Lea DeLaria Accepts GALECA Win for "OITNB"

"Orange Is The New Black" star Lea DeLaria was in Hollywood earlier this month to accept an award for the show at the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association's Dorian Awards.

Celebrities, industry executives and L.A.-area members of GALECA gathered to raise a toast to the nationwide group's picks for last year's best in TV and film (as announced back in January).

At GALECA's annual "Winners Toast," DeLaria, who plays irrepressible prison inmate "Big Boo" on the Netflix hit "OITNB," accepted the show's booty of two GALECA Dorian awards, for TV Drama of the Year and LGBT Drama of the Year. DeLaria got laughs from intimate mix of just over 50 guests when she said the prison depicted on "Orange," a powerful, acid-humored tale of class and turf wars, is "like a big lesbian bar."

Rising film star Val Lauren, who played tragic movie icon Sal Mineo in director James Franco's experimental bioflick "Sal," and costarred in Franco's equally daring film "Interior. Leather Bar," joined on behalf of Franco, GALECA's choice for Wilde Artist of the Year.

Lauren shared behind-the-scenes details of the making of "Sal," and said both he and his friend Franco were drawn to groundbreakers like Sal Mineo, who didn't "believe in being constricted by labels."

Shane Bitney Crone, a subject and a producer of the acclaimed gay-rights documentary "Bridegroom," accepted that film's Dorian Award for Documentary of the Year, partly on behalf of writer/director/producer Linda Bloodsworth-Thomason.

"Bridegroom," documenting the unassuming Crone's devastating loss of his companion Tom Bridegroom and his battle for the rights and respect given any widower, was previously introduced by former president Bill Clinton at the Tribeca Film Festival. Crone's good friend Coleen McMahon, who wrote and sang the hit ballad "Beautiful Boy" featured in the documentary, was at his side.

GALECA's Dorian Awards Winners Toast, themed "champagne-and-pomme-frites," was held Sunday afternoon, March 9, for the second year in a row at The Pikey Caf� and Bar, a colorful British-accented boite in Hollywood. The informal event was hosted by showbiz presenter Blair Late, also a star of the Bravo reality hit "Newlyweds: The First Year."

After the quick ceremony, the crowd was treated to a surprise. Sam Harris, showman and Star Search icon, read a cheeky except from "Ham: Slices of a Life," his acclaimed new memoir detailing his road from Oklahoma to kooky fame. The excerpt chronicled what it was like to attend his friend Liza Minnelli's wedding to David Gest.

GALECA and its Dorian Awards, founded in 2009 by Us Weekly TV critic John Griffiths, honor movies and TV programs, from "mainstream" to LGBT-themed, with categories ranging from Film of the Year to TV Performance of the Year to Campy Flick of the Year. The organization is comprised of more than 90 established film and TV critics, as well as entertainment journalists and editors who cover those fields, for recognized media outlets accessible in the U.S.

For more information, visit http://galeca.com/