2005-12-23 - 1:37 p.m. A little happiness for the season There is a story that I want to share with you about Andy Warhol. Since its Christmas, I feel this will be a good one to tell. For a show he once had a fairly famous person come on and reconcile with a family member. Now this was before Oprah and Ricky Lake or even Phil Donahue. So it was pretty revolutionary. For the purposes of visualization, I would like for you to picture the father as Tony Danza, and the daughter as Alyssa Milano. Now picture that they are really father and daughter and that Tony has had a very publicly bad relationship with Alyssa. Sure on the TV show they are the loving couple Tony and Samantha, but off camera Alyssa is doing drugs and Tony, her father in real life, has been accused of punishing her and hitting her, and making her memorize lines. I mean a really terrible relationship. Now we are all used to this now. Because we see people coming on Springer saying �YOU DON�T KNOW ME! YOU DON�T LIVE WHERE I LIVE!� and crazy shit like that. We are subject to the stories of TomKat and their non-sexual knock up relationship. But back when Warhole had this special things like this didn�t exist. Anyway, he brought Danza onstage to a large sell out audience. He said the reason he came was because he wanted to make amends. He said that he had hurt his daughter and that he had made some very large mistakes in his life. This had never been done before. And then, the first surprise guest. Warhol brought out Milano and they cried and hugged and she told him the she forgave him. It was a sweet and touching moment that had never been done before, and the audience loved it and they felt touched, probably with the Christmas spirit. Then Danza asked Milano if she would help him sing a duet. The audience loved it. Danza sung and tap danced and had an amazing voice. Then Milano when, and she was young and her voice was much weaker. So Danza began to help her out. Remember when Maurice Cheeks helped the girl who forgot the words to the national anthem? I�ll always remember him for that touch of kindness. Danza started singing with Milano and then her voice cracked and he said, �honey, not that high.� Then she mess up a line, and he whispered to her �we�ve practiced this.� Then they continued and she messed up again. He grabbed Milano by the arm and slapped her face. �DO IT RIGHT!� The audience was horrified. The music stopped. And she cried, �I can�t do it!� And she hit her in the face and said, �You are screwing up in front of all these people! You are a disgrace! Why can�t you do anything right!� and he beat the living shit out of her as the curtain shut. The audience had been had. Warhol not only did a �family reunites� between two people, but he created the fake on stage drama of the uncomfortable underlying relationship. The whole thing was fake. The girl wasn�t even his real daughter. It was genius. The audience was horrified as they left, not for what happened, but because he fooled them all. Merry Christmas (real Christmas entry tomorrow) | |||||||||||
