When stars go off the rails, they normally come across as erratic and their whole demise burns in the public eye for a couple of weeks. Just look at Britney’s mental episode, or the minutiae of the Charlie Sheen affair currently playing out in the media. George Michael though has always seemed pretty sane, even when pictures are shown of him with massive eyes behind the wheel of a car. His comments around these incidents are considered, measured and immediately apologetic.
He’s been making some comments recently though that really do hammer home how sorry he is. Speaking to Chris Evans on BBC Radio 2 he said:
“This was a hugely shameful thing to have done repeatedly…So karmically I felt like I had a bill to pay. I went to prison, I paid my bill.”
“This was a hugely shameful thing to have done repeatedly so karmically I felt like I had a bill to pay. I went to prison, I paid my bill.’
The whole interview was pretty balls out really, with no excuses or mitigating factors being trotted out. He was also very honest that prison was not as harrowing for him as some reports had suggested – he just got his head down and felt that he deserved it.
The reason he’s putting his head above the parapet is that he’s releasing a song for Comic Relief – a cover of One Order’s True Faith. So has he really been down the road to Damascus, and now taking centre stage as a reformed character doing charity work. Or should Snappy Snaps be reinforcing their windows in case he’s driving around Hamstead in the middle of the night again?
Well the real answer is you can never tell. George Michael is incredibly private for one. He’s got fairly savvy at keeping the media out and minimising damage when they get in. This is a guy who managed to keep his homosexuality hidden for over a decade despite being a huge icon and obviously not being celebate. His reaction to his first big scandal, the single “Outside”, which took the whole incident head on, showed how much he understands the media. While it seemed a crazy video to put out on first watch, it managed to come across as so honest (and genuinely funny) that people instantly put the events in context. So he knows how to satisfy the media appetite for a public confession, and these latest statements could be part of that.
Secondly, he has given earnest apologies before…and then gone on to surprise us. We’ve said “oooo George” under our breath too many times when picking up the morning paper to have total confidence.
On balance we reckon he really does mean these comments. His status and reputation is so much that he doesn’t have to go quite this far with the public self whipping, but he has done, implying he did want to really convey he is remorseful. At the same time though, just because he is genuinely sorry is not a guarantee it wont happen again.
