Opening night fun in downtown LA at Outfest 2010!

My friend Trevor Daley jokes that for me, the Outfest Film Festival is like Christmas in July.

And it’s so true!

I love Outfest and last night kicked off the 11-day festival of gay & lesbian films with the opening night VIP party which preceded a screening of Howl inside the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles.

While these events are fun for me, I’m also working the entire time so it’s indeed a case of mixing business with pleasure. So when Trevor and I got into the party, the first thing I wanted was a drink because, well, they were free! Got to the bar and went directly up to the cutest bartender there: Cole Gerdes.

Cole mixed me a superb vodka and tonic and I snapped this photo of him because he’s so adorable. He’s gonna be a future Morning Man for sure because he’s got some really terrific modeling photos that I just looked up!

A few days ago, I posted a review for the outstanding film A Marine Story and shared my geeky fan reaction to star Dreya Weber the last time I met her at Outfest when she was at the festival with The Gymnast which took home best feature honors.

Dreya had seen the review and assured me that I had not scared her when I gushed on and on the last time we met. So, I just continued my gushing about her new film and her performance in it. She was nice enough to introduce me to her co-star in the movie, Paris P. Pickard and the three of us took a photo together.

Since I did a lot of pre-festival reviews this year, the VIP pre-party was a case of running into a lot of the filmmakers whose movies I’ve already written about and trying to remember if I wrote anything unflattering. I rarely do since I love their efforts, try to see the cup half full and am not your typical curmudgeon critic.

But I honestly loved Violet Tendencies so I was in the clear when I ran into Jesse Archer who wrote the film and has a supporting role in it. We talked about how absolutely terrific Mindy Cohn is in the title role and he shared with me how enthusiastically she embraced the role which really is a showcase for the one-time star of The Facts of Life. Mindy will be at the screening of the movie on Saturday night.

It was great, as always, to see the multi-talented Peter Paige. We didn’t get a chance to chat but I did snap this photo of him. Isn’t he looking really hot these days?

The always busy Peter, who portrayed Emmet on Queer as Folk, has directed the feature films Say Uncle and Leaving Barstrow, is currently a writer and producer of the TV series Fly Girls, and has done recent guest spots on such series as Grey’s Anatomy, Raising the Bar, Without a Trace, CSI: Miami and American Dad!

Speaking of hot (weren’t we?), it was nice to see Wilson Cruz who I adore.

Wilson does not have a movie in Outfest this year I don’t think but he has plenty coming up including The People I’ve Slept With which screened at the Outfest Fusion event in the spring. It’s a terrific film, Wilson is one of the stars, and he gets to show off his muscles.

He’s also filmed a role in the upcoming flick Convincing Clooney and is in pre-production for a movie called Does Your Mama Know, according to IMDB.

Wilson is just in his mid-30s but he is a real pioneer when it comes to being an openly gay actor. He made the decision to be out when he got his big break as a teenager as Claire Danes‘ best friend in the ABC series My So-Called Life in the mid-90s. This was more than a decade before such stars as Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Lane, Richard Chamberlain and so many others came out and virtually all were already established actors when they made that decision.

Also saw the talented actor-writer David Dean Bottrell who is making us laugh every week with his six-minute tour-de-force as Karen Blixen in Out of Africa as part of the brilliantly hilarious stage show Streep Tease.

I saw David a few weeks ago at The Smoking Cocktail Mixer and we gabbed and gabbed and he’s just the smarted most charming guy. Then I was reminded of what a good actor he is because I went home that night and a rerun of Boston Legal was on.

David had the recurring role of the creepy Lincoln Meyer on the show. He was testifying in a court case in this episode and was creeping me out! I thought, ‘This is nothing like David!”

I turned groupie again when Trevor introduced me to Robert Lee King who happens to have directed one of my very favorite movies of all time: Psycho Beach Party. I have seen that movie, written and co-starring Charles Busch, so many times and loved it more with each viewing. It’s a spoof of 1960’s Beach Party/Gidget surfing movies mixed with slasher horror films and stars Lauren Ambrose, Amy Adams, Thomas Gibson, Matt Keesler and Beth Broderick among others.

Robert has completed filming his latest movie, 818, which he plans to have ready for film festivals this fall.

Chatted up Jd Disalvatore at the party and was glad to introduce her to Trevor (that’s them pictured together in the bottom photo). Jd is a true force of nature, a dedicated LGBT activist and tireless producer whose credits include Shelter and two films in this year’s festival: A Marine Story and Elena Undone.

Jd hosts the popular The Smoking Cocktail mixers each month and tells me they will become more of a roving event rather than be based at O Bar in West Hollywood. Wherever they go, I’ll be there!

Food was scarce at the VIP party (unless you like plantains – there was an endless supply of those!) so Trevor was extra-hungry after we sat through the movie (the terrific Howl starring James Franco with a strong performance from Jon Hamm), we headed to the after-party a few blocks away ready for some grub.

Unlike previous years where there was a buffet and food was plentiful, this year you had to ambush servers carrying little trays of appetizers. I managed to get a few nibbles but ended up leaving just after midnight and getting a taco from a Calbi Fusion Taco truck parked outside.

It was delish!

I have to say, opening night was extra fun for me because I got to meet so many of my readers who were kind enough to come up and tell me how much they enjoy the blog. Trust me, that is something I never get tired of hearing.

Thanks everyone!

Related Post: Jane Lynch feted on opening night of Outfest 2010: “This festival keeps the spirit of filmaking alive.”