Instead, the longtime Fort Lauderdale resident is dealing with the demands of celebrity after his insistence on feeding the homeless in defiance of a new city ordinance thrust him into an international spotlight.

“I’ve had calls from Moscow and Syria. The phone is ringing every 15 seconds,” he said this week from the kitchen of his home, a day after police for the second time charged him with violating a new law aimed at the public feeding program he has run since 1991. MORE