'Rupaul's Drag Race' Winner Raja Picks Chad Michaels and Sharon Needles as Front Runners of Season Four at Rockit

(Raja and Jujubee at XL Nightclub)
 
Times Square maybe Disney-fied, but at least gay men and drag queens are taking to 42nd Street again—thanks to the opening of XL Nightclub. And on Friday we poped into Tony Fornabaio and Brandon Voss' newly relocated party, Rockit, with a dozen drag queens from RuPaul's Drag Race to help high-kick-off the new season of the hit Logo show.
 
Hanging out in the VIP lounge amidst a sea of wigs, we easily spotted Raja, the super-tall and striking winner of Season Three. The current reigning queen of the Logo-verse told us that since taking the title, she has been touring the country and has probably hit just about every gay bar in America. And where was her most memorable joint? "Anchorage Alaska," she said without any hesitation. "They have three gay bars in that town and, in the summer, the sun doesn't set. I had a great time!" We also asked Raja who her favorites were on the new season of Drag Race, which started its fourth season last week. "Chad Michaels and Sharon Needles," she said with certainty. "They've got some solid ideas and are very cool people too."
 
Just then, who walked by but Ms. Sharon Needles herself, decked out in a fierce military-meets-Marilyn-Manson look. Sharon was honored to hear she had Raja's blessing, adding with a wry smile, "I'm gonna need it!" We also chatted with her about her thoughts on New York vs. L.A.. "In L.A., everyone looks so sandblasted and smoothed down. I like New York where you can have a broken nose and fucked up teeth and still be a supermodel." Also spotted in the VIP area was The A-List: New York's Mike Ruiz, now serving as a celebrity judge on the show.
 

A fabulous floor show with all these ladies was scheduled for 11pm but, in true drag queen style, things didn't get started till 1am. Then again, we're guessing that corralling a dozen queens is not easy—especially after an open vodka bar! Fortunately, the crowd at XL reached its peak just as Ingenue took the stage to start the show with a Lady Gaga lip synch.
 
As for the club itself, the opinions keep rolling in, and Friday saw more commentary on the space than there were tight t-shirts. In our totally unscientific survey, we heard everything from "huge", "OK", "awesome", "lame", "cool", "tired", "hot" to describe the place. But in this town, everyone's a critic right? Our only complaint so far was the coat check/bathroom/stairwell people-jam, but we imagine that will be worked out soon.