Who was dire straits calling "the little ******" in their song money for nothing?

These are the lyrics in question:

"See the little ****** with the earring and the makeup

Yeah buddy that's his own hair

That little ****** got his own jet airplane

That little ****** he's a millionaire"

According to rumor, the slap was directed at Boy George

of Culture Cluband there were other performers who were

also rumored to be the person this song was cutting on.

But according to Mark Knopfler, writer of the song,

"Money For Nothing", said the words were about a different

person altogether.

*From one of the articles on SongFacts.com:

and this is a direct copied quote***

25 years after the song's release it was banned from

public broadcast in Canada after one person complained

about it being homophobic. The original version included

a description of a singer as "that little ****** with the

earring and the make-up" plus two other uses of the

word "******," although a cleaned-up edition was made

available, Oz-FM in Newfoundland played the first edition

in February 2010 at 9:15 at night. The result was a single

complaint and the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council

ruled that the unedited version of the song was unacceptable

for air play on Canadian radio stations because it "refers to

sexual orientation in a derogatory way."

Knopfler has pointed out the song was written from the viewpoint

of a stupid character who thinks musicians make their

"money for nothing" and his stupidity is what leads him to make

ignorant statements. Speaking in late 1985 to Rolling Stone the

Dire Straits songwriter expressed his feelings about people who

react angrily to the song. He said: "Apart from the fact that there

are stupid gay people as well as stupid other people, it suggests

that maybe you have to be direct. I'm in two minds as to whether

it's a good idea to take on characters and write songs that aren't

in the first person."