Boy George: Getting Away With It

Daily Star.

Cause mobile phones has cameras.

That's basically all he says in a brief interview at the Brit Awards - which were in February!

Boy George: What Have I Done To Deserve This?

‘I’ve been lucky in that people have always been very nice to me. I’ve often wondered what I’ve done to deserve it. But even through everything I’ve never felt unloved. I’ve made mistakes — obviously, there’s a lot of things I would happily erase from my past. But to a certain degree I’ve taken responsibility for everything that’s happened to me; I’ve never blamed anyone else. And people are very forgiving.’

ES magazine. 

Quote chosen as its the only bit that doesn't remind the reader HE DOESN'T TAKE DRUGS ANYMORE!

Boy George: Ban That Man!

The Sun.

He's done his time and is deeply regretful, time to move on.

PS From the vaults, Britain's leading professional gay hysteric writes and again and again.

News: Man Makes Joke

THE VOICE newcomer Boy George had TV bosses pressing the panic button after he said he had slept with American singer-songwriter Prince.

He made the outrageous claim during live auditions for the BBC1 singing show.

It sent the audience “absolutely wild” and forced producers to stop filming in a bid to restore calm.

Boy George made his comment about the legendary Purple Rain singer in an exchange with fellow judge Paloma Faith...

The Karma Chameleon hitmaker started it, saying: “I have duetted with some of the greatest soul singers in history including Luther Vandross and Smokey Robinson.”

Paloma replied: “Well OK, if we’re throwing big soul names out there I’ve performed with Prince.”

To which George retorted: “Forget that, darling, I’ve slept with Prince.” ...

The Sun.

Oh sod this for a game of soldiers, I'm going to the beach!

PS Lest we forget...

He pointed to a Bible. “But there’s the problem of interpretation, and you’ve got some churches, some people, basically doing things and saying it comes from here, but it doesn’t. And then on the opposite end of the spectrum you’ve got blue, you’ve got the Democrats, and they’re, like, ‘You can do whatever you want.’ Gay marriage, whatever. But neither of them is right.” 

When asked about his perspective on social issues—gay marriage, abortion—Prince tapped his Bible and said, “God came to earth and saw people sticking it wherever and doing it with whatever, and he just cleared it all out. He was, like, ‘Enough.’” 

Prince, lapsed ambisexual, current Jehovah's Witness, The New Yorker, 2008.

Steve Strange: The Final Guestlist

The guestlist - wishlist? - for Steve Strange's funeral earlier today via BBC News Wales.

PS The New Romantics: A Fine Romance - a fine BBC4 doc featuring just about everyone.

Pop Bitch Of The Week: Holly Johnson

To use his phrase, Johnson “outed” himself as having HIV in his 1994 autobiography A Bone in My Flute. At the book launch, the Communards’Jimmy Somerville “presented me with a handbag as a gift, and said he thought it was very brave of me, and he didn’t know whether he would have been so brave. It was a really touching moment for me in actual fact.” Still, he wonders why he and Somerville never became friends. It might be to do with their differing political stances. “His particularly politicised form of gay activism was rather at odds with my fuck-you form of gay activism: ‘If you don’t like it, fuck off,’” he grins.

Boy George was another who didn’t always see things Johnson’s way. “George wrote a letter to Sounds saying [the “Relax” video] gave gay people a bad name. That set us up for a bit of sniping in the press throughout the 80s,” he says, still tickled by the silliness of it all. But he admits that, in 1984, it was a lonely time to be an out-and-proud leather-trousered gay man in pop. “None of the Georges were publicly out at the time,” he says, referring to Messrs Boy and Michael. “It was funny: although they were more obviously gay, they were less forthcoming about it – because they were signed to proper record labels that had publicity departments who guided them into trying to sell the most records that they could sell.”

Johnson attributes George Michael’s seemingly ongoing troubles to his reluctance to be open. “I do think that was because he spent so much time in the closet that he’s sort of over-compensating, being the über-gay man now in every positive and negative aspect of it. It’s like he invented gay now,” he says waspishly...

Holly Johnson in The Observer.

Thought For The Day: Boy George

“If it had been a gay rapper that had done Same Love I think it probably wouldn’t have had the same impact. It’s a weird thing about our culture. I think Same Love is a great record, I don’t care if he’s straight or gay, it doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter, but unfortunately it does.

“If you’re gay doing that song people think you’re preaching. No, it’s my life. It’s the same as a guy speaking about his girlfriend. For some reason when you’re gay people think you only talk about being gay. I don’t, actually. My sexuality takes up about three hours a month. At a push. And I’m sure that’s the same for a lot of straight people. If you look at how much you actually get down to business it’s really not as much of a priority as people think it is.”

“Born This Way? You’re a straight woman. But whatever. You’ve got to like her for liking us. That’s nothing to condemn someone for. She’s pro-gay, she loves her gay brothers and sisters and I’m sure she employs a lot of queens, with all the stylists and hairdressers. I find her hilarious, I love her antics, arriving in an egg or on a horse. She puts a lot of hard work into her razzle dazzle.”

news.com.au

Gotta love Boy George. x

Patrick Strudwick: Imagine If They Said That About Liam Gallagher!

Whereby Patrick Strudwick once again proves himself to be the most ridiculous and idiotic pearl-clutching wet liberal knicker-wetting victimhood-loving boo hoo squish squish journalist de nos jours.
If not of all time.

Winq: Another Gay Magazine

As we unveil the all new Winq, the luxury lifestyle magazine for gay men, we do so in good company, with an array of launch advertisers that includes the British Government’s GREAT campaign.

Winq’s premium positioning has seen a number of companies advertising in the sector for the first time, attracted by an environment that better reflects their brands and products.

Among launch advertisers producing tailored copy for the new gay title are long-term LGBT supporters Virgin Holidays, Air France KLM commuter service CityJet and even the archetypal traditional car manufacturer, the Morgan Motor Company.

Most notable of all, though, is the British Government’s GREAT Campaign, which has adapted its hugely successful GREAT Britain work, more normally devoted to extolling the virtues of the country’s manufacturing or business credentials abroad, to focus on the achievement that is equal marriage...

Blurb on Winq's website.

Best of luck to them, but Fagburn suspects he may not be part of the target demographic for this "luxury lifestyle magazine for gay men".

Now, like any other corporation, they have a product which they sell to a market. The market is advertisers - that is, other businesses. What keeps the media functioning is not the audience. They make money from their advertisers. And remember, we're talking about the elite media. So they're trying to sell a good product, a product which raises advertising rates. And ask your friends in the advertising industry. That means that they want to adjust their audience to the more elite and affluent audience. That raises advertising rates. So what you have is institutions, corporations, big corporations, that are selling relatively privileged audiences to other businesses.

Well, what point of view would you expect to come out of this? I mean without any further assumptions, what you'd predict is that what comes out is a picture of the world, a perception of the world, that satisfies the needs and the interests and the perceptions of the sellers, the buyers and the product.

Noam Chomsky.

Boy George: Thought For The Day

"The Who did a massive concert at Charlton football ground with 73,000 people in 1974, and Lou Reed was on the bill. I was 12 and was told emphatically [by my parents]: "You must not go." I went, obviously, and arrived as Lou Reed was about to come on stage. I was just amazed. After hearing Transformer, I went back to listen to the Velvet Underground and became a fan of everything Lou Reed had done. 
But Transformer was a great record. If you think about the music of the time, it was completely out of sync with everything else. It was vaudevillian, with songs like New York Telephone Conversation and Make Up – very much later on I discovered Tom Waits and all of that sound – but it was a sort of weird, druggy, theatrical, marching-bands-on-valium sound. I've also chosen it because of the lyrics – particularly Walk on the Wild Side, it has such a great narrative. 
When you're a kid and you know you're gay, and you hear Bowie singing "a cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest, and a queer threw up at the sight of that", and then you hear Walk on the Wild Side, you know there's hope – you know you're not the only one that has these weird thoughts."

The Observer - Soundtrack of my life

Wonderful!

CBB Idiot Scandal: Latest!

Boy George has slammed Celebrity Big Brother housemate Evander Holyfield for claiming being gay "ain't normal".

The openly gay Culture Club star, 52, hit out on Twitter after the former undisputed heavyweight world boxing champion likened homosexuality to a handicap in a conversation with fellow CBB contestant Luisa Zissman.

Boy George, whose real name is George O'Dowd, tweeted: "Shame, I had such admiration for Mr Evander Holyfield, he seemed dignified and I was sure he was a cool, smart, giant!"

The Karma Chameleon hitmaker, himself a former amateur boxer, later wrote: "I think anyone visiting this country for any reason should be cautioned and forced to swear allegiance to 'Queens & country!!," before adding: "At customs there should be a huge sign!

"Welcome to Britain, racism, sexism, homophobia and bad hair are not tolerated!"

Shame, I had such admiration for Mr Evander Holyfield, he seemed dignified and I was sure he was a cool, smart, giant!
— Boy George (@BoyGeorge) January 5, 2014

Daily Mirror.

A far more sober reflection on this silly God-bothering fool than you-know-who's.

This is all positively gripping, isn't it?

From CBB's official media partner, Daily Star.

It's not a crime to think stupid things about The Gays.

How is it 'Reality TV' if we don't get to hear what real people really think?

Some people are still homophobic - can we get over it, please?

Update: Some people have actually complained to Ofcom about this! Oh my silly hair!!!

Thought For The Day: Boy George

“[Antony Hegarty] said, ‘Do you realise what you did for little gay children like me all over the world?’ That’s a big responsibility, which I wasn’t really conscious of back in the day. I wasn’t on some political mission, I was just being myself, having a hoot, putting another wig on. Whereas, now, I do feel like I have a responsibility. I feel like in certain moments I’ve been a terrible example of how to be a gay man in public, and I feel like — you know what? — I’ve got a chance to redress that now. Culture Club was a magical thing for a lot of people in the early 1980s. We changed the sexual landscape in a very subtle way and I really thought, ‘Oh, wow, people are just going to be really cool from now on,’ but now they’re not.”

From an interview in this week's Sunday Times' Magazine.

The article's called Man And Boy - GENIUS!

She's got a new album out, This Is What I Do.

You may listen to it for free above.

Hey, don't thank me - thank George!

Eminem V Boy George: Hilarious

Pink News.
Really?

Let's invent a feud that never existed, about a song where someone said a bad word that doesn't really matter, really.
Well done hysterical gay journalists!
Really.

Orlando Cruz: [NB Must Not Make Obvious 'In The Ring' Gag Here]

This Saturday in Las Vegas, Orlando Cruz, which is his real name [Eh?], will become the first openly gay boxer to win a world title if he can overcome the odds and beat Orlando Salido for the vacant WBO featherweight title. Cruz announced he was gay last year, never lost his promoter, never lost his ranking and never lost a single friend from inside the ugly business of boxing.
"I now feel free to just get on with the boxing," said Cruz, who is from Puerto Rico and is based in Florida. "I'm not fighting two opponents any longer and that is a great relief. The nights of staying awake and crying are over."
Cruz fought for Puerto Rico at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and has been a fringe contender for a couple of years and gay for a lot longer. "I'm a boxer first, I want to be a world champion and remembered that way and not as a gay boxer," he says.

The Independent.

The Krays: Gay twincest porn pioneers?

"What's that, you say? A gay boxer!!? But how can they box with limp wrists?"

Ahh, another gay story centred around its perceived incongruity; a gay man in "a macho world" - that don't happen much, do it?

So brave etc etc...

Wasn't it Samuel Johnson who said; "A gay man's boxing is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

It probably calls it "the last taboo" somewhere, but I can't be sure because I kept losing interest.

Do these journalists not realise boxing's almost as gay as diving?

Anyway we end with this heartwarming thought straight out of Michael Jackson's "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony" school of philosophy...

He can also really fight and in the ruthless business of boxing, a sport that has not really changed in 150 years, that is all that matters; it makes no difference if you are black, white, gay, straight, male, female, nice, unpleasant, Christian, Muslim, ugly or handsome, as long as you have guts and can have a fight.

BARF!

PS Attention boxing fans! There are some boxers in the video for Boy George's new single, King Of Everything. It is a very good song, by the way.

PPS The Mail celebrates this event with a short video of Orlando "prepping" and being interviewed - he comes across as "a bit Tom Daley", if you know what I mean...

Orlando Cruz also got a big profile in Saturday's Guardian - the above header seems to sum it up.
The main interest for the straight media seems to be the "You'll believe an elephant can fly!" incongruity... 

Mr Laurie Lee: Bona Queen Of Fabularity

Mr Laurie Lee asks "What is a queen?"
Then answers it.
Full of fabularity!

"'Ere! You ain't takin' the piss out of us are ya? Listen, I'll tell you something, I get paid for making people laugh, and I object to you two 'avin' it for nothing, alright?!"

PS Thanks to my close personal showbiz friend, Mr George "Kicks like a mule" O'Dowd.

Boy George: King Of Everything

It's like you can see his whole life pass right in front of your eyes!

PS Despite the label, this is a video - and it's very good.

Boy George: Where Did It All Go Right?

The Daily Star has a positively gripping interview with Boy George today.
He talks about drugs, Rihanna, drugs, Justin Bieber, drugs, One Direction, drugs, Twitter, and... drugs.
Apparently George doesn't do drugs anymore.
The journalist deserves an award for interviewing this "stroppy queen, with a volatile tongue" and filing copy that's not very interesting.
I can't find one quote from the boy wonder to quote here.
(Edit: Though some gay media got predictably overexcited about George speculating over One Direction's sexualities).
Still at least the Star ran a photo of the hack with him - readers just love seeing photos of journalists, don't they?

Daily Mail: The Boy George Budget

Uh-huh...

Daily Mail: And All Because The Ladies Love...

Mail Online.

File under "Woman's Interest"...

David Davies MP: Diversity Training

Tory MP David Davies recently caused outrage when he suggested that parents wanted their children to be heterosexual and that plans to legalise gay marriage were 'barking mad'.
Now the politician has attempted to defend his comments by saying that he has not 'done years of diversity training'...
Mr Davies, who also serves as a special constable, said that his friends would once never have been 'seen dead' with a Boy George CD but said he now owns the singer's Greatest Hits CD, adding: 'I love it!'

Daily Mail

PS Apropos of nothing, votes in Fagburn's annual poll; 'Homophobic right-wing politician most likely to be found with a cock in his gob' are now closed.

The small quotes above come from a great 'Give 'em enough rope' profile in The Guardian by Decca Aitkenhead. 
Respec' due!