KEY POINTS:
Humiliated in the most complained-about television programme of all time, Jade Goody is contemplating her new-found notoriety in a secret location.
She said nothing yesterday, for a change. She had done enough damage. The 25-year-old did not go back home to Ongar in Essex, where people are disgusted
with her.
She could not stay in the Big Brother house, where her vicious and racist bullying of Bollywood film star Shilpa Shetty had revolted television viewers. She certainly could not go to India, despite a bandwagon-jumping invitation from its tourist board.
So yesterday the disgraced "celebrity" reportedly went to a Channel 4 safe house far from the baying public and the press (except, perhaps, any tabloid willing to pay for her story. But it was unlikely to be the Sun, which had published a front page urging readers to vote to "Evict the Face of Hate".) There, she is presumably trying to come to terms with the spectacular damage she has done.
The Perfume Shop has cleared her best-selling scent, Shh ... , from its shelves. Carphone Warehouse has pulled out of its £3 million ($8.5 million) sponsorship of Big Brother. Hertsmere Council has threatened to evict the show from the studios. Ofcom, the television regulator, has received 40,000 complaints about the show - more than any other in history.
Jade Goody and Shilpa Shetty are both women known in their home countries by their first name. Their reasons for being famous are very different.
Jade was unknown until she came fourth in Big Brother in 2002. Viewers laughed at her wondering if "east Angular" was abroad, but sympathised after she was ridiculed by housemates.
Since then she has earned around £2 million ($5.5 million). She cannot act or dance and has shown no ability to sing, but has made money from further TV series, magazine cover stories and fitness videos (sales were hit by the revelation she had lost weight with the help of liposuction).
Her book, My Autobiography, has grossed £1 million ($2.8 million). Its story is tabloid manna: she is the daughter of a lesbian from Bermondsey who lost an arm and allowed her 5-year-old girl to roll joints. Her father, of Jamaican origin, was in Wandsworth Prison when she first became well known. He died of a heroin overdose in 2005.
Shilpa Shetty has had a relatively privileged upbringing and life, starring in more than 40 films. The Body of Bollywood is known for raunchy dance routines. She speaks seven languages and is also a black belt at karate.
She does not live in a shack, as Jade's mother suggested during her own brief appearance in the Big Brother house, but on the entire seventh floor of an apartment block in Andheri, an ultra-exclusive neighbourhood in Mumbai.
Jade advised her to go and see some real life in the slums - but nobody can live in Mumbai and not see them. And Shilpa is loved in the slums.
In India, Jade's eviction was seen as a victory. "Jade was a fool and now she is out for good," Shilpa's publicist, Dale Bhagwagar, said. "The voting proves good has prevailed over bad."
Shilpa's first appearance on a television show last year was seen to be a sign of a career in decline in Bollywood, where TV is a no-no. But then she gets £50,000 ($142,000) a film in India, and has earned six times that by going to Britain.
And if she wins Celebrity Big Brother - she is the bookmakers' favourite - she will be the first Bollywood star to cross over to a Western audience.
- INDEPENDENT
The Rise Of Jade
* Jade Goody was born in London in June 1981. Her mother, Jackiey Budden, was evicted from the Big Brother house earlier in the series.
* The 25-year-old former dental nurse shot to fame in 2002 when she first appeared in the reality TV show and was lampooned for her ignorance, asking whether Saddam Hussein was a boxer and if a ferret was a bird.
* But she won over the tabloid press and public with her straight-talking style. She is a regular on reality TV shows and in celebrity gossip magazines.
* Her autobiography has reportedly sold more than 100,000 copies and her perfume, Shh..., is among the best selling scents in Britain.
* Estimates of the mother-of-two's wealth vary widely. Celebrity Big Brother's official website puts her fortune at $22.7 million, although other profiles say it is between $5.5 million and $11 million.
- REUTERS
