He's got a big head of hair, an insulting tone of voice, a wicked smile, and a hit in England.

Pete Burns, a lead singer of Dead Or Alive, has unwillingly, he says, become involved in a media brouhaha in the UK with Boy George, and to a lesser extent, Marilyn.

Rumors are that Boy George has privately refered to Burns as "third degree Burns." The English press would love nothing more than to run a photo of fully made up George and Marilyn (former roommates), scratching each other's eyes out. Pete Burns says he doesn't like to talk about this to the press, unless provoked-as he was in a recent issue of New Musical Express when he said he was thinking of sending George a subscription to Slimmer's Guide.

The NME had a field day with hat issue; putting Burns picture on the cover with a long interview on the road piece inside, plus a letter from Boy George saying how all of this fuss between them was absurd.

George, in trying to calm all of this down, wrote the following: "Pete Burns walked around long enough in strange costumes without a hit record to realize how two faced society and the music industry really is. And if you really think Boy George is the acceptable face of eccentricity, go tell it to the skinhead who wanted to break my nose in the Taj Mahal Indian takeaway in the Edgeware Road last week. Fame brings attention, but how many thug he-men who sit down to watch "Top Of The Pops"...would love to stamp on our heads? I assure you there are plenty, and that's what we should be fighting, not each other."

(My reaction to that is this: what was Boy George doing in an Indian takeaway restaurant in the first place?? Surely in addition to attention, fame ought to bring someone to get and get the curry for you, no?)

According to Burns, who was in the U.S. this spring for some promotion and to do two shows at New York's The Ritz, "It's all the papers being silly. I've heard about articles I've never even seen. Marilyn came up to me on the street and said, "Why are you being so horrible about me?" I've never said a bad word about him, but in England. a lot of things get into the papers that you've never even said."

I know this to be true. I recently did a long interview with Boy George that was syndicated to England and ran in the Daily Mail with an introduction that, although it had my name on it, bore no resemblance whatsoever to anything I had ever written. Phrases like: "When you are instantly recognized room Madison Avenue to a Malayan rice-paddy-that's fame," "Boy George is different...not just because of his looks, outrageous make up and feminine clothes," and "for underneath the pancake makeup number five is an astute and highly developed intelligence," do not, and ask anyone who knows me, sounds like me.

Meanwhile, Dead Or Alive had a hit in England with their version of the old KC and the Sunshine Band song "That's The Way." And lead singer Burns s getting the kind of media treatment previously reserved for Boy George and Marilyn. While George is beloved by the English press for his continual witticism, and Marilyn for his co-operation, Pete Burns can be rude (although he was lovely to me.) And in England, they're all hopped up about his sex life partially because he wears next to nothing onstage and especially because he said one innocuous remark about sharing a room on the road with his wife and a boyfriend.

"All the British press wants to know about is what I do in bed," Pete told me, "who I do it with, and why I do it. I'm making records, not screwing them. If I wanted to be a sex fiend, I could tell them things that would make their hair curl."

"Look, he continued, "I'm a married man and I dodge around as well. But people are constantly telling me that I should remember that there are 10 million girls out there who are supposed to be able to fantasize about me. I think they underestimate the intelligence of girls, and I also think it's no big deal. But then I've always thought my life is no big deal. Now, it's hot stuff, it seems."

I remember a hundred years ago when Alice Cooper, David Bowie and the New York Dolls were "androgynous." But I don't recall battles in the press about it. I also remember headlines about David Bowie's and Elton John's "bisexuality." And they probably both still get asked about it. By now, doesn't everyone realize that even though everyone wants to know the truth about what famous people do in bed, you're never really going to hear it? And let Boy George, Marilyn, Pete Burns...whoever, have their success, curl their eyelashes, and sleep with whoever they want. Stop asking silly questions.