American journalist and socialite Michael Musto was BOTD in 1955. Born in New York City, he studied at Columbia University, where started writing theatre reviews. In 1984, he began writing for The Village Voice, becoming well-known for his weekly column La Dolce Musto, a breezy mixture of gossip, coverage New York nightlife, reviews, interviews and political commentary. His work provided a cultural history of New York’s gay scene, profiling cult figures including RuPaul, Justin Vivian Bond and John Cameron Mitchell, alongside coverage of HIV/AIDS activist group ACT-UP. In 1996, he wrote the first of a series of articles about the murder of New York club kid Andre “Angel” Melendez, bringing national attention to a case that resulted in the conviction of Michael Alig for Melendez’s killing. Musto also presented gossip and nightlife segments for the MTV and E! entertainment networks and made cameo appearances (typically playing himself) in the independent films Slaves of New York, Jeffrey and Party Monster. After the closure of The Village Voice in 2013, his newspaper columns were collated and published in the books Downtown and Manhattan on the Rocks. He revived his La Dolce Musto column in 2021, following the magazine’s relaunch.