Singer Boy George tried to perform court-ordered community service on Monday but found a major obstacle when a throng of news photographers prevented him from sweeping the streets of Lower Manhattan.
”It’s supposed to me making me humble. Why don’t you just let me do it,” George told photographers.
A judge had sentenced him to five days of community service in March for falsely reporting a burglary. It was part of a plea deal that allowed him to escape more serious charges of drug possession.
George, the cross-dressing frontman for the chart-topping 1980s British pop band Culture Club, traded his costumes for dark sunglasses, gloves and an orange safety vest.
But he was boxed in by photographers, forcing city Sanitation Department officials to move him from the streets near Chinatown to a fenced-off parking lot for more sweeping.
He chuckled as he swept leaves at the media.
”My mum was a cleaner, my dad was a builder, you know what I mean,” George said.
The charges stem from an incident last year when police responded to his call reporting a burglary and found 13 bags of cocaine in his apartment.
At a court hearing in June, defence lawyer Louis Freeman warned that a street-sweeping scene ”would turn into a media circus” and asked for his client to work with an Aids charity.
Criminal Court Judge Anthony Ferrara threatened to send George to jail if he failed to complete community service by August 28. — Reuters