News Will George Michael ever learn his lesson? 25 joints a day and a career on the ropes...but don't expect him to say he's sorry

[George Michael]

As he faced the grim reality of his stint behind bars last night, George Michael cannot say he was not warned. And even though he was told several weeks ago by his legal team that his latest brush the law could see him end up in jail, his incarceration will still come as a massive shock. 

Because for far too long the singer has considered himself above the law  - believing the normal conventions of behaviour simply do not apply to Georgios Panayiotou, aka George Michael. 

'Everyone who knows him hopes this will be a wake-up call for George,' a long-time friend of the singer told me last night. 'It's going to be tough for him, but in a funny way it might be just what he needs to get his life together once and for all.

Others who know him well will not be holding their breath. Because 'shame' is not a word that has ever entered the lexicon of the former Wham! star. 

Another friend told me: 'Don't be surprised if George doesn't come out of jail in a month's time and makes a video poking fun at his time inside. It's just the way he is.'

Publicly, at least, George doesn't do remorse. Even as he turned up at court yesterday to be sentenced for crashing his car while under the influence of cannabis  -  the latest in a catalogue of such offences  -  he wore the same cocky smirk he habitually adopts when in trouble.

He might well even convince himself that his latest shame will ultimately be good for his career  -  a career that has pitifully stagnated as he has become ever more reliant on the daily cannabis spliffs to which he has long been partial. 

'In all honesty it does me good,' he said after he was caught out in July 2006 by a Sunday newspaper as he emerged 'red-faced' from the bushes on London's Hampstead Heath following a 2am encounter with a 58-year-old unemployed van driver.

'I take c**p for a couple of weeks, but it promotes me and my music. I hate to say it but it's true.'

Friends says it is just this sort of self-delusion that has got him into his current mess.

Even so, those close to him who have expressed their concerns have been viciously slapped down.

When Sir Elton John said he was worried about the star and the 'deep-rooted unhappiness in his life', George wrote to a magazine to dismiss the older singer as a gossip who hadn't seen him for years.

But then George has long been in denial. Even after he sent an open letter to his fans last month saying he had checked into rehab for a 14-day detox programme, privately friends were admitting that he was still adamant that he does not have a drug problem.

In reality, his life at the £5million Georgian house in Highgate, North London, which he shares with his boyfriend Kenny Goss, has long revolved around the 25 or so marijuana cigarettes George smokes every day.

The result is that, according to one friend, George spends up to 14 hours a day 'completely stoned out of his mind'.

For his part, George claims the drug helps him through his 'dry periods' when he is unable to write songs, and says that it is only by smoking joints on a daily basis that does he have any faith in his work. 
 

In fact, his addiction to cannabis  -  and at various times an assortment of other drugs, including the dance drug GHB, also known as liquid Ecstasy  -  have been responsible for an artistic malaise that has all but robbed him of his talent. 
 

He has not released a new studio album since 2004 and is reliant on selling remastered version of old albums to keep the royalties rolling in. 
 

Meanwhile, the 'no-holds-barred' memoirs he was supposed to deliver to his publishers HarperCollins in early 2009 has also fallen victim to his drug-induced inertia.

The book shows no sign of being finished any time soon. 

Recently, Harper announced that the singer's fans will have to wait until next year at the earliest to buy the autobiography.

In fact, friends of George say he seems to have lost interest in the project and may never finish it.

Few would be surprised if he had gone cold on the idea of washing even more of his dirty linen in public.

The parts that have been written are said to be 'an extended love letter' to his former lover Anselmo Feleppa, who died of an AIDS-related illness in 1993.

The singer went into a severe depression after Feleppa's death from a brain haemorrhage and wrote the hit Jesus To A Child about his dead lover. 
 

He has since admitted turning to drugs to numb the pain of his loss. 
 

George is also said to be concerned about the effect the book will have on Kenny, pictured yesterday, the Texan airline ' trolley dolly' turned art dealer, who has lived with Michael for the past 14 years.

But the long-suffering Kenny, who was seen weeping in court as George was carted off to the cells, has had to get used to the humiliation that comes with being the 'other half ' of the monumentally selfish star.

What's more, the handsome Kenny is well aware who calls the shots in their relationship. He has long been expected to put up with Michael's fondness for 'cruising' for gay sex. 
 

The sleazy habit started even before the singer became a sex symbol to millions during his heyday with Wham!
 

It would later lead to him being charged with lewd conduct when he propositioned an undercover Beverly Hills policeman in a toilet at the Will Rogers Park on Sunset Boulevard in April 1998. His arrest forced the star to come out publicly as gay, although his homosexuality had been an open secret in showbusiness for years. 
 

A defiant George later made an attempt to poke fun at his arrest by appearing dressed as an LA cop in the video for his song Outside. 

But since then, however, his taste for sex with strangers has led the Careless Whisper singer to ever more bizarre behaviour.

On one occasion, it resulted in him being escorted from London's Park Lane Hilton in 2006 after he was seen wandering the corridors in a balaclava and then knocking on the door of an unsuspecting guest who called security.

It later emerged George had been looking for a man he had met in a bar and arranged to meet later that night, but had then gone to the wrong hotel.

For his part, Kenny is expected to bear the embarrassment of his partner's philandering without complaint. 

After being caught yet again in a sordid encounter four years ago, George then let slip: 'Kenny and I had a lovely tenth anniversary party.

'My present to him was a million quid so I think I should get away with so-called fooling around.'

George Michael clearly thought his money and fame made him untouchable.

As he languishes in a jail cell, perhaps  -  at long last  -  he will come to recognise this is the wake-up call he so desperately needs.