Delusional Grabby Awards Apologizes To Disgraced Model Abuser Michael Lucas, Telling Model Who Was Assaulted By Lucas To “Move On”
The Grabbys is a small gay porn party held in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend, and while it’s a fun couple of days for some in the industry to socialize with each other (I loved seeing everyone above, and a few others), the actual awards ceremony itself is pointless, with a drunken Chi Chi LaRue picking most of the winners.
Sitting in plastic folding chairs for 90 minutes looking up at hundreds of nominee names displayed onto a projector screen is not an awards show. But, during Saturday night’s projector screen viewing party, there was one moment that came close to resembling entertainment and a classic awards show moment, as performer Damon Heart took to the stage to accept his award for Best Three-Way.
Heart made a few comments about Michael Lucas (who was sitting in the audience watching) during his time on stage, and while he could’ve gone a lot further (Heart, like so many former Lucas models, has alleged abuse by Lucas while he worked for the studio), his speech was ultimately harmless. I stopped recording after a couple minutes, as Heart began thanking people and the “fun” parts of his speech came to a close, but here’s some of it:
As he went on, Heart was actually played off stage a minute later, as the Grabbys began announcing the next category, and that was the end of the only real “moment” of the night. Then, the next day, Heart tweeted that Michael Lucas spit in his face at an after party following the show:
The host of the after party apologized to Heart for Lucas’s assault:
And today? The Grabbys (Mark Nagel and Stacy Bridges) also tweeted a public apology. Except their apology was not to Damon Heart. They apologized to…Michael Lucas:
As if they couldn’t be more out-of-touch by apologizing to Michael Lucas, Nagel and Bridges go on to tag Damon Heart in the tweet, telling him to “move on.” This tone deaf and utterly clueless apology isn’t too much of a surprise, given that the Grabbys actually gave Lucas a “Wall Of Fame” award at their show Saturday night.
Over the last four years, at least 20 different performers have spoken out against Michael Lucas, alleging abuse during productions, transmission of STDs on sets, private videos being sold by Lucas without consent, harassment, illegal distribution of prescription drugs on set, and several instances of non-payment. Most recently, Lucas was found guilty in New York Civil Court for not paying performer Beau Reed, and a civil judgment was issued against him. But, all of Lucas’s fraud and abuse is what the Grabbys considers “Wall Of Fame” behavior, and they—along with the show’s host, Chi Chi LaRue—are proud to honor and defend the notorious bigot.
While Michael Lucas literally spit in someone’s face on Saturday night, the delusional Grabbys have figuratively spit in the industry’s face by awarding Lucas, not to mention apologizing to him after someone had the guts to call him out. In what reality does an awards show that supposedly celebrates performers give its most prestigious award to the person who abuses the performers?
No one really took the Grabbys seriously before, but their embrace of someone with a well-documented history of abuse, bigotry, and fraud proves just how irrelevant they really are. Good luck filling all those plastic chairs next year.
