Little Stevie Wonder tiptoed in and out of the Sunshine State last weekend -- and even though he's blind, walks with a guide and isn't so little anymore, he nearly got out of town clean as a whistle.
It was the Los Angeles paparazzi who did him in.
Those pesky little shutterbugs snapped the Motown superstar coming off of his American Airlines flight from Miami.
Little Stevie quickly declined an on-camera -- come to that, any kind of -- airport interview.
Forty-one days before the weekend trip he had more to say to a willing mainstream press -- all of it about the just-ended George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case. During that press conference he vowed to boycott Florida over the "unjust" not-guilty verdict.
The singer of "Ebony and Ivory" and "Superstition" took an oath not to perform in Florida until the state's Stand Your Ground law is repealed.
In fact, Stevie started a trend among celebrities looking for a camera. After his boycott announcement, Jesse Jackson, Harry Belefonte and Talib Kweli all showed up at the Florida Capitol to join the young Dream Defenders group protesting Stand Your Ground.
The tabloid-style entertainment website Gossip Extra (GE), no fan of Stand Your Ground or former state Sen. Durell Peaden, the Republican from DeFuniak Springs who drafted the law during Jeb Bush's governorship, took Stevie to task in an editorial.
"If, unfortunately, Stand Your Ground continues to stand, well, thats democracy," according to the opinion piece.
"Meanwhile, Gossip Extra would like to suggest that Stevie lend his star appeal to solve something closer to home, and a hell of a lot more important.
"His Detroit just became the countrys largest city to file for bankruptcy."
The editorial concluded, "Maybe theres something the singer could do, should do, for Motown. Because on the international embarrassment scale, Detroit running out of cash rates a solid 10."
It might be that one of his fans who commented at the end of the Gossip Extra story was right. He said perhaps Miami was a transfer airport, a stopover. Maybe Stevie was coming in from somewhere outside the country. Maybe. But then, why didn't he tell the paparazzi that when they asked?
Now, there's no proof Stevie actually performed while he was in Miami. Did he find a piano somewhere and play for anybody last weekend? Somebody somewhere knows, Sunshine State News does not.
Nevertheless, the Florida pundits who predicted in July, "Little Stevie needs Florida more than Florida needs Stevie" -- apparently hit it right on the nose.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423.
