George Michael got a column in gay magazine The Advocate where he started to urge fellow gays to embrace religion. He writes: "Maybe those of us giggling at the back should shut up for a bit. The joke may be on us soon enough."

Michael also uses his first column to pay a tongue-in-cheek tribute to historical English King Henry VIII.

"There really ought to be a campaign to make Henry VIII the patron saint of British queerdom," wrote Michael. "Without his arrogance the English would still be Catholic, and we would probably have our own Mel Gibsons and Dubya (US President George W Bush) to deal with.

"The lack of interest with which The Passion of the Christ was greeted in England made me proud of my country (for the first time in a while), and if that sounds excessive, bear in mind I'd been in Texas when it was released stateside.

"Between that and the hysteria over gay marriage at the time, it was an unsettling few weeks to be in America."