LGBTQ Critics Celebrate Love Triangles and Thieving Queers

GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics hosted its Annual Dorian Awards Winners Toast last week at the Paley Restaurant in Hollywood’s historic Columbia Square, where performers were toasted (and some celebs were not-so-playfully roasted — ahem, Kevin Hart).  

Host Frank DeCaro (from The Daily Show and The Frank DeCaro Show) did live interviews with those accepting awards on behalf of their films, including The Favourite co-screenwriter Deborah Davis. The Favourite was named the Dorian Awards' Film of the Year, its writers — Davis and Tony McNamara —were awarded the Screenplay of the Year prize, and star Olivia Colman won for Best Film Performance of the Year by an Actress.

There was a cheeky turn from Lucy DeVito (yes, the daughter of Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman) as she accepted the award for Can You Ever Forgive Me? DeVito played a gossipy office worker in the film, which garnered a Best Supporting Actor award for Richard E. Grant and also won for LGBTQ Film of the Year. Grant, who was on set elsewhere, sent a letter of his deep appreciation for the award, as did the film's producer Nicholas Ma (the son of Yo-Yo Ma).

Also at the toast: unexpected hilarity from the world's leading authority on Oscar Wilde, GALECA advisory board member Joseph Bristow, a University of California, Los Angeles, professor who has authored Effeminate England: Homoerotic Writing After 1885 and edited two editions of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Critic Brantley Bardin brought one of the night's surprise stars: Karen Brailsford, mother of The Hate U Give's nonbinary star Amandla Stenberg, a perennial GALECA fave.

DeCaro, a comedian, pop culture pundit, and radio/TV personality who has spent the last three years touring North America as the opening act for Lisa Lampanelli, is the author of five books including Drag: Combing Through the Big Wigs of Show Business, due from Rizzoli in spring 2019.  GALECA boasts over 200 top LGBTQ entertainment journalists and critics in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K. Read the full winners list here.

Pictured above: Dorian Awards host Frank DeCaro (The Daily Show); GALECA board president and The Advocate's editorial director, Diane Anderson-Minshall; and GALECA founder and executive director John Griffiths.

Deborah Davis, co-screenwriter of The Favourite, shared an award for Screenplay of the Year.

Deborah Davis speaking at the Dorian Awardse about her script's 20-year journey to the big screen. 

Lucy DeVito (daughter of Danny Devito and Rhea Perlman) who appeared in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, the film for which Richard E. Grant won a Dorian Award for his supporting role.

GALECA member and critic John Esther with his wife, Miranda, at the Dorian Awards.

Vic Gerami (behind the celebrity Q&A column 10 Questions With Vic) and Ashlee Marie Preston (of the podcast Shook With Ashlee Marie Preston) at the 2019 GALECA Dorian Awards.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? actress Lucy DeVito with GALECA president Diane Anderson-Minshall at the 2019 Dorian Awards

Dr. Jon Paul Higgins of the podcast Learnt at the 2019 Dorian Awards.

Frank DeCaro (The Daily Show) hosted the 2019 Dorian Awards.

GALECA member Ryan Jay (of Ryan Jay Reviews and Us Weekly) with Aaron Harburg at the 2019 Dorian Awards. Harburg is the  great-grandson of Yip Harburg, who wrote the lyrics for "Over the Rainbow" and the other iconic songs for The Wizard of Oz. The couple's current project is producing the documentary Song of the Century about Yip's work.

Hollywood photographer Rodin Eckenroth with Sabrina Manhas Hutchinson, CEO of Defiant Public Relations.

GALECA president Diane Anderson-Minshall (who is also The Advocate's editorial director) with her husband, Jacob (The Advocate's deputy editor).

John Griffiths, who founded the Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics in 2009, at the 10th annual Dorian Awards.

Jim Colucci (Must Hear TV), husband of Dorian Awards host Frank DeCaro, chats with Lucy DeVito from Can You Ever Forgive Me? at the 2019 awards event. 

GALECA board member Dan Allen and member Greg Hernandez, the man behind Greg in Hollywood.

Happy partygoers.

Interesting conversations abounded.

Frank DeCaro had a rapt audience.

Lucy DeVito and Frank DeCaro

Deborah Davis and Frank DeCaro

Dr. Jon Paul Higgins speaks.

Tracy E. Gilchrist, The Advocate's feminism editor as well as a frequent writer on film and other facets of entertainment, talked about The Fosters, Bold Type, Good Trouble, and The Favourite, among others.

Ashlee Marie Preston speaks.

Ashlee Marie Preston

The audience got to hear many interesting speakers, including UCLA professor Joseph Bristow, one of the world’s leading authorities on Oscar Wilde (left), with host DeCaro. 

Diane Anderson-Minshall

Jeremy Blacklow, GLAAD’s Director of Entertainment Media and a GALECA advisory board member (left) with DeCaro.