The New Issue: Leo Lerman
Leo and his then-assistant, Stephen Pascal, 1987. Pascal stills works at Conde Nast.
AB: Stephen, did you learn anything new about Leo? You knew each other – how long, how many years?
SP: I worked for him for thirteen years.
AB: Reading over the journals, did you get a better sense of who he was?
SP: Incredible, yes. I learned a great deal about his interior life and his insecurities, his emotional life and his previous affectionate life… It’s interesting – it worked both ways. I learned, to a certain extent, how much of a persona the Leo Lerman that I knew was a creation. At the same time, I learned how authentic he stayed, how sincere he’d stayed through the whole thing… Also – I say this about the parties – I didn’t know how much of it was real. To read the intimacy and the familiarity he had with these people – some of them major egos and major personalities. He was somebody who could forge these friendships with these people. I knew he’d been friends with them, but it’s different to read this kind of journal, the kind of momentary perception – that instant insight. He had a real gift for that… I wish he were still around. I have lots of things I’d like to ask him.
Photo credit: (c) Alexander Agor.
This book is terrific!
Thanks for that…and yes, read the book.
I loved the current pictures too!
STB
What’s pretty extraordinary about Lerman’s journals — aside from the thoughtful writing and personal honesty — is his first-person candid commentary about still-fascinating cultural figures such as his buddy Marlene Dietrich (who tells LL that she doesn’t like sex, but since men seem to expect it from a sex symbol, however old she’s getting, Dietrich just gives in to get it over with) and Maria Callas (who spills the beans about Ari Onassis’s preference for anal sex and how Jackie O refused to go that far). It’s like an insider’s guide to the realities behind 20th-century culture.