Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up

As editor of Interview magazine from 1971-1983 and as a regular at the Factory, Andy Warhol's studio, Colacello partook of the excesses of the beautiful people. This long, gossipy tell-all startlingly portrays the pop artist as a near-virgin who turned to voyeurism through fear of emotional involvement and whose sexual blockage bred insecurity, cynicism, jealousy and coldness. Warhol went to Catholic church services every Sunday; he was obsessed with diet and had regular facials; he thrived on working with collaborators but turned against each of them out of competitiveness. Behind these multiple images of the ``soulless soul of cool,'' Colacello glimpses the ``real Andy'': wistful, touching, unhappy and smart. Dali, Robert Mapplethorpe, Mick and Bianca Jagger, Candy Darling, Diana Vreeland and many other celebs drift in and out of this memoir, which Colacello, now a contributing editor to Vanity Fair , wrote as ``an act of liberation from my former boss.'' Photos. (Aug.)