The awards just keep on coming for writer and filmmaker John Waters.
Last September Waters got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In March he was named “Filmmaker of the Year” by the American Cinema Editors society. For the past 10 months he’s been the subject of a career retrospective at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, “John Waters: Pope of Trash.”
Now World of Wonder Productions, the company that produces “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and other programs that “give a voice to marginalized communities and outsiders,” has chosen Waters to receive one of the top honors in the annual show business awards ceremony it sponsors, the WOWIE Awards.
Waters, 78, is one of 10 individuals or groups selected to receive a “Legendary Legends” award, given to recognize “the very best in artistry, activism and entertainment.”
Founded in 1991 by filmmakers Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey, World of Wonder Productions is a Los Angeles-based company that specializes in television and film productions that focus on LGBTQ+ topics.
Besides “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the company produces “Million Dollar Listing”; “Island Hunters”; “Owning Manhattan” and other television shows for Bravo, HBO Max, MTV and Netflix, as well as podcasts, music and documentaries, including “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” and “Party Monster.” It also owns WOW Presents Plus, a subscription-based streaming service. “We bring the underground to the mainstream, with uniqueness, imagination and glamour,” its website says.
The awards ceremony will be held on Saturday as part of RuPaul’s DragCon, a two-day gathering for fans of the reality show, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
RuPaul’s DragCon is billed as “the world’s largest all-ages celebration of drag,” featuring vendors, exhibitors, panel and Q&A sessions, and appearances by noted performers. The first WOWIE Awards ceremony was held in 2013.
The ceremony has 29 categories in all. For 28 of them, fans get to vote for the winners, who will be announced at the event. Subjects include Best Song, Best Album, Best Music Video, Best New Artist, Best Film, Best Book and Best Podcast.
Honorees in the 29th category, the “Legendary Legends” Award, were announced ahead of the event. Waters is best known for films including “Pink Flamingos” and “Hairspray,” and books such as Shock Value and Role Models. He also acts, works as a visual artist, and presents spoken-word shows around the country. His current show is called “Devil’s Advocate.” This month he hosted the Mosswood Meltdown music festival in Oakland, California. Next month he’ll host country singer Orville Peck’s sixth annual ‘Rodeo’ festival in Nashville, Tennessee.
The other 2024 Legends include: 89-year-old actress and dancer Ruta Lee; “horror hostess” Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (Cassandra Peterson); comedian and actor Jonny McGovern; fashion designer, model and author Dianne Brill, who was Andy Warhol’s muse; and Simon Doonan, author, television personality and former Creative Director of Barneys NY.
Also, Nymphia Wind (the stage name of Leo Tsao), a Taiwanese-American drag performer and dressmaker and the first East Asian winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, in Season 16; Raven (the stage name of drag queen, make-up artist and reality television personality David Petruschin); actress and television personality Ts Madison, the first Black trans woman to star in and executive produce her own reality series, “The Ts Madison Experience”; and The Teletubbies, characters who starred in a British children’s television series that ran from 1997 to 2018 (Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa Laa and Po, who each had televisions on their bellies, along with The Sun Baby, who shone in the sky over Teletubbyland and made baby noises.)
Waters said he’s unable to attend the ceremony but is honored by the recognition. He said he’s known Barbato and Bailey for years and has been a judge on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and a guest on the “RuPaul Drives…” car-interview show that World of Wonder produces.
“I’m thrilled to be nominated,” he said in a phone interview from Provincetown, Massachusetts, where’s he’s spending his 61st consecutive summer. He named some of other honorees that he knows: “Elvira, who’s my friend; Simon Doonan, who wrote the introduction to the re-release of Shock Value; Dianne Brill — I’m in great company.”
Here is “RuPaul Drives…John Waters”:
