Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

worried about him. I think his father had died in his
fifties. He’d stopped buying cigarettes. After the
show, he was looking for a roadie to catch cigs off,
looking around to make sure Iman wasn’t around.”
Before entering the studio with Visconti, Bowie
found time to steal a scene in Ben Stiller’s fashionindustry
send-up Zoolander among an egregiously
long list of would-be thieves that included Winona
Ryder, Billy Zane, Paris Hilton and Lenny Kravitz.
When Stiller’s titular male model clashes with Owen
Wilson’s Hansel (“Who you trying to get crazy with,
ese? Don’t you know I’m loco?”), a “walk-off” is
suggested. Ten minutes later, the rivals meet in an
abandoned warehouse and audiences are treated to
“the real world of male modeling. The one they don’t
show you in magazines or on the E channel.” As bad
techno plays, Stiller and Wilson limber up. “All right,
who’s going to call this sucker?” Wilson asks. “If
nobody has any objections, I believe I might be of
service,” a familiar voice offscreen offers. And with
the cue of “Let’s Dance” on the soundtrack, Bowie
nearly makes off with the “best scene-stealer” honors
(and would completely own it if Will Ferrell had not
been in the cast).
Bowie and Visconti were upstate on the morning
of September 11, 2001. Bowie, an early riser,
happened to be at his upstate residence, watching
the lone working television, when the first plane flew
into the tower. Both Bowie and Visconti were
eventually able to reach their loved ones and confirm
that they were safe but were then faced with the