A very busy Boy: his careers as a DJ, stage star, singer, and cookbook author keep Boy George hopping--but never too busy to dish the dirt. (music).

"Hello, gay switchboards," greets the British voice on the telephone. Yet it's not really a switchboard operator speaking, or a switchboard at all for that matter. It's Boy George, and asking him questions about all things queer or otherwise garners answers few gay hotline operators would proffer. For instance, why did out ex-Boyzone member Stephen Gately's solo album flop? "Because it was crap," George tosses out. "That's the reason. And that's the reason Michael Jackson's last album didn't make it either. Michael just needs to get out more. He should take a few bus rides. How can he say Sony's racist? You ain't even black, honey--you is white! He's whiter than Eminem! And more straight!"

Clearly, George is as deliciously unexpurgated as ever--a signature sensibility he's bringing to a new album, a pair of DJ discs, a London stage production, a Culture Club boxed set due just before Thanksgiving, and even a macrobiotic cookbook he coauthored, Karma Cookbook. The new CD A Night Out With Boy George (Moonshine) is the first of these ventures to hit stateside. On it DJ George spins a mix of juicy and energy-bursting dance tunes, showing a sought-after talent he displayed on numerous Ministry of Sound compilations through the '90s. George appears on two tracks: his Dark Globe collaboration "Auto-Erotic" and "Julian," performed with Kevan under the curiosity-piquing alias the Gay and Lesbian Disco Association.

"I always wanted to put a record out under that name," George notes with a laugh. "The [original version of the] song is from this new acoustic album I have out in England, U Can Never B 2 Straight. It's the gayest album you'll hear yet this year."

But is it as gay as Taboo, the semibiographical London stage show set in his '80s club days? The production has 18 original compositions of his, and he even just finished a five-week costarring stint, although not as himself (Euan Morton plays the young Boy George.) Instead, he portrayed outrageous fashion designer-cum-performance artist Leigh Bowery, who died of AIDS complications in 1994 (now being played by Julian Clary). George's Bowery particularly shone in a German cabaret-esque solo number, "Ich Bin Kunse" ("I Am Art," to which he added, "You are parody"). To play his "wickedly funny" Rubenesque friend--who also famously modeled nude for painter Lucien Freud--in dadaist costumes and makeup, George cops that he did some pretty grueling preparation. "I had this bra made so I could have bigger tits," he notes. "And I have quite a hairy chest, so I had to wax; that was pretty painful. You can't really go out with hairy tits, though--it's not a good look."

There are plans for Taboo to open in New York, complete with George as Bowery, courtesy of Rosie O'Donnell, who signed on as a producer. George's dream New York cast? Alan Cumming, who caught the show in London, and RuPaul "as a knife-wielding prostitute pimp." Madonna, unsurprisingly, isn't on the short list--gossip columns recently reported a flap between the music icons, sparked when George suggested Madonna was Botoxing. "I used to like her, but I don't anymore," George adds, "because she goes around shooting pheasants. She's trying to be all English. I've seen pictures of [her and husband Guy Ritchie] going out and shooting innocent birds. What did they ever do to her? She's got enough feathers."

While dates aren't solid yet, George promises Taboo will come to New York at least before the long-awaited movie version of his 1995 autobiography, Take It Like a Man. "If I were Britney Spears, it probably would have been made years ago, but, unfortunately, I'm not," he laments. "Well, thankfully. Although, imagine, I'd have gotten to screw Justin Timberlake. That would be worth it."

Two of Ferber's short films are part of TLA Releasing's Two Brothers and Two Others video.

For previous Advocate magazine coverage of Boy George, go to www.advocate.com