SAN FRANCISCO - Fans, porn stars, business people and San Francisco locals credited the GAYVN Awards with creating some much-needed excitement in the nightlife of the Castro district over the awards weekend.
"It's been a long time since I've seen this much excitement in town, and lines around the block at all the parties," said NakedSword chief executive Tim Valenti, whose company co-sponsored the awards show and many of the events.
Things got so hot at the Hot House Entertainment party that Shantay's VIP list somehow caught fire - literally. (No flaming queen jokes, please.) At the Raging Stallion party, company founder Chris Ward was standing outside on the street because the interior of the club was packed. At the TitanMen party, one excited fan stumbled out the door saying, "I need to get some air. I just met Dean Flynn, and I'm going to have a heart attack!"
The partying started before the sun went down on Friday at Falcon Studios' Kick-off Party hosted by Juanita More, which began at 6 p.m. The event included a Safer Sex Fashion Show, which performer-director Steve Cruz said was well attended and a lot of fun.
Ricky Sinz may have scared people in his Best Actor-winning role in To The Last Man, but he was a sweetheart when fans asked him to autograph pictures during the cast's appearance first at Does Your Mother Know and later at Edge next door.
"People aren't scared of me when they get to know me," Sinz quipped. "But it is very much fun playing bad like I did in this movie."
Scott Tanner, who shared the Best Supporting Actor award with Trevor Knight, talked about the rigorous shooting schedule for To the Last Man.
"There was no cell phone reception, it rained, it was really roughing it, and that helped get us in character," he said.
Tanner also shared the award for Best Threesome for To the Last Man's controversial rape scene in which he performed with Logan McCree and Sinz. Although he played the victim, Tanner said, "No, I wasn't in pain at all. I laughed a lot between the takes, but I did do a lot of screaming."
Barrett Long, Jet Set Men and Dirty Boy Video all hosted parties, and the Bel Ami boys made a personal appearance on a rare swing through the U.S. Late into the first night, Tony Buff, Flynn, Dillon Buck and the other TitanMen exclusives gathered at Harvey's to face a fawning, yet spirited, crowd.
While managing one of the most packed parties of the weekend at The Lookout on Friday night, Hot House's Steven Scarborough took a moment to reflect.
"It's nice to see everyone, and I'm glad they're having a good time," he said. "We like to throw good parties."
The next morning, Tim & Roma's Pre-Show Brunch - a benefit for the Stop AIDS Project - attracted a host of porn stars as well as porn friend Bruce Vilanch. Vilanch almost was upstaged by performer Wolf Hudson, who modeled shirtless.
The Official GAYVN Awards Shameless afterparty at Wunderland was so packed that some people (including some GAYVN Awards judges) with gold tickets couldn't get into the glassed-in VIP lounge. Even Dustin Lance Black, the Academy Award winner, had trouble getting inside the quieter VIP area until someone finally recognized him!
Ultimately, though, the whole weekend gave the Castro a boost of new life, and locals there said it was the most fun they've had in years.
