Event: 10th-Annual GAYVN Awards 2008

STORY AND PHOTOS BY VINCENT LAMBERT

The 10th-Annual GAYVN Awards took place last Saturday at the Giftcenter in San Francisco, and although much controversy surrounded the choice of hosts (no Kathy Griffin), the nomination process (no judges allowed) and the color scheme of the set (kidding), the show was pretty much business as usual. There were technical difficulties, poor sound and a surprising lack of skin, although by the second half, the trophy boys had stripped to their undies. The night’s big winner was Raging Stallion’s Grunts (as we predicted it would be months ago) with nine awards. The military epic won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Editing (Chris Ward and Ben Leon) and Best DVD Extras. Leading stud Jake Deckard took home Best Actor for the film, in addition to Performer of the Year. Co-star Ricky Sinz walked away with three awards for Best Supporting Actor, Best Solo Performance and Best Sex Scene (with Roman Ragazzi, who was sorely missed from the event. Well, at least by us!). All World’s Link: The Evolution followed with six awards (including Best All-Sex Video, Best Group Scene and Best Music, which went to director Chi Chi LaRue’s young nephew Red Shag, a composer and DJ from Minnesota. Hmmm, wonder whether the kid was even allowed to watch the movie!). Lucas Entertainment got four awards for The Intern, including Best Sex Comedy and Best Supporting Actor for Christian Cruz (a tie with Sinz). Titan Media received three awards for Best Leather Video (Folsom Leather), Best Extreme Specialty Release (Fear) and Best Videography for H2O (Brian Mills and Paul Wilde).

Other highlights: Blake Riley for Best Newcomer; Jerry Douglas got Best Screenplay for Brotherhood; Jesse Santana, Nickolay Petrov and Jason White took Best Threesome for Jet Set’s Just Add Water (although we doubt Petrov will be picking up his trophy anytime soon); and Collin O’Neal’s World of Men release Edinburgh for Best Pro/Am. Director Gino Colbert inducted this year’s Hall of Fame honorees: veteran porn stars Rod Barry and Tiger Tyson; directors Paul Barresi, Terry LeGrand, Lucas Kazan and David McCabe; and photographer Greg Lenzman (aka Mocha).

Seen (from top): Double winner Jake Deckard; Lucas Entertainment president and CEO Michael Lucas (center) with exclusive Jonathan Vargas and Intern winner Christian Cruz; Best Newcomer Blake Riley; Hall-of-Famer-in-black-leather Rod Barry; Threesome winner Jesse Santana with friend Jen (his date Guy Parker had already left the building); Collin O’Neal with boyfriend; Titan Media hunk Alex Baresi; Jet Set head Chris Steele with two Threesome awards; the trophy guys take it off.

For a complete list of winners, visit www.gayvn.com.