NEW YORK : British pop star Boy George could be raking up leaves in
New York's Central Park as early as next month for his court
ordered community service, the city's Department of Sanitation said
Tuesday.
The 45-year-old singer, whose real name is George O'Dowd, is
required to serve a five-day stint with the department after
pleading guilty in March to filing a false police report over a
non-existent burglary.
"He is scheduled to start with us several weeks from now," said
sanitation department spokesman Keith Mellis.
"To be honest, we're not certain exactly what he's going to do.
We'll have to wait and see," Mellis said. "We'll work out some type
of daily operation."
Boy George was warned by a judge on Monday that he faced jail if he
refused to comply with the terms of his community service.
The singer had balked at the initial idea of sweeping leaves in a
city park, arguing that his talents could be better used organising
a music event to benefit AIDS charities.
"It would have been more useful to make 30 grand (30,000 dollars)
with a concert, rather than be prancing around in a park," he told
Britain's Press Association after the judge's warning.
The former Culture Club frontman stressed it wasn't the idea of
menial work that bothered him.
"I don't care about doing cleaning up. My mum was a cleaner. I've
always been a scrubber," he joked.
The judge gave him until the end of August to complete his allotted
task.
Boy George was arrested October 7 last year after calling police to
report a burglary at his downtown Manhattan apartment.
Police detected no sign of a break-in but said they found a small
amount of cocaine.
As part of a plea deal, New York prosecutors dropped a cocaine
possession charge that could have sent him to jail in exchange for
his guilty plea to a false reporting charge.
As well as the community service, he agreed to undergo drug
rehabilitation.
Boy George briefly embarked on a solo singing career after leaving
Culture Club in 1987, before beginning a successful career as a DJ
and launching fashion line B-Rude.
His musical "Taboo" closed on Broadway in 2004 after a short run
and generally poor reviews. AFP/yy