Official "Halston" viewing thread

Was Babe Paley really a blonde in the late 60s? That really surprised me.

The dialogue made it seem like Halston had personally invented ultrasuede--like he had whipped it up himself in the back of his atelier.

*"nasty," not "nasy"--sorry

I was molested.

I love the enormously fat actress as Pat Ast.

Did Liza really perform "Bonjour, Paris" at the Versailles Fashion Show? That's the only time I've ever heard that song performed anywhere except the movie "Funny Face." but it would make sense for Liza to sing it since Kay Thompson was her godmother.

R4 Apparently so, at least according to this article, which is dated 2015 so isn't just taking the series as fact. Though it sounds like Liza did sing for Halston's segment and the models danced to it and then closed the show with Cabaret.

Also in my googling I found something saying it was actually Anne Klein who got the shitty room, and was basically locked away in the basement.

The rent boy is beyond annoying.

Elsa Perretti was and Marisa Berenson is gay. Will this be revealed here?

MEIN FUHRER!

R7 That's about the reviews, not viewing

3rd episode in. Not impressed. Perhaps it will pick up.

It doesn't pick up, r9. I'm glad I watched it, but other than the great shots of men's asses and the fashion, it was underwhelming.

Have to admit the bit with Zander Hodgson bottoming in Studio 54 was kinda hot. Shame it was only three seconds.

if I am not looking at the screen when he's speaking, I am convinced it's Phil Hartman.

The CNN documentary is actually much better. With the actual Halston, the real Liza was interviewed and REFUSED to speak badly on her best friend in a most touching and drunk way. Halton's niece and many of his mistreated and celebrated model muses are in it. Marisa Berenson, creepy as ever and his rather strange and homely lover. Halston of course had a nonstop gangbang of black male escorts for many nights during his highest days and nights. The soulful and appropriately frivolous commentary of the still amazing Pat Cleveland brings him to life. CNN is not known for great documentary, but the one on Halston was fascinating and very well done. The REAL people were far more fascinating, gorgeous, bizarre, sad or ridiculous than anything Ryan Murphy could screw up.

Every fucking time, he has a great story to work with, that's badly written, cast and a mostly lousy execution. The Andrew Cunanan/Versace series being an exception. And Sister Jude.❤️

The portrayal of Victor Hugo is awful. Nobody could be that stupid and sad.

The series has the feel of a ‘70s made-for-tv movie.

It makes it seem like he threw it all away for trashy trade. Maybe that's the case?

This should've been a two hour movie.

It would have been a great 4 hour, two night television event. Starring Farrah Fawcett as Roy Halston.

The woman playing Liza seems more like she's trying to playing Christine Pedi playing Liza Minnelli.

Victor Hugo, the rent boy, is intolerable.

Does is show Liza's ganbangs on the cellar mattresses at 54? She also did more private shows with Dobermans. Remember when that book just about got published? Liza would have never been able to show her face in North America again. Halston's debaucheries were insatiable and wild, but people expect that more from the gays. Liza had more stamina and was wilder to be honest. The stories about her are too much for the color TV.

The real life Victor Hugo was intolerable. Everybody except Halston hated him.

r21 is trying to be funny.

R21 is telling the truth. Liza did do ganbangs in 54, lots of them. And her private shows with Doberman's are the worst kept secret of late 70s NYC.

What is a "ganbang"? You spelled it that way twice.

Is it anything like a gangbang?

Haha Liza fucking dobermans! That's HI-larious!

I'm surprised DD Ryan isn't in this. She was a big part of that world.

My g key is broken. What's your excuse for being stupid R25?

You're just pathetic, r27.

Bette Midler's daughter Sophie von Hallsberg plays the bridge-and-tunnel woman who dies trying to sneak into Studio 54.

Anyway, back on topic: Here a great doc on the Battle of Versailles. The actual event was much more interesting than what was shown.

[quote] Starring Farrah Fawcett as Roy Halston.

Ms. Fawcett is otherwise engaged.

What do tasteful friends here thin k of Halston's decorating habit of reversing the books on his shelves so the page ends show rather than the spines?

Liza and Mia used to lie out in the sun and read book titles to each other and it was the best time EVER!

I found it really entertaining because it's about as deep as I want to go on the coked out group.

The first few episodes are really fun because of the 70s glamour, but then it's not very interesting once he sells out and he falls into disaster.

Loved it, he sounded just like Halston, Victor can fuck me with that big dick anytime, and LIZA was fabulous!

I asked about official viewing threads in two earlier Halston threads to no avail. Then in the 11th hour of the day of release to put this up just continues the mess that this project has been and it’s really divided by three now. Whoever is the “officiating” thread person really needs to be on the ball in the future.

Kay Thompson directed the Versailles show.

In the clip that was released, why is Liza singing "Liza With a Z" inside a restaurant? Was she working as a singing waitress at the time?

I think it was a big mistake to have Liza tell the story of Halston coming to the rescue on the set of Cabaret rather than showing it, which would of gone a long way to sealing the intimacy of their friendship after the bit of antagonism when they first meet. Also, it would have reinforced that halter style top concept that I assume was part of the revamp in the movie costuming. Was any of that at all touched upon in Fosse/Verdon?

Wait, we were denied scenes of Barbra’s Second Hand Rose flurry of hats and Truman Capote’s masks? Why did they skip the bulk of the ‘60s?

He had a bit of Carol Channing in his dialect.

[quote] I asked about official viewing threads in two earlier Halston threads to no avail. Then in the 11th hour of the day of release to put this up just continues the mess that this project has been and it’s really divided by three now. Whoever is the “officiating” thread person really needs to be on the ball in the future.

Perhaps pull the stick out and start an official thread yourself if it’s that important to you? You might also want to let Ryan Murphy know that DL let him down and made his project even messier by having, gasp, three threads on the show, all unofficial.

It's a dreadfully dull shitshow, so superficial and so paper-thin. The visuals are so flat and the music is uninspiring.

Which one of your DL queens was given the opportunity to play the role of the top of the couple fucking behind Halston the first time he tries cocaine? It’s the scene in the meatpacking district in between the 18-wheeler trailers. All I have to say is, nice ass.

[quote]Whoever is the “officiating” thread person really needs to be on the ball in the future.

Many people have to work, eat, fuck, shit, and sleep, auntie. We can't reside on DL 24/7 like some of you.

So, will Murphy next do a biopic of Alexander McQueen, hopefully with an American actor? Or perhaps Russell Tovey, who at least is gay?

"Jonah Hill IS Alexander McQueen!"

Yes R12 All I can hear is the anal retentive chef.

It’s distracting how little McGregor looks like Halston.

Umm…Vera Farmiga sniffing a used jockstrap anyone?

Bette Middler's daughter as the B&T woman who dies in the vent was a strange choice. She looks so much like her mother it looked like young Bette herself was trying to sneak into the club.

r52 I said that to my bf when that happened -- "Is that supposed to be Bette Midler?" I had no idea it was her daughter. Bette must have gone to Studio 54 right? I don't think I've ever heard her talk about it but yeah here's a picture of her dancing with Capote

So many lost opportunities. This is Halston Lite.

Bette and Liza

My goodness, r55, Liza is so...so...wide-eyed and...ALERT.

[quote] [R52] I said that to my bf when that happened -- "Is that supposed to be Bette Midler?" I had no idea it was her daughter. Bette must have gone to Studio 54 right?

What was so weird is then they talk about Bette Midler in the same episode.

[quote] I asked about official viewing threads in two earlier Halston threads to no avail. Then in the 11th hour of the day of release to put this up just continues the mess that this project has been and it’s really divided by three now. Whoever is the “officiating” thread person really needs to be on the ball in the future.

You sound like Jamie Gertz as Muffy Tepperman on "Square Pegs" having a shit fit.

Back to the show: McGegor is terrific in many ways, but his lack of physical similarity and his unmitsakble non-Americanness 9especially since he had Halston's weird Transatlatic affected accent) was distracting.

I keep wondering who could have done it in his stead. Jon hamm looks more like Halston than he does, and is very American, but I just don;t think he has the actin g chops.

The best person probably would have been Corey Stoll in a wig. He certainly could have acted the hell out of the part. and he's American and would look much more like Halston. But I don't think he yet has enough star power to have carried it,

It IS sort of boring, which others have mentioned in multiple threads, but it's pretty watchable.

So Rory Culkin's Joel Schumacher made me google Schumacher - because I had no idea he had this early design life. I also had no idea that he had slept with between 10k and 20k women and men in his life.

[quote] Wait, we were denied scenes of Barbra’s Second Hand Rose flurry of hats and Truman Capote’s masks?

Halston didn't have much to do with Streisand during that phase of her career. You have to remember except for the Jackie Kennedy hat he was not famous until 1968-9 or so.

And was Halston even invited to the Black-and-White ball?

Though I always think Finn Wittock is one of those Australian boys of Ryan Murphy, he does have the verticality and long in face like Halston, and his acting chops have risen above the material he has been in in the past that he might of worked. And, weirdly, though Canadian, I would love to see what Ryan Reynolds would have made of him in a screen test.

Someone—maybe it was on the reviews thread—thought Matthew Macfadyen would have been perfect as Halston. Totally agree.

Macfadyen looks much more like Halston, and he's been able to play a Midwesterner desperate to put his roots behind him convincingly on "Succession," so I agree: he'd have been a perfect choice.

The weird thing about Halston is he could be a total bitch but he had a very sweetly composed and handsome face, and so does Macfadyen.

They made the piers look very fun.

Every show from the pre-smartphone/internet era makes me really miss the pre-smartphone internet era.

R58 Oh my God, that is the most perfect compliment you could ever give me. I totally modeled myself on her my senior year of high school, there was no one else I wanted to be more.

I think the critics are being too harsh. It's very watchable. But I agree it has several misses. The No1 thing it fails to do is really show HOW he was a great designer. He was a great fabric cutter. For that you need to watch the Halston documentary where they show the patterns. I thought the actors who played Eula, Perretti, Schumacher and Hugo were terrific. I wish Schumacher was still alive to comment on it. It's a desperate shame Schumacher never wrote his autobiography. What a fascinating man he was.

Ewan has the voice down pretty well, but otherwise his portrayal is really off. He's nothing like Halston.

I'm on episode 3 and honestly I don't think it's that bad. By no means perfect - there's plenty of things to pick at, but still, I'm enjoying it for the most part. The mini fashion history is fun (even though I assume not entirely accurate and incomplete).

Kelly Bishop was great as Eleanor in episode 2.

Halston was a size queen. I love it!

There’s an old adage about being a great sculptor by just chipping away at everything that’s not supposed to be there, like that Halston could look at a piece of material and just “see” the dress that was lurking inside it. I felt the series did that a number of times with the Liza dress design montage, especially the tie-dye caftan (I image some girls here squealing with delight during that scene), the wet suede trench coat and most of all that devastatingly beautiful scene of being in, what I took to be Madison Square Park, and seeing the fountain wrapped for the winter and the plastic blowing off the figure at the top sequencing into him cutting the material on the bias and draping it into a gown. So I don’t know what you all are complaining about it not showing his genius. And I do think that fountain scene is one of the most sublime things Murphy has ever put on screen, and I would love to know if that a actually comes from Halston’s history or what, who and how the brilliant writer came up with it.

Peter Fonda should have played Halston. He looks just like him and has the same aristocratic bearing masking a more midwestern heritage. Was Peter Fonda too busy or just not one of Murphy's boys?

The series looks cheap, bland, and flat. R71 go watch the documentaries or some European movies about great designers and you will understand the differences.

[quote]You sound like Jamie Gertz as Muffy Tepperman on "Square Pegs" having a shit fit.

That's Chairperson Tepperperson to you!

I got surprise anal when I fell asleep watching episode two.

[QUOTE] Was Peter Fonda too busy or just not one of Murphy's boys?

R72 I think him being dead for two years had something to do with it.

[quote]Was Peter Fonda too busy or just not one of Murphy's boys?

Peter Fonda was busy being dead, R72.

I also think the series is lacking. That was such an epic era, and they made it look dull. It's also too long, a two-hour movie would've been better.

From what I've read about Halston, he could be very funny and bitchy in that old-school way and the series doesn't capture that at all.

R73 I agree, it doesn’t look like they had much money to do this on and I wonder if some set pieces had to be left out entirely just because they became cost prohibited. The trip to China seems to have been crucial to showing him at the top of the game, but I’m not sure it was even mentioned and not having scenes where they got there left a hole in the story. It was like they knew they had to do Versailles and Studio 54, but neither of them looked believable anyways. I was trying to figure out where they filmed the arrival in the Paris Airport scene, there’s a terminal at LaGuardia, but I’m not sure it was that. I’m sure the costuming took the bulk of the budget, especially since they wouldn’t have had much from his personal archive that they might borrow since it was sold off piecemeal.

R75 From Victor Hugo? And who was that blond boy in Studio 54 supposed to be, I felt we were to recognize him?

I don't see why being dead should stop Peter Fonda from appearing in a Ryan Murphy series. Peter should have played Halston. He would have won an posthumous Emmy!

But Geraldine Chaplin is shockingly still alive and they missed the opportunity to have her play Martha Graham who looked ninety even when she was in her 40s.

Halsotn designed the costumes for Betty when she filmed Applause for TV. They should have shown that bitch meets bitch fest.

Well, it wasn’t the Marine Air Terminal at LaGuardia that I was thinking of for the airport in Paris, it’s circular and Art Deco, but that mural dominates. Anybody recognize where they shot it, maybe a lobby of a hotel or Deco building?

Vera Farmiga in episode 3 was great--her presence was very calming, and she's so far the best actor they had on the series (although I was very impressed with Kelly Bishop in episode 2). But I agree that having her put her entire face in the crotch of Victor Hugo's jockstrap and inhaling deeply was ridiculously campy.

The thing wasn't written very well. Since there were just two very fleeting scenes of Halston making hats for his mother during the Depression I had no sense of what she really meant to him, especially since he never mentioned her as an adult until she died--so when he broke down hearing she had died and then went to her funeral there was no emotional weight there. And Victor Hugo must have had some hold over Halston IRL because they were together for so long, but the series made it seem as if all he had to offer was an enormous dick. Even if you're a total size queen, if someone were that obnoxious and annoying, you would move on to another hustler with a big dick unless he had something else to offer, but the series didn;t make clear to me what it was.

I agree I would have liked more scenes of Halston actually cutting the dresses and sewing (apparently Ewan MacGregor even studied to learn how to do it for this role), and I would have liked more scenes of him interacting with his wealthy clients. My favorite scene in the whole thing was the end of episode 1 when he's with Babe Paley and sells her on his ultrasuede collection: that was the only time I got a sense of how charming he could be and why he was so successful (the beautiful actress who played Paley was perfect--she seemed so utterly composed and regal).

(said while listening to Bacall "sing" at r83)

[italic]JESUS CHRIST!![/italic]

Is this the real Victor with a nice dick in his mouth?

OK, seek and ye shall find, the Paris Airport secede was filmed at the beautiful Art Deco lobby of the Brooklyn Public Library main building! I knew I had been in that space before! And it was just recently cleaned and restored so it must have been in perfect condition. Studio 54 was filmed in the Hammersmith Ballroom. I guess the Paris Opera House was played by a movie theater in Jersey.

The miniseries Victor Hugo is better looking than the real-life Victor Hugo.

Here’s a bit of the Brooklyn Public Library Deco Lobby, apparently they replaced and updated the terrazzo floors, which could not have been the economic decision, but maybe they were protected under landmark designation?

[quote]The miniseries Victor Hugo is better looking than the real-life Victor Hugo.

The casting was close, but no cigar. Miniseries Victor....I would let him ruin my life, too. Gladly. Real life Victor? Fuck that guy.

And here it is in the series.

[quote]I agree, it doesn’t look like they had much money to do this on and I wonder if some set pieces had to be left out entirely just because they became cost prohibited.

You'd think Neflix coulda sprung for at least one real orchid.

[quote]I keep wondering who could have done it in his stead.

In 2019 Joel Schumacher was asked about Ewan McGregor being cast as Halston.

Vulture: Did you see that Steven Gaines’s biography of Halston is being turned into a limited series with Ewan McGregor?

Schumacher: Well, I mean, with all great respect for Ewan, but he doesn’t look anything like Halston. Armie Hammer should have played Halston. He’s perfect.

IMO, it's not the look of McGregor so much as the characterization. I've never thought actors have to be clones of their subjects.

I wonder if it was supposed to be a 6 or 8 part series that was chopped down. 5 episodes is a weird number for a limited series. And its clear they ran out of content after the third episode--the last two of his descent and quick redemptive act are dull as fuck

An interview with the biography author. It was originally to be a Vanity Fair article that never went to press. Alec Baldwin owned the rights for quite a while and wanted to play him. Has anybody read the author’s memoir, apparently he tried committing suicide for being gay at 15 and then checked himself into the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, sounds harrowing, but interesting.

I thinner, younger Baldwin maybe could have pulled it off - he's a good actor, but he's usually pure heteronormative bravado.

Apparently, Victor Hugo was one of the urinators responsible for Warhol’s oxidation paintings, and I would put it past him doing some of the cum ones as well.

I think I'd rather take a sulfuric acid bath than watch another Ryan Murphy sequined vomit fest.

Yes, Hugo as did some of the cum stuff. It was mentioned a couple times when I was googling him today.

"also", not "as.

"I fuck you with this big dick, and you love that. But, then you send me out into the night, then you go back to your perfect life, you put nice clean sheets on the bed."

That Thanksgiving turkey looked terribly undercooked - the meat was pink!

1) it doesn't bother me at ALL that Ewan doesn't look like Halston. Ewan is very handsome and I like looking at his face and all the things he does with it in this series. What a sweet age he is at.

2) The series' pace is languid but that sort of fits Halston's style.

3) Thank god for the character of Victor. He's alive at least. And the actor is very hot.

4) which perfume was inspired by the Eau de jock? The first women's or the men's?

Spring Affair by Donna Summer was a great closing tune. LOVE.

[quote] I thinner, younger Baldwin maybe could have pulled it off

Sadly, a time machine has yet to be invented.

[quote] 4) which perfume was inspired by the Eau de jock?

Chanel #5.

Halston 240Z was the ish back in the day. My older brother worked in a very trendy nightclub and all the waitstaff, male and female were required to wear 240Z. The females also had custom made dresses by Linda Lundstrom. Very flattering sexy dresses too. They wrapped around you and tied in about 10 different ways. He has pics of those disco days. Pyramid hair and WIDE open eyes. SEXY ass men with lots of shirt buttons undone. Tight white pants. OwweeeeEE!

As unsatisfying as this was, I would like to see more mini-series about 70s NYC glamour.

Preferably next time NOT with Bette Midler's ugly daughter,.

In the last episode, I thought when Victor Hugo came up to Halston on Montauk Point to beg to collaborate with him even after Halston had already paid him his blackmail that I would not have been surprised at all if Halston had then had him assassinated.

There really needs to be a limited series about Studio 54 and all the insanity and glamour of that time period. NOT by Ryan Murphy, though.

Bette Midler's daughter has a name. She's not pretty. But she's not a bad actress either. She's been in a lot of projects, mostly NYC themed. Bette Midler has never once mentioned Sophie's small appearances. She's letting her find her own way. I kind of dig Sophie Von Hasselberg. Toxic Ryan Murphy is the one who stunt cast her - but she was still very good in the part. Why would Bette Midler's *ugly* daughter upset you so much R110? Aren't you that Klan racist, anti semite, ancient white fag so well known to Datalounge? You call most women c*nts too, right?

Bette's daughter is in her mid 30s. If it hasn't happened for her yet, it isn't going to.

I love the irony of the poster calling others "ancient white fags" when he's talking about Bette Midler on a Halston thread. Put down the bottle and go to bed, hon.

R112 The documentary was very good.

Bette's daughter is too fug for the screen.

R118 can't you two keep ya septic, endless shit on just one thread?

LOL r118. Go ahead and expose away! Loser.

R112 The 54 documentary.

Thanks r121. I've already seen it but will watch again. That doc was very well done.

R122 I don't know how that story is filmable, is so vast. And affected the next few decades.

R120 posted MORE than 120 times on the John Mulaney thread. From one of his devices. He has more than one. It's a sad life for that "glamorous young man who hangs with celebrities and does free drugs." R120 knows all about the improper spending habits of the wives of men he dreams of sucking off. OLD MAN is a disgusting piece of racist and anti semite filth. A filthy drunk racist ancient white fag. Go to bed bitch. You get a special meal on Sundays. Eat the cake, Anna Mae.

I would have appreciated a lot more about the epic Versailles designer queen-off.

The documentary on Versailles is much better than what was shown in this series.

R126 Agree, watched it last night. The women are still so delicious. And the photos and clips are incredible.

[quote] Why would Bette Midler's *ugly* daughter upset you so much [R110]? Aren't you that Klan racist, anti semite, ancient white fag so well known to Datalounge? You call most women c*nts too, right?

Oh I'm sorry, but you obviously didn't hear: the flight attendant has instructed us to put all our unnecessary excess baggage in the overhead compartment.

All these are from same poster:

[quote] Bette Midler's daughter has a name. She's not pretty. But she's not a bad actress either. She's been in a lot of projects, mostly NYC themed. Bette Midler has never once mentioned Sophie's small appearances. She's letting her find her own way. I kind of dig Sophie Von Hasselberg. Toxic Ryan Murphy is the one who stunt cast her - but she was still very good in the part. Why would Bette Midler's *ugly* daughter upset you so much R110? Aren't you that Klan racist, anti semite, ancient white fag so well known to Datalounge? You call most women c*nts too, right? Official "Halston" viewing thread

[quote] I don't drink R115. You ARE that "ANCIENT WHITE F@G" who shits all over everyone of colour, different gender or ethnicity on DL. You are over 78 years old and trying to sound like you are John Mulaney's buddy on those other threads. We ALL know your toxic smell. A famous DL drunk and NUTJOB. Go the fuck to bed and pray to Jesus that I don't expose you further. Official "Halston" viewing thread

[quote] R120 posted MORE than 120 times on the John Mulaney thread. From one of his devices. He has more than one. It's a sad life for that "glamorous young man who hangs with celebrities and does free drugs." R120 knows all about the improper spending habits of the wives of men he dreams of sucking off. OLD MAN is a disgusting piece of racist and anti semite filth. A filthy drunk racist ancient white fag. Go to bed bitch. You get a special meal on Sundays. Eat the cake, Anna Mae.

Someone is having a very hard evening, I see...

Yes, I'll say. The subject of those posts is having a difficult evening. That's you. Put the bottle down R129. May jesus visit healing to your troubled mind & diseased body this night. Amen. Shalom.🙏🏾☮️

New York...

That poster is infamous on the Drag Race threads. They’re convinced one person is responsible for the backlash they get for their deeply unhinged and insane posts. I blocked them a while back and I couldn’t recommend it more.

"Halston 240Z was the ish back in the day. My older brother worked in a very trendy nightclub and all the waitstaff, male and female were required to wear 240Z."

Umm, there is no such thing as "Halston 240Z".

There was a car called the 240Z back in the 1970s. It was a Nissan (back then, Datsun).

I think you're thinking of Halston Z-14. Something with which I am familiar as it was the very first cologne I ever bought for myself at I. Magnin.

I watched the whole thing in one sitting and didn’t fall asleep. That’s a compliment. I thought the real HALSTON was regal and stunning while Ewan looked like a sack of potatoes. Krysta channeled Liza beautifully. I didn’t recognize Kelly Bishop at first. Fantastic. It wasn’t great but I enjoyed it. Wasn’t there a HALSTON movie announced many years ago with Alec Baldwin as Roy and Jane Krakowski as Liza or am I dreaming?

I agree with everything you said, R134. Yes, someone on one of the threads said that Alec Baldwin owned the rights for quite a while and was going to play Halston.

A younger Alec Baldwin could've played Halston. Too bad that didn't happen.

The mention of I Magnin made me swoon.

I miss I Magnin. There was a lovely one where I grew up, near Bullocks Wilshire..

After reading the reviews I wasn't going to watch it, but after the first episode I could not stop and watched them all. It was better than I expected. Halston was a terrible human being and was the main reason for the series being such a downer.

From the Old Los Angeles thread, r138...

[quote] Halston was a terrible human being and was the main reason for the series being such a downer.

I think that's more the fault of the writing of the mini-series than the man. From everything I've read, he could be quite a bitch, and could also be impossible; but he was also very funny and a lot of fun, and that helped inspire deep loyalty towards him from the famous women he knew, like Liza, Mary Wells Lawrence (whom i was really disappointed was not in the miniseries, because she got him the Braniff gig), Garbo, Babe Paley, etc. They showed some of these women and their loyalty to him, but they did not make clear that they liked him because he could be so much fun as well as for his talent.

I once saw Tina Turner shopping in Bullocks Wilshire. She and her son were in the men's department. They both looked like they were dressed for church, the little kid in a navy suit and tie. I couldn't believe my eyes.

R141 This series did Halston an injustice because it did not portray his charming, fun side. He came off as a miserable creature.

Here's a photo of Liza speaking with Givenchy at the dinner following the show in Versailles. She must have changed into this Halston ensemble for dinner. She owned that great night in history.

One thing I don't care for is the depiction of his childhood in the flashbacks. His father was a CPA, they were not poor as depicted.

Liza was SO famous in the 70s. I wonder if she misses all of that.

R142 Isn’t Tina’s maiden name Bullock?

Ian Schrager was handsome!

McGregor is not handsome enough to be a young Halston.

This review likens this effort to The Love Boat.

Well that’s fitting since Halston was ON Love Boat, R150

R151 It was no longer exciting and new by the time he got there.

That clip is amazing.

I kept expecting Vicki (Jill Whelan) to say things like, "Wow, that sure is one scary facelift, Ms. Vanderbilt!... oh Daddy, Bob Mackie and Halston both sure are gayer than the gay is long!"

R152 It was to teenage moi in Nowheresville, USA!

The Love Boat laugh track was absolute crap.

The inclusion of Vicki was when The Love Boat jumped the shark, they thought they could just cousin Oliver her in there to hide the drugged out cloud surrounding Julie McCoy, but I didn’t buy it then, and I most certainly do not buy it now.

Oh that Love Boat! Everyone from Warhol to Gish!

It must have been such fun for Halston and Warhol and their entourages to fly out to LA and appear on love boat. What a hoot.

Murphy should attempt a series about the Continental Baths. Would be very strange and interesting if Bette's daughter played her.

Well the daughter needs to play Bette in SOMEthing! Otherwise what a waste of progeny.

I can't stare at that face for 90 minutes.

Murphy should do a biopic series of Kay Thompson. Maybe even allow Sarah to play her.

The real Halston was so handsome. Ewan is nice but just not the same. The real Halston was the perfect example of white middle-class midwestern WASPness.

R150 that review is about an old documentary. That review was published in 2010. It has FUCK ALL NOTHING to do with this 2021 series. You do realize that, right?

He was very pretty as a young man. He would be 89 if he were still alive.

Do they name Halston's lovers or longtime partner?

His childhood reminds one of Givenchy's young years. Both had mothers who loved them and nurtured their interests.

Why was the House of Chanel not at Versailles 73?

"... but I didn’t buy it then, and I most certainly do not buy it now."

#156/Gavin MacLeod has stated her boundaries!

R168. That's a very good question that demands an answer.

Givenchy was hawt in 1973. Far more attractive than Halston IMO.

Yikes, 1977.

"Do they name Halston's lovers or longtime partner? "

Victor Hugo is a fairly major character in the series.

Ed Austin - Halston hooks up with him within 10 minutes into episode 1 but he's a more minor character - appearing a few more times and establishing that they had a relationship. But nowhere near as big major of a character as Victor. He's in the background pretty quick and not in the last two episodes.

Then there's Black guy he fucks at the piers, and Black guy Victor hires in a bathroom and brings home to him. Both one scene - and there's no names.

That's it.

r166, they named and showed quite a lot of his long-time partner in the 1970s Victor Hugo, and also Ed Austin, the black man who was Halston's lover in the 60s and later became his store manager and a vice president of his company (and after Halston's death, a clothing designer in his own right). We get to see both pairs have sex (with good rear nudity, particularly from teh actors playing Austin and Hugo).

We also see Halston and Hugo having sex or making out with other men, particularly at Studio 54.

The show is very positive towards Austin (who is portrayed as long suffering and shunted aside), and very negative towards Hugo (who is portrayed as an obnoxious, spiteful, manipulative, attention-starved blackmailer--which is as he supposedly was in real life!).

I certainly didn't think Halson was bad looking, but I never found him extraordinarily handsome or sexy. But, I could see the attraction - he was very put together and had a look.

I wish Peter Fonda had played Halston. Then we would have had something. Liza should have played herself.

Oh yeah, I forgot the young white of Hispanic guy at Studio 54 - but that was just a quick shot of them having sex - whoever it was didn't have lines which even the Black hustlers did.

Purses flew out of Halston's mouth.

[quote] I wish Peter Fonda had played Halston. Then we would have had something.

Five hours of staring at a corpse?

All Ryan Murphy productions are five hours of staring at a corpse. Peter Fonda is alive and well. He looks so much like Halston and is a fine actor. I don't blame him for turning it down though.

[quote] Peter Fonda is alive and well.

Peter Fonda died nearly two years ago, hon:

[quote] Peter Henry Fonda (February 23, 1940 – August 16, 2019) was an American actor, director, and screenwriter. He was the son of Henry Fonda, younger brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget Fonda.

[quote] Fonda died from respiratory failure caused by lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles on August 16, 2019 at the age of 79.[47]

[quote] Following Fonda's death, his sister Jane Fonda made the following statement: "I am very sad. He was my sweet-hearted baby brother. The talker of the family. I have had beautiful alone time with him these last days. He went out laughing."[48][49]

Liza and her walker would have slayed in this production.

The events the miniseries portrays depicts Liza from a full 50 to 35 years ago.

Liza today would have more appropriately been cast as Martha Graham in her final years.

Oh lord. Peter Fonda looks like Halston back from the grave. Why did Jane Fonda claim her brother was dead? She's always needing the attention, that one. Peter Fonda and Liza should have played Halston and Liza. Iman and Pat Cleveland were available too. Lange could have played Pat Ast if Murphy insisted on one of his repertory players in the cast. Darren Criss could have played one of the chinamen.

Peter Fonda IS Halston.

R168 Coco had died two years earlier, and from her death until Lagerfeld was a pretty bad period for Chanel, and it certainly fell out of running for being a pinnacle of French fashion

Why wasn't I asked?

Would Lee Pace have let them thin his enormous Leonid Brezhnev eyebrows?

Oscar was pretty good looking, despite the receding hair.

I liked the battle of versailles episode & the last episode was great. Ewan Mcgregor was fine.. So what is everyone streaming next?

I'm entirely changing directions and watching Snowfall - a series about crack cocaine in LA in the 1980s.

I knew Bill Blass in the 80s when I was in my 20's. I found him to be a very sexy silver fox. Here he is (2nd from right) in WWII

Everbody want's to put their two cents in. Did you know Newsweek still exists?

Hugo's cock

So we didn't get to to see the first lover in the series -- Andre Basil.

It's well known that coked up Halston in that hideous dangerous apt took on 10 or twelve BIG dick black and PR men a night. Almost every night. His relationship with Hugo was about more than the dick. It's not hard to find big dick on much better looking men. Hugo had some control and maybe even love with the dude. Halston was a racist and classist, of course. He loved diversity in his models and men, but he was still a lisping blue eyed old school femme gay. He wasn't going to be seen dating a black man. Just like Liza being a dog lover. She loved being fucked by Dobermans for private parties - but she had smaller cute dogs as her official pets.

Ryan Murphy could have blown all the homos out of the water in this but he held back.

Halston revolutionized fashion shows. Before Halston, they were very quiet affairs with the models walking up and down the runway and the ladies in the audience sitting there holding little cards to signal what they wanted. Halston was the first to play pop music and have the models dance and do their own thing down the runway. It was like a party. I believe he was also the first to use black models, but I could be wrong about that.

Exactly that, R196.

10-12 big sick thrashings a night? That seems like a lot even if you're coked up and love sex.

Was Halston's hole gaping?

Just dig this 1960 Berlin fashion show, r197!

How did they fix that iconic Elsa Peretti -designed lopsided bottle so that the stopper properly closed the bottle? They never explained it on the show though it's lack of fit became a plot point.

They would have had to make the stopper close properly or the perfume would have evaporated.

Halston 240Z.

*"its" lack of fit, not "it's"--sorry

[quote]I miss I Magnin. There was a lovely one where I grew up, near Bullocks Wilshire

At one point R138, it became an indoor Korean mall. But all of the architecture seemed to have been left alone when I visited about twenty years ago.

I was more of I-12 man myself.

The stopper fit fine. You weren't paying attention. The challenge was he assembly lines were fitted to fill a perfume bottle straight down and this shape prevented that. Also it was expensive to make that shape.

[quote]At one point, it became an indoor Korean mall.

Liza has retired now.

Halshton

The show is so cheap that any scene involving extras is barely populated. I get that outfitting extras in period clothing is cost prohibitive, but Central Park looks like a neutron bomb hit it, and a NY hotel lobby looks like 3 am check in at an Ohio Days Inn. If anything calls out for CGI, it's this series.

R209 Maybe it was an artistic choice, since NYC did lose over 800,000 people between 1970-80, when this show is largely set.

[quote]The show is so cheap that any scene involving extras is barely populated.

The production had to shut down due to the pandemic and when they returned they had to decrease the number of extras. Even McGregor said their Studio 54 looked bleak due to restrictions.

It's a shitty show. Why do people keep defending Ryan Murphy's bad work? The Versace one was quite good - though what the fuck was Penelope Cruz doing in it? Lange is his favorite fish, but they jumped the S H A R K trying to pass her off as Joan Crawford. The OJ series was completely failed by casting the wrong bitch as OJ Simpson. Cuba Gooding Jr. Really? Ryan has his crushes and then the people he can get. But his work is sloppy and lazy. The CNN Halston 2 hour documentary is far more glamorous and insightful and provocative than this Ewan looks like his name McGregor mincing around for 10 hours. Invest the money and time in doing a good 150 minute treatment of one of these subjects.

The Cunanan story was unique. His life and the murders were episodic and it building to something forward and back. Required the multi episode arc. It's the best and most rewarded thing that Murphy has done. Because is was halfway good. Feud was a laugh riot. Talk about not capturing a period. Or casting 70 year old actresses as 40 year olds. Embarrassing for everyone concerned. Lange was HORRORIFIC. She looked like an evil chinese laundress.

After he cast Liza and the black trade in this one, Ryan Murphy checked out as usual. Why didn't he cast Peter Fonda and Joyce Dewitt as Liza?

Wow r212's opinion is pretty worthless.

R212 is spot on. Lange is a freak show and that's all Ryan Murphy knows how to present. Darren Criss succeeded despite Ryan Murphy. Ewie McGregor was just more bad decisions. But, like Lange, he once was someone - so Murphy cast him in a role that he wasn't suited to play. He was unable to transcend the bad production and material.

R213 cannot even get past his obvious trolling of superior men and minds. He's the Lange loon as well as every other kind of LOON there is.

r214 = "ancient white fags" nutcase, talking to himself. He's also r212

Maybe he's talking to you - ancient racist white f@g nutjob? You seem to be everywhere. Following and harassing the men who are younger and more intelligent than you. You must post over a thousand times a day on this site? It seems you do. Most everyone is younger and more insightful than you, R215.

^^this pest needs to be fumigated off of DL.

F&F R215 and R217. Isolate his posts just to see how nutty and obsessed he is. Bitch posts thousands of times a day. Read his hundreds of posts on John Mulaney! Bitch is NUTS. How many computers do they have in his facility? Janbot used to post from McDonald's because HE was an assistant manager there. But R217 is definitely in assisted living or a psychiatric home. It posts from at least three different devices, but lately is down to two. F&F it for his own mental health and the well being of all the fine men and women on DataLounge.

[quote] 5 episodes is a weird number for a limited series.

Not weird at all. It's actually the minimum episode number required in the categories of mini series and limited series.

I think it needs to be a musical! Definitely retain Krysta, maybe Creel for Halston?

The show has Elsa Peretti in love with Halston, even though she knows he is gay. Wondering how accurate that part is.

This is a fun life in pictures. I love the Academy Awards dress he did for Farrah.

One might reasonably criticize this Netflix series for making Halston a caricature instead of a real person. But the CNN documentary confirms that the real Halston beat them all to it.

He was everywhere in the 1970s and 80s. Every talk show. What's the point of being so fucking grand if you're in Chicago hawking dresses and housewares on the Phil Donahue Show? It was patently obvious that he wouldn't have any of that shit in his own home and he made himself look ridiculous.

He was ridiculous. Talented, but tortured and ultimately a self-destructive fool. There is nothing glamorous or sophisticated about self-destruction. Of course, that's the element of his personality that Ryan Murphy would seize upon for this tawdry soap opera. The women playing Liza Minnelli and Elsa Perretti are terrific with difficult assignments.

Mary Beth Peil is tall and was hired to play Martha Graham who was famously tiny. Why do that? A 5 foot tall actress as a character overcome by arthritis and old age would be a much stronger image for appealing to Halston's sympathies and affections.

[Quote]The show has Elsa Peretti in love with Halston, even though she knows he is gay. Wondering how accurate that part is.

Elsa was gay so this was nonsense. Why didn't Murphy out everybody? Especially the dead ones.

R224 Elsa died March 18, 2021, so after filming was completed so there’s that.

Elsa's home near Barcelona.

It’s ironic that Elsa made all that money off of silver at Tiffanys and then went to live in Spain.

R224 There are different types of love. I have no problem believing she loved him in a platonic way.

I have no problem believing she loved him in a romantic way and still understood it was impossible.

Lesbians need sperm to make babies.

R227. She purchased her home in Spain before she made the Tiffany money.

She was European (Italian). Why wouldn't she prefer living in Europe?

She rebuilt her decaying village and became the first non Spaniard to be honored with the National Culture Award.

She must have been a force of nature.

Matt is back, I see, over at R212 and R214. Its rabid hate for Lange always gives the poor psychopath away.

My god, Matt, don’t you ever stop?

[quote]Lesbians need sperm to make babies.

Interesting fact: So do hetero women.

MacGregor sewed his own pants during lockdown! Who knew he was so method?

The actors save this and make it watchable. One thing this production did well is casting. Everyone seemed like they were from the era .

I disagree that it didn't show his love for his mother. I said to my husband "I don't want anyone to ever love me that much." Too much responsibility. I'm a fucked up person and do have two teen children.

I still hate Halston's style and 1970's clothes in general, but J.Crew has some 70's style sunglasses that I kind of want now.

I watched the whole thing Friday night. Husband was in and out of the room, but saw most of it. I enjoyed it because I didn't know much about him and didn't know that he was friends with Liza. I found it pretty interesting but I like trash.

R233. You're quite misinformed if you believe Peretti was straight.

Joe Eula, Elsa Peretti and Halston

I never for a moment thought Elsa Peretti was straight.

I just added the interesting point that straight women require sperm to produce offspring.

Interesting? Not really.

[quote] [R214] = "ancient white fags" nutcase, talking to himself. He's also [R212]

LOL

BUSTED!!

Ben Vereen is Liza’s BFF now.

Ben and Liza are both survivors. God bless them both.

Shurvivorsh

[quote]Feud was a laugh riot. Talk about not capturing a period.

Sounds like someone is on their's.

FEUD was the shittiest show that Murphy made with his sacred monster Jessica Lange. We all love her but she was TERRIBLE with raisins in as Joan Crawford. Too old, too fat, a curiously tilted performance that was not only all wrong, but a bit embarrassing.

Someone is on their's? What the fuck kind of old troll language is that? Don't claim to worship women and put down what their bodies do. And don't call big dick strong men menstruators everytime Jessica Lange delivers a slobbering HAM of performance.

You're a well known NUTJOB here R245. Keep it that way.

Of course Elsa Peretti could love Halston. No gay man desired him. Sucking dicks at glory holes is not fucking LOVE. Some elder gays here are very confused about that. Spent their lives in a dark closet with their ass UP in the air. Then put down women and call them names? Men were paid to fuck Halston. One way or another. Always. Nothing sexy about him at all.

Elsa loved him very much.

^^ancient white fags troll.

^^ ancient white RACIST fag ^^

R247 Blocked him, gods he is tiresome.

Halston carpets!!!!

R250 He gets a lot of grief for "selling out" but actually I respect that he actually did the commercials for things like that himself and approved the products, rather than other designers who just let their names be used and collected the money.

R247 IS tiresome, but not blockable. He has so many IPs and devices. Like the warts on his lips and the abcess in his asshole - he will never go way.

[quote]Don't claim to worship women and put down what their bodies do.

I'm not. PMS is a scientific fact and gurl, are you ever suffering from it. And I worship no one.

[quote]You're a well known NUTJOB here [R245]. Keep it that way.

Don't know who you think I am, but I'm not. Trust.

Halston was the first to mass-market his name to various retail outlets. He caught a LOT of shit for it. Then every designer started doing it, and it's pretty much expected today. Halston was like the sacrificial lamb, though. It was very unfortunate for him. Calvin Klein and Donna Karan never suffered for mass-marketing themselves, among many others.

I’ve asked before, but I’ll ask again, what was Halston’s font?

Maybe this is a dumb question, but from what I understand Pierre Cardin licensed his name, too, didn’t he (before Holstein, iirc)? Cardin only just died last year and wasn’t driven to ruin by doing it. What did Cardin do differently than Halston? I think he was given a lot of shit for it, too.

Cardin didn’t overly license and dilute his brand until the late 1980’s. I think the main thing people hated Halston for was launching his JC Penney line because they were seen as just too downmarket. But, in the end he paved the way for others to create various levels of lines, like Ralph Lauren who had his own short-lived JC Penney exclusive line American Living.

Cardin and Halston were never on the same level as designers. No matter how much success Cardin had. That's what this series missed and what's hard to portray about Halston. His designs seem deceptively simple and louche - but they were indeed artfully constructions that are mostly timeless. Liza is not really the best ambassador for Halston design. She's always in some RED sequence outfit.

*artful constructions

I wish they included Anjelica Huston in this. I know she worked with Halston, and it would have been interesting to include her (or watch Ryan Murphy ruin here). Either way ...

FONT: Eurostile Next Extended

R261 Thanks, definitely looks like it, though Wikipedia doesn’t list it as one of the corporate uses. Interesting how it is used most often for Science Fiction and to instantly give a futuristic vibe.

Now can someone explain the Halston Roman numerals to me? What makes something a Halston IV vs a I or II? I understand that they were different product lines, but was one "better" than the others?

Shoutout who said this was great to watch on an ipad while doing work.

I’m enjoying it although Halston’s volatile energy is hard to be around for long periods of time. Thought he was going to murder his blackmailer ex.

Watched it. Typical Murphy production, but entertaining enough to binge on. The cast was fantastic. They got to work with an extremely flimsy storyline with way too many repetitive elements, but they nailed it.

McGregor's Halston is a first-class cunt. They made him extremely unlikeable, you couldn't even root for him at the very end.

Halston WAS a pushy pretentious cunt.

He would have been from Wyoming today...

sort of a "making of" behind the scenes thing released yesterday

[quote]I’ve asked before, but I’ll ask again, what was Halston’s font?

Possibly Eurostile Next Extended.

God help me, now that I've seen the name Halston everywhere during the past few days discussing the show, I can't get the "Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci" line from "He's the Greatest Dancer" out of my head. 😫

Coincidentally, there's a Gucci film coming out later this year, isn't there? Where's the Fiorucci film!

American Psycho: The Musical, conspicuously leaves out Halston from the designer name dropping in You Are What You Wear. The J.C Penny implosion had done him in.

Between this and Fosse/Verdon there's a real case for a Liza series. So many periods to choose from to focus on though

Peter Fonda should play Liza.

I tried but found the Fosse Verdon series unwatchable.

R272 The scripts are probably written but they're waiting for her to die so she can't sue.

R270 Me too! I looked up that video too, just because I wanted to hear "Halston.....Gucci.......Fiorucci."

I never was quite sure what the first line of the chorus was back then. I thought it was "I wonder why.....he's the greatest dancer." Thanks to the magic of the internet, I now have learned it's "Oh what, wow....he's the greatest dancer." Which sounds weird, but ok.

Is this thing about Liza fucking dogs true?

The Fiorucci series will be EPIC! You thought Halston was a whore - just wait until the story about this overshadowed designer comes out.

R270 Is that lead Sledge sister who is singing wearing adult braces or some early form of a grill?

[quote] Which one of your DL queens was given the opportunity to play the role of the top of the couple fucking behind Halston the first time he tries cocaine?

That wasn’t cocaine, it was poppers (the original popping kind). The first time he’s shown snorting coke is on Victor’s first visit.

R109. 240Z didn’t exist. I believe that’s a car. You’re stupid.

The piers were never shown. The street fucking was in a sector in the meat packing district nicknamed “the Trucks” where guys fucked inside and around trucks parked overnight by the loading docks of the big warehouses on the east side of the West Side Highway (I.e. across the avenue from what’s now Chelsea Piers ).

Okay, R282 - I didn't know that and it's interesting to learn. I said "the piers" in an earlier post because it's one of the main things that's sort of become semi-general knowledge about sex hook-up locations during that era. Of course there would be more, I but I don't know many of them.

I knew Víctor Hugo in My party days of the late eighties/early nineties - met him at J’s Hangout and our Hispanic heritages made us fast friends. There was a third Latino in our mix who came from a fairly rich educated family and whose answering machine message had him singing “leave a message” in a cute accent. Victor wasn’t as big an asshole as portrayed in the series, not at least towards that part of his life. He still did plenty of coke and, yes, had a huge thick uncut dick. We lost contact when I settled down with a boyfriend, and later I was a bit sad to hear of his passing.

The way the series portrays Victor is a mixed bag. I see how the series did try give him a full range of motivations and relationship skills. In mid-series, as Halston is rising, Victor is more human and Halston is showing what a cold cunt, and emotionally stunted cunt he can be and how this will increase. Victor was savaged by the beautiful people in ALL reminisences of the Halston scene. And with a huge dollop of racism and classics. That whale and social climbing Andre Leon Talley Victor and with typical condescending snobbery. AS IF Andre ever had the sexual pull of Victor, or any kind of experience in hot sex-based relationships. That queen can shut the fuck up (I'd say sit down but he never stands anymore). All the white social people trash victor in easy boilerplate of worthless destructive rough trade. At least the series gave him some humanity.

classism

sorry I can't see well - Talley eviscerates Victor, on record, everywhere he can. And he should shut the fuck up.

When Halston introduced Pat Ast to David Mahoney, I thought he said: "David, this is fat ass"; I audibly gasped.

I'm a little slow on the uptake these days.

"What Did I Have That I Don't Have Now?"

The Liza Minnelli Story.

Liza is like Joan Crawford: her fashion sense froze in a certain year and she never changed. For Joan, it was 1945; for Liza, it was 1973.

I was hugely disappointed Liza in this wasn't more of a mess. It was fine for 1968 when Halston first met her: but when she was packing to go to Betty Ford in the mid-1980s she should not have been so on the ball. I know she wasn't slurring her words yet, but I DO know (because I saw her on live TV then) that she was stumbling around and often confused. And i was waiting for the famous scene from "the Warhol Diairies:" when she appears at halston's house party in 1979 and announces loudly, "Give me every drug you've got!"

Yes R290! AND bring on the Doberman's!! Liza liked to put on shows. She had an appetite for being fucked by dogs while her "friends" watched and smoked. She was known as a sweet woman who LOVES drugs. And drugs brought out her exhibitionistic & insatiable characteristics. Pisces are the wildest addicts around.

Liza's speech problems happened after her first stroke. The one her sister called "encephalitis." Minnelli had some sibilant issues before, but her lips and face never fully recovered from that stroke and it affected her every lyric forever more. Mario Cantone does the best slobbering sibilant LiZA. She wasn't even that old when she had her first stroke. Coke addicts and strokes are not strangers. She sure as fuck didn't stop using for long.

[quote] Liza liked to put on shows. She had an appetite for being fucked by dogs while her "friends" watched and smoked

Are you sure you're not confusing her with her godmother Kay Thompson?

r291 thought he was funny.

Hi Georgia!

I wonder if Liza watched this

Liza must be bipolar like Judy.

R278 From your keyboard to RAI's ears!!!

R291 You've mentioned this on other threads... Where does this information come from? Just curious about the origin of this claim

r298 he's a pathetic troll

r299 If i recall correctly, there was no answer the last time i asked the question

I just block that troll, r300.

You have misunderstood. It was Rollerina and Disco Sally in the 54 basement with dogs. Alec Baldwin, in satin gym shorts, walked the dogs down the stairs. We all wanted Alec to have a go but he was a prude.

Kay Thompson staged the Paris show.

Fiorucci was a great store, filled with great items. It might not be a good subject for Ryan Murphy, which would be great for everyone, if true. But there's certainly a great documentary film in it.

R305:

I cherish my collection of Fiorucci thingamabobs, lunch pail purses and whatnots.

Also, my Heaven tchotchkes.

Circa 1980 at 54, there was a black girl who wore all green and roller skates named "Feaky Kiki" who'd skate in the streets, climb in and out of limos and pretty much be the entertainment until they let her in. She was a fucking hoot.

R145 - agreed. They made it out like he was raised in a farmhouse in the country. He was born in Des Moines (a city nonetheless) and moved to Evansville, IN at 14 - again, not a big city, but definitively not country. And his dad was an accountant, so why make it out that they lived in a rundown unpainted farm house on the prairie?

I got no impression that he was close with his mother at all. And could they demonize Victor Hugo any more? Halston was with him for years and Victor had his own art career. They make Halston seem like a complete idiot for staying with a cheap whore.

Overall, I give it a 3 out of 5. It's fine - but some of the writing was just piss poor. Ryan has put out quite a few things for Netflix in the past year - like every 3-4 months. Maybe he needs to slow down a bit and make sure the quality is there.

Something about Halston's townhouse gives me anxiety. I think it's the staircase.

Depressingly gloom.

[quote]They make Halston seem like a complete idiot for staying with a cheap whore.

A not-so-cheap whore with an enormous, fat cock.

They're generally kind to Liza in her many portrayals because she's still alive and has enough money to hire expensive lawyers who can sue.

As soon as she and Lorna shuffle off this mortal coil, there could be one helluva miniseries about the relationship between the two sisters. I doubt Lorna will outlive Liza by much given her ongoing struggles with breast cancer.

R313 couldn’t it also be that the older gay men making these shows still have such a reverence for their mother that they feel protective towards her children.

My trouble with this series was the same as with "Fosse &Verdon" (which Ryan Murphy did not create, but which was very much like his style): it really had no point to it. They were just about famous men who had a lot of success and then ran into a lot of troubles because they were self-destructive. Murphy gave Halston a false happy ending with the costumes for the Martha Graham "Persephone," but that could not have been in real life as cathartic as they made it in the miniseries.

The best Murphy miniseries about famous people have had an actual overall point to them so they've had somewhere to go: for "Feud," it was that the 20th century US social structure had an investment is seeing talented women turn against each other.as they aged. With "The Assassination of Gianni Versace," it was that the culture's obsession with celebrity and glamour can create a monster out of a nobody obsessed with these things.

Also, both those other series had the space ansd the good writing for absolutely superb supporting performances as well as the lead performances: Judy Davis, Jackie Hoffman, Alfred Molina, Kieran Shipka, and Alfred Molina all had terrific writing to flesh out characters in "Feud" (and except for Shipka, who has been good in other things, they were all up to it), and Mike Farrell, Judith Light, Cody Fern, and Joanna P. Adler all had great stuff to work with in "Versace" (weirdly, Edgar Ramirez and Penelope Cruz's parts were enormously underwritten). But here none of the characters were fleshed out except Halston's. Even the fine work done by Kelly Bishop and Vera Farmiga in "Haqlston" was due to the fact they are first-class actors, not because they were given anything to work with.

I also found Fosse/Verdon pointless: If there was a point, it was that Fosse wasn't nearly as talented as everybody thinks he is because so many of his good ideas came from his wife. Perhaps that's true, but the series did a bad job of showing what the fucking attraction was, then. If Fosse was just another choreographer, why were so many women obsessed with him? He wasn't particularly handsome and he treated them like shit. It only makes sense if he had genius of a kind.

The problem with Fosse/Verdon was that his relationships with Mary Ann Nile and Joan McCracken were more interesting and also shaped everything that was distinctive in his work.

Verdon may be the best known and was there when he did his best work. But the more dramatically compelling story was already over by the time she showed up.

Wasn’t Fosse/Verdon just a love letter to put them in the best light with an uncritical eye by their daughter?

I'm reading the Warhol Diaries right now (actually skipping around a bit because I don't know who many of the people he mentions are) and am surprised at how prominently Halston is featured in it. Warhol was barely a blip in this series.

Fosse was a chain smoker and he smelled bad. He was always on the make and was abusive to women and male dancers.

R319 Some will get into a snit about the use of the word "queer" but here's a nice piece about Halston & Andy and an exhibit of their mutual work.

The series seems intent on portraying Halston as an exclusively bareback size queen bottom who only liked it doggy style and always had some sort of drugs along with the sex.

Also, judging from the facial expressions, it's that old trope of gay porn (and even women in most straight porn) that bottoming or being the receptive partner and having a dick inside you is a kind of penance to be endured by the weaker/less traditionally masculine partner in the pairing which, despite the pain, the bottom can't get enough of... and the pleasure goes primarily to the thrusting, moaning top, when in fact, getting filled up can be blissful.

I don't think Fosse/Verdon was much of a love letter to Bob Fosse. He came off as a whiny, abusive, overrated drug addict.

The series was very kind to Gwen, though. I guess we know which parent Nicole liked best.

BUMP

Peter Fonda looks great there R321. He's captured the "gay" expression.

[quote] I'm reading the Warhol Diaries right now (actually skipping around a bit because I don't know who many of the people he mentions are) and am surprised at how prominently Halston is featured in it. Warhol was barely a blip in this series.

I keep getting the feeling this was supposed to be longer, but they had to cut it back.

Halston was friends with many famous people who do not appear int he miniseries, including Truman Capote, Bianca Jagger, Greta Garbo, Gloria Vanderbilt... they seem to have cut everything way back.

Halston Lite

I think you've way over thought it, R322.

[quote]As soon as she and Lorna shuffle off this mortal coil,

PLEASE let them do a Baby Jane remake before they do. Joey can play the dog.

Liza is already in the wheelchair! She can't WALK! And then the dog gangbang stories can come out as the real reason for her afflictions. Lorna tried to run her over for sure - but the Doberman's are what crippled her!!! Face the truth Lisa.

[quote](actually skipping around a bit because I don't know who many of the people he mentions are)

Heathen.

r331 many of the people from that time period wouldn't be known to younger people today. It was a LONG time ago. Esp. the NY socialites and various other art world/fashion world people who were mostly famous in that NYC world and weren't really household names. We're not exactly talking about people like Paul Newman or Elizabeth Taylor here.

They really should be teaching The Warhol Diaries as a stand alone course at University these days.

[quote]We're not exactly talking about people like Paul Newman or Elizabeth Taylor here.

You mean the salad dressing guy and the perfume lady?

Halston was kinda fruity. A terrible snob. And temperamental. Very like the eldergays of DL. I learned some things.

Halston IS the patron saint of eldergays. He’s the one who coined the phrase “Friend of Liza!”

I’ve mainly seen the Versailles’73 documentary listed here, but there’s also this one available in full on YouTube that has a very different style. The very faggy John Tiffany is in this one too, he’s very exhausting and seems like the epitome of the DL eldergay. Has anyone spun working as an assistant to someone famous into a lifetime career as unabashedly as him?

Only Halston could go to China.

[quote]Has anyone spun working as an assistant to someone famous into a lifetime career as unabashedly as him?

Unless Tiffany stole some dresses, Paul Burrell still has to have the win for that one.

R339- What/who are you referring to?

If anyone has read the book “At Danceteria” - there is a Halston, Liza, Warhol story centering around the JCPenney “Halston III” fashion show in spring 1983 that is really fun and, I think, would have made more compelling television. They start out at Halston’s townhouse, then they’re at the fashion show at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Ocean Life with that big blue whale hovering over the runway, and then they end up at Studio 54 where Steve Rubell secures hung black trade for Halston. The dialogue in the story was so much more believable than this Ryan Murphy mess. The Netflix series not even having a quick moment with Warhol made zero sense.

“Just because you sell in malls now doesn’t mean I’m going to start letting bridge-and-tunnel.”

There’s also a great story in the book where Jerry Torre (the Grey Gardens handyman) brings Jackie O. to The Anvil and they see a drag queen contortionist dressed as Anne Frank.

R340 I assume you have Google, use it.

[quote]Jerry Torre (the Grey Gardens handyman) brings Jackie O. to The Anvil and they see a drag queen contortionist dressed as Anne Frank.

She's in the wastebasket!

[Quote]There’s also a great story in the book where Jerry Torre (the Grey Gardens handyman) brings Jackie O. to The Anvil and they see a drag queen contortionist dressed as Anne Frank.

LMAO. J'adore when we take down the Hoity Toity with our ways.

It doesn't take Jackie down that she ventured downtown to mix in the demimonde.

I ordered "At Danceteria" based on R341's post. Should arrive today or tomorrow.

I thought it sounds like easy, maybe sort of trash, fun summer reading.

Why wasn't Halston's first show at Bergdorf's successful? There are some scenes where Halston's boss at Bergdorf's is emphatically telling him his hats are no longer selling, and he has to come up with something new. Halston proposes a whole line and the guy, reluctantly, agrees, but it ends up getting a poor reception from critics but they don't make it clear whether it was a commercial failure as well.

Seems strange that Bergdorf's wouldn't have held Halston to keeping his line at the store. The series doesn't explain how he got out of that deal

Is the Halston perfume that one can buy today the same formula as the original? They've cheapened up the bottle -- tragic. What did the original smell like? I'm sure I must have smelled it back in the 80s, but I can't remember.

R348. They certainly changed the formula, the newer version is a bit more cloying, instead of intoxicating....it’s still wearable tho....the “plastic slice” bottle is a travesty. The original bottle is a peretti masterpiece.....the new plastic neck bottle snaps on, after being filled and remedies the issue the slightly curved neck had. Ugh. I covet my original bottles.

So, despite knowing of Paul Rudolph and visiting his buildings, I had not known he was gay until learning more about Halston’s townhouse. Of course his residence wasn’t far away, did they interact socially, party together at Studio 54, or share rent boys? Anyone rereading the Warhol Diaries, is he mentioned in conjunction with them? This is an interesting video of a designer obsessed with Rudolph’s NYC residence who paid for interior photos to be done before it was dismantled, despite if being left by him to The Library of Congress. It’s a shame it doesn’t exist anymore.

Here's a very vivid descrip of the original Halston cologne. Sounds amazing.

R351 That's wonderful. But the show led me to think it would smell like jock strap!

I watched the Ultrasuede documentary today and, wow, the "documentarian" behind that film was truly delusional. I know we always mock Andre Leon Talley here, but damn, he was the only interviewee who seemed to realize what an idiot Whitney Sudler-Smith was (also the executive producer and creator of that ridiculous Southern Charm reality show, btw).

It would be interesting to see a companion piece made about Antonio Lopez, because I think a lot of the so-called Halstonettes were also in his circle (at least Pat Cleveland was). There was a documentary about him a few years ago that was okay. Not sure if you could really make a film about a fashion illustrator interesting, but there's enough there for... sex, drugs, fashion. Cast someone as Karl Lagerfeld. Some grand dame actress could play Diana Vreeland, I'm sure.

Who would play Jerry Hall, R353?

[quote]Seems strange that Bergdorf's wouldn't have held Halston to keeping his line at the store. The series doesn't explain how he got out of that deal.

Presented hole in their main window during rush hour.

Vintage Halston (Halston Classic) can be found at very reasonable prices on eBay.

R356 Serious question: How do you know they aren't fakes?

The NY Times can fuck right off I am enjoying this series

The bottle gives it away, R357. It’s usually much easier to find old stock in estate sales than it is to find old empty bottles to fill with fake scent.

Has anyone sat on the Halston bottle?

I'm sure Halston did. More than once.

It should be noted that the Halston fragrance has changed not by choice, but because international perfume standards changed in the 90s making it impossible to market internationally if one did not conform. Many ingredients were banned for "health" reasons (which is BS IMO).

This is the case for all the fabulous fragrances of the past. Never believe you're getting the original fragrance unless its a bottle decades old.

R354 The more important question is: Who would play Jessica Lange?

As most Murphy shows, a great premise with mediocre delivery. Hard for a story about Halston not to be interesting - this is borderline. Too many skipped steps of logic. The main psychological “insight” seems to be the “traumatic” childhood - which honestly really want that traumatic. Lots of parents fought in that era - Halston didn’t have a hard childhood compared to most. He was just an egocentric, cold and nasty person who was obsessed with money and success. It was his strength - he got the money and success - and his downfalll - his addictions and loss of reputation.

My main thought after it all - “why do we elevate such horrible people to role models and icons”? The show tries to create sympathy for a man who really doesn’t deserve it. He grabbed everything he could for himself and didn’t care about people and was left alone with his money to die - the epitome of the American “success” story

[quote]My main thought after it all - “why do we elevate such horrible people to role models and icons”?

Where did you get the idea that Halston is being offered as a role model? Why do Americans hold to this idea that anything portrayed on screen is an endorsement of or an elevation of that behavior? Go to church if you want moral instruction. Honest depiction of success objects in this culture is valuable.

I agree with R365. Halston really isn't elevated here - at all. His nastiness is front and center. He's rightfully lauded as an incredible designer, but in the personal context, the series doesn't make him out to be any sort of role model.

Finished this last night and agree with posters upthread who said it felt like the series was meant to be longer. For example, did I miss what made Victor suddenly decide to start blackmailing Halston?

The plan was to do it in 6 parts. The scenes in Bergdorf's were the last ones shot before the shut down in March 2020 and when production started again in October, they had to make adjustments to get it in the can in time

I'm on episode 2 - was Halston supposed to be ~45-50 years old during this time frame? Not sure if Ewan is too old or right on the money age wise, some scenes he looks downright haggard

R222 Despite what the blurb says, Farrah's dress was by Stephen Burrows.

R369 Google will tell you that Halston was born in 1932. Do the math.

R371

Watching this makes me want to try True cigarettes. I don't know if that brand is even still around.

[quote] This is the case for all the fabulous fragrances of the past.

That is true for most of them, but not [italic]all[/italic] of them.

Fragrance experts like Luca Turin will tell you a few of the great old fragrances have more or less kept their original formulas, including Guerlain's Habit Rouge, Jicky, and Mitsouko, Caron's Pour un Homme, Clinique's Aromatics Elixir, etc.

Aramis (the main cologne in the Aramis line) used to be in that company too, but unfortunately they just chnaged its formula this year. But one of its greatest flankers, Aramis 900, retains its old formula.

[quote] Not sure if Ewan is too old or right on the money age wise, some scenes he looks downright haggard

So did Halston.

Smoking, drinking, drug abuse, and partying all night will do a number of you.

*do a number ON you, not "of you"

Didn’t all perfumes/colognes with amber gris in them need to switch to a synthetic once it became banned in many countries including the U.S. and Australia?

Episode 4 was brutal. God, he turned into such a raging asshole to everybody. All of his friends were driven away. Of course the coke didn't help, but he was just an unpleasant and bitter man.

He is a good representation of many of the “successful” people I’ve known in NYC. Chase money instead of happiness. And end up rich, alone and unhappy.

Halston did not chase money. Many many many talented designers have found themselves in the same bind, between Scylla and Charybdis. More have been destroyed then survived and thrived. Embrace the suits who will bring the capital that promises the continued chance to create and realize dreams, but will also compromise the artist and the product. Dig in and remain a marginal person never able to reach glory. Or worse end up broke and exiled from the profession you love?

Halston's demise was not about getting or losing money. His problem was likely personality and the coke. Have you ever had a rich friend with funds for piles and piles of coke and the addicted brain to indulge? Coke does terrible things to brain and thus 'ones relationships, and almost always a coke addicts relationships are destroyed before the career finally caves.

The thing I don't get about Halston the man, is when he realized they owned his name and he couldn't design under it anymore. Why didn't he use his money and contacts and start a new line name Frowick or something.

R381, I am guessing it was because he was already so far into his addiction that he couldn't reinvent himself at that point.

Coke makes people crazy and unbearable. It's an awful drug.

Also Halston was at heart a niche talent and didn't have affection for the mass market. Once that is what his brand became, there may have been no going back, no matter what he called it. Pierre Cardin was a futurist and a practical designer. He happily produced Haute Couture AND Pret a Porter for 4 decades. 40 years! And all the derived mass market products.

Cardin sold his name to be slapped on anything (and this was after the Halston brand pioneered it) and doing so never destroyed the should of Cardin because he's different personality and very workaday.

* destroyed the soul.

These days plenty of designers do collabs with mass-market brands like Target and Forever 21 and are lauded for making their wares accessible to everyday people. Halston was just ahead of his time in that respect.

If he'd been more in control of himself, he might have been able to negotiate a deal with the company that owned his name. It would have been better for them to have the designer working with them rather than against them, but his addiction had made any kind of deal impossible at that point.

More attention should have been given to quaaludes the best drug of all time.

Bette's daughter can't act.

Her looks don't bother me cuz she looks just like her mother, so I'm used to it.

[quote]For example, did I miss what made Victor suddenly decide to start blackmailing Halston?

Victor Hugo was a sleaze from the beginning--he was a creepy hyperaggressive whore who tracked down Halston because he wanted to reflect in Halston's fame and have access to his money and to his perks.

When Halston threw him out, he of course blackmailed him for as much as he dared--he had planned on it from nearly the beginning of their relationship. But according to the miniseries, he stupidly assumed after her had successfully blackmailed Halston that he could wheedle himself back into Halston's good graces yet again.

Just got done watching it! WOW! Great doc about a boy from the Midwest who became king!

Oh this was about a movie. Go watch the documentary "Halston" on Amazon! I know it will be much better than a movie. You get the REAL thing.

He was a great designer. Better than the show conveys or exhibits. But a prissy pissy asshole discontented drug addicted old queen before he was 30. Nothing much to admire about the man himself. Don't feel sorry for everyone old fag who died of AIDS. Mourn their talent? In this case no. Halston sold it out long before he died. Liza is *delightful*. Code for gangbangs with Dobermans that Halston and others watched in detached amusement before they were pleasured by a train of trade. Birds of a feather - Coke Addicts. Liza wasn't a whore. She's something much different. Halston the same. They were numbed out carcassess to be mounted. Insatiable. For something.

Right. Because documentaries can't be manipulated or have an agenda.

Just ignore r393

Why ignore R393? He's got an interesting perspective and some inside news. Stop with your hundreds of posts per thread R395. You're easily exposed as stupid and controlling. Mentally ill, I would guess. Isolate your posts and you're exposed as just an old white man with no insight.

I prefer R393. Insightful and intriguing post. Thanks R393!

r393/95 = "ancient white fags" troll talking to himself. Muriel's ban didn't last too long, unfortunately.

Huh? I guess my assertion that you're nuts R397/R395 was not wrong? You posted over 70 times on this thread, with no insight about nothing. Just a sad OLD white man. YOU get a participation award R397! You posted hundreds and hundreds of times on the John Mulaney thread too. You seem to hate all women and black people but love nerdy white guys and prissy old F@Gs.

like likes like

Good luck to you OLD bro.

r398 you're the ancient white fags troll and shitpost hundreds of times all over DL. Get lost, you fucking nutcase loser.

I'm sorry about your many afflictions R399. But. We won't tolerate your harrassement and racist abuse any longer on this site. You have been reported everyday and will continue to be reported each day by many of us. So, now you must rest. May jesus visit healing to your troubled mind this night. Your hate speech will no longer be tolerated on this site.

Bye r400. It's only a matter of time.

R401 is a sad bitch. Uses multiple devices to upvote his own posts and then just agrees with itself in a *new* post 1 minute later. Very boring troll. There is a sick mind to harass other posters while HE is posting nothing but racist and misogynist posts all day & all night. Hundreds of times a day, R401 posts!!! Isolate that mean old f@g and see!! Hundreds of posts a day!! Stupid old white racist gay men posters can't change their lesions. You're marked R401. We pray for your deliverance and for relief to all our suffering.

I would see an entire mini-series about Babe Paley, and would want in it many, many scenes of her privately shopping in designers' ateliers , as in the first episode.

When will they make one?

"Halston 240Z."

There was never anything called this.

It was Halston Z14 cologne for men.

A "240Z" was a car in the 70s.

That's been pointed out 4 times already R404. Can't you read past a post you don't like? So many of the eldergays can't see well. 240Z or Z14, who cares? None of us were alive back then.

[quote]None of us were alive back then.

No. Not even close.

I've never read anything good about Victor Hugo. Nobody in Halston's circle could understand why Halston was so enthralled with him.

[quote]None of us were alive back then.

I was before and after though.

The "ancient white fags" troll is really something else. If we had a poster who shit on threads calling people "ancient n----- fags" Muriel would ban him in an instant.

"white" isn't a slur.

Liza liked a dog knot locked inside her and Halston preferred black DICK. But Hugo had the equipment with a more acceptable skin color. Halston loved a few black women model muses but that doesn't mean he wasn't an elitist and a racist. From fucking Ohio or wherever these lisping gays come from. Art and humanity are only as companionable as they want to be. Halston was a small town racist snob who could not get enough BLACK dick.

When his hole and lifestyle were worn out, he returned to his ignored family. To escape the cruel frightened eyes of his friends. That's the AIDS gay life. In a nut.

But according to the series (I think or it could have been a poster here who had read the book it was based on), the sexual part of Halston and Hugo's relationship didn't last long. So, "big dick with more acceptable color" wouldn't have been the reason he stayed enthralled after they stopped having sex.

Forget the dick, he could get that anywhere. I think was like a lot of women or men who get a thrill out of a crazy, unpredictable partner. Makes them feel "alive," especially if the think themselves to be unexciting.

r411 is a revolting piece of filth. He's been shitting up several other threads with his "fag" shit. Why is this filth tolerated on this forum.

R411 is insightful and provocative. That's welcome here. And R412 is probably right. Maybe it wasn't a more acceptable color of dick: just a crazy, unattractive and unpredictable partner that kept Halston attached to Hugo. There is a lot of precedent for that with other artists, writers and designers. But their lifelong unpredictable partners were often ethnic, but hardly ever black.

Black men get paid but we seldom offer full inspiration to the undeserving .

I agree the Hugo thing was not just dick. It was someone willing to ignore judgment and what people thought the “right” thing to do. Halston was ALL about appearing right. He was enthralled by someone who wasn’t.

Yep. I'm pretty high strung and at times uptight (not the same thing) and I've been very attracted to guys who are "loose," who aren't hesitant, who never care what people think, who don't look before they jump. I get a kick out of it and forces me out of my shell a bit.

R411 is an idiot who knows so little about Halston she thinks he was from Ohio. Know nothing, say nothing.

r414 stop talking to yourself.

Doesn't matter where Halston was from. He was a type. Smoking and lisping in bed. After being sexually serviced by superior men who didn't have as much confidence or money as he did.

You're too poor and fat and old to even lisp in bed R418. Are you from Ohio too?

R354 Peter Fonda can play Jerry Hall. They can do a Weekend at Bernie's type deal with him.

This is something I wrote in another Halston thread and it’s directed at rr390 and r407:

Ok I feel I need to say a few things here. You’re buying the actors, so I suggest you google pics of the real people.

I met Víctor Hugo in the late 80s NYC night scene (J’s Hangout if you must know) and because of our similar Hispanic backgrounds we became fast friends for about two years , when I wast right in the thick of the party scene. Dance music was coming back and so was the nightlife.

1. At least by then, he was not as evil as the series depicted; he was actually a pretty nice guy. Of course Halston was ill or dead and Warhol was dead, so maybe all of that had made him temper his ways a bit. 2. He was by no means a Nelly little queen. Fifteen years older than I was, he could still hold his swagger and hotness, even though his jet black hair was thinning and he was pushing 45. Body was still pretty hot and yes, the dick was monstruos and uncut. One thing is true, he was still doing plenty of coke, perhaps even dealing it.

AND, 3. Halston’s Townhouse- which I got to visit (even parked my car in its garage) was anything but anxiety producing. It’s minimalism and great lighting allowed for all kinds of moods to be injected to it, depending on the occasio. And yes, I visited it after H’s death, when it was empty, save for marks on the walls where artwork used to hang. So I never met the guy, and I’m sort of glad I didn’t - he wouldn’t have been what I consider great company.

R418 is really messed up man. Unhinged. All over the place.

The Halston Show ain't great. I bailed after two episodes. I watched all of Fuel and the one with Gaga, but lil shorty Cuba Gooding Jr. put me off all Ryan Murphy shows. You don't cast an old midget as one of the most handsome athletic men of all time. WTF? The Versace one about Qanon was much better. Darren Kris was really good and so was the guy who played Gianni.

Jessica Lange and Ryan Murphy kind of ruined their own game. He can't cast a show without her and she seems to haunt his worst instincts. They crapped out some popular shit. Sister Jude and pinheads. The lady who plays Liza Minelli in Halston seemed pretty good. Make a good pinhead too. Straightforwad performance of a hard to understand performer. Was Liza 60 years old her whole life? Cornball and kinky? He sure didn't dress her well but it would be hard to do. Her whole thing seems to be against his aesthetic. Must have been drugs. She and Halston both seem so old in this show. Should I watch more than two episodes?

His townhouse was hideous R421. I saw it in the much better documnentary on Halston. That's no place for a real person to live and it wasn't much of a showplace either. Ugly and designed for discomfort. Bad even for the seventies. That little Hugo dude had a nice ass though. That's art.

You saw it in a documentary, r422. Good for you. I saw it in real life. And, in my opinion, you are very wrong.

Jerry Hall can play Jerry Hall. Don't tell her she can't. Peter Fonda should still play Halston in a better film.

r422 = Ancient white fags troll spouting his usual ignorant, illiterate nonsense.

[quote]His townhouse was hideous

People with actual taste disagree. Halston's townhouse is a legend of design and minimalism.

Nah, his house was ugly. Sad as a baby's grave R426. Empty man, treacherous house. Truly ugly.

I blocked r422 YEARS ago; trash!

r427 your lack of taste and dead commonness are showing. Perhaps you should quit this thread.

They should've dressed the extras and business types in those tacky double breasted suits and plaid shitty golfwear and awful double knits etc to show how truly timeless his designs are.

Commonness?🤣🤣🤣 Ha. What a fruity old lisping man remark. We're howlin, thanks. 🙏🏾❤️🙏🏾

You're hilarious R429. What a disgusting fat old white wrinkled impotent fag you must be R429!!! Were you ever anything but a mouth at a gloryhole?

Put the bottle down now, gramps. I don't quit. You'll never get this.

r431 you're an embarrassment.

[quote] They crapped out some popular shit.

How vivid...

R431 you need to quit pills and pipes.

^attention: Tony Travostino^

Liza, ready for a gangbang

[quote] Peter Fonda should still play Halston in a better film.

I’ll pass the word on to him.

The New Yorker review gets it right. "Halston" is superficial, over acted and cold blooded.

No mention of Victor Hugo at all in the review. Seems like an oversight.

I've seen one episode. So low key and boring. Not sure I'll watch the rest.

Take a look at skinny Angelica Huston wearing Halston.

If only he had adopted a little girl and named her Whitney, today we'd have a Whitney Halston.

How was it, R346?

The lost opportunity to depict Halton's guest appearance on "The Love Boat." Would Halston go after Isaac's BBC?

Unknown to many, Isaac, despite the confident persona, didn't have BBC. Not small by any means, but nothing special. about 7.25 medium thickness.

^ Looks like an SNL sketch. What a fruity guy he was.

[quote]The New Yorker review gets it right. "Halston" is superficial, over acted and cold blooded.

r438, I will grant you there is a lot the New Yorker review gets right about the Netflix HALSTON: The writing is at times sophomoric, the reaction to the girls air shaft death being emblematic of that problem. The secondary characters are only impactful because of the strength of the performers playing them, without support from the writing. etc.

However, this reviewer gets one thing really, really wrong. Her assessment of Ewan MacGregor's performance as "overacted" Ms Fry may not have spent time around people like Halston. People who, when pushed against the wall, react in outsized, dramatic and theatrical tirades. I've been around many people like that, especially in fashion and entertainment who are regarded (tolerated) as over the top in their rages and tantrums. This is an authentic behavior that only the inner circle of a person like this is privy to. Documentaries don't capture this because everyone is aware a camera is on them and they behave accordingly.

I didn't know Halston at this inner circle level, but those that did recognize this kind of theatrical abuse. I thought Ewan MacGregor captured that very, very well.

The cast in general of this, from the 1 line shop girls up to the leads felt of the era and authentic, so the casting director really knows his or her game. I think the series itself is generic but the acting elevates it to required viewing.

Didn't Halston scream at his long-time assistant so much that she developed an ulcer and had to quit? He was a genius with fabric but also a toxic cunt.

Halston OBVIOUSLY suffered from cocaine psychosis toward the end. I guess if you never had anyone in your orbit that HAD that, it’s difficult to understand. They are LITERALLY insane, paranoid to the max, seeing shit, etc. it’s a horrorshow.

what have the ratings been for HALSTON? I know it was in the top 10 for it's first few weeks. Does that constitute a "hit" on Netflix?

Last night I watched the 2019 Halston documentary on Amazon Prime, and while it was worth watching, it seemed quite whitewashed.

I wonder what Tom Ford is going to do with Halston's house?

Can't wait for season 2!

^^^^ It’s called “Mizrahi.”

I bet something interesting could be done about Alexander McQueen.

The bridge & tunnel chick that died in the vent looked like Elaine Boozler. (yes I'm old)

Dating men's and women's vintage Halston fragrances (source: CleopatrasBoudoir.com; webmistress is FetishForPerfume on Fragrantica and PerfumeFetish on Etsy):

- 1974 Halston Fragrances, Inc., was created. The name "Parfums Halston" was also used sometimes on packaging from 1981 until around 1990.

- 1983 Halston Fragrances, Inc., was licensed to JC Penney and became a division of Playtex International.

- 1986 Halston Fragrances, Inc., was acquired by the Revlon Group and fragrances were reformulated.

- 1987 Halston Fragrances are now marketed under Revlon's Prestige Fragrances, Ltd. division. These items will be marked with "HALSTON ® ©Prestige Fragrances, Ltd. Dist. New York"

- 1991 Both the Halston and Princess Marcella Borghese lines were acquired by Saudi Arabian investors, four unnamed brothers who formed a new company called Halston Borghese International Ltd. in 1992. Fragrances were most likely reformulated. These items will be labeled with the following on the bottom of the bottle: "Made for © Halston Fragrances New York, New York 10153 • London • Made in U.S.A." Other times you may find the wording "Halston Enterprises, Inc." or "Halston Fragrances, Distr. New York, New York 10036."

- 1996 The Halston fragrances were acquired by French Fragrances and reformulated. These fragrances will be marketed under "French Fragrances, Inc." or "FFI Fragrance International, Inc."

- 1999 French Fragrances acquires Unilever's Elizabeth Arden.

- 2001 French Fragrances changes its name to Elizabeth Arden, Inc., and reformulated fragrances again will be marked with "EA Fragrances Co."

- 2008 brand relaunched with updated fragrances.

TL;DR: If you can find anything pre-2001, you'll avoid the worst of the reformulations. Also, original-formula Halston for women (mid-'70s to early '80s) has a paper HALSTON label around the neck of the bottle.

R422 = Creepy "I'm the only real black man here" racist who fantasizes about cutting white "fags'" throats, as it sneaks calls on the nurse's phone on his floor of the nuthouse; an infamous cunt.

^ R 458 is the BANNED poster formerly known as Miss Warwicke. ^ He's an OLD white RACIST drag queen from Missouri. Truly.

Fancies itself as intellectual. Matt Damon as the Emperor of France. Notes on Camp. Related to Olivia De Havilland. He's also the SCAT TROLL. As in the scat scenarios threads - where he says that guests smeared shit all over his powder room. He tries to ease into it. I think he wears a diaper. A very sick individual obsessed with bodily decay and shit. RACIST, MISOGYNIST, FANTASIST. Projectionist.

R458's post is pure projection. His miss warwicke threads have been banned for years due to the filthy amount of racism contained in his ramblings and ideations. He's not a well old man. Likes to pretend to be black and types in crude dialects and ebonics. But he IS white, very old and lives in a community setting. Who would cut his throat but his PSW? Have some pudding you disgusting piece of white trash.

My uncles used to wear the Halston 240Z cologne to the nightclub/disco they worked in. The whole staff had to wear it. It's a heavy scent but has a sexy metallic kind of note. My one uncle bought a bottle off of ebay. I like it but would never wear a cologne. It reminds him of back in the day and that makes me happy. My step brother worked there too. Oh, the stories about celebrities, models, private after hours parties, drugs everywhere and the MOB revenge and all kinds of internal scams run by even waitresses and parking valets. THAT 3 story club was blown to BITS with a grand piano from the private top floor backgammon club blown across Bloor Street in the middle of the night. They didn't work at 54, but somewhere almost as famous and scandalous. The eighties baby. ARVIV.

R458 sounds unhinged. Where did that even come from? There's a lot of late stage brain disease on this site. Poor soul.

R457 When did the bottle change to the half-plastic abomination?

I wonder whatever became of Sassy? She really is the unsung hero of the group. She's the one responsible for keeping the party going all those years. I do wonder why she did it though? If she had been caught, wouldn't she have spent years in jail?

My favorite part of the show was when the candy jar went low and Halston screamed, "GET IT, SASSY!!"

R463 But she goes to buy it at the Prospect Park Boat House, which is in the middle of the park and you need to practically hike there? Why the hell is she going there from midtown to score drugs?

R464 maybe because she didn’t partake so the hike helped her keep her weight down or perhaps she wanted a break. I worked for a highly strung guy, that was a borderline alcoholic, when I was sent to restock the liquor cabinet, I went to the liquor store on the other side of town rather than the one a few blocks away to get a break from him.

Where guys really having orgies in the basement of Studio 54? How did they not get shut down by the cops?

My ex, who was gorgeous, said that orgies happened all the time on the top floor of The Saint. He said that gorgeous guys were sucking and fucking all over the place.

Well, hetero couples were having orgies at Plato's Retreat at the same time, so I don't think the 70s worried about public orgies as much.

Whenever I see an elderly New Yorker ( 70s 80s and above) I try to imagine them going to Platos Retreat or Studio 54 or the baths. Sobering.

[quote] My ex, who was gorgeous, said that orgies happened all the time on the top floor of The Saint. He said that gorgeous guys were sucking and fucking all over the place.

Yep. As a participant, I can attest to those. But the word orgies sounds like there’s a giant bed or floor mat and totally naked bodies, which wasn’t the case. It was more like a giant back room with lots of rolled down pants, undone flies, guys on their knees, and tons of cruising and jerking off. And everyone high as a kite.

R469, can you confirm that all the participants were gorgeous?

R463 Sassy ended up in real estate.

R471 So she didn't get away from a huge cocaine using industry.

F471, It's funny how Sassy doesn't mention her time with Halston. I wonder if she mentioned him in her bio BEFORE the miniseries aired and then deleted it after she saw the show?

Get it, Sassy!!

R473 it is right there on the website.

[quote] Her design background first took her into the world of fashion as an assistant to Halston, the designer.

The series doesn't even care how Halston got AIDS, or when. Surely this was a factor in his downfall?

From Warhol's diaries, Halston was not a heavy drug user.

R475 Nobody knows exactly how Halston got AIDS. Does it matter? His business was already over long before his diagnosis.

As for the drugs, I agree the show paints him as a bigger coke head than he may have been in real life, but he certainly kept his home well stocked with every kind of narcotic for when company dropped by.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

[quote]Nobody knows exactly how Halston got AIDS. Does it matter?

Let me hazard a guess: From unsafe sex?

[QUOTE] The series doesn't even care how Halston got AIDS, or when. Surely this was a factor in his downfall?

Did you miss the parade of black rough trade going in and out of his townhouse? Or Hugo barebacking blond guys in the balcony at Studio 54 and then sharing his cock with Halston?

What a dumb question.

[quote] Did you miss the parade of black rough trade going in and out of his townhouse?

There was no "parade". There was ONE straight man that was picked up, arranged by Victor.

Surly Martha Graham was not a big drug user right?

The real Halston loved rent boys. He was never that into committed relationships and in his earlier years was a workaholic. The Gaines biography says he liked to work until about 6, have dinner brought in from a fancy restaurant, relax for a bit, and then have a rent boy over for no more than an hour before turning in by midnight.

Of course, this routine changed when he got into the Studio 54 scene, but he still really liked rent boys. Any of them could have given them HIV, or it could have been Hugo. The average life expectancy in the 80s was 7-10 years after initial HIV infection. Halston died in 1990, so he was probably infected in the early 80s.

R479 = F&F racist frau.

It’s well known that Halston preferred black guys and often had them “procured” for him.

What is racist about saying that, R483? What a bizarre accusation.

[quote]Surly Martha Graham...

Goddamnit, Martha Graham was many things, but she was never surly. A little haughty, perhaps. Maybe imperious, on occasion. But never surly.

R485 Quit calling me Surly!

Now Agnes de Mille... she could quickly turn surly. Watch your step around that one.

This is the Ryan Murphy show with Halston as avatar: queeny Midwestern genius comes to the big city, spread too thin by too many projects to please his corporate overlord, his work suffers and the critics pick on him.

I got bored by the third episode and never bothered to watch the remaining episodes.

R489 He dies in the end.

[quote]Nobody knows exactly how Halston got AIDS. Does it matter?

[quote] Let me hazard a guess: From unsafe sex?

And all this time I had thought it must have been a mosquito!

He was using rent boys from at least the late 60s on. He also fucked around a lot at Fire Island and in the meat packing district. Going by the timeline of his disease, he probably got infected in the late 70s, but really, he could have gotten it from anybody.

I liked the Halston documentary on amazon.com, despite the dumb structuring device of the fictional female investigator, far more than the mini-series.

Although I still think the most brilliant scene in any TV show all year is the one at the end of episode 1 with Babe Paley, McGregor is just fundamentally miscast. After seeing the documentary, I saw what the problem is: it's not just that McGregor doesn't look like Halston, it's that he doesn't seem like Halston--he didn't evoke the "lost boy" aspect that comes through in almost every one of Halston's actual interviews, so the whole thing doesn't make sense. You don't understand why Halston spread himself so thin (which was because he adored feeling so important and so wanted). Also, although McGregor evokes Halston's bitchy wit, he doesn't really evoke Halston's at times incredible warmth and openness towards his clients and his models, which is one of the reasons they were so loyal to him.

The series would have benefited greatly from more episodes and a bigger budget (both of which it was supposed to have originally before the COVID shutdown).

He got the AIDS from either a toilet seat or from horse back riding!

Another badly cast, poorly written and produced Ryan Murphy flop. I doubt anyone lasted beyond the second episode. It was SHITE.

Idiotic ancient eldergay basement dwellers in 2021 don't know how gay men got AIDS and created an epidemic?

DOORKNOBS,Rose!!!

Yes, we do, R496.

You seem not to have a good command of the facts. Not that you're interested in them.

R21, REALLY?

I genuinely had no clue and this tidbit of née information (new to me, anyhow), makes love her even more!

Lisha!! Lesh be friendssh!🥂

Halston has exploded since the Netflix show:

“According to data from the brand, sales are up 631 percent year-over-year, and traffic to Halston.com is up 3,200 percent, the majority from organic search. The brand declined to reveal actual sales figures.

Tiffany & Co. is also seeing “an explosion in interest” for jewelry designed by Halston muse Elsa Peretti, portrayed by Rebecca Dayan in the series, according to industry sources.

The momentum will continue in stores in August, when Neiman Marcus features the Halston x Netflix capsule collection in its store windows just in time for Emmy awards campaigning season. Saks Fifth Avenue is also rolling out the collection online and to 8 doors.

The collection could mark a turning point for the Halston brand, for Netflix and for how fashion thinks about entertainment content. (More than one legacy brand has to be wishing Murphy would make a series about it.)

I'd like to see the original perfumes revived: what they're selling now is most diluted crap under the old Halston names.

"There was no "parade". There was ONE straight man that was picked up, arranged by Victor."

But, it represented the parade. The Halston biographies describe his sex life and how Hugo brought guys home for him; how he liked black and brown men.

I don't think the show needed to show this over and over to establish that his AIDS came from unsafe sex.

[quote]More than one legacy brand has to be wishing Murphy would make a series about it.

Which designer should Ryan Murphy make a series about next? Calvin Klein, Coco Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent are all fertile subjects for a series.

Didn't Saint Laurent go nuts every few years and end up in the loony bin? That would be a fun series. The House of Gucci were also messy bitches.

[quote]Which designer should Ryan Murphy make a series about next?

Chanel, of course. Make a lavish television production of the musical COCO.

Ryan Murphy hasn't seemed very interested so far in setting his shows in foreign countries, and Halston was the only really great dead American fashion designer who led an interesting life. Somehow I don't think the world is waiting for a miniseries about Kenneth Jay Lane or Bill Blass.

He can wait until Calvin Klein or Ralph Lauren dies and make a miniseries about either of them.

My bet is Alexander McQueen: Gay, groundbreaking, fucked up emotionally, and dead by suicide at age 40. Sounds like perfect Murphy material.

I'd love to see Tom Hardy as McQueen.

On second thought, I'd rather see Russell T. Davies take on McQueen. R505 is right that Murphy doesn't seem interested in any subjects who aren't American.

Donna Karan - Six hours of a braying, obnoxious JAP with a nasal NYC accent. Ratings gold!

Honestly, I'd watch a series about any of these designers, including Blass and Donna Karen.

There have been several movies about Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent already. Still, I think a full American miniseries about either would be terrific. Saint Laurent had a bizarre rivalry with Karl Lagerfeld back when Lagerfeld was attractive, and they both fought over their mutual lover Jacques de Bascher, a dandy who was into S&M. Saint Laurent was also fascinating because of his precarious mental health and his background growing up in French Algeria.

I want an animated series about Lagerfeld and Choupette fighting crime.

I'm surprised whoever owns Halston was caught so unprepared for the impact the miniseries and documentary would make, and that they did not re-produce the halston fragrance in its original beautiful bottle, or prepare lots of tie-dyed caftans and ultrasuede suit dresses to sell.

R512 J.C. Pennys? Sorry Miss, I have troubles of my own.

So, Ryan’s going to do an anthology series on Fashion, that could be fun! I would like to see one on Charles James, who I think actually mentored Halston at one point. Wasn’t there some hand bag designer in NYC a few years back who committed suicide, she must have a dark interesting story to tell. I still think there’s also a dark secret about Laura Ashley, I think she was pushed down those stairs and did not fall.

If he didn’t limit to designers and included the models as well that could be compelling too. I’ve always wanted to know more about Tina Chow and she was in the glamorous 70s and 80s and ending up dying of AIDS. I’m kind of struck with this 50s model Jane Wagner, who was with Sylvia Plath at Mademoiselle and then had a phenomenal career. She then married a lawyer who was embezzling and about to be found out. So he took out $900,000 of life insurance, strapped dynamite to his body and blew up a plane over North Carolina.

[quote] [R512] J.C. Pennys?

No, honey. The brand has changed hands several times since Penney's sold it.

I'll fuck you like I fucked Marilyn Monroe, R505.

I want a series about designer Jeanne Bice of Quacker Factory starring Melissa McCarthy or Chrissy Metz.

I always loved the cover of the album “My Name is Barbra, Two.” Only recently realized the fabulous hat was by Halston.

Streisand is hideous. Nice hat though.

Gay + AIIDS = Perry Ellis! Or Claude Montana

I'm on a bit of a Halston kick. Reading the Steven Gaines book, and today I've been watching the CNN documentary from a few years ago, which is very good as others have posted. Really enjoyed seeing all the designs. But now I'm at the sad part where he's sold his name and spirals down. It's very sad. Of course he made bad decisions and was hard to deal with, but to hear the money men crow in interviews about how they handled him is galling. One Playtex executive brags, "I started calling him Roy. I said, 'You don't own your name, pal. Read the small print. We own your name," then chortles with malicious pleasure. Disgusting way to treat a creative talent, even an impossible one.

I've found a good condition 1973 'Halston for Hartmann' ultrasuede briefcase on Etsy that I desperately want to buy. On the one hand, I have no occasion to ever use a lovely briefcase, nor anyplace to store it properly.

On the other hand, as someone upthread said, "But mother, it's a Halston!"

Lovely? It's polyester.

It's ULTRASUEDE, bitch!

Uh huh.

Don't get it near a flame. Don't ever do that.

I know that Ultrasuede is polyester, I'm just being pointlessly dramatic because DL.

Of course you do.

halston fragrance probably isn't owned by the parent brand anymore. fragrance is one of the first things to get sold off from a designer as its always the most valuable asset since it sells itself for years to come

Bump