Queer n There	Queer n There Archive

An Oscars ceremony for the male members of the world's oldest profession? The first annual, first-ever International Escort Awards was long in coming. Thrown at New York's Roxy on October 8th, the bash was sponsored by HX magazine and Rentboy.com-- which is a sort-of Craigslist of male escort offerings, with a something of a New York skew.

Of course an escort does not a prostitute necessarily make-- a customer and his (more rarely her) certifiably beautiful companion might just decide to, say, take in an opera, or enjoy some fine dining. But the winners weren't getting graded on their ability to whisper translations of Verdi's Rigoletto on the fly, or choose a Pinot Noir with notes of blackberry and musk. "There aren't going to be any speeches," promised drag-diva MC Shequida. "What are they gonna talk about, politics?"

W

View our poll archive

hich was bitingly ironic, in retrospect, because, shortly thereafter, one recent Rentboy.com listee could have won the prize-- had there been one-- for Best Kissing & Telling. Denver escort Mike Jones was recently talking, and not ineloquently, about politics on every interview show that could snare him. Jones, you'll recall, helpfully dropped a dime before election day about Rev. Tom Haggard's sodomitical susceptibilities.

"It was great that we're finally able to appreciate these guys in a country where they're not appreciated," Rentboy.com impresario Tom Weise tells The Guide. "We have awards for every little shit out there-- every profession, every category of arts and entertainment." But were intended contestants out for glory and not just quietly satisfied customers? "We were surprised at the response of the escorts and their willingness to take part. Initially we thought they would think 'Are you guys crazy?'"

Certainly it can't be bad for a business that nets, oh, maybe $200-300 an hour to be honored with the epithet "Biggest Dick," "Best Body Worker," or "Most Versatile." With nominees from 23 countries, 12 awards were handed out, with half the winners from New York-- one of North America's three major centers of gay-escortdom, along with Chicago and Los Angeles.

Which speaks to a difficulty of honoring escorts that, say, the Academy Awards doesn't face. Images on the screen are amenable to infinite reproduction. But escorts-- like unsung uncloggers of toilets and fillers of cavities (ahem, we're talking dentistry here)-- provide a service that demands immediate presence. Which limits the range of any escort's "public," even while it insured the 1,000 contented clients and friends who showed up at the ceremonies a more intimate-than-usual professional awards bash-- and the promise of more intimacy-- budget willing-- to come.