Pauline Kael - Brian Kellow [226]
In the magazine’s April 1997 issue, she found out. In a column titled “Waiting for Godard,” Wolcott wrote a devastating piece about the Paulettes, branding them as a band of hopeless imitators who had squandered their own talents by falling under Pauline’s spell. “They write as advocates, both feet on the accelerator,” he wrote. “They still write as if‘trash’ (the good kind—blatant, vital, sexy) were in danger of being euthanized by the team of Merchant Ivory. Gentility is the enemy—we’re drowning in crinoline! they cry. Bring back hot rods and cheap lipstick.” Wolcott was reasonably careful not to place Pauline herself in his crosshairs, but he didn’t really need to: Without saying so directly, his article heavily implied that she had encouraged sycophancy and slavish devotion. Pauline was stunned that someone whose career she had worked so assiduously to advance could have written such a piece. Of course, Wolcott had learned a great deal from her: “Waiting for Godard” was, in its own way, as much of an attention-getter for him as “Circles and Squares” had once been for her. Articles were written about it, radio broadcasts were devoted to it, and the term “Paulette” became familiar to a wide reading public. Pauline refrained from commenting on “Waiting for Godard” publicly, but, unsurprisingly, Wolcott instantly became persona non grata among his fellow Paulettes. “He’s a careerist creep,” observed Charles Taylor. “I think that Wolcott simply decides what is going to advance him and takes the pose. I read that piece, and that piece hurt Pauline. That piece really hurt her. The loss of him as a friend hurt her.”
Wolcott acknowledged that “Waiting for Godard” severed their friendship, although it is difficult to tell if he considered that a strong possibility at the time he was writing the piece. “I knew she wasn’t happy about it,” he said. “James Toback told me later on that she was really pissed. I think that piece was overkill. I feel bad about it. I had just re-upped with Vanity Fair, so I was trying to build up a head of steam—not so much about Pauline but about the other people.... I didn’t think people would carry on the grudges for fifteen years.”
Despite the fact that “Waiting for Godard” created a permanent split between Wolcott and Pauline, she continued to read his work with interest. During one of her treatments at Massachusetts General Hospital in the late 1990s, she asked Steve Vineberg to bring her a copy of Vanity Fair so she could read Wolcott’s latest column.
As the 1990s wore on, Gina had to deal with her own health problems in addition to caring for her mother. She suffered a bout with cancer, which was treated successfully, in addition to a prolonged and draining case of Lyme disease that left a few lingering effects in its wake. Pauline’s Parkinson’s had by now made it impossible for her to manage a knife and fork properly, which meant that she stopped going to restaurants for a time. Eventually she was put on a more intensive round of medication that stabilized her shaking condition and enabled her to lead a much more normal life. The problem was, the stronger medicine gave her hallucinations. She saw live bears—“no cartoons, no lyricism—just realism,” she told Ray Sawhill—at the edge of her vision. Once she watched as a third arm came out of her chest to grapple with her other two arms. When she reached out to crush the third arm, she watched in terror and amazement as it shattered into bits; she told friends it reminded her of the end of Zabriskie Point. Eventually, the hallucinations receded, and she joked that she had occasionally reached out to pat the animals that appeared before her.
When she didn’t feel up to climbing the stairs to her second-floor bedroom, she would stay downstairs in the living room, reading and keeping up with the news. She had an exercise bicycle installed there, which she was supposed to use to keep herself as limber as possible. She slept deeply, but not for long periods of time—often, five hours was the limit. She told Ray Sawhill that her declining health