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George Michael Wanted to Make ‘Hardcore Porn’ Version of 1998 Music Video
George Michael Wanted to Make ‘Hardcore Porn’ Version of 1998 Music Video
The director of several of Michael’s videos made the revelation in a new documentary.
The late George Michael wanted to shoot a “hardcore porn” version of a music video he filmed after being arrested for engaging in a “lewd act” with an undercover Beverly Hills cop in April of 1998.
The director of the video for Michael’s “Outside” revealed this music history nugget in the upcoming documentary, George Michael: Portrait of an Artist, on British television station Channel 4, The Independent reports.
Vaughan Arnell directed several of Michael’s music videos.
“Outside” was the first new song the Wham! frontman released after his infamous California arrest.
He was charged for essentially going out cruising in Beverly Hills.
A police sweep in Will Rogers Park, across from the Beverly Hills Hotel, led to the arrest of the then 34-year-old. Several officers, including the Beverly Hills police department’s crime suppression unit, monitored the park.
An undercover officer observed Michael performing a lewd act in the restroom alone. Michael was arrested as a result of the officer observing his behavior.
As a result of Michael pleading “no contest” to the charges, he was fined $810 and was required to serve 80 hours of community service.
Media coverage of what was then a scandal led to the singer’s outing.
Michael responded by writing “Outside,” a song whose lyrics directly referenced and mocked the arrest.
Michael danced with a nightstick in a police uniform in the video, which was a spoof of a Scandinavian porn film.
“He wanted to develop it more to make a secondary video, which would be a more hardcore porn version of it,” Arnell explains in the documentary.
According to Arnell, most of the video was shot from the air since the video was of people committing lewd acts in public, so it had to be filmed “somewhere where people couldn’t see you doing it.”
“Some of it was full penetration that we were doing as well, so that was full on for a controlled town,” Arnell revealed.
“The idea was to actually expand the video and make a porn movie of it as well, but it never finally got made. I think it got canned,” he said.
On Christmas Day 2016, Michael died at his Oxfordshire home at 53.
The film features over 40 interviews with celebrities, including Stevie Wonder and Stephen Fry. It airs Sunday on Channel 4.
Watch the trailer for George Michael: Portrait of an Artist below.
George Michael - Portrait Of An Artist (Official Trailer)www.youtube.com
