Cultured Boy George Takes His Medicine Like a Man

--He may be called “Boy,” but a London judge thinks Culture Club’s lead singer has acted “manfully.” Marylebone court Magistrate Geoffrey Noel fined Boy George $375 after he pleaded guilty to possession of heroin. “I think it is right to say that you faced up to the charge manfully,” Noel said. As he left the courthouse, the singer kissed a couple of the 200 fans who waited outside and blamed his arrest on the press. “The reason I was charged was because of Fleet Street,” he said. Boy George, 25, whose real name is George O’Dowd, was arrested July 12 at a clinic where he was undergoing treatment for addiction. His brother, Kevin, and a longtime friend, transvestite singer Marilyn, also were picked up in the drug sweep. “I started taking it a long, long time ago, casually,” Boy George said of his habit. “Then one day you wake up and you realize there’s a problem.”

--Guida de Carvalhosa said she doesn’t have to see the movie “Heartburn,” based on Nora Ephron’s book about her breakup with her ex-husband, reporter Carl Bernstein. “I already have heartburn,” says De Carvalhosa, who is suing Bernstein for not paying his $4,000-a-month rent in June for an apartment in an Upper East Side New York brownstone. De Carvalhosa wants to evict Bernstein, who she said has been trouble since he moved in five months ago with his complaining, failure to pay bills and penchant for playing loud music at night. Bernstein could not be reached for comment, but earlier told the New York Post that the issue should be settled in the courts, “not the gossip columns.” As a Washington Post reporter, his Watergate stories helped drive President Richard M. Nixon from office.

--Enough is enough, the Coast Guard seemed to be saying after it rescued a Florida boater for the ninth time in as many months. They arrested him. The Coast Guard’s Ponce de Leon station on Florida’s northeast Atlantic coast received a message saying a 54-foot sailboat had hit a reef and was taking on water and its captain, James Carolyon, was disoriented. After towing his boat to shore, the Coast Guard informed Carolyon, 43, that his license was suspended pending an investigation. Carolyon became angry and had to be handcuffed, a Coast Guard spokesman said. He was charged with interfering with a boarding officer. Carolyon was released on $10,000 bond after a hearing at the U.S. Magistrate’s office in Orlando. He could face up to a $5,000 fine and three years in prison if convicted.