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While Tinseltown’s stars are fully focused on the Oscars this week, LA’s British community was out in force on Tuesday night at Hollywood’s other big awards ceremony of the week… The Toscars.
The success of this event is the latest triumph for Brits in LA’s organizers Craig Robert Young and Eileen Lee. Since The Toscars’ debut back in 2008, Craig and Eileen have put together this popular showcase that celebrates the Academy Awards nominees by producing short comedy films that parody the Oscar nominated films.
Every year after the Oscars are announced the Toscars teams have only 3 weeks to create their parodies with a budget of only $250. And the results are often outstanding!
This year’s 6th Annual Toscars, the hilariously funny parody of Miserable Lesbians or Mis’ Les’ at it’s known, impressed the judges so much so, it walked home with no less than a whopping seven golden Toscar awards.
For Best Whactress, Best Film, Supporting Whactress, Best Scribbler, Best Director, Best Threads and they also won the people’s choice for Best film.
The awards were held at Hollywood’s historic Egyptian theatre to a full-on red carpet arrival with a glamorous, fabulously coiffed audience. This was the biggest Toscars yet with a sold out, black tie crowd packing the auditorium where a celebrity judging panel picked the winners.
Judges were led by Oscar nominated actor Eric Roberts (pictured with me below), followed by Janina Gavankar (True Blood), Rex Lee (Surburgatory), Walt Beck and Alek Keshishian.
It was no surprise to me that the biggest sweep in the history of the event turned out to be the Les Misérables parody, Mis’ Les’. This film dominated the night by winning fist after fist.
This hysterical piece of comedy, produced by Marina Paganucci, featured three original songs – performed by characters named Anne Muffaway, Inspector Crowe and Madame Bonham Carter – wrapped around a fast moving story about brave rebels trying to overturn anti-lesbianism laws in 19th century France, and actually had me falling off the edge of my seat with laughter!
‘Mis Les’ writer and director Sandro Monetti (pictured above) told the British Weekly: “Hearing the audience’s laughter and cheers for our film was reward enough but winning all those awards was a delightful bonus for all the dedication and enthusiasm of our talented team.”
Sandro, a British journalist, author and comedian, had been one of the judges at last year’s Toscars but entered the awards himself this year for the first time and took away two Golden Fists for writing and directing the French farce. So you could say the multi-talented Monetti was well and truly double fisted!
Monetti added: “I’ve been to many awards shows in my job as an entertainment reporter but none that are as much fun as The Toscars. That’s why I wanted to join a team this time.
“I urge my fellow Brits to get involved with the event next time. It’s growing so big that next year they’ll probably stage it at Staples Center!”
This year’s other entries included Breasts of the Southland Wild, Half Past Twelve (At Night), Stargo and SkyFell.
Funnyman Brian Dunkleman hosted the ceremony while former Miss Great Britain, the luscious Leilani Dowding (pictured right) was the toast of the Toscar’s, handing out the ‘Golden Fist’ awards as this year’s ‘Miss Toscar’.
Leilani told us: “So much good comedy comes out of England, I think we Brits are really good at making fun of things. The Toscars is a totally unique and original event, I am thrilled to be a part of it!”
And here’s a list of who the Toscar went to…
Marina Paganucci – Best Toscar Film – Miserable Lesbians
Leah Allers – Best Whactress – Miserable lesbians
John Alexander – Best Whactor – Breasts of the southern wild
Sandro Monetti – Best Scribbler and best Director – Miserable Lesbians
Natasha Sill – Best Supporting Whactress – Miserable Lesbians
Michael Enright – Best Supporting Whactor – Miserable Lesbians
Best Tunes – Guy Ross and Tamara Douglas-Morris – Skyfell (and I can’t get up)
Leah Allers – Best Threads – Miserable Lesbians
People’s pick – Miserable Lesbians
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