Out And About At The ‘Out’ 100

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Out out did itself for this year’s Out 100.

Check it…um, out, after the jump…

We rolled down to Cipriani’s around 7:30, the predestined press check-in time. Saying “Forget you!” to the queers waiting in the rain, we headed around back to the service entrance – oh, wait, we mean, “The ultra-exclusive, super-secret press entrance”! Very glamorous.

Once inside we headed to the coat room to, you know, hang our coats. Boy, were we surprised when a line of white tuxedo-clad ladies and gents offered to hang them for us! This party had luxury written all over it – that and Target, Pepsi and a number of other bold-named sponsors. We decided once and for all that this shindig was, in fact, a party The Joker would crash: the highest party praise we can offer.

The hordes of homos soon started filtering in – and so did the celebs! Rather than standing at our registered red-carpet slot – right between Israeli TV and some porn company – we decided to set up shop in front of Francois Rousseau’s eye-popping portraits. We’re lucky to have had something pretty to look at, because those super stars were taking their sweet time coming down the carpet. Especially Tim Gunn, who’s as sweet and sexy as we imagined in our dreams…

Speaking of Gunn, you’ll see that we got him and Mad Men‘s Bryan Batt to give us a few words. Thom Browne, Bebe Neuwirth, Lane Hudson and Marc Jacobs boy-toy Jason Preston were just a few of the celebs we snagged. Jennifer Hudson, we’ll note, wanted to nothing to do with us. We did, however, nab a surprise sit-down, which you’ll notice a bit of in the video above. More on that one later…

Anyway, we did our chit-chat thing and were desperate for food, but the line proved to be too long, so we just lurked around the VIP area. Jacobs and Preston were backed into a corner, a placement we exploited as best we could. While we couldn’t video tape in the VIP area – those celebrities are soooo selfish with their privacy – we did chat-up some folk, like honorees Ed Droste and Nico Muhly, who are both musicians, FYI. After months of writing back and forth, we finally got the chance to meet super blogger Mike Rogers, but only for a moment. Maybe next year, babe!

We also corned Jacobs and Preston, who seemed far twitchier than usual. Jacobs was a peach, though. And humble. When we asked him whether he ever predicted being famous, he coquettishly inquired, “Am I famous”. Hunky magazine spreads automatically, we said. He didn’t seem to agree.

We paid our respects to Michael Lucas, who’s decaying nicely. Oh, just kidding, Michael! You look fab!

Our head spinning from all the gay in the air, we headed back stage, where Tori Spelling had the A-Gays enraptured between staged witticisms. So, too, did co-host Mr. Gunn. Jennifer Hudson and potty-mouthed Mary-Louise Parker were honored for being fantastic. Marc Jacobs popped back up to give Thom Browne his stylemaker award. Bill T. Jones sent a video in exchange for his life-time achievement award, which is totally a fair trade. Bryan Batt played nice while receiving his Artist of the Year honor. The queer crowd went wild when Gina Gershon introduced Annie Lennox, who accepted the “Humanitarian of The Year” award. Shit got all heavy when she started talking about saving the world and – um – AIDS or something. Oh well!

It wasn’t long until Mya took the stage and belted out “Lady Marmalade,” which led Brian Juergens from AfterElton to ponder, “Funny, just the other day I was saying to someone, “You know, I really wish it was 2001 again, don’t you?”” Agreed. We were equally perplexed by Kelly Rowland’s presence and turned to our straight camera man for guidance: “Do gay people really like Kelly Rowland”. Said straight camera man shrugged.

Good thing Rowland showed up, though, because then there would have been no one to introduce Chaka Khan, who wowed the crowd with “Through the Fire” and “I’m Every Woman”, natch. Overwhelmed by all the madness we headed back to the white tuxedo army to grab our stuff. It took fo-ever, but we made it out and even managed to grab a gift back, which held quite the cornucopia. We can’t quite remember all of what we found, but a few items stick out: coffee, The Muppet Show season two and some sort of butt wipes. Out knows its audience! Thanks, gays!

For more on the Out 100 madness, check out the magazine’s super-official blog, where Queerty daddy David Hauslaib makes a special appearance and the handsome Out staffers play dress-up. Awwww…

[Oh, and big thanks to video man Zach! You’re a mensch.]

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