Newsweek
October 19, 1992 , UNITED STATES EDITION

Tearing Up Late-Night TV


   When singer Sinead O'Connor ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II on NBC's
"Saturday Night Live," her bald attack drew stunned silence from the studio
audience.  But not from the viewers.  So far, NBC has received more than 3,000
complaints (and only 600 aprovals), a record for the satirical show.  O'Connor
also triggered a response from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations, a
New York-based umbrella group dedicated to eliminating bias, which promises to
give $ 10 to a charity of choice on behalf of anyone who sends it an O'Connor
CD, cassette or album.  "We're going to hit her hard in the pocketbook," says
NECO chairman Bill Fugazy.

   The Dublin-born musician, who has had two abortions, regards the pope as "the
real enemy" because of his vigorous opposition to abortion.  She also closes her
recent album, "Am I Not Your Girl," with a harangue against the Roman Catholic
clergy of her youth.  So far, the Vatican has turned the other cheek.  But last
week, a papal look-alike dressed in white showed up on Arsenio Hall's show.
And, yup, he shredded a photo of Sinead the sinner.  So there.