Boy George

British musician, the lead singer with the rock group "Culture Club." A transvestite with a strange lifestyle, he was never seen in public without make-up, as he felt that without it, he, "just didn't look pretty." With flawless complexion, a flair for hair, crazed couture and free-form gender-bending, Boy George seemed the least likely image of a rock star. However his group rocketed to the top of the charts in 51 countries with their 1982 number one hit, "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me." The following year, their album, "Karma Chameleon," sold a million copies in three weeks in Great Britain alone. They sashayed to the Top Ten five more times in the following two years and sold 25 million records between 1982 and 1987.

Their popularity began to wane as George went from a cocaine to a heroin habit that cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $1200 a week. In 1986, he lost 56 pounds before being arrested on a drug charge, which probably saved his life, if not his bankroll. When arrested, he protested that he was a drag addict, not a drug addict. He was given a minor fine and dismissed. Then, on 6 August 1986, 27-year-old musician Michael Rudetsky was found dead of a heroin OD in George's home. Although he was cleared of wrongdoing, the musician's parents filed a $44 million lawsuit in November, accusing George of actively participating in their son's death of heroin injection.

On 21 December, another drug-buddy was found dead of an OD. The shock finally got through to George that this was a wake-up call. It took several tries and a brief addiction to sleeping pills. He tried a 12-step recovery program, experimented with homeopathic medicine and finally kicked the junk in 1987. He became strictly vegetarian, practiced yoga-style Tibetan exercises daily, and having quit cigarettes, forbade smoking in his house.

Though barred from entering the U.S.