C alifornia is not the worst place in which to be
stuck. In fact I love it! To view your world from a distance is interesting, hearing news slightly delayed, the anchors of life breaking until it is inevitable that your inner compass makes a paradigm shift. At least, that is what has happened to me. I missed all the fashion collections. All of the dates that are normally fixed in my year were suspended. Of course I followed my friends’ shows online, and it was actually some sort of experience to see it from far away.
LA in January and February is punctuated by endless award ceremonies. The Globes, the Grammies, the Independent Spirit Awards etc, which culminate with the Oscars. This year, the writers’ strike overshadowed the whole period and Hollywood was nervous. I actually liked the bare bones of the simple reading of the Golden Globes. It was refreshing, it felt modern and there were none of the forced elements which seem unfortunately to characterise these events. The Grammy show was surreal in its vulgarity. The Oscars were terribly flat. Has the nature of stardom changed or has the audience become more selective? The fact is that now we all know that it is teleprompted and timed to the last degree, it has ruined the experience. Even the jokes, the mistakes and the moments of overwhelming emotion are scheduled. I watched the Grammies and the Oscars quietly with Sue Mengers, as Hollywood’s first and much emulated superagent is one of the smartest, funniest and best qualified people to comment. Everyone agreed, the ceremony was practically a bore. The best bit, apart from being with Sue, was Diane von Furstenberg’s great ad for American Express: yes, the advertisement was better than the show! Far better.
Diane is brilliant at everything she does. She just gave an interesting and moving evening at her studio where she put on a play based on the stories of seven courageous woman from all over the world, from Pakistan to Nigeria to Ireland, who have each helped fight oppression and changed people’s lives. Their tales are utterly harrowing. I felt so lucky to be living in the West, with a vote and the rule of law. It is so easy to forget and to take these important rights for granted. Coincidentally, I am selling off a part of my collections in April on eBay and at a sale in London, and the entire proceeds are going to Womankind, a charity that deals with political and domestic abuse. If it helps even one person, that will be a start. My hope is that it will do more but you have to begin somewhere, don’t you? Iam in the grip of US election mania. I have had a bet on with my bookie for two years (I’m not joking!) that Barack Obama will win. It is looking less and less like a long shot. Even if the rival faction does its best to defame and destabilise him. I really like what I read and what I hear about him. From people in their sixties, registering to vote for the first time, to the young, the nation is galvanised. Why do I distrust Hillary Clinton? I am told that I should like her as she is a ‘woman’. Is it her toughness, her fakeness that I loathe? You could say that Barack’s young aide Samantha Power may have been unwise, but she was right when she called Hillary a ‘monster’. She’s a bit like Rasputin — almost impossible to finish off.
Ihave been wrong though; I thought France made a good choice last year with Sarko, and now I’m beginning to wonder. The cult of personality and Napoleonic hubris, combined with a lack of understanding of the distance required from a head of state, is probably the origin of the mess. Our Queen might really be the best head of state in the world! A real example of how the role should be performed.
I’ve become addicted to blogs. Bloggers may not be part of the mainstream news media but the blogosphere certainly is one of the best ways to tap into the zeitgeist of current thinking and it is helping drive discourse in the city and country. I even have my own at Starworks. com, which is great fun to do. I check many sites now every day.
Last week I saw my friend, the photographer David LaChapelle, who is more than anything an artist. His idea was to do a portrait of me underwater, so I spent four hours in a tank in full evening dress. I lost all sense of time and space. The only instructions I could vaguely understand were muffled by the water. Gazing out of the tank, it was impossible to make anything out in the blur, just the flash of the bulbs going off. I was so happy and relaxed compared to other times I have had being photographed — even by David. At one point somebody thought I had drowned.
On a more sombre note, the carnage in Jerusalem last week was awful. Jerusalem is such a wonderful place with so many different faiths. Having just visited, I was amazed at the way that everybody lives side by side. It is difficult to understand unless you have seen it and it was very different to what I expected. Israel should be supported and it makes me furious when the continuing Palestinian crisis is blamed exclusively on Israel and not at all on the Palestinians’ execrable leaders (Arafat was one of the worst in the world) and the hypocrisy of some of the surrounding Arab states. Of course Israel makes mistakes, but it is the only country in the world that faces an existential threat. One forgets how small they are and the extent to which they are surrounded by forces who wish for their annihilation. Go and see for yourself — it is terrifying. Dark times indeed.
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