As the pop psychologists prepare to analyse George Michael in print - with their laboured stories about "celebrity isolation" and "sexual indiscretion" - it's worth remembering that once Jay Leno and David Letterman have sucked all of the one-liners out of the situation, once Michael has appeared on Oprah with tears streaming down his chiselled cheekbones and once the Zip Me Up Before You Go Go headlines have become tomorrow's fish'n'chips wrappers, the real questions behind this "Pop Star in Sex Shame Shocker" will go unanswered.
It's not just that the so-called quality broadsheet press has written in the last few days that Michael has often been "accused" and "suspected" of homosexuality - their liberal facade giving way to reactionary language - it's more that the police force's use of entrapment, in particular the controversial use of agents provoca teurs, will probably go unnoticed as the whole sorry spectacle of one man's misfortune is displayed (with full colour pics) over the centre pages.
As Michael (34) goes into hiding, the response from the music industry so far has been muted.
The overheated claims that his career "is finished" simply don't hold up. In a business which is highly tolerant of any form of sexual indiscretion, Michael will, metaphorically speaking, get a slap on the wrist and be paroled from media prison within three months.
To those who think his mishap will damage his record sales and public profile, consider this neat little irony: when the singer was involved with his ultimately unsuccessful court case against his record label Sony, he claimed one of the reasons he wanted to be released from the contract was that the label was unhappy with him performing at so many AIDS benefit concerts.
As commentators splutter about the "open secret" of Michael's homosexuality and how this incident surprised nobody "in the know", it's worth remembering that Michael has never made a pronouncement about his sexuality despite pressure from "out" pop stars like Boy George.
Michael's only contribution to the debate was in an all-too-rare interview with the Big Issue magazine last year where he talked about his spiritual and emotional love with a Brazilian friend, Anselmo Feleppa, who died of a brain haemorrhage three years ago.
He didn't elaborate on whether the relationship was platonic, but after Feleppa's death he said: "If you have loved then the love you feel never goes away. I am incredibly lucky to have known him."
The syndrome of gay rock/pop stars hiding their sexuality and marrying out of record company pressure died a death in the late 1970s and early 1980s and even before that, phenomenally popular stars like Marc Bolan, Mick Jagger and David Bowie had flirted with a bisexual, androgynous image. Sexuality was never as much a deal in the music industry as it was and probably still is in the film industry, which relies to a larger extent on strong heterosexual imagery.
With a raft of "out" pop stars like Elton John, Boy George, Marc Almond, Jimmy Sommerville, Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys, Holly Johnson, once of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and kd lang, and others who flirt with homosexual imagery like Morrissey and Brett Anderson from Suede (who once famously said: "I'm a bisexual who's never had a homosexual experience"), sexuality isn't an issue any more, unless you're a homophobe or a tabloid newspaper editor.
The son of a Greek father and English mother, Michael was brought up in a small flat above a launderette in north London.
He first hit the headlines when he teamed up with his schoolmate Andrew Ridgley (now retired from the music industry) to form the teen-pop band Wham!, an all-smiling, happy-clappy act which soon built up a legion of young female fans. Which may or may not be connected with the fact that when the duo took to the stage, they used to shove shuttlecocks down the front of their silk shorts to enhance their appeal.
Wham! were phenomenally successful in the mid-1980s, but Michael soon tired of their vacuous pop sound, and when he started a solo career, he announced (much to the industry's surprise) that he wanted to be treated as a serious artist.
His first solo album, Faith, was a multi-million seller and Sony was well pleased with its new charge until Michael decided he wasn't going to do any press interview to promote his second al bum, Listen Without Prejudice, possibly because he didn't want to be continually asked about his sexuality.
He claimed Sony didn't push his album, and when it only sold five million copies, fewer than half of the sales of Faith, he took the company to court in an effort to cancel his five-album deal with it.
Michael lost the case, and many observers put the result down to the judge's astonishment on learning that Michael's personal wealth was in the £85 million range. How could someone so rich be accusing his record company of not sufficiently exploiting his talent?
The two parties struck a private deal where Michael was allowed to leave the company if he paid it an undisclosed sum of money. He signed with the Dreamworks label which is owned by film producer Steven Spielberg and music industry mogul David Geffen (in whose Los Angeles house, Michael is hiding).
The resultant album, Older, was a commercial success, but critics felt his brand of ersatz soul and melancholic lyrics was out of tune with a music world which had either embraced indie rock or dance as the dominant means of expression.
Michael will have the full support of his record company and his many die-hard fans over the coming weeks, but with his personal wealth he has little to worry about in terms of a career. Much to the annoyance of rock critics, he'll be back in a few months, crooning his lush ballads and clicking his fingers to the more upbeat numbers. If only his music was as interesting as his sex life.