In case you haven't heard, Michael Musto, the longtime Village Voice nightlife reporter and gossip-with-a-purpose, was fired by the paper in a recent "bloodbath" of employees. What the bottom-liners at The Voice don't seem to realize is that in firing Michael Musto, they've voted to kill the paper off entirely. As the editor of a teen magazine I founded, I was often told, "You are that magazine." I always knew that wasn't entirely true, but I do think that proclamation applies to Michael Musto—he truly was the voice of The Village Voice.
Nile Rodgers recalls working with David Bowie, Diana Ross, Daft Punk and an ingenue by the name of...Madonna:
"I don’t think anybody has ever made a bigger production deal than I did for Like A Virgin. It was an absurd deal. I was very confident that I could sell…I don’t remember exactly what the figure was, but let’s say it was five million. The attorney and the record company thought that was impossible, as she’d already had some big hits but hadn’t sold one million yet.
"So they thought: if he can sell five million, we’ll give him that amount of money, and we’ll give him those points… And I said, well, it also has to be retroactive from record one. So they said sure, and were laughing. And then the album sold 21 million. (Laughs)
"And after I got to know Madonna, I’ve never met anyone else in my life, to this day, who’s more driven. Who’s more of a hard worker. She would beat me to the studio every day. She was always there 10 minutes before me.
"It was amazing, and when I saw that in her… I mean, you can see who she is now, and it didn’t take me long to spot that quality. I just kept thinking: this is going to be huge! I didn’t think it’d be that huge, but I thought I could easily give her that five million [sold], or whatever I said, that the label obviously thought was impossible.”
If you never saw Lillian Gish receive the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984, now's as good a time as any to laugh and be touched by her speech in praise of silent movies...
Fascinating, if tantalizingly brief, footage from Stephen Sprouse's first-ever fashion show in 1984 has just gone digital. (Sprouse died of heart failure in 2004 after battling lung cancer.) Catch peeks of his trans muse Teri Toye, Linda Evangelista, Tina Chow and some very sexy men who are probably still hot if they're still alive...
Just saw this installment of a long series today: Dancing with an iPod in Public, this time to the strains of Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go." Cute...
Above, see all the stars as they appeared then...and as they appear now!
At the most recent Hollywood Show, held at the Westin Los Angeles Airport, I was discussing with one of my A-hound (that's "autograph") buddies just how long we could continue coming to these shows, considering so many of the attendees are people we've already met, and other potential guests are dropping like flies.
Not even kidding—this hearse was in front of the hotel as I first drove up!
Don told me, "Oh, I'll be here in 20 years in my Rascal, scooting around for Lindsay Lohan's autograph." He was joking, though. He couldn't care less about LiLo or most modern stars. For him it's Jane Withers through about Dallas, Don and most of the others who attend these shows can't be bothered. When does it end? I guess, as with life, it ends when it ends, so have fun while it lasts.
This was my shortest show. I only spent part of the first day and a few minutes on the second, since I had the GLAAD event and other stuff to do. But I couldn't not come, not with Angie Dickinson, Earl Holliman and Mamie Van Doren in the mix.
Here are my interactions, in order as they occurred:
