New York Diary

The trials of Gloria; Amanda is no Burden to the Whitney; Matisse's private audiences

What's an affidavit or two among friends? Carol Matthau signed two very different documents when dragged into Gloria Vanderbilt's nasty legal battle against her former psychiatrist and her former lawyer. Vanderbilt accuses Dr. Christ Zois and lawyer Thomas A. Andrews of secretly forming a partnership that defrauded her. Dr. Zois, who was Vanderbilt's psychiatrist from 1973 until either 1976 (her claim) or 1986 (his claim), called Matthau about the case in 1987. He told the court that Matthau told him, "Of course Gloria is lying and I want to help you, but I don't want to cut my own throat." Zois says he promised her confidentiality before she signed the first affidavit, in which she swore that Vanderbilt had "frequently discussed her business relationship with Andrews and Zois with me."

But Vanderbilt says she never knew that Zois was involved in her various businesses. He had just finished his residency at New York Hospital when she began therapy with him; later they became close friends. In 1980, Vanderbilt hired a lawyer-agent: Tom Andrews, a childhood friend of Zois's. Andrews wrote most of her checks, paying Zois $97,300 for Vanderbilt's past and future psychiatric treatment, bills the alleged patient never saw. Vanderbilt said she didn't know that Andrews and Zois had formed a partnership, A to Z Associates; they would ultimately collect more than $1.5 million from her. During one cash crunch, Vanderbilt thought she was selling a company to a division of J. P. Stevens, but the real buyer was A to Z.

A copy of Matthau's damning affidavit was given to Vanderbilt's new attorney, Jerome Walsh. Less than a month later, Matthau was back in the swornaffidavit business: "I was tricked and misled by Dr. Zois, and I regret furnishing him with my [first] affidavit." Zois, she continued, had told her that the legal problems with Vanderbilt had been settled and that her affidavit was just "a technicality." The disloyal testimony didn't sever Matthau's lifelong friendship with Vanderbilt. "She knows me too well to be angry at me for that," says Matthau. A six-yearold civil case between A to Z and Vanderbilt is still raging. But the judicial panel that recommended Andrews' disbarment called Zois's activities "quite reprehensible." Andrews has filed an appeal, which he says he will handle himself. He's also planning to write a book about his experiences with the world's most famous poor little rich girl. Now he's looking for an agent.

Martha's Friends

Here's a page from the Martha Stewart book on dealing with the daughter's ex: Stay friendly. Very friendly. The lifestyle expert helped find a Hamptons home close to her own for Dr. Sam Waksal, an investor who is the ex-boyfriend of her daughter, Alexis. Martha even put up Waksal and a friend, British actor Terence Stamp, and the three hit the party circuit together. Her loyalty paid off: Waksal invested money in Alexis's new business, the Delish Diner, which will open this summer. Waksal now has several girlfriends, and Martha was on the arm of pundit John McLaughlin throughout the inauguration hoopla. "I'm a closet intellectual who spends most of his time reading Spinoza," says Waksal, "and every time they see me with Martha and Terence, they think— well, who knows what they think."

And...

. . .Amanda Burden helped grease the wheels of city government for the Whitney Museum. The city planning commissioner says she "just made a phone call" to help get the city's traffic department to O.K. an art installation in front of the Whitney during the museum's Biennial, which opens in March. The installation, a red fire truck, will be parked on the street. Sculptor Charles Ray modeled this giant aluminum piece on the Tonka hook-and-ladder toy. ... Forget about the fact that MOM A is closed on Wednesdays. This winter, Wednesdays in the museum with Matisse became, MOMA board president Agnes Gund wryly notes, "the biggest cocktail party in the world." Susan Sarandon, Steve Martin, Anjelica Huston, John McEnroe, Isaac Mizrahi, Walter Annenberg, and the Monaco royals all toured the show on Wednesday mornings. So did painters Jasper Johns, Helen Frankenthaler, Chuck Close, and Francesco Clemente. Prince Amyn Aga Khan Concorded in for the day. One Wednesday morning, Lee Annenberg pointed a Matisse out to her sister-in-law and asked, "Now, who do you think owns that one right now?" Another Wednesday, Thomas Hoving officiously guided a friend through the show, "acting as if it were his museum," according to another privileged viewer.

D.M.