Boy George to report for rubbish duty
Boy George was to report for his first day of rubbish duty in the US today after being told by a Manhattan judge that he must decide whether his court-ordered community service would be an “exercise in humiliation or in humility”.
The one-time Culture Club singer was ordered to spend five days as an employee of the Department of Sanitation in New York after pleading guilty in March to false reporting of an incident.
The agency planned to send him to pick up rubbish from the city’s streets, issuing him with a shovel, broom, plastic bags and gloves, spokesman Vito Turso told the Daily News last month.
The singer, born George O’Dowd, called police with a bogus report of a burglary at his lower Manhattan apartment last October, and the responding officers found cocaine inside.
In June, Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Anthony Ferrara issued a warrant for the singer’s arrest when 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. Defence lawyer Louis Freeman said the judge’s annoyance was “based on a misunderstanding”.
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.
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