Page 32 - AVN April 2013

Who's Who.04.13 3/19/13 2:49 PM Page 32
ADUL T WHO’S WHO
eases
WINNER’S CIRCLE | By Mark Kernes
Five and Fabulous
Fifth annual Tranny Awards hit new heights with improved venue
It was truly a “Night of the Stars,” tranny fashion, on
February 17, with more than 350 attendees styling and
socializing at the Fifth Annual Tranny Awards, thanks
to the event’s primary sponsor, Grooby Productions.
5
The evening began a little after 8 p.m., with a red
carpet procession that featured almost all of the
evening’s big stars, with statuesque TS Morgan Bailey—
she dwarfed nearly every star coming down the car-
pet—handling the interviews for Grooby’s live netcast
of the event. One unexpected guest was now-retired
world-famous adult star Jenna Jameson, accompanied
by AVN’s 2013 Unsung Starlet of the Year Brandy
Aniston and partner Barry Scott. (Jenna told AVN that
she’s happy just being a mom to her four-year-olds
now.)
But the event’s biggest improvement was its venue:
The Beyond the Stars Palace on North Brand Boulevard,
a genuine theater with its own stage, professional
lighting and plenty of seating for guests.
This year’s hostess was again an alumna of Logo TV’s
RuPaul’s Drag Race—this time, Season 2—and RuPaul’s
Drag U: the Laotian beauty Jujubee, a model with 10
years’ experience in the entertainment industry, who
took command of the event stage once the show got
started, at around 10:15 p.m. Early arrivals got to hear
the guitar stylings of TS Chloe London as attendees
fortified themselves with drinks from the full bar, and
some even ordered off of the venue’s dinner menu.
Popular internet radio entertainer TS Michelle
Austin presented the first award, the Shemale Yum
Model of the Year, to newcomer Jane Marie—the first
of three awards the raven-haired actress would receive
this evening. Though it certainly wasn’t obvious from
her dress, Jane Marie said that her pre-show
preparations had been sidetracked by a faulty sprinkler
in her hotel room, which drenched most of her
belongings.
Winners All: Top row, from left, Jane Marie, Sarina Valentina,
Foxxy, Chanel Couture, Jessica Fox, Jesse; below, Wendy
Summers, Gia Darling (with husband).
Photos courtesy Grooby Productions/Ben in LA (Otola.net/blog)
The Best Non-Typical Model Award, also sponsored by Shemale
Yum, was presented by female-to-male (FTM) performer James Darling,
himself a nominee in several categories, and the prize went to the short-
haired, tattooed Danni Daniels.
The presenter of the Best DVD Award, Tempest, treated the crowd to
some of her poetry before announcing that Nica Noelle’s Forbidden
Lovers for Transromantic Films (a multiple AVN nominee) had won the
fiercely contested award. Not long afterward, famed TS director Joey
Silvera took home the Best DVD Director statuette.
Interestingly, Forbidden Lovers’ highly rated sex scene between Amy
Daly and Christian XXX didn’t snag the Best Scene award. Instead, that
honor went to the Wendy Summers/Sadie Hawkins coupling,
“Managed,” from Wendy’s website, WendySummers.com. The red-
headed actress accepted the award in what might be called “comic book
chic” attire: a black latex body suit with a big yellow “X” on the chest,
reminiscent of X-Men comics circa 1965. This was also the first award
for newcomer Sadie Hawkins, whose work for Sammy Mancini’s She-
Male Strokers had received AVN nominations.
And speaking of Mancini, the prolific TS shooter won the Best
Photographer/Scene Producer award for his many TS series stretching
back nearly a dozen years. Mancini has long been one of the TS com-
munity’s favorite directors, and this year, they showed their admiration
by voting Mancini a Lifetime Achievement (Behind the Camera) Award.
He took the stage again to accept that new honor moments after the
Lifetime Achievement (In Front of the Camera) Award went to retired
star Gia Darling, a 15-year veteran of adult movies who accepted the
trophy on-stage with her husband, telling her longtime fans that she
truly missed the business, but was happy with her current life and had
no plans to return to acting. It should be noted that this year’s Lifetime
Achievement Awards were sponsored by top director Joanna Jett.
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