DIVAS will dazzle
Preparations for this year’s DIVA Awards, to be held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Circular Quay on Monday night, are kicking into gear this week. Sydney’s showgirls are primping and preening themselves for the gay scene’s own equivalent to the Tonys, the Oscars, or — dare we say it — the Logies.
Sydney Star Observer snatched a moment with organiser Greg Steele while he was in the midst of multitasking, holding the phone with one hand while paying for a big bag of glitter with the other.
“The shows are all in rehearsals, the costumes are being made, and we’re in production meetings at the moment. It’s all coming together nicely, and it’s such a great venue — we’ll have 16 metres of red carpet at the front door. Pray for good weather!”
Online voting for two of the night’s publicly-voted awards — Favourite Venue and Favourite DJ — has been open for several weeks now.
The process was “tracking quite nicely. It’s a lot tighter than I thought it would be, which is good,” Steele said.
Those who haven’t yet voted should mark this Saturday, September 4, into their diary — physical voting for the two categories will take place at Nevermind at 163 Oxford St. From noon to 5pm, punters can cast their votes, grab a drink from the bar, and enjoy music from a live DJ.
Nevermind will also serve as the venue for the official DIVA after-party on Monday night.
Many would’ve noticed the eye-catching posters for this year’s awards, featuring poster girl Verushka Darling as a glamorous art deco creation.
Steele said the inspiration for the poster came when it was decided the awards would be held at the Museum of Contemporary Art for the first time.
“When we started to look at the venue, we were inspired by modern art,” he said.
“Essentially, the poster was inspired by Erte, the classic deco illustrator, in particular referencing the very classic Erte image of the woman in black with the black greyhound,” Darling herself told us in her plum British accent.
Steele said, with that classic artwork in mind, Darling was the obvious choice for poster girl.
“When we decided to use that piece of art by Erte as inspiration, we knew we’d need someone tall and statuesque enough to pull it off. We have copped a little bit of flak because Verushka has been on a DIVA poster in the past, but she was the first person we thought of and she was the only person we thought of.”
So with her face plastered all over town and in this very paper, does Verushka think she has a bit of an edge over the other girls in taking out a coveted award?
“No, no, no! I gave up caring about [winning] a DIVA Award years ago. It was just nice to be asked. I don’t think it gives me any edge over the other girls,” she insisted.
And while Verushka will just be an audience member on the night, she promised a fantastic outfit for the red carpet. Would she recreate her dazzling poster shot?
“We’ll just have to wait and see…”
info: The DIVA Awards are held on Monday, September 6 at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Visit www.divaawardsaustralia.com.au
