British pop star George Michael believes he hasn't been taken seriously in the U.S. since his 1998 arrest for lewd conduct. The former Wham! star was arrested for "engaging in a lewd act" with an undercover police officer in a Beverly Hills, California public toilet in April 1998. His popularity in the U.S. plummeted in 2002 when he criticised the relationship between their President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in his controversial song Shoot The Dog. And Michael admits his legal action with former record label Sony in 1993, in addition to his recent arrests of dangerous driving, haven't helped his image either. He says, "I've actually been a bit of a laughable name since the early nineties. Since I took on Sony, everything went wrong there. From that point on, I didn't have the radio and I had some pretty bad publicity. "The publicity in the last 18 months hasn't helped, and so I think I'm a bit of a joke. But it didn't really bother me anyway."

Pop star GEORGE MICHAEL is furious with Britain's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for releasing his alleged stalker. Fan Lucy Nowak was arrested in 2004 for breaking into Michael's north London home. When she appeared in court to answer charges of harassment and criminal damage, Michael pleaded to the jury to offer Nowak mental health care instead of sending her to jail. Despite Michael's plea for Nowak to stay out of jail, he is unimpressed with her punishment and does not feel safe from her. He says, "In the last year and a half, I've had the CPS release a stalker who basically was sending me death threats and breaking into my houses. "She broke into my house on seven occasions. Once she was living there for a week without me knowing. She's smashed windows. She's stolen money. She wore my clothes. I've seen her in my clothes on the street. "The police arrested her on two occasions and put her in a cell, and on both occasion the CPS let her go. "At the time, I didn't want to make too much noise about it. But she was very ill and I should know I am safe from someone like that who's sending me notes about Mark Chapman (Lennon's killer) and John Lennon. It's terrifying. I have to have locks put on windows and things like that, but the CPS didn't see fit to make me safe from her."

British singer GEORGE MICHAEL was frightened to tell his mother he was homosexual - as she was afraid it was a disease. The Outside star admits his mother Lesley - who died in 1997 - refused to let him interact with a local gay waiter while growing up in case he suffered the same fate of her brother - Michael's uncle - who committed suicide. He tells British magazine Gay Times, "My mother had this fear of me being gay. She had this definite fear that I was going to be like her brother - she thought that it meant I wouldn't cope with life. She almost felt like she had brought this gene. "There was this gay waiter who lived above our family restaurant and I wasn't allowed to go to the top flat when he was in the restaurant. You know, in case I caught something. In case I caught gay. I also now realise she was afraid that if the 'gene' was in me it would turn out the same way for me as it had for (my late uncle) Colin. My mother didn't talk about her brother until I was 16. I don't know if that was a decision on her part or whether she just plucked up the courage. "It changed my opinion of her entirely because it wasn't just that - she's also seen her own father die the same way. They'd both put their heads in the gas oven. And, lucky old Mum, she found both of them." But Michael insists the experience brought mother and son closer together in the end: "She spent years being so remorseful that it's impossible to hold that time against her. And in the last 20 years of her life, I don't think we had a cross world actually.'