Boy George begins community service  | Entertainment News | Advocate.com

||  Entertainment News  ||
 
August 15, 2006
Boy George begins community service

With a city-issued broom in his hand, Boy George started his court-ordered community service early Monday, sweeping leaves and trash off the sidewalks of New York.

It took less than an hour for the former Culture Club front man to get into a spat with the media.

"You think you're better than me?" he yelled. "Go home. Let me do my community service."

Boy George took to the streets of Manhattan as a Department of Sanitation worker wearing an orange vest, dark capri pants, shoes without socks, and without the wild makeup and androgynous style that made him so recognizable as the '80s icon who sang "Karma Chameleon" and "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"

"This is supposed to be making me humble. Let me do this," he said. "I just want to do my job."

The singer, born George O'Dowd, was ordered to spend five days working for the Department of Sanitation after pleading guilty in March to falsely reporting a burglary at his lower Manhattan apartment. The officers who responded found cocaine instead.

At 7 a.m. Monday, a sport utility vehicle pulled up at a Lower East Side sanitation depot. The agency planned to issue the singer a shovel, broom, plastic bags, and gloves for the job of picking up trash on the city's streets.

In June Manhattan criminal court judge Anthony Ferrara issued a warrant for O'Dowd's arrest after he initially failed to complete the requirements of his plea deal. When O'Dowd appeared in court 10 days later, Ferrara called off the warrant but warned the singer he could not escape his community service commitment.

"It's up to you whether you make it an exercise in humiliation or in humility," Ferrara told O'Dowd.

O'Dowd, 45, initially envisioned a service project more in line with his status as an '80s icon.

He petitioned to spend the time helping teenagers make a public service announcement. Among his other proposals to the court: holding a fashion and makeup workshop, serving as a DJ at an HIV/AIDS benefit, or doing telephone outreach.

Boy George's manager, Jeremy Pearce, told reporters shortly after the singer arrived for his first day on the job: "He doesn't show any kind of emotion about these things. He takes it in his stride. He doesn't need to be humiliated. He's a humble person."

"Things outside in the street were a little chaotic," said sanitation department spokesman Keith Mellis. "We'll see if there's some cleaning that can be done inside."

The sweeping later resumed in a gated sanitation parking lot.

"This is for everyone's safety," deputy sanitation chief Albert Durrell said as photographers crowded outside the gate. He said the day's work also might include mopping inside the depot. (AP)

© 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

Be the first to comment on this story.

Back to top

Submit a comment for this story:

*Type your comment here (Required, 1000 characters max.):

*Name (Required): 

*Hometown (Required): 

*E-mail address: (Required, but will not be displayed)

Is this comment for publication? 
Yes   No

Daytime phone number: (Required for print publication only and will not be displayed)

Please enter the words you see in the box, in order and separated by a space. Doing so helps prevent automated programs from abusing this service.

  

If you would like to submit a comment for posting, please fill out the form above. 

All comments submitted via this form are subject to posting or publication. (To send a private letter to an Advocate editor or writer, please use the e-mail button at the top of the page, or use snail mail.) If you would like your comment considered for publication in The Advocate magazine, please include your full name, your city of residence, and a phone number where you can be reached during business hours so that we can confirm your identity. Your e-mail address and telephone number are strictly confidential and will not be shared or used for any purpose other than to contact you about your comment.

Comments that do not concern specific articles in The Advocate or on Advocate.com will not be posted or published. See the Contact page for sending comments for reasons other than responding to Advocate editorial and news stories.

Please note that comments sent by fax or snail mail are unlikely to be posted, although they will be considered for publication along with all letters received via e-mail or via this Web page. Comments that chiefly concern Advocate.com content will be considered for posting only on the Web site. The Advocate reserves the right to edit submitted comments for grammar, spelling, obscenities, or libel; we will, however, do our best to preserve the original comment's style and intent. Comments considered for publication in The Advocate magazine may also be edited for length.

More Exclusives
  • Gay Days at Disneyland: Part Celebration, Part Fiasco
    For 11 years, gays and lesbians wearing red shirts have descended on Disneyland for Gay Days, an event that forces mainstream Americans to deal with us face to face. And while just-married same-sex couples urging park visitors to vote no on Prop. 8 put a positive political face on the weekend's festivities, the event too often showed the gay community at its worst: drunk, sometimes naked, and acting completely inappropriate for the families looking on.
  • Remembering Matthew
    Ten years after his brutal murder, those who knew him best -- and those who learned of him only at the end -- remember that week in October and reflect on the legacy of Matthew Shepard.
  • Biden, Palin Debate Same-Sex Marriage
    As Alaska governor Sarah Palin and Delaware senator Joe Biden sparred over same-sex unions in their first and only debate Thursday night, one thing was clear: They both oppose gay marriage. But when Biden delved deeper into equal rights and protections for gay couples, Palin didn't take the bait.
  • The Force That Is Patti LuPone
    For Patti LuPone, the standing ovations began almost 30 years ago and have not stopped. The excitement of seeing Patti LuPone live has been thrillingly captured in Patti LuPone at Les Mouches, the never-before-released recordings from her legendary 1980 nightclub act.
  • "I Wanted to Stay Away From Pretty"
    And Kenley does just that in both word and deed on this week’s Project Runway. But darn it, Heidi and Co. have misplaced their box of consequences…
  • Hip-Hop Guru Kim Osorio Talks Homophobia
    Kim Osorio became a hip-hop legend in 2003 when she became the first (and so far, only) female editor in chief at The Source magazine, regarded as the Bible of hip-hop. After she was fired in 2005, Osorio took her case to court -- and won a judgment in her favor to the tune of $7.5 million. Now in her book, Straight From the Source, Osorio talks about the sexism and homophobia that often shaped her time in and around the hip-hop industry.
  • GLBT History Month: 31 Days, 31 Heroes
    October is GLBT History Month, a national celebration of queer culture through the ages. To remind people of our achievements, the Equality Forum has honored a hero for every day of the month. Who made the list?
  • Pondering Palin's Social Agenda Pre-Debate
    Gov. Sarah Palin talked abortion and LGBT issues with Katie Couric in the lead-up to Thursday's debate and arguably gave one of her stronger media appearances thus far. But her public record on social issues and how her debate performance will play remains less than clear.
  • Remembering Sakia
    Chances are you haven't heard much about Sakia Gunn, a 15-year-old lesbian stabbed to death in 2003 in Newark, N.J. -- and it's filmmaker Charles Bennett Brack's mission to change that.
  • Talkin’ ’Bout a Revolution
    The mid 1990s -- specifically the two-year period beginning in December 1995 during which five revolutionary, lifesaving protease inhibitor medications were approved --mark the single biggest turning point in the global battle against HIV and AIDS. Times are a changing again, and now, there are a slew of new HIV drugs that will change the world and lengthen lives.
  • Gay Bush Appointee Loses Appeal for Fair Treatment
    Richard Grenell was appointed spokesperson for the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations by President Bush more than seven years ago and became the longest-serving public servant to hold that post. But when it came to having his partner of six years listed alongside the spouses of other U.N. diplomats, his dedication to the job didn't carry much weight with the State Department.
  • Ecuador’s Proposed Constitution Causes Rift Between Left and Right
    Will this 85% Catholic, Latin American nation ratify a gay-friendly constitution? After all, it was the first in the Western Hemisphere to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation ... and it decriminalized sexual activity between people of the same sex six full years before the United States.
  • Newsom, Paterson Headline Prop. 8 Fund-Raiser In New York
    San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom and New York governor David Paterson combined forces for a Manhattan fund-raiser Thursday. Paterson charmed the intimate crowd with his usual candor and Newsom fostered a sense of urgency, saying he had seen polls that put the opposition four points ahead of those who oppose the ban.
  • Jennifer Hudson Takes Back Her Spotlight
    Whether you first fell in love with Jennifer Hudson on American Idol or it took you until her Oscar-winning turn in Dreamgirls to jump on the bandwagon, there's no denying that the sassy girl with the big voice has a huge gay following. Now, after years of waiting, Hudson is getting back to what she does best... with her self-titled, debut album.
  • Clay and Lindsay are Gay -- Shock!
    Dear gay celebrities: We know. We have eyes. We can tell. We don’t need announcements like the one on People featuring the oh, so obviously gay Clay Aiken, shouting from the cover, “Yes, I’m Gay.” Or of Lindsay Lohan’s casual admission of her relationship with Samantha Ronson. Heck -- MTV News wrote, “Lindsay Lohan has made being a lesbian an afterthought.”
  • No-hit Wonders
    Music and fashion go together like Lindsay and Sam, but no one told the Project Runway kids that news.
  • Preserving Our Legacy One Party at a Time
    Outfest's annual Legacy Awards honor producer Bruce Cohen and NBC Universal's Ben Silverman. Silverman takes the opportunity to announce his mother is gay. Outfest introduces its new executive director, Todd Heustess.
  • McInerney Family Seeks Firing of Public Defender; Court Representative Appointed
    A California judge Tuesday appointed a guardian to protect the interests of 14-year-old Brandon McInerney, the accused killer of openly gay 15-year-old classmate Lawrence King, the Ventura County Star reports. The move came after McInerney’s family said it wanted to fire the public defender’s office, which is currently representing McInerney, in favor of a private law firm that has reportedly agreed to defend the case for $1.
  • Gay Survivor Spills a Reality Secret
    Twenty-nine-year-old Charlie Herschel, who makes his reality-TV debut on Survivor: Gabon Thursday night, was a confidant of Clay Aiken’s before Aiken decided to come out of the closet this week. Here, Charlie talks to The Advocate about their friendship, impending television fame, and how he managed to take seven weeks leave from his New York law firm to film in Africa.