"My passion is New York and the vitality that makes it special." -- Michael Musto
Michael Musto (born December 3, 1955) is an American writer who began his professional career at The Village Voice, where he writes the weekly La Dolce Musto celebrity and gossip column. He is an Italian American and a graduate of Columbia University, where he was a theater critic for the Columbia Spectator. Michael Musto Quotes He is the author of Downtown and Manhattan on the Rocks. A selection of his columns has been published as La Dolce Musto.
"By the end of the week, if I'm still alive, I get to write whatever I want about it all.""For better or worse, I've always tried to march to my own drum and tell it like it is, while preserving some integrity and style. God, I'm fabulous!""For years, I've pushed the idea of a column compilation book mainly because it would be easy - I could just staple 'em all together. But publishers have been resistent, feeling the material dates.""I can't drive, so I can only live in New York, which is fine with me.""I don't know about you, but I can tell when someone's lying. They can't look you in the eye - they look you in the bridge of your nose.""I go to screenings, then plays, then after-parties, then clubs.""I'm deeply driven and want my finger stuck in every pot there is.""I'm just a simple kid from Brooklyn who landed into the most enchanted lifestyle imaginable.""In '75, the year both A Chorus Line and Chicago hit Broadway, my head spun around and I became the ultimate theater queen for life.""In the last few years, the very idea of telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is dredged up only as a final resort when the alternative options of deception, threat and bribery have all been exhausted.""It's a good thing that columnists don't make homosexuality their last taboo anymore. But I wish the columnists themselves would come out too.""It's not enough for me to cover theater, I have to throw myself around every other art form, and do so thoroughly and relentlessly.""Pretending to be other people helped bring me out of my shell and shed my inhibitions.""The difference is that with fame comes a spotlight, one which has recently made it impossible to ignore the fact that more and more of those folks we place on pedestals aren't even pausing to consider an option other than lying.""This commitment to truth is something one senses more and more Americans yearning for, just as they are becoming more and more sophisticated at knowing when the truth is being obscured - an irony that seems to elude most of today's elected officials.""With representation there to do the speaking, the guilty are suddenly given the freedom that comes with hiding behind the fact that they never said that - in fact, they never said anything!"
Musto was born in Brooklyn, New York. He wrote movie reviews as a child, and acted in plays as a way to overcome his shyness. He graduated from New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn (the very same high school visible from the subway shown in the opening credits of the television show "Welcome Back, Kotter") in 1972 and from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1976, where he performed with the Barnard Gilbert and Sullivan Society.
Musto began his Village Voice column in 1984, after having already written some feature stories for the publication. He is a recurring guest on several TV shows including Countdown with Keith Olbermann and others on the E! channel. He is openly gay and is published regularly in several gay publications, including Out Magazine and ShowPeople. He appeared in drag in a blue dress in the all drag queen music video for Cyndi Lauper's single "Hey Now ", and as a reporter in the film Garbo Talks.
Musto was named Best Gossip Columnist in a poll conducted by nycsidewalk.com, and in 2002, a UPI profile of Musto called him "one of the wittiest stylists in the English language". Musto is also known as the author of articles in the Village Voice that cited rumours about the murder of Angel Melendez. The result of this and subsequent publications by Musto regarding the murder brought to attention a case in which police were otherwise uninterested and resulted in the trial and conviction of Michael Alig and Robert "Freez" Riggs.
On the June 14, 2007 edition of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Musto coined the word 'celebutard' (combination of the words 'celebrity', 'debutante', and 'retard') to describe celebutantes Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.
Mike was also part of the "Club Kid" scene in New York during the late 80's early 90's. You can see him in the youtube video, Michael Alig Outlaw party at Mc Donalds
Musto, Michael. (June 12, 1986) Downtown-V285 Publisher: Vintage. ISBN 0-39474-285-0
Musto, Michael. (September 1989) Manhattan on the Rocks. Publisher: Henry Holt & Co ISBN 0-80501-032-7
Musto, Michael. (January 1, 2007) La Dolce Musto: Writings by the World's Most Outrageous Columnist Publisher: Carroll & Graf ISBN 0-78671-879-X
Musto has provided requested contributions to four published works:
Contributed foreword to Boas, Gary Lee. (January 2000) Starstruck: Photographs from a Fan Publisher: Dilettante Press ISBN 0-96642-725-4
Contributed as an author to McMullan, Patrick. (November 2003) so8os: A Photographic Diary of a Decade Publisher: powerHouse Books. ISBN 1-57687-187-8
Contributed as an author to Hastreiter, Kim. (September 14, 2004) 20 Years of Style: The World According to Paper Publisher: Amazon Remainders Account. ISBN 0-060-72302-5
Provided afterword in Haden-Guest, Anthony (October 2, 2006) Disco Years Publisher: powerHouse Books ISBN 1-57687-325-0
