George Michael's Internet hissy fit

The Inquirer: "The star has no faith in his internet fans who have been slagging him off. The former peddler of diet coke was miffed that his forums were so full of negative comment about him looking old and overweight and of not doing enough to promote his new album, 'Patience.' Others had complained about the quality of his recent recordings.
In a message posted on the Web site, Michael said: 'I'm afraid that, having visited the forums on a regular basis over the past few months, simply to see how you guys thought the album/interviews/promotion were going, I have decided to close them down.

'As many of you will know, much of my reasoning for the future is to stay away from the negativity of the media, I think that it is bad for me and for music in general, so I find it really sad to see the forums so packed full of negative comment, and that so many genuinely positive fans find themselves defending me (or themselves) constantly against attack. How pointless."

“Those of you that want to carry on the media's work will have to do it somewhere else I suppose." The move has created another round of negative posts in which fans acussed Michael of “taking his ball home and saying 'I'm not playing any more.” Another dubbed him a "control freak. "