It's not everyday that Hallmark manager Diane Preslow fluffs up her hair, throws on some heavy makeup, wears a sequined gown and fishnets. But when she's adorning in the glitz and glamour of stage performer Liza Minnelli, it's all part of the act.
"Even in my younger days when I was 16 or 17 – when I was waitressing for many years – I used to have a couple of regular customers that came and would always tease me and tell me that they weren't going to give me their order until I sang 'Cabaret,'" says Preslow, 45. "I would sing a little of whatever I knew of 'Cabaret.' They always told me I looked like her most of my life."
Preslow, though, wouldn't have won the contest held at Music Hall in Detroit if Hallmark assistant manager Karin Miller didn't urge her to go.
"I saw it on the news in the morning, and I'm like, 'You gotta go! You gotta go!" she says, laughing hysterically. "She looks just like her." Miller covered Preslow's night shift as she went and strutted her stuff in front of eight judges and five other younger girls in April.
"A lot of the young girls … were flashing all this stuff for the judges," she says, laughing. "I had a long sequined gown on so I wasn't flashing as much. If the judge wanted to see some leg I just flipped up my dress and showed them some leg, and then they were happy."
As women dabbed on makeup and adjusted their wigs in the downstairs green room, Preslow sipped a glass, or two or three, of wine. "They brought in wine and that's what I did, I waited for an hour or so having wine," she says.
There was one problem during the one-hour competition: Preslow doesn't sing or dance. She thought she was done for. "I'm like, 'I'm in trouble now,'" she says.
But Preslow didn't need any fancy dance number to win over the judges, which included WDIV style guru Jon Jordan. She had the natural beauty of Liza and that laugh.
"One judge said my laugh reminded him of her [Liza]," she says.
Luckily, Preslow didn't have any competition from any Liza drag queens, as none entered the contest. "I would've been in really big trouble then," she says, laughing. "They look better than the women half the time."
Now Preslow, who won VIP tickets to Liza's show and a chance to meet her, may take her newfound fame to the next level. "[I might] start charging for autographs," she says, laughing, "and make some money on the side. Don't tell them you saw Liza moonlighting at Hallmark."
Lookin' like Liza
Read More
Everything You Need to Know About the New Queer Bar Coming to Ann Arbor
The rumors are true — there’s a new queer bar coming to Ann Arbor later this year, and Pride Source sat down with co-founder Saharsh Hajela to [...]
Why a Local Academic Is Fostering Queer Discussion and Community Through an Old-Fashioned Book Club
Queer books on public library shelves have come under fire across the country in recent years, but you wouldn’t know it at the Ypsilanti District Library [...]
Kathy Griffin Keeps on Surviving: Comedian Talks Tour, Longtime LGBTQ+ Allyship and Support From 'Civilian Gays'
Kathy Griffin has been through even more than you probably know. She lost a lung to cancer, lost her mother and lost many of her close friends. In 2020, the [...]
‘Queer Drunk Punk’ Author Zehava Frieman on How Growing Up in Grosse Pointe Park Inspired Her Debut Novel
When Zehava Frieman finally sat down to write “Queer Drunk Punk” in 2021 on the tail end of decades of what she describes as “creative [...]
Go to Church (or Temple), Observe Trans Day of Visibility, Catch a Queer Film, See an Aerial Drag Performance
Spring has sprung and it’s time for all the cute little cubbies and big, strong bears to emerge from hibernation — sunshine and good times [...]
Why Phluid Project Founder Rob Smith Left the Corporate World to Promote Gender Inclusivity
Thanks to the era of “new media,” where no stone is left unturned when it comes to invading the privacy of every public figure from social media [...]
