Visa Appeals Exhausted, Boy George Buries U.S. Tour
Ash Knotek/Snappers/ZUMA Press
Yes, the U.S. government really did want to hurt him. And yes, the plan apparently worked.
Boy George announced today he has been forced to called off his planned U.S. summer tour, which was to include a song-filled pit stop for his former colleagues at the New York Department of Sanitation, after his appeal for a visa was denied.
"I was really hoping that the issue would be resolved and that some kind soul at the U.S. Visa Office would realize that if the police in the U.K. placed no restrictions on my movements, that should have been good enough for them," George says in a statement.
"I am very sorry that I will not see all my American fans this year, but I wish them a happy and healthy Fourth of July. I include the Visa Office in those good wishes and realize they are doing a very difficult job and I just got unlucky."
Well, unlucky and illegal.
The State Department has declined to issue an official statement on the '80s icon's public rebuff, but when pressed on the matter at a daily briefing last week, a spokesman said it was not unusual for those with criminal pasts to be denied entry to the States.
The 47-year-old singer, whose real name is George O'Dowd, is awaiting trial on false imprisonment and assault charges, allegations made by a male escort who claims he was chained to a radiator in the pop star's London home.
George, meanwhile, will continue as planned with the South American leg of his tour, which kicks off in September, to be followed by a 25-date tour in the U.K. in October.
He'll try his hand at returning to the U.S. after his November trial in winter 2009, when he will attempt to reschedule the scuttled North American shows.
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