Michael Musto

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Michael Musto, photographed by David Shankbone

Michael Musto (born December 3, 1955 in New York , USA ) is an American journalist , columnist , actor , LGBT activist and eccentric.

He is considered to be one of the most important society columnists and tabloid journalists in New York from the end of the twentieth century to the present. His columns are also considered to be important historical sources on the LGBT history of New York and the USA in the 1980s, 1990s and since the turn of the millennium.

Life

Michael Musto belongs to the American community of Italian descent and spent his childhood, youth and adolescence exclusively in New York. As an early adolescent he began to write texts, especially as a critic of the films he saw. He discovered his journalistic streak as a schoolboy, where he worked as an editor for the local school newspaper. After leaving school, he worked as a freelance journalist for SoHo Weekly News Magazine ; since 1984 then as a permanent member of the editorial board of the New York city newspaper The Village Voice (of New York) , where he worked until spring 2013.

Since his release, he has worked as a columnist for The Advocate magazine and the Out.com website . Michael Musto lives in New York. He's openly gay .

Columnist and chronicler of New York's LGBT scene

As a columnist, he became known as a stringent chronicler, but also a serious critic of the gay and art scene in New York, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. Numerous articles dealt with artists and LGBT celebrities such as Madonna , Jean-Michel Basquiat , Keith Haring , Andy Warhol , the legendary Studio 54 and RuPaul . In his column, he didn't mince his words and wrote his opinion bluntly and did not shy away from outing various New York celebrities as gay, the most famous being Ellen DeGeneres . Due to his extensive contacts to the scene and to artists, his articles were seen as historical documents of the scene, which reflected much of the lifestyle of that time, but also problems such as AIDS . Musto radiated with his column and became a role model for other homosexual authors, writers, journalists and bloggers, including Perez Hilton .

Andy Warhol, David Bowie and Diana Ross were among the most important - not even homosexual - artists that he met and got to know . He was even close friends with the British writer, activist, actor and eccentric Quentin Crisp . Crisp mentioned him in several of his books.

Trivia

  • Michael Musto has now become a kind of label of its own. Above all, his often dandy- like appearance and appearance in fine suits or his favorite color blue (often appearances in blue suits), his large glasses and his striking face made him known and unmistakable.
  • He has been seen in two music videos so far: in Cyndi Lauper's song Girls wanna have fun he is disguised as one of the housewives (without glasses) and wearing a wig with whom Lauper speaks on the phone and who then dance with Lauper. He was never a drag queen (drag queens were cast for this scene) but he stumbled upon the set by accident and was asked if he wanted to join in and was ready, especially since he was still at the beginning of his journalistic career at the time. The second music video is from Sir Ari Gold from 2013 and is called "Play that fucking record", where Musto can be seen with his well-known attributes.
  • Since the mid-1980s, he appeared in dozens of documentaries that dealt primarily with homosexuality and became known to a television audience.
  • As an actor, he often deliberately only played guest roles in short films or independent productions.
  • Musto still does not have a driver's license and cannot drive a car.
  • He describes himself as very shy and shy and that to this day also as an adult.
  • He is often known to the German audience in the documentaries "101 reasons why ..." broadcast by VIVA , which often deal with society or tabloid topics and question various celebrities.

Filmography (as an actor)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Musto, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American journalist, columnist, actor, LGBT activist, and eccentric
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd December 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH New York , USA