Gossip queen

Legendary Manhattan columnist Michael
Musto on getting the word out, the state
of the press and being a “gay Nazi”

BITCHY NEBBISH: Musto on the job

by MATTHEW HAYS

Meeting Michael Musto is a sweet experience. He seems this quiet, unassuming, slightly nebbish man who wouldn’t hurt a fly. But don’t let first impressions fool you. This, after all, is the same man whose acid pen has burned so many in the pop culture scene. Over his two-decade-plus tenure as gossip columnist at the Village Voice—North America’s first alternative weekly newspaper—Musto has earned a reputation that has him both feared and revered. A culture vulture no less than John Waters calls Musto “smart, funny and the best social columnist in New York.”

But Musto’s frank, bitchy columns have also earned him sharp attacks. When Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres were still closeted, Musto repeatedly railed against them for their silence on their obvious queerdom, while saving his most vicious attacks for the mainstream press, who colluded in that silence. This prompted O’Donnell to refer to Musto as a “gay Nazi” on CNN. “I’m sure that’s going to be on my gravestone,” Musto says now.

Musto has gathered many of his most scathing attacks in an anthology, La Dolce Musto: Writings by the World’s Most Outrageous Columnist (Carroll & Graf, $15.95). They include some of his strangest interviews, including one with the late Liberace, who boasts of knowing a transvestite “who had a schlong down to her knees.” The Mirror caught up with Musto on the eve of his visit to Montreal.

PERMANENTLY RAISED EYEBROW

Mirror: What first led you into journalism?

Michael Musto: As a child, I didn’t even have imaginary friends, so I was forced to develop a very vivid internal life. I’d watch movies on my own and write little reviews for myself, keeping them in tiny metal boxes for posterity. I found that reporting on culture—even low culture— was a catharsis for me, a means of expression to connect with the outside world. Jump ahead several decades and I found the perfect Michael Musto job in journalism—one where I get to go to movies, plays, fashion shows, and clubs and then write whatever I want about them! And get health insurance! I still feel like little Mikey, except now people are reading it and I’m getting paid.

M: How did you land your column at the Village Voice?

MM: In 1984—yikes—there was an opening there for an entertainment columnist, and since I had already done a few features for them, I had my stubbed toe in the door. They had me submit a sample column whereby I’d describe the previous week in New York culture, setting the tone for the mad trolley ride around the town’s highs and lows that would become my staple for decades. They liked it and gave me the job, and the column eventually went from a third of a page buried in the middle to a full page that’s the first thing in the paper. But my raised eyebrow has remained exactly the same.

M: Jon Stewart is now called the most trusted voice in America. He is clearly not of the mainstream and has picked up on the spirit of the alternative press. Has the alt press won in the end?

MM: Yes! I love that the most trusted voice in the land is a sardonic prankster and satirist. At least he’s an INTENTIONAL one, not like our last president. But thanks to the plethora of cable channels and blogs out there, there is no alternative anymore. The alternative has become the mainstream, and the people on the fringes are the Joe the Plumbers and Joe Six Packs. Which is how it should be!

M: How has the Internet changed gossip gathering?

MM: The Internet revolutionized the whole landscape of entertainment reporting. First of all, nowadays everyone on Earth can be a gossip columnist and/or a photographer by simply creating their own blog and holding up their cell phone. This makes information and opinions instantly accessible and, because these people usually don’t have to worry about repercussions, they can be as outrageous and mouthy as they want to be. That made the print columnists seem less special, forcing them to take the extra step and become a little saucier, wilder and more up to the minute, or risk obsolescence. I was always like the original blogger anyway— I always wrote what I wanted— so I wasn’t affected as much by the new landscape. I simply added an actual blog to go side by side with the column. Unlike most bloggers, though, I fact-check and stay within libel and good reason!

QUEER FEAR

M: What’s the final result of the current collapse of the mainstream press, due in large part to the Internet?

MM: It’s forced people like me— the last employed print journalist in the world—to a) try even harder to stay special and surprising; and b) branch out to the Web, where my blog, “La Daily Musto,” puts out short dispatches with more immediacy than a weekly column can. I was afraid doing a blog would consume me, but it’s turned out to be fun and liberating, not to mention a new way to generate debate and get responses. I’m dying to meet all the nutty commenters on the blog! Or maybe some healthy distance would be advised, actually.

M: Why do you think the mainstream press was so reluctant to report on someone’s being gay for such a long time?

MM: It seemed way more shocking to say someone was gay at a time when there was little representation of LGBT life in the media and precious few stars who were out. Plus the media tended to project their own prejudices, wrongly assuming everyone would get nauseous if they said a star was gay. They’d gleefully report on all kinds of private things the celebs would never want published, but when it came to the “G” word, the press would say, “Oh no. That’s off limits.” It was strange and hypocritical. But after Ellen, Rosie, Queer as Folk, The L Word, and the rise of the Internet, it became way more okay to address that topic without squeamishness. When Lindsay and Samantha started running around together, most of the press had no qualms about declaring them a couple.

M: Have you had any contact with Ellen or Rosie since the outing controversies and the perceived spats you were having with them?

MM: Rosie went on Larry King Live shortly after she came out and called me and Michelangelo Signorile “gay Nazis,” saying she didn’t come out because of our nudging. But I just know we had an effect. In any case, at an open press rehearsal of Taboo, the Broadway show she produced, Rosie made a speech and noted, “Michael Musto, you’re looking away every time I look at you!” That was a disarming way to break the ice and after that we buried the hatchet (in Donald Trump’s back) and became friends. She came out with a vengeance and has more than made up for lost time.

As for Ellen, when she was dating Anne Heche, I interviewed Anne, who liked the article and called me to thank me for it. She then put Ellen on the phone and she said some nice words too. So Ellen managed to “rise above” my previous outings of her and we’re on great terms now. Of course, in the cases of both Rosie and Ellen, I was probably more mad at the media for keeping the closet shut than at them.

M: What’s up at the Voice? We’ve seen that the mainstream press is having a lot of trouble coping with the shift to the Internet and drops in advertising. Now there have been recent layoffs at the Voice—including columnist Nat Hentoff. What do you see as the state of the paper?

MM: We’re going through the same transitional period that all media—and in fact all corporations— are going through. The economy is really putting the crunch on everyone. Nat Hentoff is a legend, one of a kind. Sometimes I feel like the last one voted off the island, but that makes me even more determined to deliver the goods my readers like. I’m convinced the Voice will stay vital and relevant for many years to come.

MICHAEL MUSTO SIGN COPIES OF HIS
BOOK, LA DOLCE MUSTO, AT THE OPUS
HOTEL’S SUCO RESTO LOUNGE
(2108 ST- LAURENT)
ON FRIDAY, JAN. 23, 10 P.M.