Jade's comet
So my astronomical theme for this year's Celebrity Big Brother continues with the tale of something falling crashing to the ground. Technically a meteor would have been more appropriate, but I liked the sound of that title more. Sue me. On Monday when I last posted about this show I said:there's been a nasty undercurrent of racism and bullying against Shilpa.
Since then the whole world's gone just a wee bit insane.
This last week Big Brother has become a national and international incident, with Jade, Jo and Danielle's racist bullying of Shilpa causing hysteria, headlines, and even demonstrations on the streets of Mumbai. A lot of my response to that can be found in the comments to my earlier post. I still believe the larger issue, where Jade's concerned at least, is bullying rather than racism. Although Jade couched some of her comments in racial terms, Danielle was a far worse offender in that regard. But Jade, as she has done on reality shows in the past, had problems getting on with someone and decided to deal with it by surrounding herself with a little coterie of sycophants and launching an attack. The most unpleasant person, for me, has been Jo O'Meara, who behind Shilpa's back has been mocking her accent, while during Jade's attacks she's been sneering and sniggering, giving her approval to the bullying even when Shilpa explicitly asked for her to provide a voice of reason. Jo probably thought this show might relaunch her singing career; now she'll be lucky if people still want to buy the dogs she breeds.
On Friday Jade and Shilpa went head to head in the eviction vote, after Channel 4 spent days faffing about in the face of the media storm. Unbelievably, when asked to intervene in a matter that had actually attracted police interest, the producers bragged that this is the "beauty" of the show - that the public can punish the wrongdoers. Er yeah, at a huge profit from phone votes. At the last minute, it was announced all profits from this week's vote would go to charity.
Not having wanted to intervene when Shilpa was being bullied, Endemol were more than happy to jump in and protect Jade from the reception she was due to receive. Officially, the only way they did this was by keeping the crowds away from her eviction. In fact it was obvious that they'd warned the main protagonists of exactly what was going on, making Jade give lots of rehearsed apologies, and Shilpa retract her statement that the others were racist - a handy way for Endemol to justify not intervening, despite the fact that she was unaware of the full scope of the comments, most of which were made behind her back. In the enduring spirit of treating the audience as if they were idiots, Davina repeatedly claimed that her eviction would be the first time Jade heard what had been going on, despite the footage from the house showing her clearly saying she'd been given the option of having a crowd or not, and had eventually overriden her request for one because the response would have been so hostile.
Jade's eviction and interview were then pre-recorded and shown as live, for another chance at damage control and editing. Today Jade was also interviewed by Dermot on BBLB, with carefully judged tears and an assurance that her worries about having "so much to lose this time" were about her children. Too bad we'd already seen footage of her worrying to Jack about her financial concerns, and laughably that her status as "the World's 25th most influential person" might be affected. Luckily Andi Peters, a later guest on the show, raised the concern that her management team had coached her, and that he himself wasn't convinced by her apology.
Don't get me wrong, while Jade and co have acted terribly, I don't think the sheer scale of hatred that will come their way is in proportion, although as a cautionary tale of why not to be a bully it'll be hard to beat. My main anger at the moment is the sheer, blatant amount of work Endemol and Channel 4 are willing to do to protect someone they still have a stake in.
In other news: I'm worried that I now actually *would* Ian. I think it's me being attracted to people who are endrearingly rubbish - witness him wanting to do something about the whole nasty business and his complete and utter inability to do so. He'd have to wear that beanie though 'cause the It's-His-Own-Hair-But-For-Some-Reason-He's-Styled-It-To-Look-Like-A-WigTM thing just isn't working for me. Actually I'd have to try and avoid looking at his Ageing-One-Year-Every-DayTM face as well. But you know, other than that he's fine.
Since then the whole world's gone just a wee bit insane.
This last week Big Brother has become a national and international incident, with Jade, Jo and Danielle's racist bullying of Shilpa causing hysteria, headlines, and even demonstrations on the streets of Mumbai. A lot of my response to that can be found in the comments to my earlier post. I still believe the larger issue, where Jade's concerned at least, is bullying rather than racism. Although Jade couched some of her comments in racial terms, Danielle was a far worse offender in that regard. But Jade, as she has done on reality shows in the past, had problems getting on with someone and decided to deal with it by surrounding herself with a little coterie of sycophants and launching an attack. The most unpleasant person, for me, has been Jo O'Meara, who behind Shilpa's back has been mocking her accent, while during Jade's attacks she's been sneering and sniggering, giving her approval to the bullying even when Shilpa explicitly asked for her to provide a voice of reason. Jo probably thought this show might relaunch her singing career; now she'll be lucky if people still want to buy the dogs she breeds.
On Friday Jade and Shilpa went head to head in the eviction vote, after Channel 4 spent days faffing about in the face of the media storm. Unbelievably, when asked to intervene in a matter that had actually attracted police interest, the producers bragged that this is the "beauty" of the show - that the public can punish the wrongdoers. Er yeah, at a huge profit from phone votes. At the last minute, it was announced all profits from this week's vote would go to charity.
Not having wanted to intervene when Shilpa was being bullied, Endemol were more than happy to jump in and protect Jade from the reception she was due to receive. Officially, the only way they did this was by keeping the crowds away from her eviction. In fact it was obvious that they'd warned the main protagonists of exactly what was going on, making Jade give lots of rehearsed apologies, and Shilpa retract her statement that the others were racist - a handy way for Endemol to justify not intervening, despite the fact that she was unaware of the full scope of the comments, most of which were made behind her back. In the enduring spirit of treating the audience as if they were idiots, Davina repeatedly claimed that her eviction would be the first time Jade heard what had been going on, despite the footage from the house showing her clearly saying she'd been given the option of having a crowd or not, and had eventually overriden her request for one because the response would have been so hostile.
Jade's eviction and interview were then pre-recorded and shown as live, for another chance at damage control and editing. Today Jade was also interviewed by Dermot on BBLB, with carefully judged tears and an assurance that her worries about having "so much to lose this time" were about her children. Too bad we'd already seen footage of her worrying to Jack about her financial concerns, and laughably that her status as "the World's 25th most influential person" might be affected. Luckily Andi Peters, a later guest on the show, raised the concern that her management team had coached her, and that he himself wasn't convinced by her apology.
Don't get me wrong, while Jade and co have acted terribly, I don't think the sheer scale of hatred that will come their way is in proportion, although as a cautionary tale of why not to be a bully it'll be hard to beat. My main anger at the moment is the sheer, blatant amount of work Endemol and Channel 4 are willing to do to protect someone they still have a stake in.
In other news: I'm worried that I now actually *would* Ian. I think it's me being attracted to people who are endrearingly rubbish - witness him wanting to do something about the whole nasty business and his complete and utter inability to do so. He'd have to wear that beanie though 'cause the It's-His-Own-Hair-But-For-Some-Reason-He's-Styled-It-To-Look-Like-A-WigTM thing just isn't working for me. Actually I'd have to try and avoid looking at his Ageing-One-Year-Every-DayTM face as well. But you know, other than that he's fine.