Sinead O’Connor made national headlines for tearing up a photograph of Pope John Paul II during her performance on Saturday Night Live on October 3, 1992. The act was conceived as a protest against child abuse and came while O’Connor sang an a Capella rendition of Bob Marley’s song “War.” In the “Saturday Night Live Backstage” series on NBC, it was revealed the SNL producers had no knowledge of O’Connor’s plan. During rehearsals for the performance she held up a photo of a refugee child. After the performance the live audience was silent, issuing neither boos nor applause. O’Connor drew widespread criticism for the performance and NBC received over 4,400 complaints by phone. The network offered an official apology.Elaine Shock, Sinead’s publicist at the time, spoke with Spin magazine about the incident in 1998 saying, “After the Pope thing, she said to me ‘Don’t get me out of this one.’ And I was like ‘As if I can.’”