Boy George Reports For Sanitation Duty In New York

Boy George began his community service sentence on Monday, and the androgynous '80s pop star looked a lot different wearing the orange reflective vest of a New York City sanitation worker.

The man born George O'Dowd drew a crowd of photographers and reporters on his first of five days that he must spend dealing with garbage in return for his March plea of guilty to filing a false incident report to police. Not wanting attention for a rare time in his life, George used a broom to sweep dust and leaves into a video camera lens.

"You think you're better than me," the former Culture Club frontman yelled, according to the Associated Press. "Go home. Let me do my community service.

"This is supposed to be making me humble. Let me do this. I just want to do my job."

George's day began at 7 a.m. at a Lower East Side sanitation depot. He also placed an empty trash bin in the back of a sanitation van that he was driven around in, and swept the streets and the gated depot parking lot where photographers couldn't get as close.

The 45-year-old singer and DJ was ordered to do the community service in June by Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Anthony Ferrara, who told him, "It's up to you whether you make it an exercise in humiliation or in humility."

George had originally petitioned to spend time helping teenagers make a public service announcement, hold a fashion and makeup workshop, serve as a DJ at an HIV/AIDS benefit or do telephone outreach.