Each year I think about covering RuPaul's Drag Race, so I'm finally doing it. Like Mad Men (and I bet this is the only time you'll hear them compared!) it's awash in fun movie references. Highlights from the past have included Raja's bucket of blood Carrie dress to Raven's "I'm giving Michelle Pfeiffer bitch" to Jinkx Monsoon's Grey Gardens fetish to Tammie Brown's demented Old Hollywood persona to numerous truly terrible movie star impersonations (I've never seen a worse Marilyn or Joan Crawford, for example, than this show has provided) and so on. I know. I know. It's the sixth season, "the sixening". The library is open if you'd like to read me because these books are overdue!
Four movie references to start us off...
During the mini-challenge, a photoshoot where the queens lept across boob-tube color bars to a pile of foam below sees rubber limbed LaGanja Estranja compared to Goldie Hawn in Overboard. "I get that a lot," she said awkwardly pulling herself out of the foam. Laganga is obviously not in Goldie's comic league but, to be fair, Goldie Hawn did look like a drag queen in Overboard...
Epulets, Goldie. Really?
As for Kelly Mantle's photo? The verdict from photographer Mike Ruiz...
It's very Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz... when she was inside the tornado"
Kelly is an actress but promised not to constantly reference her IMDb page. Oh Kelly, self-promotion is oxygen on reality tv; you'll suffocate!
Later the queens had to make costumes out of boxes of props and fabric based on TV shows. April Carrion, the cutest ladyboy (from Puerto Rico... what is this show's fascination with Puerto Rico. There are other places in the world that produce drag queens! AKA every civilized place in the world), was horrified to received "Duck Dynasty" and who can blame her but she made the most of it. Laganja won another two excessively complimentary movie references in her runway strut (Showgirls Nomi Malone + "very queen of the night Whitney -- where's your Bodyguard") but since she mispronounced Downton Abbey she didn't deserve them and should be disqualified from living.
JUDGES PANEL OF ONE
Hate Her / Fiercest Outfit / Brain Cell Murderer I shudder to say something kind about Gia Gunn, my instant arch-enemy, but here it is. Though her hula hoop bag was about 300,000 times bigger than it needed to be to carry her wee brain ("absolutely!"), she served it, visually, with that entrance.
Cute or Insufferable? This jury is still out on Adore Delano, former self-proclaimed "lesbian Jonas Bros" (and American Idol contestant) and sewing machine virgin, but one things for sure: camera hog
Adore Delano & Ben de la Creme size up their competition
Did the Right Woman Win? Yes, henny. Ben de la Creme was serving (actual) cheesecake with camp on the runway, also took a great boobtube photo, and also tossed off the funniest line when the ladyboys bolted frantically to their challenge once they realized all contestants were accounted for... "Can anyone alphabetize?"
(I'm reasonable sure Gia Gunn can't.)
Best Read / Best Advice / Best Judge Mike Ruiz is everything this week with spot on soundbytes useful for any and all occasions.
"you just don't" (unless you're maybe Sharon Needles?)
an eternal unchanging truth
Sashay, Away... It's tough to get axed from any reality competition on the first episode, so I felt bad for Kelly but she was kitten and this show demands tigress.
Queen of Social Media: Out of sociomedianthropological curiousity uhohheyyyy I screencapped all of the new queen's Twitter accounts a few weeks before the premiere to see how much of a difference a popular television show can make. Biggest Gains this week (descending order): Adore + 2,000 but she also had the most followers before the show aired; Ben: +1721; April: + 1308; Gia: +1261; Vivacious: + 921; Laganja: + 896; Kelly: +831.
Suggested Complimentary Reading:
"The Taxonomy of Queens on RuPaul's Drag Race" - The Wire
"For RuPaul, a Second Act with Drag Race" - New York Times
"If I Were a Madonna Song, I'd Be..." - Boy Culture
"I was giving Michelle Pfeiffer bitch" - TFE
"Michelle Visage's 11 Favorite Moments in Herstory" - Buzzfeed
"Ranking the House Down: The Queens from #60-#1" - /bent
"Rose McGowan, Sharon Needles and 'Realness'" -TFE