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14 April 2012

1983: Gender Bender Boy George Bends The Dress Code Rules...

From the Sun, November 23, 1983:

Top London hotel, Claridges, have broken their century-old "tie and jacket" tradition so that Boy George could take tea in his customary dress.

Officials bent the rules when flamboyant George arrived for tea with brilliant American comedienne Joan Rivers. Glamour boy George was dressed in a smock and headband. Told he was not wearing the correct tie and jacket, George replied cheekily: "I've got a very nice button-up smock jacket and my tie happens to be round my head."

The doorman was left speechless while George joined Joan for cream tea and cucumber sandwiches in her £155-a-night suite.

Joan's aide told me: "They got on like a house on fire. They bitched about everything from Marilyn to Barry Manilow."

Fun-loving George later took Joan to see a Wham! concert, and she invited him to appear with Joan Collins on her top-rated US chat show, "Tonight".

A spokesman for Claridges said later: "Guests are always required to wear a tie and jacket in the public rooms.

"But as he was in a private suite, we relaxed the rules."

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