"Before I got famous, people would laugh at me,'' says George, who cultivated his ruffled, spangled drag-queen persona for years before taking to the stage. "Once I got famous, people, particularly in America, saw me as this interesting eccentric, this Englishman. I think they did this because if they saw me as an alien species, it made it more palatable.

"I became a kind of exotic, genderless doll. They saw no sex, no politics.''

And not much has changed, he says.

"Look at (the movie) To Wong Foo . . .,'' he says. "It's three straight guys playing drag and all the sex was removed. Don't get me wrong, it's a great movie. But it's the same thing with (cross-dressing entertainer) RuPaul. You never see RuPaul on the arm of a big, strapping black man.''