Dodi Fayed with actress Brooke Shields, at the Hilton Hotel. Photo / Getty
Dodi Fayed with actress Brooke Shields, at the Hilton Hotel. Photo / Getty
Princess Diana's lover Dodi Fayed was a cocaine fiend who trawled illegal gay clubs at dawn looking for hedonistic highs, an astonishing new book claims.
According to the Daily Mail, Fayed, who died in the Paris car crash with Diana almost 20 years ago, always had "amazing coke" when he set off on his jaunts to "dangerous" parties in abandoned buildings.
The playboy was a regular at Manhattan's Studio 54, where supermodels, pop stars and Hollywood legends got high on drugs and often had sex in hidden corners of the sprawling club, according to Mark Fleischman in his new memoir "Inside Studio 54," out September 19.
"Dodi loved Quaaludes, good quality coke and hot women and he always had plenty of those," writes Fleischman, who owned the club between 1981 and '84.
The two men became so close that they regularly went scouring illegal clubs at 5am in what was then one of the most dangerous areas of downtown New York.
Dubbed the "dawn patrol," the duo and a posse of celebrity drug-abusers, including singers Liza Minnelli, Rick James and Joe Cocker, tennis ace Vitus Gerilaitis and Hollywood giants Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Robin Williams, John Belushi and Nick Nolte would take limos to impromptu parties in boarded-up buildings.
"Dodi, son of Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed, who owned Harrods of London at the time, always had the most amazing coke," Fleischman writes.
Crisco Disco - named for a brand of cooking oil used as a "popular lubricant for gay men" - was one of the posse's favourite haunts.
Fleischman writes that owner Hank Davis looked like a "gay vampire...and took particular pleasure in watching us snort a mixture of cocaine and ketamine, or Special K, a mild hallucinogenic power he slipped into the mix unbeknownst to the crowd."
Manic "Mrs Doubtfire" star Williams spent most of his time in the DJ booth "fascinated" by the action on the dance floor below.
"He had an enormous appetite for coke and alcohol and appeared to mellow out somewhat when high on coke," Fleischmann says.
"Hank's special mix seemed to calm him down, making him less manic, more mellow and able to relax and just enjoy himself."
Dodi pictured at a party with Julia Roberts. Photo / Getty
Recalling other posse members' drug habits, Fleischmann says Belushi was "very funny but had a mean streak when drunk and stoned. I suspected he was freebasing."
Oscar-winning Lemmon was "witty and charming but seemingly extremely sad late at night when speaking about his coke habit' and "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" star Nolte was an "absolute wild man."
Fleischman says the posse attended similar parties several times a week and he graphically describes having anonymous sex in the VIP area with a woman he'd met moments earlier - something considered 'normal' in the pre-Aids era.
He also recalls one of his worst mistakes - a "lost" New Year celebrating Dodi Fayed's success as executive producer of the Oscar-winning movie "Chariots of Fire" on his private jet.
"We were being entertained by several very attractive 'hot to trot' flight attendants," he writes in the book, which is published by Rare Bird Books in September.
The party continued in New York - and Fleischman's long-suffering girlfriend finally dumped him.
"I lost track of what day it was, forgot about my plans for later and partied through the night in a suite at the Plaza Hotel with Dodi," he writes.
"I wish I could remember some of the details of that night. I know it was a hell of a party but I remember nothing - only the consequence I suffered - losing a truly incredible woman who I had been crazy about."
Eventually a drugged-out Fleischman checked into the Betty Ford Clinic, sold Studio 54 and now runs a health resort in California.
But the twice married father of one still fondly recalls his favourite celebrities in the 323-page book, including Rolling Stone Mick Jagger and his friendship with socialite Gwynne Rivers, who was just 14 when she started going to the club.
Summing up his time at the club, Fleischman's writes: "I was swept into a world of celebrities, drugs, power and sex.
"I was the ringleader for nearly four years and I became intoxicated with the scene - bodies gyrating on the dance floor, sex in the balcony and anything goes in the ladies lounge and Rubber Room."
