Trapped in the closet

He's been charged with 21 counts of child poronography, and of course there's that famous video showing his raunchy appetites in an alleged romp with an underage girl (remember the Dave Chappelle parody?) Yet, inexplicably, R. Kelly remains a star, and a sex symbol to boot.

Performing in concert Tuesday night at Atlanta's Fox Theater, Kelly let his freak flag fly, as is his wont: "They said try to control yourself tonight ... and no feeling myself around here," he said, motioning to his crotch. "Can I be myself."

The mostly female crowd responded with a resounding "yes," according to Wednesday's AJC.

He just won't go away. I've been rooting for his professional demise since the first time I heard "I Believe I Can Fly," the most treacly, yet ubiquitous, empowerment ballad ever recorded. "I believe I can touch the sky ..." kill me, please.

Yet his fans remain loyal, disturbingly so. Apparently it's okay to diddle little girls, piss on them, even, but maybe some new revelations from Kelly's brother will finally silence pop music's most persistent virus. "He's in the closet, for real," Carey Kelly told New York radio station Hot 97. The brother's bi!

Now that's a scarlet letter Kelly's fan base may have trouble ignoring. A majority of the black community remains faithfully anti-gay, and although I never root for bigotry, I'm willing to make an exception in this case.

Among the other allegations leveled by Kelly's brother: he beat his wife, and molested his 12-year-old second cousin. He's speaking out now, he says, because R. tried to get his brother (who could pass as a twin) to perjure himself on the witness stand, saying it was him in that grainy video with the pubescent girl.

"I got a call about a year and a half ago," Carey says on the DVD, released Tuesday and produced by Drahma Magazine. "My brother wanted me to do some sh-- pertaining to this case that would leave me behind bars with a record deal. It doesn't make sense, so I turned it down. ... Since I couldn't lie for him in a court of law, we're back to beefing again, and we ain't brothers no more."