Karma is a bitch!
Some of the biggest pop stars of the past and present are getting read to filth by Boy George.
The Culture Club frontman is spilling the tea on his past interactions with fellow celebrities in his new memoir Karma and hitmakers like Janet Jackson, Adele and Prince are not getting away unscathed.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Janet Jackson
The 62-year-old recounts having three rude encounters with Janet Jackson over the course of his forty-year career.
The bad blood started while backstage on the ’80s TV series Solid Gold when George approached the “Control” singer without wearing any makeup and professed what a big fan he was of her music.
“She wasn’t friendly and didn’t try to be,” he writes, according to People. “But I just walked off and got myself into my best ‘Boy George’ and was walking around backstage to make sure I was seen by everyone.”
When one of Jackson’s entourage asked him to record a video message for her, George didn’t hold back. “Next time you meet someone, be nice,” he recalled saying to the camera.
After George’s blunt message got back to Jackson, she “summoned” him to her dressing room and explained she hadn’t recognized him without his makeup. But that only ticked George off more.
“I said, ‘That makes it worse. Are you saying you would have been nice to me if you knew who I was? What if I’m just a fan?’” he writes, per Page Six. “We parted on awkward terms.”
The situation only compounded over the next several decades.
George claims Jackson “looked straight through me” while on the British series Top of the Pops and kept her back to him during his performance at the 2019 British Fashion Awards.
Prince
The “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” crooner had slightly nicer things to say about late music legend Prince. The pair met for the first time in the ’90s at a Paris restaurant after the “When Doves Cry” singer called George to his table where he was sitting with then-wife Mayte Garcia.
Things quickly got very awkward.
“Then he didn’t speak for ten minutes,” George writes.
“A plate of carbonara arrived for the wife and Prince started feeding her. I’m thinking, ‘What planet are you on, baby?’ The arrival of the carbonara gave me the perfect excuse to say goodbye.”
Adele
Even beloved songstress Adele managed to ruffle George’s prickly feathers.
After paying to see the “Hello” diva’s Las Vegas residency, George claims he was snubbed because she didn’t greet him after the show, per Page Six.
Instead, George writes how she sent over a “beautifully signed tour program saying, ‘I can’t believe you are here,’ but she did not meet me. I thought was odd.”
Tina Turner & Princess Diana
While promoting his memoir, George also disclosed getting the cold shoulder from Tina Turner, although he didn’t include it in the book.
“She wasn’t nice to me, which was the shame,” he told People of the episode which occurred alongside Elton John and Faye Dunaway. “It was a lot of big stars in the room. And it was a tiny room. And when Elton John introduced me, [Tina] turned her back.”
George never found out why Turner, who passed away in 2023 at the age of 83, snubbed him, but he didn’t hold a grudge. “I’m the biggest Tina Turner fan on the planet,” he told the outlet. “I mean, I forgave her and I loved her.”
But George isn’t just spewing fire and brimstone and recalls receiving an act of kindness from Princess Diana at an event in the ’80s following his recovery from drug addiction.
“My reputation was ragged,” he writes, per People. After being “shooed away” by a palace official, Princess Diana “broke protocol and approached me.”
After complimenting his outfit, Diana agreed to meet George’s mother who had accompanied him to the event. “They spent 10 minutes chatting,” he shares. “She told Mum I was a true survivor.”
Despite his pointed words at his contemporaries, George says he has nothing but love for the people he has written about.
“I suppose when you write things about other artists, it’s also — note to self — you remember that perhaps there’s been times in your life when you weren’t friendly to everyone you met,” George told People.
“It’s 1000% easier to be nice. Not only is it easier to be nice as it’s better for you.”
Karma: My Autobiography is available in stores now.
Related:
Boy George on how wearing makeup helped him meet men & why he refuses to go under the knife
Boy George’s makeup brings all the boys to the yard!
abfab
Do you really want to hurt ME would have made a better title. This sounds like a real page turner.
bachy
Boy George was a perfect angel to all of his fans 100% of the time – I am sooo sure. I don’t mind him calling out other slebs for their faults, but don’t pretend you were a saint, sweetie, what with your history of drug abuse, plus painted up like a cheap whore all these years.
LegionKeign
Apparently you suffer from a lack of reading comprehension…
“I suppose when you write things about other artists, it’s also — note to self — you remember that perhaps there’s been times in your life when you weren’t friendly to everyone you met,” George told People.”
abfab
He’s pretending to be a saint? You got him all wrong.
bachy
Are you kidding? I love BG.
Jim
Diana a class act. we’d expect nothing less
KissBananaPeels
When you have to smear other celebrities to fill the pages of your YET AGAIN ANOTHER autobiography it just proves you are a bitter hack…
LegionKeign
I’m sure your autobiography will be just so compelling.
abfab
Really. I can’t WAIT to read that one. ”Kissing to Be a Clever Banana Peel”.
ddmtl
The ONE album wonder is irrelevant. Does anyone cares?
abfab
Yes, many of us cares.
MISTERJETT
i care. a lot.
Ilive10s
Not a one album wonder. His band sold more than 50 million albums.
FreddieW
Adele gave him more attention than I’ve ever given him until today.
abfab
Straight men never liked Boy and diversity revolts them.
FreddieW
Did you have a poster of him next to Aunt Esmeralda and Uncle Arthur?
FreddieW
I think the guys who turned me on in that era included John James, Lorenzo Lamas, and definitely Marc Singer. Strange looking Brits in dresses did nothing for me, and I was listening to CCM then, anyway.
dbmcvey
I love a messy queen.
abfab
Great songs and a dramatic story behind Culture Club/Boy George. See THE NEW ROMANTICS (DOCUMENTARY BBC) ………..natch on youtube.
47 minutes
i’ll tumble for you, what’s not to love?
bachy
I saw this tonite! Loved it. You have the best recos!
abfab
There were so many layers of fun and insanity. Some things never change, bachy boi. I’m glad you watched and liked.
dman
Rude encounters?
“In 2009, Boy George was sentenced to 15 months in prison for attacking Norwegian model Audun Carlsen. He was convicted of assault and false imprisonment after being found guilty of handcuffing Carlsen to a radiator and beating him with a metal chain.”
abfab
So what you’re really saying is you’ve never dabbled into the S & M environment ever in your entire life or ventured into the leather bars………….ever. You have lived inside a crib. You are very judgy and you sound like a bore.
dman
If you call S&M “beating somebody with a metal chain” you’re even more disturbed than your standard bitchy comments have made you out to be.
abfab
Hey, it’s all relative. And please. Your comment about Boy was bitchy. So STFU.
rand503
Not if it isn’t consensual.And it obiovusly wasn’t if the guy pressed charges.
abfab
A ham sandwich can press charges.
YellowMarc
Say what you may, I’ve been a huge fan of Boy George since the early 80’s and I think he is fabulous! Sooo talented and witty, with a wonderful soulful voice and unique personal style. He overcame his struggles and paid his dues. Leave the Boy alone!
abfab
Word. He lived! He gave us great songs and he was a converstaion piece for the poor, pitifull straight society. George let his freak flag fly. ANd here, we have gays who are still tryhing to oppress and bully.
What a bunch of stiffs.
That said, don’t ever make me watch the Karma video on the river boat in the American South. Awful.
nm4047
‘I don’t hold a grudge’ having said that let me say this: blah blah blah. Appears like certain movies the publicity for said event has the only parts worth knowing about. Hopefully it has a lot of pictures, as I don’t think there will be that much of interested in the read.
Herman75
I didn’t know about him, but saw him on RHOBH: Boy George Performs for the Housewives Season 7. It’s on EweToob!!
bigdandd
Just sounds like trashing other better known stars is something to help sell his tacky book. I liked Boy George back in the day, but he sounds desperate now trying for some limelight.
rand503
I agree. And frankly, from what I’ve seen of him and read of him, he is one person that I don’t mind not knowing.
Invader7
He told them off. The arrogant a-holes. !!!