Your description leads me to posit Truman Capote. I’ve seen clips of NYC local interviews where he was dead drunk.
I think you are right, that could definitely be right. It was someone super famous, I mean I was a little kid, but I knew who he was at the time. Or could it have been Tennessee Williams? Was he still alive at that time? I think it was a writer, not an actor or politician, only an “Author” would carry on like that I think!