Rocking and Bawling

This morning a sobbing, rocking (not in the musical sense) Jo O Meara gave an interview to GMTV on how Celebrity Big Brother has ruined her life.

I would like to feel sorry for her. I would like to see a gentler approach to pointing out the error of their ways to the three accused, Jo, Jade and Danielle.

However, I don't buy this 'taken out of context' malarkey, nor the 'I laughed 'cos I wuz nervous' line.

After the argument, as Danielle and Jo were laughing, Danielle 'nervously' said "That was f***in' fantastic..I loved it". Jo interjected "I've gotta say...its made my day". Danielle agreed, still laughing together, "That f***in' brightened my day up ...am tellin ya".

What is laughable is that both Danielle and Jo claimed not to like confrontation and that's why they were laughing from nervousness. The comments above belie any such thing.

OK, now let's add in some context to some of the allegedly racist comments.

Danielle: I think she [Shilpa] is a very beautiful woman. "I think she should f*** off home". I think she is a very elegant woman. "She can't even speak English properly, anyway".

Jo:"The thing that aggravates me with Shilpa is she fingers your food..." She's a beautiful, elegant woman "I don't like all that...that's why they're all thin because they are sick all the time..."

Sound any different now?

How Jo can worry about the hygiene implications of someone picking food off your plate to taste it while simultaneously and permanently sucking on cancer sticks is one completely bonkers piece of logic.

Furthermore, "...I don't like all that".

All what, dear?

Have these girls never shared a bag of chips, a packet of crisps or a bag of sweets?

Fish and chips -the quintessentially English finger food for sharing around!

Jo wasn't simply referring to a single incident regarding one person.

The reference to 'they' and 'all that' are the telling words here which show what it is she is really talking about.

Author, Hari Kunzru, speaking on Newsnight said that it wasn't racism on a grand scale but "petty ignorance and prejudice" -refusing to pronounce Shilpa's name properly, nasty little stuff around food and other culturally marked things are all things ethnic minorities have come across and are everywhere in society. They are on a sort of continuum which at its extreme end includes more overt racism.

I wasn't convinced by Jo's rocking; she seemed fairly lucid, if a bit tearful.

If Jade has checked into the Priory because of all the stress and Jo is a "broken woman" (Fiona Phillips, GMTV) what of that much touted 'duty of care' to housemates Endemol is fond of claiming they take seriously. The psychologists attached to the programme surely have some explaining to do too. Another casualty of the whole tragic farce may be Jo's agent who dropped dead on Sunday.

Perhaps Jade's checking into the Priory and Jo's mental breakdown are attempts to plead insanity and therefore not able to answer police questions. Meanwhile, Danielle is trying a bit of reverse psychology by getting the cops to see if she was been wronged by crafty ratings-driven editing.

There are some serious questions for programme-makers and audience alike, and for Davina, Dermot and Russell who have carved out careers hosting this stuff.

Read all about it...
The legal angle..