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At Outfest’s opening night, Jane Lynch of ‘Glee’ savors a day of back-to-back honors

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At Outfest’s Opening Night Gala on Thursday, “Glee’s” Jane Lynch was honored by a couple of spiffy presenters -- Chris Colfer and Paris Barclay -- who’d had a pretty good day themselves.

Roughly 15 hours before Sue Sylvester’s nicer doppelganger received the Outfest Achievement Award, the two actors and “Glee” director Barclay learned they were Emmy nominees, thanks to Fox’s breakout hit series.

That didn’t stop the puckish presenters from dryly acknowledging that, as Colfer put it, “Tonight is all about Jane.... She’s a breath of fresh air in a very polluted city.”

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Lynch returned the favor. She talked about meeting Barclay: “It was at an audition for a pilot several years ago, where he gave her simple instructions: “Please, just don’t bore me.”

(Two-time Emmy winner Barclay was nominated again this year for directing the series’ not-boring “Wheels” episode, which had the glee club performing in wheelchairs to support Kevin McHale‘s character, Artie Abrams.)

“We found out we have many things in common ... ,” the actress said. “We both love ...

... a good laugh at someone’s expense; we enjoy a more loosey-goosey style of working so that it almost feels like we’re wasting everyone’s time.” There was a collective gasp from the audience of 2,000 at downtown L.A.’s Orpheum Theatre when Lynch went on: “I’m so glad you and Christopher did not get on that plane you almost boarded on Sept. 11, 2001.”

Then Lynch turned to her wickedly hilarious and openly gay costar, Colfer, saying, “The entire world has just embraced you and who you are, but none more than gay and lesbian kids who now have a courageous and fashion-forward role model and uber cool guy to look up to. It’s a lot to put on your young shoulders, but I don’t worry about you because you have a wise old grandma that lives in you, keeping your feet on the ground and making sure everyone has enough to eat.”

As for her own career, Lynch described it as “one accident after another.” For aspiring actors and filmmakers looking to her for words of wisdom, she offered this: “I will defer to my personal hero, Carol Brady, who in her infinite wisdom once said, ‘Find what it is you do best, and do your best with it.’”

Then the tired honoree, who’d been up since the Emmy noms were announced at 5 a.m., ducked out with wife Lara Embry before a screening of the Allen Ginsberg biopic, “Howl,” introduced by writer-directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and starring James Franco as Ginsberg.

-- Irene Lacher

Top photo: Director-producer Paris Barclay, left, and actor Chris Colfer, arrive at the 2010 Outfest Opening Night Gala at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown L.A. on Thursday. Credit: Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

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Second photo: Jane Lynch, left, and wife Lara Embry on the Outfest opening-night red carpet. Credit: Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

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