Gossip Should Have No Friends

[June 14th, 2006] DRAMMY WHAMMY Who needs the damn Tonys? Tigard's Broadway Rose Theatre Company came out on top at last Monday night's 27th annual Drammy Awards ceremony at the Crystal Ballroom, winning five awards for its Irving Berlin revue, The Melody Lingers On. Other big winners included Portland Center Stage 's Celebrity Row and Third Rail 's smash hit The Lonesome West. The evening's high point? Two-time Drammy winner Marilyn Stacey stepping up to present the musical-direction award with a very large, very dead, very fake goose in tow—a prop from her latest show, By the Bog of Cats.

NEW YORK LIT LOVE The Big Apple came out in style last Thursday night to celebrate the release of P-town author Tom Spanbauer 's new novel, Now Is the Hour. Legendary NYC DJ Johnny Dynell held the party down on the docks of Pier 63. Hosted by a laundry list of celebrities, including musicians Rufus Wainwright , Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears and Pink Martini's Thomas Lauderdale , the party was packed with dolled-up club kids, all professing their love for Spanbauer's work. Who knew? Readings by Hedwig's John Cameron Mitchell and Michael Cunningham , author of The Hours, only confirmed Spanbauer is Portland's latest lit rock star.

PDXXX ANNALS Have we got some hot tamales in this town! Amsterdam-based, super-hot queer quarterly BUTT Magazine #16 has a huge spread on P-town and its boy butts. The pink periodical provides au naturel glimpses at civil-rights attorney Lake Perriguey (he's the one with a flower between his cheeks), fairie folkster Holcombe Waller and Pink Martini publicist (and ex-WW intern) Aaron Scott , among others. In late March, Scott bared his rump atop the middle of the Burnside Bridge for the fag mag. Now how hard was it for Scott to drop trou? "I wasn't wearing my glasses," said Scott. "I was in full view of I-5 southbound, but nobody honked. " More saucy shots? If the cover image of the latest catalog is any indication, Spartacus Leathers has gone rock and roll. Instead of a coy-looking Penthouse playmate reject, this local company (one of the world's largest providers of adult "toys" for bad girls and boys, including whips, restraints and, oh my, ping-pong paddles) cast Balls-y chanteuse Storm Large as its cover model. Decked out in a leather collar, cuffs, fishnet stockings and not much else, Large is a vision of BDSM loveliness that, given the chance, might whup your ass. Speaking of rock and roll, PDXXX's most notorious stripping sister act, the Porcelain Twinz , have just released a new DVD, The Masked Charade, featuring music by the Dandy Warhols and King Black Acid, among others. Shot appropriately enough at Dante's , this orgy of freaks is unlike other erotic features in that it includes performances by fire eaters, magicians and pierced "suspensionists ." Ouch.

PUNK POWER Coming off successful screenings at WW's Longbaugh Film Festival and Cinequest in San Jose, former Portland filmmaker Nick Lyon's Punk Love (set and shot in the Rose City) is garnering some love for its creator. Last week, Lyon earned the Best Director award at the Moondance Film Festival in Los Angeles. Lyon was presented the award at a ceremony presided over by comedians George Lopez and Phyllis Diller. Now that's success.