A recap of the Outfest Legacy Awards honoring Lee Daniels with surprise guest Jane Fonda!

I’ve attended The Legacy Awards just about every year since they began eight years ago and I have to say, the event just gets better and better each year.

You mix the very worthy cause of preserving LGBT moving image media with a most outstanding VIP pre-party and ridiculously fun after-party and that makes for one of the best times at any awards event this year.

Held on Thursday night at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, the gala benefits the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project and this year honored filmmaker Lee Daniels.

Gabourey Sidibe, directed by Daniels to an Oscar nomination in Precious, was supposed to join Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. in the presentation of the Visionary Award to Daniels.

So who was the last-minute replacement when Sidibe (who sent a video message) was stuck filming: Jane Fonda!

My guest David Trudell and I were seated in the third row and we were trying to process the surprise of Miss Fonda being there (she didn’t walk the red carpet and her name was not in any of the pre-publicity) then we had to wrap our heads around how a 75-year-old woman could still look, well, so HOT!

Said Fonda: ‘Gabby Sidibe was supposed to be here tonight and Lee called me about four hours ago and said Gabby was called to work in a series that she’s doing and could I replace her. I am honored to replace her. I Know her and I love her and I love Lee for discovering her and giving her a chance.’

The actress, a two-time Academy Award winner, then said to the largely LGBT crowd: ‘I’ve lived a long time, twenty years of that time was in the south, and I have seen too many lives destroyed and distorted by homophobia and I pray with all my heart that I live to see the day when people can come out freely, safely and be accepted by every strata of society.’

She then turned the focus back to Daniels who she worked with on The Butler.

‘One of the things that makes me so proud of Lee Daniels and so proud that I could be here to present him with the visionary award, no one could dispute that Lee knows his way around leading men: Kevin Bacon, Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey, Heath Ledger, Forrest Whitaker, John Cusack and Cuba Gooding Jr.’

But she thinks of him even more though as an actress’ director.

‘Just ask Monique, Mariah Carey, Gabby Sidibe, Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman and Oprah Winfrey. These are women who were guided by Lee’s production or direction.’

Fonda herself was under Daniels’ direction for her small role as Nancy Reagan in The Butler.

‘It was only a day and a half down there in New Orleans but I loved working with Lee – in his pajamas. He only wears pajamas when he works in movies. I just loved it and I love Lee, I just love him.’

Daniels then took the stage to wild applause.

‘I’m speechless because I’m so very, very humbled by this experience. I thank you from the bottom of my heart,’ he began.

He thanked his partner and his two college-bound children who have understood when he disappears every time he does a film.

‘I’m away from them, I’m not there for them. It takes my soul. I come back up and it’s a year and a half, two years later and they’re there and I love (them) for being patient with me and for loving me unconditionally – and for telling me the truth about my movies.’

Daniels also thanked the many stars who have worked for him who, he admits, probably lost money taking the jobs.

‘I don’t know why you want to work with me, I don’t pay you no money (laughs). ‘All I do is scream. Oprah told me, “Jane’s scared of you! Jane’s scared of you!” I’m not mean. We roll up our sleeves and it’s like putting on a show. It’s like putting on a play. We don’t have much but we have love and everybody’s equal.’

Daniels has spoken in the past of beatings he received from his father as a youth for being gay and for dressing in his mother’s clothes as a child. He spoke again of his father to the audience Thursday.

‘My dad told me awhile ago, when he found out that I was gay, that I would never be anything. And I was really angry with him, I was really angry and everything I’ve done so far is to prove him wrong. I’ll show you, you know. And then after I did The Butler, I understood where his anger was fueled from. His father was a servant and was beaten and his father’s father was tied to a tree and his father’s father’s father was a slave. He wanted the best for me. My movies are therapeutic and I forgive him and I love him for that.’

The presentation to Daniels was the highlight of a fast-moving show that included a charmingly nervous Shane Bitney Crone (Bridegroom) introducing never-before-seen footage of Harvey Milk on the campaign trail in the early 1970s, a gorgeous and confident Raven-Symone introducing a powerful scene from the 1993 documentary Jewel and the Catch, and Scandal star Guillermo Diaz introducing a scene from the 1995 film Stonewall in which the openly gay actor starred as a drag queen.

Also appearing was Emmy winner Dan Bucatinsky (Scandal) who introduced footage from 1976’s We Were There. It was silent footage of LA Pride and San Francisco Pride celebrations in 1976. It’s beautiful footage, such freedom and joy in this post-Stonewell, pre-AIDS era.

Daniels did double-duty. After receiving his award, he asked Fonda to stay on the stage with him to watch scenes from the 1990’s Paris is Burning, an exploration of the world of drag balls in 1980 New York City.

We didn’t see Miss Fonda at the after-party but it was great to meet and chat with Lee Daniels and Guillermo Diaz!

Kudos to all involved in this year’s Legacy Awards. Go to www.outfest.org/legacy to find out more about the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project.