MARY J BLIGE - BLIGE THOUGHT GEORGE MICHAEL WAS BLACK

R+B superstar MARY J BLIGE was shocked when she first saw GEORGE MICHAEL in the flesh, because she always thought he was a black man. The I'M GOIN' DOWN singer was a huge fan of WHAM! during her youth, and more stunned by the colour of Michael's skin, than his sexuality. Michael was famously outed as a homosexual in 1998 when he was arrested for "lewd conduct" in a Beverly Hills, California public toilet. Blige, who duetted with Michael on the 1999 hit AS, tells British gay magazine Attitude, "Before anything else, I loved George as a person when I was growing up. I wanted him on my record. "We all wanted to marry him when I was little. Did he know he was gay? Brother, we didn't know the dude was white! And when we found out both those things we didn't care."