Boy George starts street cleaning sentence

Boy George has started his five-day street cleaning community sentence for falsely reporting a crime.

The singer had joked "I've always been a scrubber" and took to the New York streets in relatively high spirits.

But, as he faced hoards of reporters in his fluorescent jacket and gloves, the 45-year-old quickly lost his temper. "This is supposed to be community service," barked the star, real name Paul O'Dowd. "You're just making it a nightmare, which just means it's for the media and not for me."

He denied accusations he was annoyed with the menial work, commenting: "My mum was a cleaner, my dad was a builder, know what I mean?"

He was ordered to complete the service after he called police to his house in the city last October then convicted of wasting police time earlier this year.

A New York sanitation department spokesman said he would serve a proper sentence. "A lot of tourists means a lot of street litter," he commented. "This is the epitome of community service. It's not like he's going to be working in an air conditioned office."