In 1992, at the peak of his career, George Michael wanted out of his contract with Sony Music. (A similar dispute resulted in Prince temporarily changing his name to a gylph which he insisted be pronounced "The Artist [Formerly Known As Prince].")
In order to distance himself from Sony, Michael contrived a way to make a music video for the single "Too Funky" so that his image would not appear anywhere in the clip. He wound up donating the royalties of the song to AIDS charities.
French fashion designer Thierry Mugler directed the hot, kinky, sexy, stylish video featuring supermodels Linda Evangelista, Tyra Banks and others, as well as drag legends Lypsinka and Joey Arias. Somewhere in the mix of catwalk debauchery was the legendary Catwoman herself,Julie Newmar.
But Sony insisted that Michael appear in the video, and it was re-worked to include shots of him posing behind a movie camera as a "director." In the bargain it was made more conventional, less sexy, and a lot tidier, eliminating some hot male models and a shot of two bare male asses. The final video and the song were hits, but "what might have been" if George Michael and Thierry Mugler had their way?
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