|
Boy George's Rubbish Sentence
07/31/2006 4:45 PM, E! Online
Come next month, Lindsay Lohan may not be the only celeb suffering
from heat exhaustion.
Boy George is set to carry out his
five days of court-ordered community service with New York's sanitation
department--starting Aug. 14 he'll spend his time tidying up city
streets.
Apparently, they really do want to hurt him.
The former Culture Club crooner was sentenced to garbage
patrol after pleading guilty to falsely reporting a burglary at his
Manhattan apartment last October.
"This is the epitome of
community service," Vito Turso, the sanitation department spokesman told
the New York Daily News. "It's not like he's going to be working
in an air-conditioned office.
Once the '80s pop icon, whose
real name is George O'Dowd, is issued his plastic gloves and garbage
bags, he will, Turso tells would-be looky-loos, likely end up on the
streets of Chinatown, Little Italy or the Lower East Side.
"They go where we could use the assistance most--high-traffic areas need
a lot of street sweeping," Turso told the Daily News. "We also
send them to vacant lots and to sweep sidewalks."
The "Karma
Chameleon" singer was initially slated to begin his service Aug. 7 but
was granted a one week reprieve to work the sentence around his concert
schedule abroad. Between court hearings, George has been performing
small gigs around London.
Last month, the flamboyant singer
received a public scolding (see, he has something else in common with
Lohan) from Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Anthony Ferrara after failing
to show at hearing to discuss why conditions of his probation--his
community service and payment of a $1,000 fine--had yet to be completed.
"This is a simple matter," Ferrara said at the time. "Five
days of community service. It's up to you as to whether it will be an
exercise in humiliation or an exercise in humility."
The
judge also warned the entertainer that if he does not served his full
five day sentence by Aug. 28, he would be jailed.
Last
October, New York's finest responded to a report of a burglary at
George's Manhattan apartment and in lieu of an actual break-in, found 13
plastic bags of cocaine. The singer denied that the drugs were his,
claiming one of his frequent guests must have left them behind.
In March, he finally changed his story and struck a deal with
the D.A. to plead guilty to a lesser charge of a third-degree false
reporting of an incident.
|
