"OC Gala" with Jennifer Beals and Gale Harold

Last Saturday, the Center honored Jennifer Beals and Gale Harold with “Torchbearer” Awards. This is what the Gala organizers had to say about Jen­nifer and Gale, and the reason why they were honored.

“Call her a risk taker, an amazing actress, a beautiful woman, a Yale gradu­ate, a wife, a mother, a gay icon, a straight ally or just call her our hero and friend. The CenterOrangeCounty is proud to honor the one and only Jenni­fer Beals for her exceptional work in the ground breaking Showtime series ‘The L Word’ …

Gale Harold deserves the same accolades for his role of Brian Kinney on “Queer as Folk”. “Yes, we said it: Brian Kinney is God. Who wasn’t glued to their television when ‘Queer as Folk’ began in its run? And we wondered: who is that gor­geous guy who plays Brian Kinney and where did he come from? Now we know that he is Gale Harold, the only person on the planet that could have brought Brian Kinney to life … It is hard to imagine how a straight actor pre­pares for a role like this one. First, he must be courageous enough to say yes to the role. Then somehow he must transform a straight orientation and attitude to one of a promiscuous, gay man … One wonders if he was a gay man in previous life or just plain brilliant. We think it may be both!”

Gale got to the Gala first and he mingled with the guests, taking photos with his fans. A few peo­ple called him Brian and he joked that now they owed him $5 each time they called him by his character’s name. I talked to him a little and mentioned that we have many fans on “l-word.com” who loved him on “Queer as Folk”. He thought by my accent, that I was French or German and when I told him I was Russian, he intro­duced me to a young lady, who was actually going to Russia because her grandparents were from there.

Jennifer arrived fashionably late, as usual, and she was escorted by her pub­licist and two bodyguards. Jennifer and Gale talked to each other for a moment and then she spent the rest of the reception taking photos with major donors and the VIP guests.

When the dinner was almost over, Kim Cunningham, Vice Chair of the Cen­ter, introduced Gale Harold, who said how grateful he was for the opportu­nity to be a part of such an important series as “Queer as Folk”. It was a lit­tle hard to follow him because he had a handwritten acceptance speech and he kept losing pages, which was funny. By the end of the speech Gale got a little bit emotional and he finished by thanking Showtime and the town of Pittsburg, which was the home for “Queer as Folk”.