19 January 2007

Racists uncovered in Big Brother house

Before you read any further I would like to make a disclaimer. I am not watching Celebrity Big Brother. However it is suddenly very hard to avoid after accusations of racist behaviour amongst the inmates. I haven’t seen any of this so what follows is what I have garnered from the press.

Shilpa Shetty, a Bollywood star and perhaps the only bona fide "celebrity" on the show, is one of the contestants and stories abound that she has been abused racially by fellow cast members Jade Goody, "famous" for having been on regular Big Brother, and Danielle Lloyd, "famous" for ever so briefly being Miss UK, she was stripped of her crown after it became known that she was shagging, er, dating, one of the contest's judges, footballer Teddy Sheringham.

Channel 4 has lost Carphone Warehouse as a programme sponsor and diplomatic relations between the UK and India have been adversely affected. The strangest twist comes from Channel 4 itself which had to clarify that when one segment of dialogue was bleeped out for transmission that the offending word was "cunt" and not "Paki". (Note to American readers the papers here managed to cover that bit of the story without resorting to "c**t".)

It has been reported elsewhere that Ms. Goody has received favourable comments on her website from members of both the British National Party and the American Nazi Party. For reasons of decorum and good taste I have chosen not to confirm this.

And, now for the good news; ratings are up!

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