A Warhol 'Superstar,' Closer to Earth
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: April 21, 2011
http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/movies/beautiful-darling-about-warhol-star-review.html"Beautiful Darling," James Rasin's touching documentary biography of Candy Darling, the transsexual Andy Warhol "superstar," is a sad, lyrical reflection on the foolish worship of movie stars. Jeremiah Newton, who is a producer of the film and narrates the story, was Candy Darling's closest friend and onetime roommate who appointed himself guardian of her legacy after her death in 1974 from cancer at 29. The movie shows him arranging her burial beside Mr. Newton's mother in Cherry Valley, N.Y.
His reverence for Candy Darling, who appeared in a number of Warhol movies and inspired songs by Lou Reed, is not unlike her adolescent worship of Kim Novak. When Candy Darling was still a boy named James L. Slattery, experimenting with cross-dressing while growing up on Long Island, he sent away for an autographed picture of Ms. Novak. The day it arrived was one of the most important moments of his life, an acquaintance recalls.
