Look Who’s in at the Outfest . . . Why if It Isn’t Tammy Faye!

Outfest’s opening gala last week at the Orpheum Theatre downtown was supposed to be the night of 1,000 Tammys. Guests were encouraged to dress in drag for the gay and lesbian film festival’s party and screening of the documentary “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” but most of the boys left their mascara and false eyelashes at home. Just as well. The scene was crazy enough as it was.

A cosmo-soaked cocktail party in the theater’s back lot kicked things off. Surrounded by skyscrapers, one felt (for once) that L.A. really is more than a sprawling suburb.

Although the Orpheum was air-conditioned, things got a bit steamy as guests waited nearly an hour for the show to start. Still, they remained in good spirits, flapping HBO freebie fans to cool off. I overhead one man say to another: “Honey, I hate to say it, but you’re looking younger.”

Lily Tomlin presented Academy Award-winning directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman with the fourth annual Outfest Achievement Award for their documentaries, which include “The Times of Harvey Milk,” “Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt” and “Celluloid Closet.” Their newest, “Paragraph 175,” about the persecution of homosexuals during the Holocaust, will premiere this week at Outfest.

“We have been showing it in Europe for the past few weeks,” said Friedman, who lives in San Francisco. “We were in Berlin with a couple of the men who appear in the film. . . . It’s been very touching.”

Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey introduced their film about televangelist diva Tammy Faye Bakker Messner.

The woman so many have mocked turns out to be quite a supporter of gay rights and has even co-hosted a TV talk show with a gay man.

“To survive as a gay kid you have to be the star of your own musical,” said Bailey, explaining her appeal. “And Tammy certainly is the star of her own musical.”

The audience got especially riled up during a segment about Jerry Falwell’s hostile takeover of the Bakkers’ PTL network, and hissed while Falwell was on screen.

In the film, Tammy Faye reveals some of her makeup tips: She uses single false eyelashes for her trademark spidery look.

“They don’t come off,” she explains. “They have to literally wear off.” Her mascara? Waterproof L’Oreal Lash Out. (Her eyebrows and lip liner are tattooed on.)

“I think the eyes are the windows to the soul,” she says. “When my friends die, I often ask to have their eyeglasses.”

Info: https://www.outfest.org.

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No film festival would be complete without a little guerrilla marketing. Next to the Orpheum’s lot, 28-year-old filmmaker Sharon Houston staged a mock crime scene to promote her six-minute film, “When Queens Attack,” which is to be screened at the festival Tuesday and Thursday. Cordoned off with police tape, the scene featured a chalk outline, Mardi Gras beads, a boa, long black evening gloves and a pair of shoes.

“I have no money,” Houston said. “I had to figure out a way to promote the film.”

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Could laptop computers be replacing stereos? At a holiday barbecue last week in Pacific Palisades, guests gathered ‘round the PC to hear Led Zeppelin’s “California,” downloaded from Napster. The sound wasn’t half bad, once the computer was hooked up to the stereo’s speakers.

One less piece of technology to keep up with? Sign me up.

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E-mail Booth Moore at booth.moore@latimes.com.