NEW YORK — Lucas Entertainment President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Lucas made a splash at the Stonewall Community Foundation’s annual fundraising dinner Wednesday evening by placing the winning bid for a walk-on role in the ABC comedy series “Ugly Betty.”
Although the dinner’s primary purpose was to honor Mitchell Gold and Dustin Lance Black with Stonewall Vision Awards, the live auction in which Lucas participated with his usual fervor turned out to be a highlight of the evening. Lucas outbid another determined participant, eventually winning the role with a payment of $18,000.
“The live auction started with a walk-on role in ‘Ugly Betty,’ and I immediately knew: I have to get this,” Lucas wrote on his blog at LucasBlog.com. “Of course I wanted to give money to Stonewall, but I also saw a chance to shake up television a bit: the first porn star cameo ever on a family program.
“Porn stars are very much in demand, but the media still like to see us kept in our box,” he added. “So I saw an opportunity here to speed up the progression.”
Lucas said he would not have been able to outlast the other bidder without the help of his friends in the audience. His husband, Richard Winger — a member of Stonewall’s board of directors — committed $1,000 to the win, as did several others in the audience.
The live auction’s proceeds will be used to fund lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender charities in New York as part of Stonewall’s core mission. In the past year, the organization has awarded $1 million in grants to innovative projects. Lucas described the foundation as “one of the few gay organizations I love and support.”
He seemed to wish he could say the same for mainstream television, but he wondered how ABC would react to a porn star’s desire to appear on one of its Emmy-winning shows.
“It felt great to give all that porn money to Stonewall,” Lucas noted. “And it also felt great to put out a challenge to mainstream TV. How will ABC deal with a porn star on one of its primetime programs? I am curious to see how this will play out.
“Now, I am not suggesting that my little walk-on will change the world,” he continued. “But I hope it will be one step taking us out of the privacy of people’s bedrooms and onto a larger stage. And I hope the American public will enjoy seeing a porn star as a real person, not just as a hot body.”
On Friday Lucas said he expects to finalize the details of his “Ugly Betty” appearance “in the coming days.” No one from the production company was available for comment at press time.
For more about Lucas and his body of work in the adult entertainment industry, visit LucasEntertainment.com. For more about Stonewall, visit StonewallFoundation.org.
