André Robert Lee Looks Back on Starrbooty, RuPaul

One of our all-time favorite wacky and wild films is RuPaul’s Starrbooty. Created during a lull in her career, the film revives one of Ru’s early cable-access TV characters- Starbooty—a private detective turned sex worker who lands herself in increasingly ridiculous situations. The film celebrates RuPaul’s love for sexploitation, melodrama, gratuitous nudity, and her circle of kooky friends. Many consider Starrbooty the launchpad for RuPaul’s resurgence as host of RuPaul’s Drag Race, a show that mainstreamed drag so successfully it has overshadowed many other styles and interpretations of the art form. Today, Starrbooty producer and acclaimed filmmaker André Robert Lee joins us to revisit this wonderfully twisted film and discuss the challenges and triumphs of being a queer Black creative. We also dive into his other fantastic projects, including Dirty Laundry (starring Jenifer Lewis and Loretta Devine) and The Prep School Negro, a documentary which follows young Black students adventures on their way to college. FOLLOW ANDRÉ ROBERT LEE:

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André Robert Lee Looks Back on Starrbooty, RuPaul is an episode from Feast of Fun : Gay Talk Show by Fausto Fernós.

This episode is 88:19 long.

This episode was published on Mar 7, 2025.

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