Our lovely cohort James St. James was profiled by Jonathan Parks-Ramage in a fabulous article for Vice!
The piece touches on James’ move to New York in 1984, his tenure as the queen of the Club Kids, and rebirth as author and WOWlebrity here in Los Angeles. And the pictures that accompany the article, all shot here at World of Wonder Headquarters, are absolutely beautiful!
From “James St. James Looks Back on Drugs, Murder, and Dance” by Jonathan Parks-Ramage:
I first met James St. James when I was 18, in the back row of a darkened movie theater. He was played by Seth Green in the 2003 film Party Monster. The movie chronicled the real-life antics of James and Michael Alig (portrayed by Macaulay Culkin), two queer anti-heroes at the center of the New York “Club Kids” scene in the late 80s and early 90s. The story was ultimately about the notorious murder that put a stop to the scene, but to me, Party Monster was about the glamorous rebellion of a family of freaks I longed to join—and James St. James was its narrator, promising a better future in a voice that was incisive, witty, and extreme.
Thirteen years later, I’m sitting across from my high school hero at a Mexican dive on Hollywood Boulevard. The man who once dressed as the corpse of Nicole Brown Simpson—five days after her murder—now sits before me in much simpler garb. James’s look today is high-fashion Uncle Fester: His bald head and blanched complexion pop against a minimal black ensemble.
This is a man who reigned over the most notorious nightlife generation in New York City history and later went on to write Disco Bloodbath, the true crime memoir that recounted Michael Alig‘s brutal murder of Angel Melendez—a killing that would forever immortalize the Club Kids and provide a dark punchline to a scene that had been defined by its drug-addled flirtation with death.
But that’s all in the past. As I consider the man sitting across from me, I’m forced to wonder: What happens when a club kid grows up?
This I know for certain: Michael Alig was recently released from jail, and James lives a peaceful, party-free existence in Los Angeles, California. James is now happily employed at World Of Wonder (a.k.a. WOW), the company that produces the television show of another former club kid: RuPaul. James hosts an onlineaftershow for Drag Race, pens a column for WOW’s website, and authored Freak Show—a young adult novel recently adapted into a forthcoming film starring Bette Midler, Laverne Cox, and Abigail Breslin. James has clearly moved on, so why can’t I?
In our pre-interview email chain, James asks a similar question:
“I’m sort of boring these days… wonder what we’ll have to talk about?”
Read what else they had to talk about and see more photos over on Broadly. And check out James St. James in Transformations and James St. James Interviews… on WOWPresents!
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