executive editor...

Soon I came up with an idea for a column called Excerpts from the Diary of Andy Warhol. Pat [Hackett] and I worked on a sample column, and when we showed it to Andy, he thought it was a great idea, saying every name we mentined would have a reason to buy the magazine, and every restaurant or shop we mentioned would have a reason to advertise. But he crossed out his name and scrawled 'BC' over it. That's how my column, OUT: Excerpts from the Diary of Bob Colacello was born... We came up with OUT because the whole thing was so 'In' it was ridiculous. Most people didn't get it and referred to it as 'Out and About' or 'Going Out' or 'Way Out'...

My new job title came with a new salary from Motion Olympus Inc., the company Peter Brant and Joe Allen had set up as owners. It was $150 a week, in addition to the $125 a week I had been receiveing from Andy since 1972, which was raised at the end of 1974 to $150, making my combined salay $300 a week, or $15,600 a year. I was also given a $450 Christmas bonus, in a straight forward check. I spent half of it, $225, on an antique Japanese wood box for Andy." (BC239)

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